The Lift: How a Simple Chord Change Elevates Classic Songs
Discover the songs that use "The Lift" to create unforgettable endings.
Note: there’s a playlist with this post: you can either play each song as you go with the embedded video or scroll to the bottom and let the entire playlist roll on Spotify.
I suppose there’s a technical term for it, but I never went through a music theory class, even though I was in the band playing in the percussion section from 5th grade through my senior year in high school. I even took piano lessons for a year when I was six, but my mother told me that after a year, I could quit if I chose to. So I stopped. Frankly, in a way, I wish I had continued. But there was something about learning music at that young age that I didn’t understand, and it was too much. So, as it is, I’m okay at reading music, as long as it’s percussion music. But if it’s for a piano or a cello, for instance, well, it’s Greek to me. And I don’t really get musical keys and all those sharps, flats, etc.
Flash-forward a bunch of years, and I picked up an acoustic guitar and taught myself to play by learning the basic chords and bar chords (which was an eye-opening big step) and then playing along with records. I picked it up pretty fast, and while I can play a solid rhythm guitar, I shouldn’t be called on to play a solo. Oh, no!
I listened to a lot of music, and I noticed in a small percentage of those songs that as the song is getting ready to end, perhaps two-thirds of the way through, the main chord or note the song started on goes UP a full musical note. Frankly, it’s probably just called a key change, but to me it’s….
The Lift.
There might be a technical term, so if you’re musically astute, please tell me what it is.
For the last year or so, I’ve been making a list of songs that have The Lift.
Let’s dig in:
Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson: Good Hearted Woman
Good Hearted Woman was written during a poker game in Fort Worth, Texas in 1969, when Waylon and Willie stayed at a hotel. Jennings spotted an advertisement promoting Tina Turner as a ‘good hearted woman loving a two-timing man,’ referring to Ike Turner. Waylon liked the phrase, and went to Willie, in the poker game, and they wrote the lyrics during the game, with Nelson’s wife Connie Kepke jotting them down. The Wikipedia entry on the song is short but informative.
Captain and Tennille: Love Will Keep Us Together
This chart-topper was written by Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield. And when I say chart-topper, the Captain and Tennille version hit the top of the Billboard Hot 100, sold over a million copies, and won a Grammy for Record of the Year. Toni Tennille paid tribute by singing “Sedaka is Back” as the song faded.
The Spinners: Working My Way Back to You
“Working My Way Back to You,” written by Sandy Linzer and Denny Randell, was a 1966 hit for the Four Seasons, hitting Number Nine. In 1979, The Spinners recorded it with a new bridge, written by Michael Zager, and the song went to Number Two, held out of the top spot by Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall.” And yes, if you’re curious, the original version also has The Lift as the song prepares to fade. One of the things I really like about the Spinners’ version is the incessant beat of the bass and tom-tom drums, which really drives the song forward.
Paul Revere and the Raiders: Mr. Sun, Mr. Moon
Mark Lindsay, the Raiders’ lead singer, wrote this song for their 1969 album, Hard ‘n’ Heavy. It reached Number 18 on the Billboard Hot 100, which was certainly not one of their biggest hits, but Mark was a solid songwriter, and this is a great representation of his output in the 60s. The song also appeared in Quentin Tarantino’s 2019 movie Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Bon Jovi: Living on a Prayer
1986 and 1987 were pretty damn good for Bon Jovi. “Living on a Prayer” was the second chart-topping song from “Slippery When Wet,” and the second consecutive Billboard Hot Hundred Number One, following “You Give Love a Bad Name.” I admit I wasn’t much of a Bon Jovi fan at the time as I considered the band more of a hair band, which implies fluff and image and not much substance. Still, the song cooks right along and has a damn fine hook. A couple of fun factoids: Mike Reno, lead singer of Loverboy, is sure that the backing vocals he contributed during the recording sessions made the final mix. Also, an online vote in 2006 put the song at the Number One of the Eighties.
Nick Jameson: In the Blue
Who? Yeah, well, that’s what I thought when his solo album came in when I was a Music Director back in the day, but when I put it on the turntable, something about the music resonated with me. For a while, Nick was the unofficial fourth member of Foghat and even produced several of their albums, including “Fool for the City,” which spawned the band’s biggest hit, “Slow Ride.” He’s released a couple of albums, “Already Free,” from which “In the Blue” was lifted, and “A Crowd of One,” which I admit I have not heard.
But the most fascinating thing about Nick Jameson is that you might recognize him from his many TV appearances. He portrayed the Russian President for three seasons on 24, for example, and was on The King of Queens, among many others. His Wikipedia entry is chockful of fun tidbits about his musical and acting life.
Steppenwolf: Sookie Sookie
Steppenwolf released their debut album in January, 1968, which contained the smash hit “Born to Be Wild,” which launched the band on a long and fruitful career. The first song on the album, “Sookie Sookie,” was written by Don Covay, a singer/songwriter and producer born in 1936, who’s also responsible for writing hits for Aretha Franklin, Chubby Checker, Solomon Burke, Gladys Knight and the Pips and more. I was only 12 when Steppenwolf’s album came out, and somehow it landed in my small but growing record collection, and I remember playing the bejeesus out of it over the years.
