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There is a story about Jerome Kern. The day after the play opened for which he wrote 'All The Things You Are' he had lunch with a theater critic for the New York Times. The critic asked him if he thought the song would ever really become popular. Jerome answered "No, the melody is just too complicated for that. People just won't remember it." They finished their lunch and as they walked out of the restaurant a stranger walked by whistling the melody.
Sergio Mendes passed away today, September 6th, 2024. A great loss for Brazilian music, Bossa Nova, and the world. RIP Sergio. This video shows his brilliance.
Really? Come on man! You're definitely not seriously thinking there are no jazzers as well as world music and bossa nova fans in the old continent, are you? Lay it off!
"Gonna try and make up for all the times they bored ya so. Gon-na hold your ear close to mine. From this day on we're confused together. Oh I swear this time I'm never gonna change the key."
I think a simpler way to arrive at such a song is to start with humming a melody, pivoting it across keys whenever you feel like. Or, in other words, neglecting the key and just trying to make passages move somewhere - jumping to an off-key tone here and there, and seeing where it leads. I don't see the chord sequences having a structure of their own in this song, they're just short tension and release cycles made to fit the melody. Resolutions that occur every other measure lead to apparent "normalcy", no matter how harmonically distant the start of every following cadence is.
Yeah, I wonder if it started as a regular pop song, then someone decided to entertain themself by making the chords as complex as possible while still going with the melody.
Rick: The Wikipedia page for this song already mentions that you analyzed the song and called it the most complex pop song ever, just 4 hours after you posted this video. You've become a cultural icon!
Dear Rick, It is the first time I am commenting on your videos. I am a musician (keyboard player) from Hamburg, Germany. One of my favorite phrases is "loop is the death of harmony", and your video seems to be singing from the same song sheet, to use a metaphor in our genre. It is indeed a pop song with weird and complex harmonies, but did you ever wonder why it sounds so smooth and familiar? We agree: This couldn't be a hit in our days, but what caused the audience back to accept it as a popular song? Some ideas: - Even though complex in structure, it does contain components that are common to pop music and enables the audience to adapt their ears to it. For example the intro features a descendant fifths sequence that is common to many other pop songs, notably "Killing me softly" by Roberta Flack - a song that also features an E-Piano pattern. - One of my first allusion when I heard the song (you introduced it to me) was Toni Braxton's "Un-Break my Heart". Also a U.S. No. 1 hit, it sounds smooth and catchy. It shares the love subject with the Sergio Mendes song. While not as complex as "Never Gonna Let you Go", it does feature three different, harmonically distant tonics: B-minor in Intro/Verse, D-minor in the Chorus, and G#-minor in the Guitar Solo - not really closely related keys. - The harmonic progression B/E E B/E B in the Pre-Chorus could be inspired by Chicago's "If you leave me now" that features a similar progression in the Intro. - What inspired the composers to create this harmonic complexity? What genre within pop music are we talking about here? I am not sure, but is it maybe linked with the genre "Musical"? Also the fact that it is a love duet may give a scenic touch, with roles acted out on stage. Composition within the "Musical" genre show a higher degree of harmonic complexion than regular pop songs. The popular song "Let it go" from the musical "Frozen" jumps into my head. It isn't as complex in structure, but also contains different tonics and surprising chord changes. In the commercially oriented "Musical" genre, surprising chord changes aim to create a kind of "awe effect" to continuously conquer the audience's attention. So the harmonic complexity in musical scores is very effect-oriented. Most of today's pop songs are less complex in their harmonic structure. But, to be fair, they are often more rhythmically complex than past hits. And also "Never gonna let you go" isn't very complex in a rhythmical sense. You cannot be complex on all levels, if you want to address the masses and create good songwriting. Yet I do miss harmonic complexity in today's pop songs. What do you think is the cause of the harmonic impoverishment we witness in recent decades? Would be happy to hear a few opinions... Cheers!
What a brilliant response to this video. Very interesting allusion to songs written for musicals and the awe effect. One thing I felt was missing from Rick’s video was an exploration of why such complex chord and key changes were needed - is there something in the lyrics/meaning of the song served by them? In today’s music the purpose seems to be creating a certain response in the listener rather than creating meaning through the music itself. So music producers and labels have no reason to encourage music of harmonic complexity, since that is far beside the point and just a wasted effort.
With the advent of gangsta rap and grunge, the taste is 'pop" music had changed. I noticed this change in the early 90's. People seemed to focus more on just lyrics, and simplistic ones at that. Even songs written by the Beatles back in the early days of the band had some really creative musical complexity. To me the difference is striking. So many factors may have contributed to the drought of excellent musicianship in the last quarter century. Music in schools had waned, and the exposure to articulately composed arrangements has become rare. But as the saying goes, to everything there is a season.
Rick, I have been playing piano for 40 yrs. I put together a massive 80s playlist, found this song, downloaded the sheet music. I seriously had some wtf moments as I was sight reading. Took me 3 tries to get it down and after watching your video I was dying of laughter. I can’t imagine trying to memorize this song. Thx for the analysis!
difficult to play and sing at the same time, if you are accompanying a singer then a competent guitarist should be able to handle it. Happy Talk also sounds a simple song but wait till you see the chord changes!
I don’t understand 95% of what you’re talking about but I find these videos so interesting, intriguing, even often humorous! Thank you for your hard work on these.
This song is legit genius. Coming up with all of those progressions is one thing, but making it into a coherent song with nice singing parts, that's skill, man.
@@neilslade Bro, it's a targeted pop song, what are you expecting? The cool thing about this channel is that Rick never turns down any genre of music merely based on the lyrics, vocals, or whatever.. I'd imagine very few of us here would actually listen to this song or album in our spare time.. doesn't stop us from analyzing it from a musical perspective, though. It's not a song I'd rock out to, but props where they are due: within the genre, for what it wants to do, it's masterfully crafted, and far more ambitious than just about anything else you could hear in the genre. That to me is what makes it worth the praise, not necessarily meaning that I'm in love with it :D
I am pretty sure the melody was not made to match those chords. It was the other way around. About all successful songwriters start with the melody. After that, there are a million ways to do the chords. It's called chord substitution. Guitarist Joe Pass did it with standards.
@@WorldWarThree I remember, "back in the day", reading "Guitar Player" mag, and almost every interviewee indicated this, "melody first/chords after" approach to songwriting....I was composing music, but always chord progs alone, I thought, "I will never be able to write songs!", or maybe just instrumental music; but, about a decade ago, I consciously decided to see if I could just compose a melody "cold turkey" and chord it, after, and I (thankfully!) found out that I can!
Mind blown. Although I have to disagree with one point. Even as a kid, I didn’t miss the chord changes. I was just too young to understand what was going on. The complex, nigh uncomfortable chord changes and progression create a lot of tension that emulates a feeling of passion. Even as a kid who didn’t know that kind of love yet, I felt it. Same feeling at 44, but now I know why. Absolutely brilliant.
Once again Rick takes a song that I've heard a few thousand times over the years without really listening to to it, and made me hear what I've been totally missing. Rick, you're amazing! Thank you!
That's sort of the goal of "music appreciation" classes. You don't necessarily break down every song you hear mathematically as you listen, but you get more out of it.
I had a huge grin on my face this entire video. Totally remember playing this tune with a couple wedding bands around the same time in Boston. Very deceptive. The melodic hooks and strait ahead pop-ballad drum approach make this song sound fairly strait forward. As the drummer, I always wondered why the keys, guitar and bass had their heads buried in the chart, brows furrowed. Now I understand. Brilliant writing.
Years ago I was talking with a friend about playing guitar and he mentioned me the brazilians samba players. He said that they didn't know about music theory but instead they where skillful players who try and invent new sounds on the instrument. So when studied musicians tried to analize that tipes of sounds they discovered that it where the most heterogeneous and extravagant bunch of chords ever played, just like you did in this song. Sergio Mendes is an eminence in Bossa Nova, a mix of samba and jazz. Rick, if you play that progression but with an spanish guitar and in a faster speed simply you will hear the sound of Brazil. Grettings from Uruguay.(and sorry for my english)
Your written English is above and beyond that of most English speakers found in youtube comments, please, no more apologies for that! I am looking forward to being able to learn more about the sound of Brasil, I have always had a fascination since I read Jorge Amado’s Tent of Miracles, what a fabulous meeting of cultures, especially mesmerising for the young white Australian girl I was, and guess I still am even though getting a little long in the tooth.
@@michaelsorchantte3857 Hola Michael, igual me pasó. Creo que al estar acostumbrados a escuchar la música producida por Sergio Mendes, damos por sentado estos acordes y recién viendo a Rick romperse la cabeza y detener la canción cada 10 segundos nos damos real cuenta de la genialidad de esta melodía . Saludos desde Perú.
I’ve watched this video several times since it came out. Each time I think, “How come I loved that song and never noticed all those chord changes?” I still don’t quite get how hard it is musically and yet how natural it feels - it just keeps opening up. Amazing song.
For a classical musician, there is nothing particularly complicated about this, except that it's more that, say, two harmonies. I mean, try Shostakovich or Strawinski, for example....
@@UnicRatSo just listen to that classical music , then, and not this music, so disappointing to you. Don't forget, there are many multi- platinum selling music artists in this world who never took a music lesson. But their music connected with hearts and minds, worldwide. Just spent the previous half-hour with real tears as I listened to some Strauss songs. Soprano and orchestra. It was not my usual choice. I wonder if in 200 years in the future, what will be "Classical".
