Harmonious Harmonies
A Collection of the Best Harmony-Filled Songs (Terrific Harmony Tuesday)
I love music for a lot of different reasons, but I think that good harmonies are what really pulled me in. Any song’s impact is doubled, tripled, and multiplied to infinity and beyond for me when there’s a good stacked harmony, and if there’s clash chords? Forget about it! Here’s a little list of a few of my favorite tunes that feature some mind-blowingly amazing harmonies.
Walk on By - The Four Freshmen
By now, you probably can tell that I love Burt Bacharach. I’ve spent a lot of my time digging into anything and everything he’s composed, and one of my favorite hidden gems has to be this cover of “Walk on By” sung fabulously by The Four Freshmen. The group is synonymous with great harmonies, so of course I knew it would be great from the start. But MAN, it blows my mind every time! From a great horn part to heavy emphasis on certain words, starts and stops galore folded into a swingin’ tempo… it has to be one of the top covers I’ve ever heard. The subtle movement on the top harmony has to be the best part for me, as that little flip note adds just the amount of drama to really make the chorus shine.
Never Did No Wanderin’ - The New Main Street Singers
Shoutout to my sister for sending me this the other day. Unfortunately, I’ve yet to see A Mighty Wind, but this tune is really sonically interesting. If you like clash chords & tension so tight its almost stressful, this is the tune for you! A pretty silly song & delivery, but man those harmonies are real and serious as can be. It’s certainly kept my interest for the past several days!
Inside Out - The Traveling Wilburys
To be completely honest, I kind of hated this song when I first heard it. The lead vocal is Dylan at his Dylan-est, and the gravel in his throat is so thick it makes this one a little tough to hear. I stuck with it though, and suddenly I heard the angelic voices of George Harrison & Jeff Lynne on “It’s so hard to figure what it’s all about”. Ever since then, I’ve loved this one! The high harmony sounds urgent, while the lower one is groovin’ on down to balance it out perfectly. This is just one example of The Wilburys and their MANY great harmonies, but one that always sticks out to me.
Sunshine of Your Love - Cream
This one is partly for the harmonies and partly for the story. You see, every time I go to the bowling alley arcade with my friends, I go straight to the Guitar Hero Machine like I’m on a mission. I always shell out extra tokens to play two premium songs, Heart’s “Barracuda” and Cream’s “Sunshine of Your Love”. With my Tom Morello avatar and star shaped guitar, I absolutely SHRED in the jail venue that we’re in for some reason. Therefore, this song always brings back happy memories for me! I’ve always liked the double track on the more staccato parts, I think it adds a little flair in just the right place. Not to say its an overly plain song, but I do think that it would suffer a little bit without the harmony due to the repetition throughout.
Bluebird - Paul McCartney & Wings
This is a great example of a stagger harmony, the classic buildup that in this case is one word, “bluebird”. Band on the Run is a frequent dinner album for my family, and this track has always been my favorite (tough for a collection of tunes as stellar as this one!) Anyway, the best thing about this harmony is that if you listen closely, you can hear that on the “awwww” right after everyone sings “bluebird”, Paul is extremely high in the mix compared to the other singers, so much so that it’s almost comedically loud. Maybe it’s just because he leads the “aww” portion, maybe it’s because he felt he was the most in tune. Who knows? Either way, I love that little detail because it just solidifies “Bluebird” as a song that can make me smile no matter what.
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