Hear, hear!

F&C
http://frankieandcloverstrictly.blogspot.co.uk/

Finally the voice of reason.

No way! Hayley did great with that. It's a difficult song.

It's one of my favourite songs and I was dreading it but I thought it was ok.

Danger! High Voltage on the other hand was dire. It's too quirky a song to be done by anyone one else other than Electric Six. That and the awful dress poor Pixie was wearing distracted me from the actual dance.

I realise you are probably a lovely person and I do applaud your niceness in sticking up for the band but I guess I'm not as nice because I don't see why I should have to make allowances for professional musicians on a very high profile gig.

Ultimately though I definitely agree that the blame lies at the producer's door - the producer shouldn't be happy about the way the music sounds and should do what needs to be done to make it sound great - whether that means different musicians, more rehearsals, different music choices is the producer's job to work out and put in place.

And up there murdering songs was the bloke who tried to sing Poison.

Sorry, it's not a case of "sticking up" for anyone. I'm not really being "a lovely person," I'm just expressing the little bit of basic musical knowledge I've gathered over the years, that many on here show that they similarly possess.

Some of the recordings you hear on CD's, can take months to record, every one of them can have the benefit of multi-tracking, editing, numerous takes, over-dubbing, some even have a bit of post-recording "key changing" for notes that are difficult for artists to reach.
It's going back a bit but, here's a classic example. It was clearly evident that Susannah Hoffs of the Bangles struggled if she attempted it "live" to make the full octave step in the last chorus of "Eternal Flame," she "managed" on the recording. She often sang it a sixth lower.

You're into the world of "make believe" in a recording studio.

And you want a live band to be able to replicate those sort of performances after a few run-throughs, of how many tunes?

I'm amazed how well they cope with the stupid and unreasonable demands of a ratings chasing numpty producer.

No, that's not what I want. What I want is music that sounds good.

I'd rather they did away with the live band altogether and just played the cds if they are going to insist on doing every dance to pop hits. IF they are going to insist on a live band then they need to give them music to play that they can make sound good.

What we're getting at the moment is a mess.

Too right!

Compare live performances by the original artists with the Strictly band and the band seem pretty good.

Thought the music and singing for Frankie's dance routine was just dreadful. How on earth did they dance a tango to that!!

Completely inappropriate for tango - wrong time-signature and being a narrative-focussed song, there were too many changes of tempo for it to work. Given the circumstances, both Kevin and Frankie - and indeed the band - did a remarkable job with it. There needs to be less focus on production and more on music.

F&C
frankieandcloverstrictly.blogspot.co.uk

Yes, this.

The producer who chooses the music hates dance and wants it to die..

Dave Arch and the singers are the paramedics performing CPR in difficult circumstances. Sometimes they get lucky and the patient lives.

Sometimes, with naff contemporary pop tunes, "resurrection" is required and even that is beyond the band's capability.


What you want and that numpty producer wants are poles apart.

You're "preaching to the converted."

How many times do we have to say we want "proper" ballroom tunes, from whatever era?
We don't need "pop songs." They're for X-Factor, this is a dance/entertainment programme.

Totally agree. there are very few "musicians" on the show who sing as well as the SCD in house band. They are singing live without any processing.

I think less people listen to music live now. Or if they do it's at a concert where there are loads of sound effects etc.

Proper live music in a more intimate setting is very different

I think Hayley did an incredible job with Wuthering Heights, Kate Bush has such a unique voice that anyone else who sings it is never going to sound "right" for want of a better word, for an incredibly difficult, iconic song, Hayley, in my opinion, pulled it off - well done to her

The band and singers do an incredible, sometimes not easy job, every single week - live!

they hardly ever get any thanks or recognition, the only one who is called by his name is Dave Arch

I think every single one of them is amazing - I couldn't do it, I think they deserve ALOT more praise and credit than they are given

Exactly!

I said on here, when I read that "Wuthering Heights" had been chosen that it would present difficulties as Kate Bush had a voice range of four octaves. Hayley did very well in the circumstances.

I also suggested, having seen the Kate Bush video a few times, I expected there to be a lot of "faffin about" at the beginning.

I was right, Alison's entrance reminded me of a white van being delivered on vehicle transporter. She looked ridiculous.

'Wuthering' was brilliantly done.

It's not the way they're performed that's the problem. It's the bizarre song-selection. Poor Dave Arch. Poor dancers.

What we are getting is high quality live performances of songs.
Some songs survive live performances by non-original audiences because they are basically well written songs that stand up on their own feet.
Other songs rely so heavily on the performer or studio technicians to cover their defects that any sort of live performance just shows up their defects. That is what is people are noticing here, I think. Their favourite songs are just dependant on a particular recording.
The big problem for the producers of Strictly is that the styles of music associated with the dances tends to be the standard classic songs that are brilliantly written and don't need special pkeading by a particular singer etc .... they are just excellent songs. But the producers are determined to use more popular tunes that struggle to stand on their own two feet as pieces of music.

You seriously think defying gravity was sung well, guess you have never heard it sung properly then

The music choice is also self limited by trying to avoid repeats. The number of songs that are a) recognisable to audiences b) suitable for conversion to dance and c) have not already been used is not great.

You mean you want to hear auto-tune and recorded lyrics?

It's LIVE, dahling. This is what music should sound like. Granted, the songs don't always suit the singer's voice, but that's because they're covering a chosen song not that it suits them.

One of the reasons I love Strictly is the chance to hear a live band and live vocal on television. It's a rare occurrence these days.

I like the idea of a live band and I think the studio version of the song playing might feel a bit flat in compassion. If the song is unsuitable for a live band then it would be preferable I suppose.

I think generally speaking the band do a good job. There is one of the female singers who I'm not keen on - she has a very nasal quality to her voice which isn't to my taste, but they tend to dish out the main singing duties to whichever singer is most capable of replicating the original artist.

On the subject of music I really think more should be done to incorporate appropriate music for the dance. Several dances lost their character - the Tango should be passionate and intense. While it was undoubtedly performed well, Frankie's Tango didn't feel like a Tango. Likewise the character of the American Smooth should be Fred & Ginger glamour.

I'd love to see them using latin music for the Salsa, Cha Cha Cha and Samba. Maybe half dances performed to contemporary music with the other performed to authentic would make a nice mix.

Hang on!

There's thousands of tunes eminently suited to ballroom that haven't been used.

As one example check through the song book of Sinatra.

Susannah McCorkle, yes I know you haven't heard of her, was reputed to have a repertoire of over 3000 standards. Most "standards" are "danceable."