Brazilian harmony is otherworldly. Once I asked a Brazilian guitarist where he had learned all those cool chords and progressions. His response: "In the streets"
most musicians here in brazil actually did learn most things from the streets because it was where samba and pagode were presented, i think after the 90's that culture kinda ended tho
Funny thing is: A lot of Brazilian youngsters don't even know who Sérgio Mendes is, and half of those who kno, know him only as they guy that had his studio built by Harrison Ford (before he was famous).
@@paulmoncton Yes, I've read that. EWF didn't want to sing "Never Gonna Let You Go" because of it sounding like a potential "sequel" to "After the Love Has Gone."
I played this song in a wedding band i got hired to play in last minute when the normal guitarist was sick. I was reading it cold and must've said "what!?," with something close to the same surprise and tone as Rick does in this video, every third or fourth bar. It's this light-hearted, airy, little-bit-sappy, emotional thing that is covertly a labyrinth with a freakin-ravenous minotaur on the loose inside. The bass player and keyboard player were laughing at me thru most of it.
@@marktilley7222 nobody noticed. i made it thru it ok, and having the keys there helped a ton, but it was more just an earbending thing and me being shocked I had never noticed how weird the harmony was when i'd heard it on the radio so many times.
Rick, thank you for bringing this song to all of our attention. I can remember listening to it as a little kid but had no appreciation for how harmonically complex it is. Good stuff!
I watch this video over and over because I had the same experience with this same song. It was many many years later and I was playing for a woman who wanted to do it. I thought I've heard this song a hundred times. I can nail this right now. The guitar player didn't know it so we put the tape on. Suddenly I realised I didn't know it either. Same thing, wait go back, what? Glad someone like Rick had the same problem. This song is all over the place. I laugh so hard every time I watch this.
This video is so epic that it's mentioned in the Wikipedia entry for the song! In a June 2021 video posted on UA-cam, record producer Rick Beato called "Never Gonna Let You Go" "the most complex pop song of all time", due to its use of frequent key changes, inverted chords and unusual chord progressions.[4] Beato's discussion includes a detailed harmonic analysis of the Sérgio Mendes arrangement.
The music was done more than a year ago. Since it's complicated, people assume it's a Brazilian thing. Not really. As you can see it in that Wikipedia article.
Goddamnit it’s pissing me off how peoples keep attributing this to Sergio Mendes. He obviously didn’t write this. It was written by married couple Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. None of his other works are remotely similar to this
You reminded me of a video I saw some time ago. At the end, the fellow said "if you like this video give it a thumbs-up." And with a straight face he added, "If you didn't like it, tap the thumbs down ... twice." I had to try it, and sure enough, hitting it the second time removes the thumbs-down. Brilliant!
You’re right. I would never realise the complexity in this song. Ricks videos are brilliant as he shows the technical side of the songs. To me this sounded like many other songs, particularly Arthur’s Theme but clearly there is a lot more in it!
Pop is not always simple. This song is uninteresting, because it just sounds bad. The changes and melody don't produce a very pleasing response. The song may have been #1, but primarily for its sickening sweet lyrical content that resonated with sixteen-year-old girls. Compare with a pop song like Henry Mancini's theme from Pink panther. Its complexity comes not from chord changes and modulation per se but from orchestration and use of chromaticisn. No lyrics.
RIP Sergio Mendes. As a brazillian I've really got to know your repertory through this video when it came out. God bless, heaven is having a really cool concert today.
You may know Sergio Mendes is brazilian and his major influence is "Bossa Nova" that has a lot of chords like those in its composition; even Mendes has done the arrangement, only. Names like Antonio Carlos Jobim, Carlos Lyra, João Gilberto, among other have been used these kind of sequence since the 60s and 70s. I'm Dilermando Nassif, from Belo Horizonte, MG. Brazil. I like your videos. You are a great musician. Congratulations.
In 1984 when I was in college I was in a band that played a lot of weddings and I remember that this is the one song that my band dreaded to have requested because of the complexity of chord changes. I'm a drummer so it didn't bother me as much as it did the other guys. This video has unearthed a lot of great memories from my 20s. Thank you!
@@funkmike And you would be correct in that but mainly due to the packing and lugging around of a drum kit from gig to gig to gig. I did that throughout the early to mid 80s in a 1970 Mustang Mach1 which incidentally I still own, only now I don't dare pack drums or anything else in it.
Im not a musician and basically know nothing about music production, but oh boy can i relate to that mentality backfiring. Im in movie production, and holy, backfires EVERY time indeed!
I was today years old when I discovered that wasn't Sergio Mendes singing and was actually someone called Joe Pizzulo along with Leeza Miller. I know nothing about music, watching Rick talk about chord changes, progressions, even notes is like trying to decipher a foreign language but I love his knowledge and passion. This is a great channel!!
Same. And I’ll take that one step further. I see the last name Pizzulo and I think “there’s a lot of Pizzulos where I live (Youngstown, OH area). I look it up on Wikipedia and sure as hell, he’s from Youngstown.
I've been playing and writing for 45 years and it often sounds like a foreign language to me. Music theory is insanely complex, but most of us doing it this long PRACTICE it without knowing what we're doing, technically.
Me too, I just love to watch his face full of excitement, wonder, smiling with his eyes, enjoying himself. I don’t know much about the theory, but couldn’t live without music.
Likewise, I know nothing when it comes to playing music, but it's great watching Rick unwrap every last nuance. Tbh this song's not really my cup of tea, but I never would thought it was so technically difficult. Definitely brings on a newfound sense of respect for what I thought was throwaway pop
Remembering Sergio Mendes, who just passed at the age of 83. I've been a fan of this song since it came out. Doesn't seem like it was 41 years ago at all.
Yep. Honestly if I wasn't told this is the original I would assume this is like a modern day Jazz band doing a reharmonization but then on those the singers themselves never modulate this much. It's like a Giant Steps lost track that was retrofitted with a nice, romantic melody and lyrics yet it still works as both.
@@IncredibleGoliath It feels like standard pop, because it is written as standard pop. Despite the modulations the song is written pretty generically and that is why it is not remembered, not because of the modulations. Modulations can actually help a song make it more memorable, you have Bohemian Rhapsody, one of the most memorable and recognizable songs ever and it has several modulations. So you can attribute that to the writing and not the modulations themselves.
The vocals by Joe Pizzulo and Leeza Miller are STUNNING! Don’t hear too many pop singers like those anymore in today’s music. Another great song sung by Pizzulo is Alibis from the Sérgio Mendes album Confetti - there’s a great live video of it here on UA-cam
Rick, this video was a masterpiece by you. I've never considered the complexity of this song, although I've heard it countless times. That's what is so unique and gifted about *your* talents, in that you call to light many things that many (most)? of us simply missed, and therefore didn't appreciate. Until you called our attention to them. You, sir, are very gifted in many ways. Please, keep it up!
If it was no. 1 the kids wouldn't have batted an eyelid. People accept what they're exposed to. You hear something enough at that age, it'll probably grow on you. Edit: Bohemian Rhapsody is the ultimate example. I was 12 when that came out and at first it sounded like a mess. Two weeks later I was buying it. And of course I'm now sick and tired of it 😉
"American musician and UA-cam personality Rick Beato has analysed the chord structure of the song in a video titled "The Most COMPLEX Pop Song of All Time".'[4]" someone already edited the song's wiki page saying you've reviewed it
Now try getting Wikipedia to admit that the Warren Commission report was pure BS. Lesson for today: Never even consider using Wikipedia for information on anything remotely debatable.
This tune establishes keys with comforting II-V’s “just enough” to give the listener confidence (it’s accessible to a mass audience). Then it throws curious curves with tonic substitutions (chords containing most common tones with the tonic), and half-step, tritone, minor 3rd, and major 3rd modulations. The audience is confounded but in a good way; their attention is reacquired. It’s like the missing link between Tin Pan Alley, Coltrane, and Neo-Soul!
Up until today I just heard a bunch of circle-of-fifth progressions, if I even stopped to think of it. It just passes over you so effortlessly that you don't notice what's happening.
that’s when you know they are doing it because it works and not because they are trying to show off their technical ability. I never would’ve suspected that song of even being complicated. Certainly not compared to something like Steely Dan -which almost always works- or the absurdities that you sometimes run into with other composers who pride themselves on inserting a measure of 15/18 timing rather randomly ina song.
What I love the most about Rick is that he is honestly having so much fun with this music. He is telling a story that I guarantee he has told at least a hundred times before and it still cracks him up and he still has a love and awe of the song and where it goes. He truly loves the music for the music.
I reiterate .. never too late dude ... it doesnt have to be complex either nowadays there are electronic instruments that live inside your computer and most can be had for free so its technically programming which means no manual dexterity or years of muscle memory training i could spend all day trying to talk you into it but what you haveto ask yourself is "what`s stopping me ?" if you think you werent born with it or you dont have the time or you arent smart enough .... you are wrong nobodys born with it ... give a baby a piano it will chew on it its 10 minutes a day ... most of you spend more than that wiping your arse I can do it ... its not rocket surgery
The genius of Sergio Mendes. Saw him last year just before covid, and he, and his band are phenomenal. as I would expect from a 70 year veteran and pop Icon, and those he chooses to play with him. Top three concert for me
Thank you for this breakdown and analysis. I feel so fortunate to have grownup with so much jazz infused rock and pop as someone born in '66. Completely unconscious of these influences tgen, but these current reactions reveal to me how complex so many of these chart hits (and their chord charts) were.
