MADELEINE BRAND, host:
Back in 2007, we were intrigued by a piece we read on the music Web site Spinner.com that listed the best opening lines of songs.
(Soundbite of song "You've Lost That Loving Feeling")
THE RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS: (Singing) You never close your...
(Soundbite of song "In Da Club")
50 CENT: (Singing) Go shawty, it's your birthday…
(Soundbite of song "Okie from Muskogee")
Mr. MERLE HAGGARD: (Singing) We don't smoke marijuana…
(Soundbite of song)
WENDY and LISA (Prince's backup singers): (Singing) I was dreaming when I wrote this.
(Soundbite of song "Billie Jean")
Mr. MICHAEL JACKSON: (Singing) She was more like a beauty queen…
(Soundbite of song "Super Freak")
Mr. RICKY JAMES: (Singing) She's a very kinky girl….
BRAND: Great opening lines, great idea. So, we asked music critic David Was to think about the flipside of that coin, great song endings.
DAVID WAS: Whether you're talking Beethoven or The Beatles, the combined sounds and silences of musical composition are like bear traps meant to snag our dilatory perceptions and rest our attention till the final note sounds. Thus, the ending of a song as every beat is critical as its opening notes.
(Soundbite of Prelude to Opera "Tristan und Isolde")
WAS: The comparatively sophisticated works of classical composers can delay the payoff so long you could run out for a sandwich and make a few phone calls and still get back for the resolutions. Richard Wagner's prelude to the opera "Tristan und Isolde" keeps amping up one's expectations to the breaking point, then like a skillful lover prolonging the ending until you're on the edge of your sit. Tension and release, that's what the musicologists call it.
(Soundbite of song "Oh! Pretty Woman")
WAS: Pop songs are like symphonies in miniature at their best, and Roy Orbison was often cited for the operatic quality of his vocals. "Pretty Woman" in particular has a musical form that reflects the story being told and the ending pack is one of the great surprise resolutions in pop song craft as the longed-for a woman in question turns around and heads right for Roy. The rest is left to our ample imaginations, as it should be.
Mr. ROY ORBINSON: (Singing) Oh, pretty woman.
WAS: Few popular singers in the modern era could nail an ending like Frank Sinatra, who's ability to shade dynamics enabled him to lull you with a couple of soft jabs then uppercut you into emotional oblivion with a haymaker ending.
(Soundbite of song "New York, New York")
Mr. FRANK SINATRA: (Singing) To you New York, New York...
WAS: "New York, New York" features one of his great finales as his last notes joined with the horns and strings and go straight for your goosebumps.
(Soundbite of song "New York, New York")
Mr. SINATRA: (Singing) New York.
WAS: Smaller finishes but no less effective include Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi," which ends with the giggle instead of a whimper.
(Soundbite of song "Big Yellow Taxi")
Ms. JONI MITCHELL: (Singing) They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.
(Soundbite of song "Heartbreak Hotel")
Mr. ELVIS PRESLEY: (Singing) Where broken hearted lovers Do cry away their gloom...
WAS: Elvis Presley's despairing last notes of "Heartbreak Hotel" accompanied by a lonely string bass.
(Soundbite of song "Heartbreak Hotel")
Mr. PRESLEY: (Singing) I get so lonely, they could die.
BRAND: David Was from 2007. David is one half of the musical duo Was Not Was.
(Soundbite of song "Oh! Pretty Woman")
Mr. ROY ORBINSON: (Singing) Pretty woman, Walking down the street Pretty woman The kind I like to meet Pretty woman I don't believe you, you're not the truth No one could look as good as you...
COHEN: NPR's Day to Day continues.
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