Christopher Cross - "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)" - C/D ?

That is the single greatest explanation of this song I've ever heard.

also search:
Firefall - "That's a Strange Way To Tell Me You Love Me"
Dan Fogelburg "The Power of Gold"

.. I mean - search only if you're in a car with someone who listens to lite rock & you can't escape....

So I suppose that were I American I would regard this song as the symbol of the lowest point in the history of the national pop charts. Dunno what the equivalent British number one would be.

Perhaps it is in reference to Arthur's tendency to be physically and mentally high and reaching for the stars, while he is simultaneously grounded by his mundane interpersonal relationships.

what does it mean to "get caught between the moon and new york city" anyway?

We're talking Carol Bayer Sager here, folks.

-- My name is Kenny (bogususe...), October 1st, 2002.

yep

this vocal is all kinds of atrocious. i think it accounts for whatever strange fascination the single might produce. sort of how if you cut yourself, sometimes it's interesting to look at the wound.

the arrangement reminds me of some of the lesser contemporaneous billy joel singles. the piano parts are just sort of...there. none of the instrumental parts stand out AT ALL. except the sax solo, which only stands out by definition i guess, because it's a solo. but there's nothing remarkable about it.

and, sorry burt, the melody is pretty pedestrian if serviceable. i mean, i can imagine this as a "bacharach tune"--maybe some lp filler on one of his solo lps? i just listened to the song and i can scarcely remember how it goes.

let's talk about the other big late-period bacharach singles. "on my own"...that has that ridiculously bad line, "now we're even talking divorce [long pause] / and we weren't even married!" RIMSHOT. but what's funny is, i like the way michael mcdonald sings the line. patti labelle's vocal is terrible though. i know that's not what i'm supposed to think. but i don't really like patti labelle, and i sort of like michael mcdonald. the little lite-funk guitar figures, well, at least they sort of stand out and have a slight bit of juice to them. I'M TRYING PEOPLE. and i like the way around the 2-minute mark, when the key changes and the melody reenters via mcdonald in a strange mellow vibe. there are some nice moments in bacharach's melody but the song doesn't seem to have been thought through--it's sort of shapeless as a whole. and those lyrics. are those carl bayer sager again?

"that's what friends are for"--fuck that harmonica. fuck it hard. fuck pretty much all of stevie's harmonica parts ever. ok. that's done with. i sort of like the way the melody builds--it's so programmtic and pedestrian, it's perfect for a 7th-grade assembly tune. and dionne warwick makes everything sound good. IT'S TRUE. although it's weird when she sings "fo' sure" instead of "for sure." i like warwick when she enunciates. elton john's vocal part is overwrought and off key. i like the quality of stevie's voice...have mixed feelings about those strangled high notes of his, but he's got a pleasantly distinctive set of vocal trademarks. gladys knight is just gladys knight, a totally expert and mostly uninvolving gospely soul singer. then elton comes back. god, elton, what a fucking hack. i love dionne warwick. the arrangement is, even moreso than "Arthur's theme," just there. except for the harmonica. which i'm liking better the second time around. it breaks the tedium of the seemingly all-electronic arrangement at least. or at least those drum fills may as well be casio.

god what the fuck? this guy wrote ANYONE WHO HAD A HEART for god's sake! how could he write this crap? he wasn't even on crack or anything! i mean, these are better songs than some might allow ("on my own" in particular) but they aren't exactly good.

Um, Amst...

http://channel101.com/shows/show.php?show_id=152

but if you really want to fucking vomit, download his version of Walk on By. guh.

...and you became comfortably numb?

Classic early 80s creepiness. Someone above said the song uses major seventh chords: maybe that's why the song has this unsettling vibe, with the strings mixed just high enough to disorient, but not so high as to overwhelm the listener in syrup (YMMV). This is yacht rock for when your yacht has a leak but you don't know it yet, and you can tell something is wrong but for now, the sunset is just so pretty...

On the surface, throwaway MOR stuff, but - typically of Burt Bacharach there are some interesting chords and assymetric beats that makes is kind of interesting.

Cristopher Cross is hardly rememberd as the most important act in history though.

it seems that I've read more than once about how Christopher Cross was supposedly the star most victimized by the MTV revolution. does anyone really believe this though? even if he had been attractive enough to be a video star, I find it pretty hard to imagine his style successfully evolving away from that hazy radio gold kind of feeling. though I guess Chicago managed it for a while - and all that with Cetera looking like Herman Munster, so I dunno.

I'm still calling bullshit on that Sid and Nancy thing.

I always thought the US charts when this was number one there were so bad that the influence of MTV actually improved them manyfold (three words: "Second British Invasion"). Certainly the biggest gap ever in quality between US and UK charts (Air Supply and Rick Springfield at number one while we had "Ghost Town" and "Tainted Love", dear me). Didn't you even have Alabama and the Oak Ridge Boys doing well in the Hot 100, as opposed to the country chart?
So I suppose that were I American I would regard this song as the symbol of the lowest point in the history of the national pop charts. Dunno what the equivalent British number one would be.

-- robin carmody (robin carmody), Tuesday, October 1, 2002 10:01 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark Link

This is spot on and exemplifies why bands like Hall & Oates got so much praise; limp-wristed whiebreaded drivel.

DESTORY!

^^^ban

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDxdIF2L7wA&feature=related

Cristopher Cross is hardly rememberd as the most important act in history though.

Top twenty, surely?

Haha to that video. Not the finally-released single/official video, I take it.

About four Cristopher Cross songs are guilty pleasures for me: This one; Sailing; Ride Like The Wind; and Think Of Laura (the General Hospital/Luke & Laura song). But I could never listen to them with anyone else listening, or commit them to my iPod.