After being in the music biz for over 50 years, I found this video to be so entertaining, and enlightening! Rick is playing these knuckle buster chords so effortlessly, his touch is impeccable, the guitar is in perfect tune, it sounds amazing, and that wasn't even the point. The story behind the rehearsal and the performances is a riot. Been there so many times over the years. I remember learning a Badfinger tune one afternoon in rehearsal and trying to pull it off that night. Everybody lost it and our bass player just stopped playing and singing, walked back and stood motionless in front of his amp. I think eventually we all just stopped playing. So embarrassing. I'll never forget it!
Good point about how effortless his playing is. Didn't he say that he basically taught himself guitar again from scratch after not having played it for a long time? His mastery of the instrument is astonishing. I can only bash out about 4 chords on a guitar and I can't even do a barre (?) chord, my hand and fingers are too small. It actually looks like Rick is playing on a smallish guitar - or is it just that his hands are ginormous?
I know this video is old but I've only just discovered your channel. This is the coolest video I've seen! Seriously! Laughing the whole way through. And now I'm determined to try and play it lol
The chord changes aren't noticed by the audience because the vocal melody is wonderfully well constructed around these. For instance, sometimes, between section or key changes, the last and first notes of the vocal melody are the same. This helps to eliminate the feeling of confusion produced by these harmonic changes. They're genius!
@@NewMusicWeekly when one is singing, if the harmony goes up more than half a step and the singer repeats the previous verse or a chorus a whole step higher you notice the key change.
@@NewMusicWeekly Very strongly if you want to play it right as opposed to the Ultimate Guitar version or fake book. It sounds to me like the 2 writers are both musicians who were playing keyboards together and sort of melded their ideas for the movements (wow, that sounds great together) while some of the chords that resulted were those quartal harmony/steely dan-sounding. It's certainly inventive and probably a challenge for all but the most seasoned wedding band player.
Honestly think there’s a higher chance the melody came first then they put chords around it. I can’t see how you could get to these chord decisions without the melody and knowing what chords tones they’d be before hand
Rest in Power, Sergio Mendes. One of the greats among greats. ❤ Thank you, Rick, for opening the ears of understanding in so many so that extraordinary songs like this never get lost among the ordinary.
The joy Rick has in telling the story of the first time he played this song for an audience and laughing at the memory….that’s a life well lived. Fun to imagine it as he tells it :)
Watching this again. Still one of my all time fav videos. I always tell musicians that I meet to go and watch it. I got a couple years on Rick and I remember this song being all over the radio. Big hit.
They say: "If you want to play it you need to be able to sing it...". In this case, this is one of those things where being able to sing it really doesn't help you at all in playing it.
I'm old friends with the male lead vocalist on this, Joe Pizzulo. Great singer, great guy, at one time the top male singer in LA, makes sense that he could stay focused through so many changes. Hard song.
The early 80's had some really good jazzy pop songs, Just the Two of Us by Bill Withers, key Largo by Bertie Higgins, Just Once by Quincy Jones, Mornin' by Al Jarreau, Living Inside Myself, Gino Vannelli, just to name a few
I was just thinking of Living Inside Myself by Gino Vannelli!! It has sort of the same feel as this song reviewed by Rick Beato! Quite a lot of chord changes also.
I used to listen, and still do, to Sergio Mendes and Brasil 66...he's a master technicians, perfect notes, perfect pitch, tight as you know what, and never a mistake, every note crystal....love listening to his stuff for this reason, just perfection. Every single not is perfection, every harmony perfect, in everything he did. And the female vocalists the same.
The melody leads the chord changes. I remember the song, but as you said, when you hear it, it seems to flow naturally because the melody just works so well with the chords. I knew it was very unusual when I originally listened to it, but didn’t realize just how much so until today. You had me roaring with laughter and agape at the analysis of it. A brilliant piece of composition and a brilliant analysis of it. Bravo!
RIP Sergio. Today's news brought me here. Would have loved to've seen you interview him about this! Wondering if there was some hidden, 'meta' purpose behind the changes that mirrored the lyrics/meaning of the song.
They put a lot of thought into the song, but in the end it's still a schmaltzy song that has no appeal for me. Interesting only from a theory nerd point of view. Good video.
@@RCAvhstape Agreed, despite all this chord and key complexity it still sounds like generic melodramatic '80s pop. Quantity of chords and modulations does not define quality of a song
No wonder it was hard to remember. The chords don’t naturally progress one to the other, and it never lets up. But the writers had an absolutely incredible understanding of harmony to create this!
Look up Mann & Weil, who wrote this. Their songs climbed the charts for like 40 years, plenty of stuff you've probably heard without ever suspecting it was all the same songwriters. They're consummate pros.
@@PianoGesang: uh, where did I say that this was a jazz song? When Tina here said that the chords don’t naturally progress one to the other, I responded by essentially saying that it doesn't sound so "unnatural" to anyone who's played much jazz, especially jazz piano.
I'm no expert here, so the finer details went right over my head, but I could certainly appreciate your "flabbergast-ness" of trying to follow and recreating the music. Very entertaining. It reminded me of the movie Amadeus (1984) where Salieri is trying to keep up with Amadeus as he describes his music in the one scene and he's like "no, no, no, my *roller-coaster* goes like this"
Still wiping away tears of laughter. Played keyboards on this song in my high school jazz band…briefly. The song went to the better sight reader (not me). Fortunately she had a chart…
I love his smile while he's playing along. Every version of the smile as each chord is played represents a new complexity proportional to the obscurity of the chord 😅 Such a musician thing to do.
I took 4 years of ear training at Juilliard. I know everything you’re talking about but I really feel for you band guys. I play oboe - one note at a time. I never have to go through this delightful insanity in performance but I love listening to it and to you explaining it. You’re an internet treasure
I played violin for 10 years until I started playing guitar at 16. You are not mistaken. my brain ain't do complex chord theory so good lol. it can only handle so much theory. Trying to write a song like this would give me a seizure lol.
"ear training"? what the ....does playing the oboe pay the bills and all that school expense? lol if so then good for you but I can not image an oboe player is making a very good living not to mention why do you need to go to Julliard to train your ear in order to play music?
To @asthewheels: Elite level ear training has been a godsend. My career on stage and in commercials, soundtracks, video game music, and in Broadway pits has been a wonderful experience. It’s my life and I love it. I also own two retail music shops, which has nothing to do with anything other than that a life in music has been a fulfilling and soul inspiring journey. I wish you well.
@@briancharles6838 wow OK I stand fully corrected then! That sounds like an awesome life actually , far better than my path in a career I hate and wake up everyday not wanting to go to work. Good for you. I really just had never even heard of "ear training" it sounded silly sorry for my rude comment.
Rick's reactions to the chords and key changes are priceless. Make me laugh out loud every single time I watch this video. My favorite Rick Beato post of all time.
This is my favorite Rick Beato video. I have watched it many times. First of all it is absolutely mind blowing how Rick is able to dissect this song, which, by way, is absolutely awesome. I agree that most non-musicians really would have no idea how complicated song this really is. Secondly his body language and expressions ""whaaaaat???" throughout the song is very, very entertaining. Way to go Rick!
I was captured by the title of the video, and I would NEVER expect THIS song to show up, because, among Brazilian Sergio Mendes lovers, we kinda hate this song, since it's far from his real classic times. I was expecting Beatles, Burt Bacharach, idk. Just give me Tim and Eric's gif of the the mind-blowing universe 😅
Same here, lol. I couldn't stop watching, and i used to play a guitar a bit, and i still didn't get almost any of it yet I'm absolutely fascinated. Don't know if it's more the fact he can figure out and play all of this chords and chord changes with such ease or his facial expression and absolute enthusiasm about it - after already knowing it for 40 fricking years. 🙂
Most complex pop song that no one's ever heard of and none other than Mike Landau plays on it.... Sounds about right. It was either gonna be him or Luke, as soon as I saw the title. More videos like this, hilarious story while deceptively teaching theory, the song itself, and basically jazz changes for the pop/rock guys that find jazz too intimidating. Bravo, Rick.
@@snidelywhiplash Indeed. This song was HUGE. No doubt when it was ear-worming, my brain simplified the changes tremendously. Now to learn the progression for real....
35 and over. I'm 38 and remember this song well. Played all the time on radio. I associate it with riding in the car with one of my parents in the late afternoon or evening.
I used to play this song every night when I was a part of Sergio Mendes group. Just goes to show you music has become so left brain and left brain only and down to this level of deterioration. As depressing as it is I still believe there’s a way to bring the level of creativity and musicality back up again. Kudos to you. Young kids really need people like you.
Congrats on being part of such a fine band. He was/is the best. I can now honestly say I do not have all of his records. This song was from 84. My sincerest apologies, and all best to you.
lol this is classic 😂😂!! Great story Rick.. This is a great, intelligent creation, ive always loved this song, had no idea how complex it was!! it just sounds beautifully melodic to me.
Hey Rick, I'm a musician but a hairdresser by trade, and my last clients tonight were an older couple (he's in his late 70s, she's in her early 80s) - we were making small talk about music and they just started gushing about your channel and this video in particular, and how much they enjoyed your analysis and storytelling. Just thought you'd be amused to know about the diversity of your audience.
