Every so often, I hear a mashup that features a long-forgotten song that's been buried somewhere in the deepest recesses of my brain. In this case, that track is "Round and Round" by Ratt. You heard me right: RATT. Did you forget that this second-tier eighties metal band existed? Check out this sweet reminder:
I had forgotten it, too, until last month, when YouTube user Bill McClintock uploaded a mashup of "Round and Round" with the classic recording of "I Heard it Through the Grapevine" by Marvin Gaye. He calls the new track "I Heard it Round and Round the Grapevine."
This is my favorite type of mashup: it mixes genres and it features melody reharmonization. "Round and Round" serves as the instrumental accompaniment for the new track, and it is presented in its original key and tempo. It centers around E-flat (the mode is slightly unclear: most tonic chords are power chords, though some are major, but the vocal line emphasizes the minor third). McClintock uses Marvin Gaye's vocal line from "I Heard it Through the Grapevine," which is also originally in E-flat minor, so no noticeable transposition is necessary for either track.
There is a moment of slightly concealed transposition: Right after Gaye's first vocal entrance, he sings the words, "'bout your plans," on the solfege syllables, "do do re." This is shifted to, "do do me," in the mashup. It's very subtle, and it's done to avoid the vocal line clashing with the underlying E-flat power chord. This moment is an example of an artful move by an experienced mashup composer.
The most interesting moment of melodic recontextualization, I think, occurs during the line, "It took me by surprise, I must say." A transcription of the vocal melody is shown below, along with the original harmonies and the new harmonies that occur in the mashup.
Notice the third chord: Marvin Gaye used a C minor triad to harmonize that measure. His vocals jump an octave to land on the root, and emphasize something that resembles a suspended fourth at the end of the measure. In the mashup, however, that same vocal line is harmonized by major triad one half-step up from the original C minor chord. Another way to say this would be to use Roman numerals: the melody was originally accompanied by a vi chord, and this has been replaced with a VII. This is an extremely unusual reharmonization, and it's incredible, to me, that it works as well as it does. In the mashup, Gaye's vocal high point is on a major seventh of the D-flat chord, and goes on to emphasize the third, rather than a dissonance. It took me by surprise, indeed!