TATAR#1: Fly Me to the Moon

 

By Bart Howard (1954)

Why start here?

Well, two reasons. Firstly, it's my blog and this is my favourite song, so there. 

And secondly, it's not just the song but the intro.

Let me explain. 'Fly Me to the Moon' is best known as an upbeat affair by Frank Sinatra in a swinging 4/4 time signature. But it didn't start out that way. Originally it was a slow jazz waltz in 3/4 and it wasn't even called 'Fly Me to the Moon'. It was called 'In Other Words'. And that's the key to the song.

So we start with a simple up and down melodic phrase:

Fly me to the moon

And let me play among the stars

Which then gets repeated at a lower pitch

Let me see what spring is like

On Jupiter and Mars

Then the melody changes.

In other words

Hold my hand

It makes sense. 'In other words' introduces a new thought. New thought, new bit of melody.

And it's not just the melody, the harmonies are helping out too. Now don't be fooled by all those fancy jazzy added 7th and 9th chords. The basic harmonic structure is a simple circle of fifths. This is a standard sequence that composers have been trotting out since the 18th century, maybe even before then. You just start on one chord and keep dropping by a fifth for each new chord until you get back to the original chord. So, ignoring all the jazzy additions, the basic chord sequence is: Cm-Fm-Bb-Eb-Ab-Dm-G-Cm.

That takes us through the up-and-down melody bit and the fooling around on Jupiter and Mars stuff. Where does the sequence change? You got it. When we get to 'in other words'.

So here we have lyric, melody and harmony all working together in perfect, er, harmony. That makes for a great song. 

But there are many great songs, so why is this first on my list? Well, that's because of the intro. 

You see, that little phrase 'in other words', may be key to the song, but the explanation for it is given in the song's not-always-performed introduction.

Poets often use many words

To say a simple thing

It takes thought and time and rhyme

To make a poem sing  

With music and words I've been playing

For you I have written this song

So that you know what I'm saying

I'll translate as I go along...

This is what songwriters do.The play with music and words. This is what song are. They are thought and time and rhyme.

For me, Bart Howard not only wrote a great intro to a great song. He wrote the the perfect intro for every song.

And I, for one, am eternally grateful.