This was so much fun Rick ! You are a true musician in the finest sense of the word. You have a scholar’s mindset with a real world feel and a tres cool open mind to every genre of music. Thank you so much for working so hard to share your love of music with us all brother 😎
Rick's strongest talent, in the end, may be his ability to take that experience of discovering something truly excellent and interesting, such as this song, and then capturing that giddy excitement in a way that makes other people want to watch him go through it. It's so much more professional and compelling than all these crummy "reaction" videos going on out there. Great work Rick!
One of the admirable traits that Rick manifests is his passion as an educator. To take the time to write down and display the chord charts and illustrate graphically his points is so revealing of his interest in sharing knowledge with his viewers. Really wish he'd consider moving or at least cross-posting to some non-TY platform like nebula or something that still earns him some bucks but avoids 5 disruptive ads in just 15 minutes.
Most instructional guitarists have their own thing going on. I forget what they call it but they usually start out on UA-cam then go to this "pay for lessons" deal where you can get more in depth lessons.
He's charismatic, charming, knowledgeable, uber talented, and sooooo good on the eyes!!! (Just keep that beard OFF- it takes away from his gorgeous eyes)!!! Best of all, he makes music theory accessible to us all--rich and poor alike. Rock on, Ricky B, your fans adore you!!!
As soon as I saw the title, I knew it was going to be "Never Gonna Let You Go." I could feel it in my bones. I still remember my prof in music theory going through this song. All the changes keep you feeling just a bit off balance so they all hit with the drama of an 80s/90s romance movie slo-mo couple-on-a-beach-at-sunset scene. You know exactly what I mean, too. Admit it. 🤣
The incredible thing is that after a few of those key changes you end up on a whole different planet than where you started off, and yet you're none the wiser
@@rickmacdonald5575 'He ripped off _Never Gonna Give You Up?!'_ Ha! That must be Rick MacDonald riffing on Rick Astley, while being riffed on by Rick Beato.
For those non-musicians that have written to me you can donate to my channel through this link on my website rickbeato.com/pages/donate
Or you can become a member of the Beato Club. My Beato Club is exactly like Patreon.
Hey Rick, is the beato book good for learning this kind of stuff? I would like to learn this stuff, as a musician.
I always thought that "Cherish" by The Association was pretty complex for it's era
Rick can you please make a video explaining all those weird chord shapes you had in this video.. or at least principles on how we can construct it
There is a story about Jerome Kern. The day after the play opened for which he wrote 'All The Things You Are' he had lunch with a theater critic for the New York Times. The critic asked him if he thought the song would ever really become popular. Jerome answered "No, the melody is just too complicated for that. People just won't remember it." They finished their lunch and as they walked out of the restaurant a stranger walked by whistling the melody.
Rick, for all of us non musicians, could you play what could be the vanilla version of this song, without over modulation, please? 🙂👍
Sergio Mendes passed away today, September 6th, 2024. A great loss for Brazilian music, Bossa Nova, and the world. RIP Sergio. This video shows his brilliance.
yes, a great guy. But as Rick stated, the merit of composing goes to Weil & Mann. May they all rest in peace.
Rest in Peace for Sergio Mendes, an examplar Brazilian musician that inspired generations from the hole world...
Why didn’t I know that until today! Oh no? 😢😢😢rip!
anyone in europe heard about sergio mendes?
Really? Come on man! You're definitely not seriously thinking there are no jazzers as well as world music and bossa nova fans in the old continent, are you? Lay it off!
"Never gonna pick a key...I'm gonna modulate the song forever"
Underrated comment
thats funny
Nailed it! Lmao
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
"Gonna try and make up for all the times they bored ya so. Gon-na hold your ear close to mine. From this day on we're confused together. Oh I swear this time I'm never gonna change the key."
Back in the day, in our wedding band, we prayed that the bride and groom NEVER requested this to be the song for their first dance!
Ahaha
Im going to request this at every wedding I attend that has a band, then stand where the band can see me laugh.
@@harrysachs2274 Absolute madlad
It could have been their last dance. 🤣🤣🤣
Maybe play it later, after everyones had a couple drinks they wont notice if youve made it simpler
Rest in peace, dear Sérgio Mendes. Not only for this song but for all your contribution to music around the world.
Mendes was not the composer, nor was he the first to record this song (this was Dionne Warwick).
@@mattmobile7882 Umm so? :) Making a cover your own is an art in and of itself
The genius of this song isn’t even the chords, it’s that they wrote a singable, hummable, memorable vocal melody over that!!!
I bet they wrote the melody first and got as tricky as they could with the chords after
I think a simpler way to arrive at such a song is to start with humming a melody, pivoting it across keys whenever you feel like. Or, in other words, neglecting the key and just trying to make passages move somewhere - jumping to an off-key tone here and there, and seeing where it leads. I don't see the chord sequences having a structure of their own in this song, they're just short tension and release cycles made to fit the melody. Resolutions that occur every other measure lead to apparent "normalcy", no matter how harmonically distant the start of every following cadence is.
Yeah, I wonder if it started as a regular pop song, then someone decided to entertain themself by making the chords as complex as possible while still going with the melody.
@@george474747 Not really, the chords follow the modulations of the melody in this song. A "jazzified" chord scheme looks very different!
I agree.
I love that you write out the chord symbols by hand and then import them in
Rick: The Wikipedia page for this song already mentions that you analyzed the song and called it the most complex pop song ever, just 4 hours after you posted this video. You've become a cultural icon!
Deservedly so. Kudos, Rick!!!
Rick has become a “star music teacher” and rightly so.
Lol that’s awesome!
I subscribed to this channel after seeing this video!
Wow
Dear Rick,
It is the first time I am commenting on your videos. I am a musician (keyboard player) from Hamburg, Germany.
One of my favorite phrases is "loop is the death of harmony", and your video seems to be singing from the same song sheet, to use a metaphor in our genre.
It is indeed a pop song with weird and complex harmonies, but did you ever wonder why it sounds so smooth and familiar?
We agree: This couldn't be a hit in our days, but what caused the audience back to accept it as a popular song?
Some ideas:
- Even though complex in structure, it does contain components that are common to pop music and enables the audience to adapt their ears to it. For example the intro features a descendant fifths sequence that is common to many other pop songs, notably "Killing me softly" by Roberta Flack - a song that also features an E-Piano pattern.
- One of my first allusion when I heard the song (you introduced it to me) was Toni Braxton's "Un-Break my Heart". Also a U.S. No. 1 hit, it sounds smooth and catchy. It shares the love subject with the Sergio Mendes song. While not as complex as "Never Gonna Let you Go", it does feature three different, harmonically distant tonics: B-minor in Intro/Verse, D-minor in the Chorus, and G#-minor in the Guitar Solo - not really closely related keys.
- The harmonic progression B/E E B/E B in the Pre-Chorus could be inspired by Chicago's "If you leave me now" that features a similar progression in the Intro.
- What inspired the composers to create this harmonic complexity? What genre within pop music are we talking about here? I am not sure, but is it maybe linked with the genre "Musical"? Also the fact that it is a love duet may give a scenic touch, with roles acted out on stage. Composition within the "Musical" genre show a higher degree of harmonic complexion than regular pop songs. The popular song "Let it go" from the musical "Frozen" jumps into my head. It isn't as complex in structure, but also contains different tonics and surprising chord changes. In the commercially oriented "Musical" genre, surprising chord changes aim to create a kind of "awe effect" to continuously conquer the audience's attention. So the harmonic complexity in musical scores is very effect-oriented.
Most of today's pop songs are less complex in their harmonic structure. But, to be fair, they are often more rhythmically complex than past hits. And also "Never gonna let you go" isn't very complex in a rhythmical sense. You cannot be complex on all levels, if you want to address the masses and create good songwriting.
Yet I do miss harmonic complexity in today's pop songs.
What do you think is the cause of the harmonic impoverishment we witness in recent decades? Would be happy to hear a few opinions...
Cheers!
What a brilliant response to this video. Very interesting allusion to songs written for musicals and the awe effect.
One thing I felt was missing from Rick’s video was an exploration of why such complex chord and key changes were needed - is there something in the lyrics/meaning of the song served by them?
In today’s music the purpose seems to be creating a certain response in the listener rather than creating meaning through the music itself. So music producers and labels have no reason to encourage music of harmonic complexity, since that is far beside the point and just a wasted effort.
I always enjoyed listening to the song. Its a musical journey.
Blimey! No wonder you never had time to reply before. 😂
Well written and food for thought 👍🏻🎅🏻🎄
With the advent of gangsta rap and grunge, the taste is 'pop" music had changed. I noticed this change in the early 90's. People seemed to focus more on just lyrics, and simplistic ones at that. Even songs written by the Beatles back in the early days of the band had some really creative musical complexity. To me the difference is striking. So many factors may have contributed to the drought of excellent musicianship in the last quarter century. Music in schools had waned, and the exposure to articulately composed arrangements has become rare. But as the saying goes, to everything there is a season.
Rick, I have been playing piano for 40 yrs. I put together a massive 80s playlist, found this song, downloaded the sheet music. I seriously had some wtf moments as I was sight reading. Took me 3 tries to get it down and after watching your video I was dying of laughter. I can’t imagine trying to memorize this song. Thx for the analysis!
difficult to play and sing at the same time, if you are accompanying a singer then a competent guitarist should be able to handle it. Happy Talk also sounds a simple song but wait till you see the chord changes!
You still have that playlist? I'm always happy to expand my 80s horizon :)
I don’t understand 95% of what you’re talking about but I find these videos so interesting, intriguing, even often humorous! Thank you for your hard work on these.
