Okay we know she took huge nods from Prince.

But today, I was listening to "Material Girl." When it hits the chorus, the chord progression and parts of the melody are spot on to "Little Red Corvette."

It's more similar than Stevie Nick's purposely copying LRC for "Stand Back."

I know M didn't write her song, but someone was listening to 1999.

[Edited 7/4/25 20:13pm]

https://www.disco-disco.c...eter.shtml

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"The one memory as a song writer that stands out for me is the song 'Material Girl'. Most songs are a combination of inspiration and hard work. It often takes a long time to get a song just right. At times it can be quite excruciating. 'Material Girl', however, came to me in a flash while I was driving my car. I heard the whole thing in my head like a finished record, complete with music and even some lyrics. I started singing it as I drove and realized very quickly that I had something special. I forced myself to keep singing it and not become distracted and forget it completely, which has happened to me before. When I arrived home I ran into my studio and quickly recorded it into a small recorder to capture it forever.

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"Although Material Girl came to me like a bolt from the blue, it was, in fact, written for Madonna. I had been trying to come up with songs for her for a week, with little success. Then, as I mentioned before, I started singing this song while I was driving in my car. It simply fell into my brain and I began singing it mentally. I heard the whole thing. All I had to do then was to remember it until I got back home. Then I made a demo of it, finished the lyrics with Robert Rans and had Pat Hurly sing the vocals.

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Naturally, it felt great for her to decide to do the song and have it appear on the album that really skyrocketed her to national fame. I remember it was the holiday season and I sent it to her on a cassette wrapped like a Christmas present.

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jazzz said:

The better question would be if Brown and Rans were...

Well yeah. That's what I meant with "but somebody was..."

I think of moments like this the same way Robert Palmer and Rod Stewart came up with the same song, "Some Guys Have All The Luck."

TrivialPursuit said:

Okay we know she took huge nods from Prince.

But today, I was listening to "Material Girl." When it hits the chorus, the chord progression and parts of the melody are spot on to "Little Red Corvette."

It's more similar than Stevie Nick's purposely copying LRC for "Stand Back."

I know M didn't write her song, but someone was listening to 1999.

[Edited 7/4/25 20:13pm]

Material Girl's groove is the Jacksons 'Can You Feel It' sped up.

Marrk said:

Material Girl's groove is the Jacksons 'Can You Feel It' sped up.

Yeah, I've heard that before and I don't disagree.

I used to have a Kawai FS630 keyboard. Nothing fancy. Inherited it from my stepbrother. Just to fuck around on. But it had present rhythm tracks that you could play over. Like a blues riff, or a rock riff, etc. The pop riff was a straight up copy of "Material Girl." The bass, the keyboard part, the drums. I believe the chord progression built in was the same, but you could press the keys to the left on the keyboard and change the chord it was playing. So you could basically do your own karaoke version of "Material Girl," built into this keyboard.

ai took all the fun out of music writing, so i don't think it matters anymore.
I hope you are doing well, TP!!!

nayroo2002 said:

ai took all the fun out of music writing, so i don't think it matters anymore.
I hope you are doing well, TP!!!

Thanks. Headed to Seattle before the end of the month for stem-cell transplant. It's supposed to obliterate the leftover cancer. We'll be gone a few weeks. But - I've never been to PNW, so that should be interesting, too.

jazzz said:

TrivialPursuit, wishing you strength for your medical treatment.

Thanks! It'll be an adventure for sure.

FYI: There was noting new or unique about the hord progression to LRC. A ton of songs used it before Prince and just as many after. It's in the key of D major and it does regular old D major things.