What Makes This Song Great? Ep.108 CHICAGO “Make Me Smile”

hey everybody i'm rick piatto and today's everything music it's what makes this song great episode 108 the band is chicago and the song is [Music] hit the subscribe button now and if you want to become a better musician check out my beato ear training course my beato book or my quick lessons pro guitar course all in the description below and there's also a donation link for those of you that are not musicians but still want to support the channel this particular song we're going to talk about happens to be the first 45 that i ever bought and i can picture it right now with its red label and i used to listen to it all the time as a kid i love this tune the single version is what we're going to analyze today the actual full length version is about two minutes longer and has a guitar sole and this particular song is sung by guitarist terry cath and he's an incredibly good singer and one of the things that separates chicago from a lot of other bands is that they have multiple lead singers you have terry cath you have pete satira the bass player who sings on really all the 80s hits and i think when people think of chicago they think of peter satira you have robert lamb the keyboardist all the other guys sing background vocals the horn players lee lock name is from a player james pankau is a trombonist he happens to have written this song walter parisader plays on this tune tenor saxby plays flute and then you have danny serafin the drummer let me play the intro the song because this song has one of the most complex drum parts of any pop song i can think of [Music] that's an insane sextuplet that happens there listen again [Music] that's the verse drum groove now that's really like a foo fighters drum part in the chorus but that's the verse drum part that's why this song is so intense [Music] there's so many great things about this right off the bat i think that i like music like this because of these suspensions when i was a little kid i loved sus chords when they're going going into the chorus just that g sus 4 to g i heard it in classical music all the time when i'd hear it in box pieces anytime there were suspensions i'd always rewind the the album or the cassette i just loved hearing those kind of sounds bands back then used to use them as a matter of fact the first chord in the song when they enter is a sus chord it's really a flat sus listen [Music] also right there that d minor to g catches your ear right so the song is is pretty much in a flat starts on the c minor the three chord [Music] to one to five [Music] then it's a two five back to c it's really a two five a secondary dominant this five g g7 leading back to the c minor pre-chorus goes c minor seven b flat over d e flat f minor which would be the sixth chord and then then that g sus to g that's actually a secondary dominant once again the g is a secondary dominant of the c minor so it's a five of three in the key of a flat let's check out the melody in the first verse i'm alone it really just follows the chord progression [Music] perfect chord tone melody [Music] that is a perfect melody check out terrycath's voice soloed it's really really powerful listen children play in the park they don't know i'm alone in the dark even though time and time again i see your face smiling inside wow you know i just watched a live version of this song on youtube from 1970 and he kills it live let's check it out [Music] i'm alone [Music] [Music] that's amazing to sing like that back in 1970 you got to remember they didn't really have sound reinforcement systems that would project out to a big audience floor monitors i mean you really just haven't used your inner ear to hear yourself and this tuning is excellent there right and this is really high in his range you can hear when he goes to the end of that pre-chorus it's very very high up in his range i remember seeing chicago in the 70s and i was blown away they were so good live sounded just like the record if you watch that whole live take or see any other things from back then they were amazing [Music] the melody in the pre-chorus time and time again i see your face smiling inside i love that there because it's using [Music] it's really frigid [Music] phrygian dominant right because you have the sharp five and the flat nine and that gives you a strong sense of the dominant chord there but then it actually resolves down to e flat at the beginning of the chorus danny serafin's drums are the star of this whole song right so here's the verse so he goes from the dave roll part it's like how do you get bigger you go to the quarter note [Music] and then this really intense tom part that happens in the chorus so the guitars has that propulsion to it by the [Music] like a galloping rhythm but the keyboards are actually holding it down with a straight almost like a freddy green guitar quarter note [Music] the horns first enter in the first chorus check it out [Music] those are little cord stabs and they work off the guitar let me play along with it [Music] that's a perfect three-part harmony for horn arranging there right you have the one descending line then you have the middle part which moves between two notes and the high part is static on the high e flat and with the trumpet being up high like