Dave Clark Five: Glad All Over
Released in the last week of 1963, The Dave Clark Five’s original song, “Glad All Over” became the group’s first British Number One song, kicking The Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” off the top of the charts. It managed Number Six in the US, and went on to sell more than a million copies in 1964, and for a year or two the DC5 went head-to-head with the Beatles for chart and sales supremacy.
Creedence Clearwater Revival: Someday Never Comes
This is a bittersweet song written by John Fogerty for the band’s 1972 album, Mardi Gras. It was the last single released before the band broke up. Record World called it the strongest song on the album. It reached number 25 on Billboard. In 2013, Fogerty said the song is about his parents’ and his own divorce:
“When I wrote this song, my life was pretty chaotic. I knew my marriage was going to break up. My band was falling apart. I was beginning to sense the darkness that was Fantasy Records. This song was inspired by my parents' divorce when I was a young boy and the effect it had on me. At the time, they told me, "Someday, you'll understand." The truth of this is that you never do and I found myself facing this as a parent. The irony was painful and inescapable.”
Jan and Dean: The Little Old Lady from Pasadena
Next up, a song that was inspired by a 1964 Dodge commercial that showed an elderly lady, played by actress Kathryn Minner, driving a souped-up Dodge challenging other drivers to race. She would stop, look out the window and say "Put a Dodge in your garage, Hon-ey!" The song was written by Don Altfeld, Jan Berry and Roger Christian, and recorded in 1964 by Jan and Dean. It hit Number Three on Billboard. Fun factoid: one of the session players was Leon Russell, who tickled the ivories.
Stevie Wonder: You Are the Sunshine of My Life
The early 70s were intensely creative for Stevie Wonder. In fact, many people, including me, say that the four albums her release from 1972 - 1974 are the best four single-artist albums span in rock and R&B history. The four albums are Music of My Mind (1972), Talking Book (1972), Innervisions (1973) and Fullingness’ First Finale (1974). “You Are the Sunshine of My Life,” Number One on Billboard, is the second single, following “Superstition,” which also hit Billboard Number One, making it Stevie’s third chart-topper (his first came in 1963: “Fingertips, Part II”). In 2002, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Neil Diamond: Cracklin’ Rosie
Another song with a one-note lift toward the end is the first Number One hit from Neil Diamond, released at the end of July, 1970. It was his second million-seller in the US, and his first big hit in the UK. The song was on Neil’s album, Tap Root Manuscript, and the story goes that is was at least semi-inspired by a cheap wine called Crackling Rose:
"Crackling Rosé" is the name of an inexpensive sparkling wine once produced by Andres Wines of British Columbia, Canada, which was popular among the Indigenous population. One story suggests that Diamond heard a story about a native Canadian tribe while interviewing in Toronto, Canada—the tribe had more men than women, so the lonely men of the tribe would sit around the fire and drink their wine together—which inspired him to write the song.
Paul Revere and the Raiders: Thank You
Another Mark Lindsay composition hits the lift list, this one from the album Alias Pink Puzz. By July of 1969, when the album was released, the band was going through a bit of an identity crisis, at least in the eyes of the Music Directors and Disc Jockeys that were more familiar with the solid gold hits of the band from 1964-1967. Which meant it was hard to get airplay. The times they were a-changing, and as a ruse to entice the radio programmers to play their new music without them knowing who it really was, they sent some music to some radio stations under the name “Pink Puzz.” The music on the LP leaned more heavily into folk rock, although there were a few good rockers on it, including the top 20 hit, “Let Me!”
Fun Factoid: Paul Revere and the Raiders were invited to play Woodstock, but turned down the promoters.
Sam and Dave: Soul Man
Written by Isaac Hayes and David Porter, this 1967 song from Stax Studios in Memphis was a big breakthrough, not only for the small label, but for Hayes and Porter as songwriters. “Soul Man” went to Number Two on Billboard, and was inspired by the civil rights fights in the mid-60s, especially one in Detroit. Hayes saw a news report that showed how black-owned businesses would mark their storefronts with the word SOUL to prevent looting during the riots. In Hayes’ words:
“It’s a story about one's struggle to rise above his present conditions. It's almost a tune kind of like boasting, 'I'm a soul man.' It's a pride thing."
ALSO: There’s a great documentary on Apple TV about Stax Records, which I’ve been slowly watching, and I highly recommend it.
The Beatles: And I Love Her
I’ve heard the Beatles catalog countless times, and I couldn’t recall a single song that had The Lift. Then I remembered: there’s a cool chord change where the song does in fact lift a step right as George Harrison goes into his beautiful acoustic solo. I’ve played the song many times on guitar, and until I found the chords listed in a book, the chord change is so subtle it’s easy to miss. But once the change happens, the remainder of song is no longer in the key of E, it’s in F. As Wikipedia puts it:
The final chord is a D major. This technique of ending is known as Picardy third resolution.
(Click the link if you gotta know what a Picardy third resolution is!).
If you prefer the original audio versions, here’s a Spotify playlist: