Tuesday, September 21, 2021

"I Want You Back Again"

Recently, I noticed a couple small features in "I Want You Back Again," both in the lines "Since you have left me / I'm all alone."  "Alone" is sung with a melisma (it's Eb F C in the single version; I think it's also Eb F C in the alternate take; and it's F G F D in the version on Still Got That Hunger), giving a sense of degree (for "all").  The words in the phrase "all alone" start with the same initial sound, and this gives a sense of that singularity.