96% for me lol
The case when it's no matter if you speak English or Russian - you still don't understand 95% of what is said 😃
Same lmao
I know nothing except you are great
And I thought I was the only "non initiated" having fun with those videos. They are awesome!
This song is legit genius. Coming up with all of those progressions is one thing, but making it into a coherent song with nice singing parts, that's skill, man.
A friend of mine once said a winning pop song is the most difficult to write.
@@neilslade Bro, it's a targeted pop song, what are you expecting? The cool thing about this channel is that Rick never turns down any genre of music merely based on the lyrics, vocals, or whatever.. I'd imagine very few of us here would actually listen to this song or album in our spare time.. doesn't stop us from analyzing it from a musical perspective, though. It's not a song I'd rock out to, but props where they are due: within the genre, for what it wants to do, it's masterfully crafted, and far more ambitious than just about anything else you could hear in the genre. That to me is what makes it worth the praise, not necessarily meaning that I'm in love with it :D
I am pretty sure the melody was not made to match those chords. It was the other way around. About all successful songwriters start with the melody. After that, there are a million ways to do the chords. It's called chord substitution. Guitarist Joe Pass did it with standards.
@@WorldWarThree I remember, "back in the day", reading "Guitar Player" mag, and almost every interviewee indicated this, "melody first/chords after" approach to songwriting....I was composing music, but always chord progs alone, I thought, "I will never be able to write songs!", or maybe just instrumental music; but, about a decade ago, I consciously decided to see if I could just compose a melody "cold turkey" and chord it, after, and I (thankfully!) found out that I can!
Hmmm, (deep sigh) not convinced.
Even if our 'Guru on high' vouches for it! 😫
Mind blown. Although I have to disagree with one point. Even as a kid, I didn’t miss the chord changes. I was just too young to understand what was going on. The complex, nigh uncomfortable chord changes and progression create a lot of tension that emulates a feeling of passion. Even as a kid who didn’t know that kind of love yet, I felt it. Same feeling at 44, but now I know why. Absolutely brilliant.
Once again Rick takes a song that I've heard a few thousand times over the years without really listening to to it, and made me hear what I've been totally missing.
Rick, you're amazing!
Thank you!
100% I've always loved the vocal melody but never really noticed how complex the chords were.
That's sort of the goal of "music appreciation" classes. You don't necessarily break down every song you hear mathematically as you listen, but you get more out of it.
No doubt. Never did I look at it like this, like at all whatsoever... Cool beans!
I had a huge grin on my face this entire video. Totally remember playing this tune with a couple wedding bands around the same time in Boston. Very deceptive. The melodic hooks and strait ahead pop-ballad drum approach make this song sound fairly strait forward. As the drummer, I always wondered why the keys, guitar and bass had their heads buried in the chart, brows furrowed. Now I understand. Brilliant writing.
Not too tough for us drummers!
I grew up in The Bean.
They LOOOVED this song back in the day!
Ha! I was wondering why it sounded like you were having a breeze playing this song. You're a drummer! Hahaha! Nice one. Good for you.
Years ago I was talking with a friend about playing guitar and he mentioned me the brazilians samba players. He said that they didn't know about music theory but instead they where skillful players who try and invent new sounds on the instrument. So when studied musicians tried to analize that tipes of sounds they discovered that it where the most heterogeneous and extravagant bunch of chords ever played, just like you did in this song. Sergio Mendes is an eminence in Bossa Nova, a mix of samba and jazz. Rick, if you play that progression but with an spanish guitar and in a faster speed simply you will hear the sound of Brazil. Grettings from Uruguay.(and sorry for my english)
You have nothing to apologize for my friend. Nothing at all.
Your written English is above and beyond that of most English speakers found in youtube comments, please, no more apologies for that! I am looking forward to being able to learn more about the sound of Brasil, I have always had a fascination since I read Jorge Amado’s Tent of Miracles, what a fabulous meeting of cultures, especially mesmerising for the young white Australian girl I was, and guess I still am even though getting a little long in the tooth.
Hola hermano Charrua!Esta cancion es una de mis favoritas nunca pense que era tan dificil para tocar.Saludos desde Australia
Interesting 💜🎶 Makes sense tho
@@michaelsorchantte3857 Hola Michael, igual me pasó. Creo que al estar acostumbrados a escuchar la música producida por Sergio Mendes, damos por sentado estos acordes y recién viendo a Rick romperse la cabeza y detener la canción cada 10 segundos nos damos real cuenta de la genialidad de esta melodía . Saludos desde Perú.
I’ve watched this video several times since it came out. Each time I think, “How come I loved that song and never noticed all those chord changes?” I still don’t quite get how hard it is musically and yet how natural it feels - it just keeps opening up. Amazing song.
For a classical musician, there is nothing particularly complicated about this, except that it's more that, say, two harmonies. I mean, try Shostakovich or Strawinski, for example....
@@UnicRatSo just listen to that classical music , then, and not this music, so disappointing to you.
Don't forget, there are many multi- platinum selling music
artists in this world who never took a music lesson.
But their music connected with hearts and minds, worldwide.
Just spent the previous half-hour with real tears as I listened to some Strauss songs. Soprano and orchestra. It was not my usual choice. I wonder if in 200 years in the future, what will be "Classical".
Kinda sorta. Has nothing to do with this. .
I remember this song being such a beautiful ballad. And yeah, never noticed the excessive chords changes
The secret What Makes This Song Great episode nobody asked for, but everyone appreciates.
Brazilian harmony is otherworldly.
Once I asked a Brazilian guitarist where he had learned all those cool chords and progressions. His response: "In the streets"
I had a Brazilian keyboardist play an amazing passage once. When I asked him what it was, he said, "I don't know"
He was serious
most musicians here in brazil actually did learn most things from the streets because it was where samba and pagode were presented, i think after the 90's that culture kinda ended tho
That's so badass
Try a song called ""Corsario" from the singer "João Bosco".
Funny thing is: A lot of Brazilian youngsters don't even know who Sérgio Mendes is, and half of those who kno, know him only as they guy that had his studio built by Harrison Ford (before he was famous).
To me the craziest part is how natural these changes sound!
Yes. It’s insane that is shifting keys and modulations as much as it is but it flows.
I love this song, it is one of my favorites. I brings to mind the difficulty of Earth, Wind, and Fire's "After the love is gone."
I was originally written for EWF.
The magic of David Foster was incredibly contagious.
I was thinking the theme song to the tv show Greatest American Hero
@@paulmoncton Yes, I've read that. EWF didn't want to sing "Never Gonna Let You Go" because of it sounding like a potential "sequel" to "After the Love Has Gone."
I played this song in a wedding band i got hired to play in last minute when the normal guitarist was sick. I was reading it cold and must've said "what!?," with something close to the same surprise and tone as Rick does in this video, every third or fourth bar. It's this light-hearted, airy, little-bit-sappy, emotional thing that is covertly a labyrinth with a freakin-ravenous minotaur on the loose inside. The bass player and keyboard player were laughing at me thru most of it.
@@marktilley7222 nobody noticed. i made it thru it ok, and having the keys there helped a ton, but it was more just an earbending thing and me being shocked I had never noticed how weird the harmony was when i'd heard it on the radio so many times.
the « normal guitarist » fled the country
Rick, thank you for bringing this song to all of our attention. I can remember listening to it as a little kid but had no appreciation for how harmonically complex it is. Good stuff!
Mash up incoming?
Ahhh! The Master of Mashups is in the house!
Very interesting. Not a musician, but really enjoyed this.
Theory🤯
me too... tnx to Sir Rick didn't know this song was this complex omg
“Ok let’s play this new song tonight”
“What are the chords”
“All of them”
No lie there!!!
"Just hit the fretboard, something will fit"
😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂
"how many chords?"
"YES"
This needs 'Guitar George' to play it! :D
I watch this video over and over because I had the same experience with this same song. It was many many years later and I was playing for a woman who wanted to do it. I thought I've heard this song a hundred times. I can nail this right now. The guitar player didn't know it so we put the tape on. Suddenly I realised I didn't know it either. Same thing, wait go back, what? Glad someone like Rick had the same problem. This song is all over the place. I laugh so hard every time I watch this.
This video is so epic that it's mentioned in the Wikipedia entry for the song!
In a June 2021 video posted on UA-cam, record producer Rick Beato called "Never Gonna Let You Go" "the most complex pop song of all time", due to its use of frequent key changes, inverted chords and unusual chord progressions.[4] Beato's discussion includes a detailed harmonic analysis of the Sérgio Mendes arrangement.
Love that!
@MattsCrazyArt niceee
The music was done more than a year ago. Since it's complicated, people assume it's a Brazilian thing. Not really. As you can see it in that Wikipedia article.
Goddamnit it’s pissing me off how peoples keep attributing this to Sergio Mendes. He obviously didn’t write this. It was written by married couple Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil.
None of his other works are remotely similar to this
Frustrated not to be able to press “thumbs up” more than once. Fascinating, as non-musicians don’t realize how much goes on in a song.
And even some so-called "musicians."
You reminded me of a video I saw some time ago. At the end, the fellow said "if you like this video give it a thumbs-up." And with a straight face he added, "If you didn't like it, tap the thumbs down ... twice."
I had to try it, and sure enough, hitting it the second time removes the thumbs-down. Brilliant!
