Tuesday Tunes

Even though the rules were simple, Saturday was a new experience for all three of us. An old friend and I liked the idea of finding a topic, hiding ourselves away from each other, and using the topic to write a song. Then, at the end of the day, we would meet up for dinner and compare songs. At 10:00 am the prompt was provided to us by my partner. We had until 5 to write, and dinner was at 6. It was interesting the similarities and differences between the songs, and we discussed them and our processes long into the night. We talked about escalation when it comes to songs, and particularly drawing from the world of improv comedy. This week’s song is a great example of escalation ...

The Song
Song: She Can’t Find Her Keys
Artist: Paul Petersen
Album: All the Hits and More - 2018 - X5 Music Group (Originally from “Lollipops and Roses” - 1962 - Colpix)
Method of discovery: Parents’ compilation album

Personal thoughts: While discussing escalation, my friend and I talked about how most people would equate it to turning up the volume (crescendo). But I reckoned you can escalate things by turning up virtually any part if a song, like the stakes: e.g. if your song was about 'it's gotta be now' then the 'now' can change from 'this year' to 'tonight' to 'this moment'. Wait, don’t steal that, it's a good idea for a song. (On second thoughts, take it, show me what you do with it). I love the escalation in this song with the items she's pulling out of her bag. It goes from typical stuff to more outlandish to absolute ludicrosity, which, if it isn't a word, should be (It is not a word).

Theory: The ‘Sha Da’ section that begins the song starts on a V, and hits a quick IV-V to match the ‘Sha’ and ‘Da’ respectively, ending with a V-I on the final ‘Sha Da’. Now that’s a strange start for a song from the sixties, but might have to do with the reason for the song’s existence, details below. The main chunk of the verse is fairly typical for a song of this style, except the second to last chord, which is major instead of minor (I-V-V-I-IV-I-II-V). The Pre-chorus jumps between the IV and V chord, but then the Chorus does something different. It holds chords for a longer time, while the first slew of items are being retrieved it’s just a I, changing into a V, in time for the next list, before heading back to I. If you are familiar with this type of music, you can have more 7’s than what is noted here, but I feel this next one is important enough to note. I-I7-IV-(bV)-V, “but i’m …” I-IV-V-I. The second verse telegraphs the escalation in the song by stepping up a semitone, but you can use the same chords pattern to play it. The last section, where the fire hydrant comes in, is just V and IV again, but the last bit escalates again up through V-bVI-VI-VII-I-I. Whew, that took longer to describe than usual.

Research: Paul Petersen was a Mouseketeer at a young age, but gained notoriety by playing the son, Jeff Stone, of Donna Reed’s character (Donna Stone) on the Donna Reed show for eight years from 1958. The song was written for a dream sequence in the show where character Jeff dreams he’s a teenage heart-throb out of a date, which is what real Paul was at the time. The song was not the only one written for the show, and several songs found billboard success. Paul continued acting and singing, and has even published books. His IMDB and Wikipedia are worth a cursory glance at least. But perhaps the most meaningful contribution is his child-actor support group '“A Minor Consideration” which helps improve and maintain the welfare of child actors. Jeff may be always waiting for his dream girl to find her keys, but Paul’s group has helped kids navigate a time where things have a tendency to escalate.

Give it a go: if you’ve ever lost your keys

Give it a miss: if they were in your hand the whole time

[links]
Spotify: Tuesday Tunes, She Can’t Find Her Keys by Paul Petersen
Paul Petersen: Wikipedia, IMDB,
The Song: On YouTube, on SongFacts
Other: Article on DailyDooWop, Discogs