that it just gives this intensity to it let's show you what's going on with vocals [Music] life is lovely whoa when the three part harmonies in the vocals are really cool so it's so use that a flat sus to a flat major and it works perfectly with the vocal line listen i'm so happy that you love me [Music] life is lovely the suspension and they sing a sus chord there i mean it's really so well thought out and it sounds huge now the drums are playing this really weird part [Music] [Applause] [Music] before the second verse now we haven't talked about peter satiris bass playing it's great i'm gonna solo just the guitar and the bass so you can hear what he plays leading into the chorus really cool [Music] i love it [Music] then he goes into a walking thing right here [Music] you used to hear those kind of walking parts from paul mccartney all the time people played walking bass lines in rock music back in the 60s and the 70s i mean that's really [Music] at the end of the chorus the horns go into a single note part which is really one of the signature things of chicago these are the hooks that everybody remembers right here [Applause] and they end on a sus chord listen [Music] once again that chord there is b flat sus4 trombone is on the the four sexes on the five and the trumpets on the the 1. [Music] then they have the ascending line that leads right into the second verse they do a forzando note bring it down and crescendo up listen and that leads right along with the drums listen [Music] oh that's ridiculous [Music] the second verse is the same as the first except we have the horns playing chords here [Music] notes and then chord chord just triads [Music] vocals are amazing there listen the vocal line right here magic [Music] i mean come on this is ridiculous thing this guy's in his 20s with a voice like that that is so soulful in the pre-chorus here the horns are playing chords again with dynamics and then that sounds like something john williams would write like a fanfare da da da da da da da da chorus is the same as the first except for the ad libs [Music] then we have the single note line again [Music] then the transition okay so this transition part let's talk about this so the guitar a flat so it's going uh from a flat major [Music] [Applause] to [Applause] b major seven [Music] the whole bridge is just a 2 5 in the key of d so it's e minor 7 to a 7 to a 13 basically the bridge section is all about the horns it's a it's a like a shout chorus that you would hear in a big band [Music] then you get all the rhythmic stuff great feel then [Music] oh let's check that out solos [Music] right here lay back just a little bit then [Music] okay right there there's a really cool guitar solo that terry cath plays we're not going to talk about it here i'm actually going to do an extended version where i talk about it on my second channel i'm going to put it together not today but i'll put it out sometime in the next few days so this transition into the ending where the edit is here it is [Music] okay so here's the guitar listen [Music] so he's going up to this b flat b flat 11 chord that's really the five chord that leads to the e flat now i said the song is an a flat but this is definitely a secondary would be like a secondary dominant chord listen and they're just playing the sus gordon [Music] and then right up the scale [Music] let's talk about the drum fill that leads into this last chorus here it's really amazing [Music] he does this six stroke roll right here [Music] right here that then he does 16th notes but with accents every three so it almost sounds like triplets there i love it [Music] let's hear it in context [Music] now i need you listen to this distortion on his voice here it's amazing [Applause] [Music] [Music] here's the ending listen [Music] really aggressive bass sound too [Music] ending [Music] one last thing i want to mention is the drum solo it's not just a drum fill it's really a drum solo that happens at the end now there's a whole edited part that's before this that this leads into but in order to make it a radio song they actually just cut all that out but this drum solo is incredible [Music] it's actually a really weird ending right [Music] [Applause] [Music] that's all for now don't forget to subscribe ring the bell and leave a comment check out my new quick lessons pro guitar course that just came out also the beato book if you want to learn about music theory that's how you do it and check out my biato ear training course at beautiertraining.com and don't forget if you want to support the channel even more think about becoming a member of the biato club thanks so much for watching [Music] you

Channel: Rick Beato

Views: 1,009,206

Keywords: rick beato, everything music, music, music theory, music production, education, Chicago, Make Me Smile, What Makes This Song Great, WMTSG, rick beato 2, rick beato what makes this song great, Fender, Fender Stratocaster, Song Analysis, 70's Music, Chicago Band, Marshall Amps, Rock Music, Classic Rock, 70's Rock, Drums, Trumpet, Trombone, Saxophone, Bass, Bass Guitar, Peter Cetera, Terry Kath, danny seraphine, lee loughnane, James Pankow, walter parazaider, Big Band, Piano, Keyboard

Id: qFVpSjRUD2E

Length: 20min 41sec (1241 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 14 2021