You’re right. I would never realise the complexity in this song. Ricks videos are brilliant as he shows the technical side of the songs. To me this sounded like many other songs, particularly Arthur’s Theme but clearly there is a lot more in it!
Pop is not always simple. This song is uninteresting, because it just sounds bad. The changes and melody don't produce a very pleasing response. The song may have been #1, but primarily for its sickening sweet lyrical content that resonated with sixteen-year-old girls. Compare with a pop song like Henry Mancini's theme from Pink panther. Its complexity comes not from chord changes and modulation per se but from orchestration and use of chromaticisn. No lyrics.
@@isohumulone pink panther is pop???? How do we define "pop"
He looks so overwhelmingly happy with the complexity of this song. Love it.
Like a cat with a laser pointer dot he can't quite catch!
I think this is standard Rick Beato. I wish I loved anything as much as Rick loves music. :)
RIP Sergio Mendes. As a brazillian I've really got to know your repertory through this video when it came out. God bless, heaven is having a really cool concert today.
You may know Sergio Mendes is brazilian and his major influence is "Bossa Nova" that has a lot of chords like those in its composition; even Mendes has done the arrangement, only. Names like Antonio Carlos Jobim, Carlos Lyra, João Gilberto, among other have been used these kind of sequence since the 60s and 70s. I'm Dilermando Nassif, from Belo Horizonte, MG. Brazil. I like your videos. You are a great musician. Congratulations.
But it wasn't written by Mendes. It was written by Barry Mann and his wife Cynthia Weil. Both born and raised in New York City.
listen in at 8:35. although i get your point
Did you know Sergio Mendes also has a cult following? Can't even walk down the street in South America.
@@petedavis7970 You're talking about the lyrics, not the song itself.
@@diogofarias1822No, I'm talking about all of it. Weil wrote the lyrics, Mann wrote the music.
In 1984 when I was in college I was in a band that played a lot of weddings and I remember that this is the one song that my band dreaded to have requested because of the complexity of chord changes. I'm a drummer so it didn't bother me as much as it did the other guys. This video has unearthed a lot of great memories from my 20s. Thank you!
That's funny. I've always thought the drummer had the hardest job in every band I've been in, but song would contradict that.
@@funkmike And you would be correct in that but mainly due to the packing and lugging around of a drum kit from gig to gig to gig. I did that throughout the early to mid 80s in a 1970 Mustang Mach1 which incidentally I still own, only now I don't dare pack drums or anything else in it.
"Should we write a chart for this?"
"Naw, we can figure this out."
Backfires EVERY time.
"... no need for chart.."
Then comes first line
"I was as wrong as i could be..."
No truer word ever said! Lol
Im not a musician and basically know nothing about music production, but oh boy can i relate to that mentality backfiring. Im in movie production, and holy, backfires EVERY time indeed!
"Now we're in uncharted territory." Literally.
This is one of your best videos - I love the fun you are having with it and the way you show us the chords.
As a child/teen of the 80s I’ve heard this song a thousand times....I never realized how intricate it was!
Me neither, cause I always changed the station immediately.
i love this song so much. remember being a kid and listening to it on the radio.
Você por aqui, Leo? Que surpresa agradável haha
Me too. I remember it being a song for couples skate times at the roller skating rink in the early 80s.
It really stands out. I guess the unique chord changes are the reason why. A beautiful tune.
@@mloftin6472 good memories, getting to hold a girls hand and maybe a little kiss. =)
PUKE!!!
I was today years old when I discovered that wasn't Sergio Mendes singing and was actually someone called Joe Pizzulo along with Leeza Miller. I know nothing about music, watching Rick talk about chord changes, progressions, even notes is like trying to decipher a foreign language but I love his knowledge and passion. This is a great channel!!
Keep watching his videos and learning, one day you'll wake up and realize you do know something about music. You'll surprise yourself.
Same. And I’ll take that one step further. I see the last name Pizzulo and I think “there’s a lot of Pizzulos where I live (Youngstown, OH area). I look it up on Wikipedia and sure as hell, he’s from Youngstown.
I've been playing and writing for 45 years and it often sounds like a foreign language to me. Music theory is insanely complex, but most of us doing it this long PRACTICE it without knowing what we're doing, technically.
Me too, I just love to watch his face full of excitement, wonder, smiling with his eyes, enjoying himself. I don’t know much about the theory, but couldn’t live without music.
Likewise, I know nothing when it comes to playing music, but it's great watching Rick unwrap every last nuance. Tbh this song's not really my cup of tea, but I never would thought it was so technically difficult. Definitely brings on a newfound sense of respect for what I thought was throwaway pop
Remembering Sergio Mendes, who just passed at the age of 83. I've been a fan of this song since it came out. Doesn't seem like it was 41 years ago at all.
As complicated as these progressions are, it never SOUNDS crazy. Just flows. Weird!
Yep. Honestly if I wasn't told this is the original I would assume this is like a modern day Jazz band doing a reharmonization but then on those the singers themselves never modulate this much.
It's like a Giant Steps lost track that was retrofitted with a nice, romantic melody and lyrics yet it still works as both.
@@IncredibleGoliath It feels like standard pop, because it is written as standard pop. Despite the modulations the song is written pretty generically and that is why it is not remembered, not because of the modulations. Modulations can actually help a song make it more memorable, you have Bohemian Rhapsody, one of the most memorable and recognizable songs ever and it has several modulations. So you can attribute that to the writing and not the modulations themselves.
Genius level melody writing.
@@IncredibleGoliath Oh ok, I thought you were making a point as to how the modulations in itself were a detriment to the composition, my bad.
The vocals by Joe Pizzulo and Leeza Miller are STUNNING! Don’t hear too many pop singers like those anymore in today’s music. Another great song sung by Pizzulo is Alibis from the Sérgio Mendes album Confetti - there’s a great live video of it here on UA-cam
Rick, this video was a masterpiece by you. I've never considered the complexity of this song, although I've heard it countless times. That's what is so unique and gifted about *your* talents, in that you call to light many things that many (most)? of us simply missed, and therefore didn't appreciate. Until you called our attention to them. You, sir, are very gifted in many ways. Please, keep it up!
I love that his introduction is simply, "Hi, I'm Rick Beato." No wordy preamble, no lengthy intro animation, just straight to the goods.
I love that you're grinning the whole time you're explaining this. Very entertaining!
The craziest part of the story isn't them butchering the song. Its doing an emotional love song for kids ages 8-10.
😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Dude!!!!!!!
If it was no. 1 the kids wouldn't have batted an eyelid. People accept what they're exposed to. You hear something enough at that age, it'll probably grow on you.
Edit: Bohemian Rhapsody is the ultimate example. I was 12 when that came out and at first it sounded like a mess. Two weeks later I was buying it. And of course I'm now sick and tired of it 😉
Hahaha! :D I was like; "Wait . . . What? 8-10-12 year olds"? :P
@@mvunit3 I was four or five when this song came out and 100% remember hearing it on the radio.
"American musician and UA-cam personality Rick Beato has analysed the chord structure of the song in a video titled "The Most COMPLEX Pop Song of All Time".'[4]" someone already edited the song's wiki page saying you've reviewed it
wow that was fast!
Now try getting Wikipedia to admit that the Warren Commission report was pure BS.
Lesson for today: Never even consider using Wikipedia for information on anything remotely debatable.
@@ole555 unless you agree with them... ha
Well, at least the CIA let something on Wikipedia that matters.
That is Krazy! Now, just in... Trump *may have* lost the election🙄
This tune establishes keys with comforting II-V’s “just enough” to give the listener confidence (it’s accessible to a mass audience). Then it throws curious curves with tonic substitutions (chords containing most common tones with the tonic), and half-step, tritone, minor 3rd, and major 3rd modulations.
The audience is confounded but in a good way; their attention is reacquired.
It’s like the missing link between Tin Pan Alley, Coltrane, and Neo-Soul!
Up until today I just heard a bunch of circle-of-fifth progressions, if I even stopped to think of it. It just passes over you so effortlessly that you don't notice what's happening.
Nerd
Rest in Peace, Sergio Mendes. You left amazing, tremendous music for us to enjoy forever!
This song can only be played by Guitar George, cause he knows all the chords.
He's strictly rhythm he doesn't want to make it cry or sing!
They said an old guitar is all, he can afford
When he gets up under the lights to play his thing
And Harry doesn't mind if he doesn't make the scene.
He’s got a daytime job, he’s doing alright
It's incredible how they managed to make a song so complex which probably appears quite normal to non-musicians ears.
It sounds completely logical until Rick dissects it...
that’s when you know they are doing it because it works and not because they are trying to show off their technical ability. I never would’ve suspected that song of even being complicated. Certainly not compared to something like Steely Dan -which almost always works- or the absurdities that you sometimes run into with other composers who pride themselves on inserting a measure of 15/18 timing rather randomly ina song.
Exactly
Absolutely god-level jazz composition. So complex yet sounds so natural and so beautiful,
especially with the male / female duet.
Quincy Jones can do that when he has access to many gifted musicians and arrangers all over the world.
Are you sure? Natural? Beautiful? What is that bar, then?
This is my favorite video on this channel. Have seen it multiple times!
What I love the most about Rick is that he is honestly having so much fun with this music. He is telling a story that I guarantee he has told at least a hundred times before and it still cracks him up and he still has a love and awe of the song and where it goes. He truly loves the music for the music.
It's the Italian sense of humor, their laughter is so contagious and their energy lifts the mood.
Rick Beato does the absolute best music breakdowns. I can listen to Rick for hours. Really wish I was a musician in another life.
