The most COMPLEX pop song of all time....

Mike Blakesley

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Check out this video if you have a spare 20 minutes or even if you just watch the first few minutes. It is completely fascinating and gives you a new appreciation not only for one of Sergio's greatest hits, but also for how hard it is to be in a band and have to learn music.

I never have counted this tune among my Sergio favorites, but I'll definitely listen to it with a better ear from now on.

 
Check out this video if you have a spare 20 minutes or even if you just watch the first few minutes. It is completely fascinating and gives you a new appreciation not only for one of Sergio's greatest hits, but also for how hard it is to be in a band and have to learn music.

I never have counted this tune among my Sergio favorites, but I'll definitely listen to it with a better ear from now on.


That is wild! I know it’s a tough song to sing along to, and now I know why. Amazing.
 
Check out this video if you have a spare 20 minutes or even if you just watch the first few minutes. It is completely fascinating and gives you a new appreciation not only for one of Sergio's greatest hits, but also for how hard it is to be in a band and have to learn music.

I never have counted this tune among my Sergio favorites, but I'll definitely listen to it with a better ear from now on.


That was incredibly entertaining. It's never been one of my favorites, either.
 
I had to learn to play this tune on keyboard for club dates, back when it came out (I also had to learn the male lead vocal). It's definitely a mental workout - lol. The intro chord progression is actually the second half of the chorus. And most of the musical phrases lead off with the same chord progression but starting on a different min7 chord each time, so in a different key, as it were. It's definitely a strange one but once you get it it does make a kind of sense. The cool thing is, even though some of the changes seem sort of random when you're trying to learn it, they really do flow nicely under the vocal melody.

To me the most bizarre thing about song is that I really hear nothing of Sergio Mendes in it. He didn't write it - Brill Building alums Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil of "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" fame did. And there's certainly no Brazilian element to it - it's strictly 80's pop. Mendes was in the producer's chair, but there's nothing about the way the song sounds that really has his mark on it, IMO.
 
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