Of all the Christopher Cross songs, you have to pick this one? It is irredeemable. All movie songs suck. Didn't he win 9,000 Grammys? Sailing is GREAT.

This is my favourite Christopher Cross song and one of my all-time favourite songs by anyone. I have always loved this song. I haven't caught up with anything or reassessed anything. I love it in the exactly the same way as when I first listened to it in 1981.

the piano parts are just sort of...there. none of the instrumental parts stand out AT ALL

Actually the way the piano chords answer the phrase 'you know it's crazy..' is a wonderful touch. I often perform 'air piano' to that bit. Similarly, the synth chords that answer 'the best that you can do..'

The other part of the song I particularly like is the outro, where, each time it comes round, Cross repeatedly extends the word 'love' in the line 'fall in love', but takes the note up, while another vocal holds a different note. It sends shivers down my spine.

I'm delighted someone dug up this thread, but my god that You Tube clip is a tragedy. OUCH. That guy needs to have his lips stapled shut, I think. Better yet, surgically remove his vocal chords.

This song is pretty good. I'm not nearly as wild about it as a lot of other Cross songs, though.

Didn't he win 9,000 Grammys?

LOL yes he did! I remember that now!

Dubmill I love that you play air piano to those parts! I can really visualize someone doing that and it warms my heart. So classic. I like the way you describe the outro, too. God, sometimes words are so weird and awkward when you try to describe music.

Thanks, Bimble. The one revision I would like to make to my comments on the outro is the claim that it sends shivers down my spine. I used that phrase because it popped into my mind, but actually that isn't the physiological reaction produced in me by listening to that section of the song. In fact, what happens is it brings tears to my eyes. It does it without fail. I'm not sure exactly why, but I think it has to do with Christopher Cross's voice. As you know, I criticised his vocals in another discussion thread, but here it's the purity and slight wavery quality in his voice as he takes the note up (while, as I said, another of his vocals holds a different note) which is both vulnerable and majestic as it rides over an outro that I always wish would go on for half an hour, instead of fading after several rounds of the chorus. I often imagine what it would be like to have been in the studio control room as the band were playing that outro (and Cross was doing his vocals - presumably they were laid down on a separate occasion). I would love to have been there.

CHRISTOPHER FUCKING CROSS

CHRISTOPHER FUCKING CROSS

lol. Yeah, f---g A. This guy rocks imo.

CHRISTOPHER FUCKING CROSS

Also, Dubmill, holy hell, dude. I salute you. I don't know what to say.

Dubmill, I'd really like you to write a second-by-second annotated commentary on this song.

I am tempted to do so, but it might be difficult to articulate how I feel about the saxophone solo. That is the one part of the song that I dislike. I've nothing against the saxophone as an instrument (in fact around that time I was semi-obsessed with it - I even taped the theme tune to 'Lou Grant', by sticking a microphone in front of the TV, because I loved that saxophone-driven theme so much), but there is something about the way the sax comes in on this song, over a verse pattern. It has the effect of sounding like a key change, because it modulates up and I always get a sensation of the mood having been cheapened somehow. The sax seems too jaunty, although as the solo gets under way there are the syncopations of the band arrangement (eg drum rolls) that distract me from my disappointment with the sax itself.

after it appeared in Poker Face, I have reappraised this song and like it now. though verse > chorus by far.

i think the verse reminds me of "Even the nights are better" tho

lol i watched that episode today and was like "ah yes the best song ever well this episode will be fine"

i remember being very young and thinking the lyrics were "bippity bop between the moon and New York City"

^live that's what it sounds like when he sings it cos he cheats on the vowels to help hit the high note

The lyrics are absolute shite.

it was the best that he could do

He should have kept driving.

I liked this interview with Robyn Hitchcock about why he can’t stand this song.

One is the feel of the song, which has a kind of weary sense of defeat. It’s as if you found that you had just become incontinent and soiled your clothing, but you’ve just been given an enormous amount of painkillers so it doesn’t matter. It’s a combination of defeat and indifference.

The best that you can do is fall in love, and you’re between the moon and New York City; these are two pretty intense phenomena. The moon has existed for a very long time. New York hasn’t, but like the moon, it’s the center of gravity. If they swapped places and the moon was sitting here on the Hudson like a great puffball and there was New York, full of itself, rotating the earth… If there’s one thing that’s self-important enough to rotate the earth, it’s New York. My life would be much poorer without the moon or New York City, and so would mankind in general. That you could put the two together in such a dreary song is heartbreaking. I think that’s one thing, the lyrics.

But also, the feel of it is horrible. Like, who gives a fuck? Why did we even bother to crawl out of the swamps, is this it? It’s not pretending, and it’s not “Bohemian Rhapsody” or something; it’s not full of Freddy Mercury in his leotard. Christopher Cross is just standing in the corner spilling his drink on his trousers, saying “Oh well, who cares?”

https://www.avclub.com/robyn-hitchcock-hates-arthur-s-theme-like-he-hates-cl-1798236717

heh well I mean it is a Reagan-era theme song for movie about a 1%er who loses his fortune so i mean

As a literal-minded 9 year-old listening to the radio, I appreciated that this song from Arthur bothered to mention the character of Arthur in the lyrics. You can imagine my irritation at such later theme songs as Rita Coolidge's "All Time High".

This is one of those songs I find impossible to either like or dislike. It's just there, like an unremarkable wallpaper - the Top 40 background of the time. Can't imagine anyone actively wanting to listen to this though.

It's not even Reagan-era: it's too early.