💯 you and me both !
Well go for it. What is the worst that could happen?
@ I teach mostly 55 to 70 year olds. They are absolutely!!! the best students..... Never to Late for sure.
I reiterate .. never too late dude ... it doesnt have to be complex either
nowadays there are electronic instruments that live inside your computer and most can be had for free so its technically programming which means no manual dexterity or years of muscle memory training
i could spend all day trying to talk you into it
but what you haveto ask yourself is "what`s stopping me ?"
if you think you werent born with it or you dont have the time or you arent smart enough .... you are wrong
nobodys born with it ... give a baby a piano it will chew on it
its 10 minutes a day ... most of you spend more than that wiping your arse
I can do it ... its not rocket surgery
I'd take him as a flat mate
The genius of Sergio Mendes. Saw him last year just before covid, and he, and his band are phenomenal. as I would expect from a 70 year veteran and pop Icon, and those he chooses to play with him. Top three concert for me
It was written by Barry Mann though
@@Steffschenko A lot of Mendes' songs were covers, but his arrangements were perfection.
Thank you for this breakdown and analysis. I feel so fortunate to have grownup with so much jazz infused rock and pop as someone born in '66. Completely unconscious of these influences tgen, but these current reactions reveal to me how complex so many of these chart hits (and their chord charts) were.
After being in the music biz for over 50 years, I found this video to be so entertaining, and enlightening! Rick is playing these knuckle buster chords so effortlessly, his touch is impeccable, the guitar is in perfect tune, it sounds amazing, and that wasn't even the point. The story behind the rehearsal and the performances is a riot. Been there so many times over the years. I remember learning a Badfinger tune one afternoon in rehearsal and trying to pull it off that night. Everybody lost it and our bass player just stopped playing and singing, walked back and stood motionless in front of his amp. I think eventually we all just stopped playing. So embarrassing. I'll never forget it!
+ 1 I totally agree with your words.
Been there, buddy.
Well said!
Good point about how effortless his playing is. Didn't he say that he basically taught himself guitar again from scratch after not having played it for a long time? His mastery of the instrument is astonishing.
I can only bash out about 4 chords on a guitar and I can't even do a barre (?) chord, my hand and fingers are too small. It actually looks like Rick is playing on a smallish guitar - or is it just that his hands are ginormous?
As someone who loves music but is NOT a musician, listening to you speak music like its a native language is just so cool.
I love this. I’m the same way. My wife and I love watching these with our jaws dropped.
its just like knowing what lol means ... my grandma doesnt understand lol but she uses it .. i have 2 choices ... accept or attack
discuss
Pulling out a song with an impossible to memorise chord progression is such a singer move.
😂
I know this video is old but I've only just discovered your channel. This is the coolest video I've seen! Seriously! Laughing the whole way through. And now I'm determined to try and play it lol
Producer: So which chords are you thinking for this song?
Artist: All of them
Producer: How many chords are there in your song?
Composer: Yes
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
"We'll just tell you the chords that AREN'T in the song. It's easier that way."
Artist: All of them
Producer: Okay so we're going to add a few tritone substituations...
Artist: ALL OF THEM!
The chord changes aren't noticed by the audience because the vocal melody is wonderfully well constructed around these. For instance, sometimes, between section or key changes, the last and first notes of the vocal melody are the same. This helps to eliminate the feeling of confusion produced by these harmonic changes. They're genius!
How strongly does a melody imply its harmony?
@@NewMusicWeekly when one is singing, if the harmony goes up more than half a step and the singer repeats the previous verse or a chorus a whole step higher you notice the key change.
@@NewMusicWeekly Very strongly if you want to play it right as opposed to the Ultimate Guitar version or fake book. It sounds to me like the 2 writers are both musicians who were playing keyboards together and sort of melded their ideas for the movements (wow, that sounds great together) while some of the chords that resulted were those quartal harmony/steely dan-sounding.
It's certainly inventive and probably a challenge for all but the most seasoned wedding band player.
Those sorts of changes are called Enharmonic key changes.
Honestly think there’s a higher chance the melody came first then they put chords around it. I can’t see how you could get to these chord decisions without the melody and knowing what chords tones they’d be before hand
Musicians that are getting married from now on will request this song just to witness the pain.
And will sadistically relish in it. 😎
Rest in Power, Sergio Mendes. One of the greats among greats. ❤ Thank you, Rick, for opening the ears of understanding in so many so that extraordinary songs like this never get lost among the ordinary.
Watching Rick geek out over all the crazy chord changes is a joy.
I think I enjoy his comments and expressions more than the music, lol!
Truly!
Best part!
I have zero understanding of any of this, but MASSIVE RESPECT for the analysis and your brilliant playing!!! 🥺
Same
same here
I just saw this and agree. The music is brilliant. Made me realize how little about music I know.Awesome vid.
and yet so watchable.
I could not put it better myself.
The joy Rick has in telling the story of the first time he played this song for an audience and laughing at the memory….that’s a life well lived. Fun to imagine it as he tells it :)
Watching this again. Still one of my all time fav videos. I always tell musicians that I meet to go and watch it. I got a couple years on Rick and I remember this song being all over the radio. Big hit.
They say: "If you want to play it you need to be able to sing it...". In this case, this is one of those things where being able to sing it really doesn't help you at all in playing it.
I'm old friends with the male lead vocalist on this, Joe Pizzulo. Great singer, great guy, at one time the top male singer in LA, makes sense that he could stay focused through so many changes. Hard song.
I know Michael Miller of Solid Gold loved him and his voice
The early 80's had some really good jazzy pop songs, Just the Two of Us by Bill Withers, key Largo by Bertie Higgins, Just Once by Quincy Jones, Mornin' by Al Jarreau, Living Inside Myself, Gino Vannelli, just to name a few
When the Night Rolls In Kirk Whalum (1995)
Cool Night by Paul Davis. The One You Love by Glenn Frey.
Steely Dan too...jazz virtuous
I was just thinking of Living Inside Myself by Gino Vannelli!! It has sort of the same feel as this song reviewed by Rick Beato! Quite a lot of chord changes also.
wow, such an amazing comment. great songs!
I used to listen, and still do, to Sergio Mendes and Brasil 66...he's a master technicians, perfect notes, perfect pitch, tight as you know what, and never a mistake, every note crystal....love listening to his stuff for this reason, just perfection. Every single not is perfection, every harmony perfect, in everything he did. And the female vocalists the same.
"Which chords should we use for this song?"
"All of them!"
Remove a few notes, Mozart!
Thats my favourite kind of song!!!
Or none of them which would make 4 better listening
The melody leads the chord changes. I remember the song, but as you said, when you hear it, it seems to flow naturally because the melody just works so well with the chords. I knew it was very unusual when I originally listened to it, but didn’t realize just how much so until today. You had me roaring with laughter and agape at the analysis of it. A brilliant piece of composition and a brilliant analysis of it. Bravo!
Try and interview the people who wrote this song Rick. Id be intrigued to hear what was on there minds when writing it
Cocaine
@@nickwodka8080 🤣
RIP Sergio. Today's news brought me here. Would have loved to've seen you interview him about this! Wondering if there was some hidden, 'meta' purpose behind the changes that mirrored the lyrics/meaning of the song.
Before Beato: throw away pop song
After Beato: stunningly complex gem
Exactly
Quit being so judgmental
Ppl need to relax
If you know yourself you don’t need to worry so much
They put a lot of thought into the song, but in the end it's still a schmaltzy song that has no appeal for me. Interesting only from a theory nerd point of view. Good video.
@@RCAvhstape Agreed, despite all this chord and key complexity it still sounds like generic melodramatic '80s pop. Quantity of chords and modulations does not define quality of a song
Why not both? Stunningly complex throw away pop song gem. :D
@@RCAvhstape that’s the sentiment I’m going with too. Smaltzy: it has that in spades! 110%.
No wonder it was hard to remember. The chords don’t naturally progress one to the other, and it never lets up. But the writers had an absolutely incredible understanding of harmony to create this!
Look up Mann & Weil, who wrote this. Their songs climbed the charts for like 40 years, plenty of stuff you've probably heard without ever suspecting it was all the same songwriters. They're consummate pros.
@@GuitaristInProgress they were very powerful indeed
I don't know, it's pretty typical of jazz music--maybe Rick needs to bone up on his jazz chord progressions. It's never too late.
@@PianoGesang: uh, where did I say that this was a jazz song? When Tina here said that the chords don’t naturally progress one to the other, I responded by essentially saying that it doesn't sound so "unnatural" to anyone who's played much jazz, especially jazz piano.
I just love Rick's facial expressions on all the chord changes.
Came looking for this comment. Who knew Rick was funny as well.
His passion is contagious
yes i know! too funneh! :)
Some of those expressions remind me of Rodney Dangerfield's, LOL.
I know. So genuine!
I'm no expert here, so the finer details went right over my head, but I could certainly appreciate your "flabbergast-ness" of trying to follow and recreating the music. Very entertaining. It reminded me of the movie Amadeus (1984) where Salieri is trying to keep up with Amadeus as he describes his music in the one scene and he's like "no, no, no, my *roller-coaster* goes like this"
Still wiping away tears of laughter. Played keyboards on this song in my high school jazz band…briefly. The song went to the better sight reader (not me). Fortunately she had a chart…
I love his smile while he's playing along. Every version of the smile as each chord is played represents a new complexity proportional to the obscurity of the chord 😅 Such a musician thing to do.
