Grabbing the listener's attention: One of the most successful songs I’ve had on radio was my version of Rufus and Chaka Kahn’s “Ain’t Nobody” (written by Hawk Wolinsky). That’s another song with a recognizable vocal melody that works nicely for piano. It has a morse code quality that’s catchy. It also has kind of an interesting modal construction that’s kind of unusual. The song is based around an E-flat pedal with E-flat minor, D-flat major and B major triads moving over it. The terrific syncopation in the bass line provides such a powerful motor for the song that a simple melody works very well over it. When you record a cover song that has lyrics that people know, they’ll probably sing along to themselves when they hear the melody. I think that’s why so many instrumental versions of vocal songs are successful. There’s another layer of connection that the listener has that’s missing from purely instrumental compositions.
Michael Gallant, Senior Editor