Hello, in this video I wanted to discuss a theatre song I really love, the title song
to Bye Bye Birdie written by Charles Strouse and Lee Adams.
Specifically the chorus of the song.
I want to share what I love about this song and quickly go over the circle of fifths.
I will also be referencing this song in my next video, in which I look at the song “Time
Warp” from “Rocky Horror Picture Show”.
Anyways, here’s some Bye Bye Birdie...
This song wasn’t in the original 1958 stage musical and was rather written for Ann-Margaret
in the 1963 movie adaptation.
And also was featured in the 1995 movie version as well.
Though not technically in the stage musical, the song is occasionally performed with the
stage musical at the beginning of the show and/or at curtain call, like the 2009 Broadway revival.
There are three things I want to look at in this song.
The short-form structure, the long-form structure, and the chord progression.
The short-form of the song consists of two notes.
High-Low
From those two notes, Strouse continues this pattern in variation of interval and rhythm
as the basis for the rest of the melody.
Now interesting sidenote and mystery, the melody how it was originally written ends
like this.
Keeping this High Low.
Even old man Strouse sings it like this.
However, in the 1995 movie adaptation, the end of the melody seemed to change to this.
Low High.
On one hand, I do think that this change sounds better than the original, as it circles back
to home key of F more gently.
But on the other hand, we disrupt the high-low pattern that we had established.
I went through incredible lengths to figure out why this was changed without a clear answer.
I asked the singer, Brigitta Dau, and she said she didn’t know.
I asked the music director, Irwin Fisch, and he didn’t know, but offered several theories.
The most credible he thinks is that the composer, Charles Strouse, changed it on purpose for
whatever reasons.
So perhaps, only Mr. Charles Strouse knows.
If anybody personally knows Charles Strouse, please ask him!
Which version do you prefer?
Going up or going down?
Comment Below!
Now lets talk about the long-form melody.
In this melody we see expansion and then reduction.
We begin with an F, then down a 2nd to an E. Then up a 3rd and down a 4th.
From the central home note of the F, we feel it splitting wider apart.
We then have the same opening motion again but down a step.
Then we drop down to this A, we’re now a 6th away from where we start.
But then from this A we have a dramatic leap up the octave to the next A. Before we reduce
our intervals and bring it back to F.
And mapping this whole melody out would make the phrase look something like this.
A phrase that starts somewhere, takes a big breath and returns to where it started.
The shape of this melody is the brilliance of the long-form structure of this song.
So far, we had the short-form.
And then the long form.
Now about the chord progression.
If we look at the beautiful circle of fifths, music typically tends to resolve counterclockwise.
For instance, the C wants to resolve to the F. And the further we end up away from the
home key, the more cathartic and relieving the journey home is when we finally get there.
For the first half of the chord progression, we don't travel too far away from F. But you
may have noticed I left out this “a” chord.
We can look at that and treat that as a passing chord to get from the F to the Bb.
Or we can look at it as a distant hint of what comes next.
Because sure enough...
In the second half of the chord progression, we head way far away to this “a” chord,
which resolves key-to-key back to F.
As I said before, the further away we get
from the home key, the more relieving it feels when we get home.
And by the way, this A half-diminished 7th is such a rich and smooth chord.
Especially when it resolves to the next chord of D7.
What makes the transition between the two chords smooth is because half of the notes
in each chord are the same notes.
The two notes that also make up the melody.
And as I’ve mentioned many times in my previously released Sweeney Todd series video, half-steps
resolve the best.
And the Eb and G from the A-half-diminished both slide down a half step to the D and F#
of the next chord.
I literally melt every time I heard this chord progression.
Anyways, this song is so beautifully and thoughtfully written.
It’s crazy that Strouse has even said he just played the first thing that came to his head.
Strouse is definitely somebody who has an ear for naturally crafting the flow of a melody.
What is so wonderful about this song is how simple it sounds on the outside, but on a
closer look, it is layered with so many melodically rich elements.
As I mentioned earlier, my next video will look at “Time Warp” from “Rocky Horrors
Picture Show”, thanks for watching and I hope to catch you soon.