I took 4 years of ear training at Juilliard. I know everything you’re talking about but I really feel for you band guys. I play oboe - one note at a time. I never have to go through this delightful insanity in performance but I love listening to it and to you explaining it. You’re an internet treasure
I played violin for 10 years until I started playing guitar at 16. You are not mistaken. my brain ain't do complex chord theory so good lol. it can only handle so much theory. Trying to write a song like this would give me a seizure lol.
I LOVED listening to this, although it's making my head explode. My brother played one note at a time, too, @Brian Charles, and you knew him.
"ear training"? what the ....does playing the oboe pay the bills and all that school expense? lol if so then good for you but I can not image an oboe player is making a very good living not to mention why do you need to go to Julliard to train your ear in order to play music?
To @asthewheels: Elite level ear training has been a godsend. My career on stage and in commercials, soundtracks, video game music, and in Broadway pits has been a wonderful experience. It’s my life and I love it. I also own two retail music shops, which has nothing to do with anything other than that a life in music has been a fulfilling and soul inspiring journey. I wish you well.
@@briancharles6838 wow OK I stand fully corrected then! That sounds like an awesome life actually , far better than my path in a career I hate and wake up everyday not wanting to go to work. Good for you. I really just had never even heard of "ear training" it sounded silly sorry for my rude comment.
Rick's reactions to the chords and key changes are priceless. Make me laugh out loud every single time I watch this video. My favorite Rick Beato post of all time.
This is my favorite Rick Beato video. I have watched it many times. First of all it is absolutely mind blowing how Rick is able to dissect this song, which, by way, is absolutely awesome. I agree that most non-musicians really would have no idea how complicated song this really is. Secondly his body language and expressions ""whaaaaat???" throughout the song is very, very entertaining. Way to go Rick!
Haha he’s so entertaining
The anecdotes of the gig falling apart are funny as hell....I've seen this a few times....
I was captured by the title of the video, and I would NEVER expect THIS song to show up, because, among Brazilian Sergio Mendes lovers, we kinda hate this song, since it's far from his real classic times.
I was expecting Beatles, Burt Bacharach, idk.
Just give me Tim and Eric's gif of the the mind-blowing universe 😅
I found this absolutely fascinating, even though I didn't understood a single thing
😂 😂 Ikr?
That is so on the money - Rick is so watchable, so enthusiastic, he just carries you away on a tide of delightful ignorance
What Oniguma said.
Same here, lol. I couldn't stop watching, and i used to play a guitar a bit, and i still didn't get almost any of it yet I'm absolutely fascinated. Don't know if it's more the fact he can figure out and play all of this chords and chord changes with such ease or his facial expression and absolute enthusiasm about it - after already knowing it for 40 fricking years. 🙂
Exactly the same for me. I don't know why I look that video, I did not understand a single thing, but it has been a pleasant moment.
Most complex pop song that no one's ever heard of and none other than Mike Landau plays on it.... Sounds about right. It was either gonna be him or Luke, as soon as I saw the title. More videos like this, hilarious story while deceptively teaching theory, the song itself, and basically jazz changes for the pop/rock guys that find jazz too intimidating. Bravo, Rick.
"Most complex pop song that no one *[UNDER 40]'s ever heard of"
@@snidelywhiplash
Indeed.
This song was HUGE.
No doubt when it was ear-worming, my brain simplified the changes tremendously. Now to learn the progression for real....
35 and over. I'm 38 and remember this song well. Played all the time on radio. I associate it with riding in the car with one of my parents in the late afternoon or evening.
Try looking it up on here and seeing how many views each video copy has and then say that again.
Seems I recall this being on some soundtracks back in the day too.
I was around 10 when this was YUGE
R.I.P. Sergio, this video was the first thing I thought of when I heard the news.
This is how you write a song without getting sued for plagiarism lol.
Good one
@ape kaspank lol
Best comment of the night
Can't copyright chord changes anyway. Although melodies on the other hand... Sounds not unlike The Greatest Love of All..
Actually bits of it remind me of Could it be Magic which in turn rips off Chopin
There're more chords in this song than in the whole Billboard hot 100.
hahahhahah
Niiiice, LOL!
key Metallica clip: "Sad but true!!!!"
Sadly, YES
trueeeeeeeee
I used to play this song every night when I was a part of Sergio Mendes group. Just goes to show you music has become so left brain and left brain only and down to this level of deterioration. As depressing as it is I still believe there’s a way to bring the level of creativity and musicality back up again. Kudos to you. Young kids really need people like you.
From what record??? I have all of Sergio's records !!!
Congrats on being part of such a fine band. He was/is the best. I can now honestly say I do not have all of his records. This song was from 84. My sincerest apologies, and all best to you.
TBH I guess the complexity shifted into electronic realm. Sound engineering, mastering, sampling, effects, synthesizing, etc etc
Musical interludes are all but history now, too.
❤️
lol this is classic 😂😂!! Great story Rick.. This is a great, intelligent creation, ive always loved this song, had no idea how complex it was!! it just sounds beautifully melodic to me.
Hey Rick, I'm a musician but a hairdresser by trade, and my last clients tonight were an older couple (he's in his late 70s, she's in her early 80s) - we were making small talk about music and they just started gushing about your channel and this video in particular, and how much they enjoyed your analysis and storytelling. Just thought you'd be amused to know about the diversity of your audience.
To quote Steven Wright, "it's a small world, but I wouldn't want to have to paint it"
@@heavnnnsent lol classic
A hairdresser by the name of BALDINO! IM DYING 😂
as a hughschooler, yeah
@@hm09235nd 😂😂😂
So what you're telling me is, Sergio Mendes enforced copy protection on this song by encrypting the chord progression.
and Rick hacked it... sort of 😅
Just about sums it up! ^_^
Actually people used to do stunts like that all the time.
@@redrick8900: Actually it's funnier if you don't explain it.
@@deusexaethera It wasn't funny to begin with.
This was so much fun Rick ! You are a true musician in the finest sense of the word. You have a scholar’s mindset with a real world feel and a tres cool open mind to every genre of music. Thank you so much for working so hard to share your love of music with us all brother 😎
Now produce a hit!
RIP Sergio. I fucking love this music piece. makes me eargasm
Rick's strongest talent, in the end, may be his ability to take that experience of discovering something truly excellent and interesting, such as this song, and then capturing that giddy excitement in a way that makes other people want to watch him go through it. It's so much more professional and compelling than all these crummy "reaction" videos going on out there. Great work Rick!
Rick's talent is sharing his passion with passion 😊
rick is great. but reaction videos are a different beast altogether. it's like comparing a lion to a hippopotamus and claiming one his better.
@@anotherjoshua reaction videos are a different animal because they take no creativity. "Here. Watch me watch this video". Yeah, no.
@@taylorpilewski what are you talking about beatto doesn't create anything in his videos. he analyses.
Absolutely. Reaction videos got old so fast.
A bit of trivia: The (first) studio for Sergio Mendes was built by a then young carpenter that would later become known as Han Solo and Indiana Jones.
10:46
@@GiacomodellaSvezia lol
@@GiacomodellaSvezia This is the best comment in a comment of the year.
@@GiacomodellaSvezia youre genius man LOL
Jesus?
Be careful, progressions like this can open up a portal.
Why do I feel like Kenny G would be on the other side smiling at me, creepily?
It's like Beetlejuice
nice, Mr Beato not frazzled or frustrated, rather has a good time with this and enjoys explaining the intricacies of this song, bravo.
One of the admirable traits that Rick manifests is his passion as an educator. To take the time to write down and display the chord charts and illustrate graphically his points is so revealing of his interest in sharing knowledge with his viewers. Really wish he'd consider moving or at least cross-posting to some non-TY platform like nebula or something that still earns him some bucks but avoids 5 disruptive ads in just 15 minutes.
Hear! Hear! I wish I'd thought of saying (writing?) that!
Use a web browser with AdBlock Plus rather than the YT app. You'll not see any more adverts.
Most instructional guitarists have their own thing going on. I forget what they call it but they usually start out on UA-cam then go to this "pay for lessons" deal where you can get more in depth lessons.
He's charismatic, charming, knowledgeable, uber talented, and sooooo good on the eyes!!! (Just keep that beard OFF- it takes away from his gorgeous eyes)!!! Best of all, he makes music theory accessible to us all--rich and poor alike. Rock on, Ricky B, your fans adore you!!!
@@raygunsforronnie847 - I would use uBlock Origin instead. ABP isn't what it used to be.
As soon as I saw the title, I knew it was going to be "Never Gonna Let You Go." I could feel it in my bones. I still remember my prof in music theory going through this song. All the changes keep you feeling just a bit off balance so they all hit with the drama of an 80s/90s romance movie slo-mo couple-on-a-beach-at-sunset scene. You know exactly what I mean, too. Admit it. 🤣
Good prof u got there👍🏽
He ripped off never gonna give you up lol/a
The incredible thing is that after a few of those key changes you end up on a whole different planet than where you started off, and yet you're none the wiser
@@rickmacdonald5575 'He ripped off _Never Gonna Give You Up?!'_ Ha! That must be Rick MacDonald riffing on Rick Astley, while being riffed on by Rick Beato.
I can imagine all the babies conceived because of that song. I'm going to drag out my 12 string Martin and see what I can do with the song.
If I ever need a mood boost, I can just put this on. Every time Rick smiles and laughs and says “What!??” It just cracks me up.