Sensational '70's Tune for Monday, July 6th, '09

Tom Scholz overdubbed so many harmonies -- vocal harmonies, guitar harmonies, possibly even bass harmonies and the previously unheard of percussion harmonies -- that it's possible to see Boston's big hit "More Than a Feeling" as nothing more than a florid studio creation. Underneath all that production gloss lays a simple hard rock song, resting on the foundation of a four-chord riff so basic that some called Nirvana's grunge breakthrough "Smells Like Teen Spirit" a complete rip-off of Scholz's work. While the comparisons are overstated, it is clear that he wrote "More Than a Feeling" with the desire to rock. After he had his hard rock riff, he made it ornate. Possibly in the desire to one-up Jimmy Page's guitar army, Scholz enlisted every instrument he could think of as he overdubbed the basic master. The result was a big, big, big rock production that fit perfectly onto album rock radio stations. The cinematic production alone would have guaranteed "More Than a Feeling" a place on the radio, but that place became permanent because Scholz did not neglect to write really good hooks, and not just in the guitar riffs. The vocal melody was an ideal singalong hook, which is part of the reason why it remained a classic rock favorite years after its initial release.