Bruce Springsteen vs. Tommy Tutone (Fun With Music Theory)

(From the guy that brought you Chili/Petty) — Is it possibly true that Bruce Springsteen’s “Radio Nowhere” off his new record “Magic” Is just a recreation of Tommy Tutone’s “867-5309/Jenny”? Well… Here’s what went down today on the radio..  We were doing a topic about how many across Delaware recieved mysterious phone calls from 302-867-5309 on Sunday, including yours truly. Our very own Mari Lou isolated the audio of the Tutone Wonder.. Coming in from the next break I played Springsteen’s number as bumper music.. ML interjects “hey, that’s the same song…” this is the discussion that followed…

 http://www.wgmd.com/SOUNDS/9AM/031108-springs.mp3

from the Jared Morris Radio Show 9-12 on WGMD 92.7 FM available at www.wgmd.com

Certainly not a new new discovery, Here’s what other’s have written:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Nowhere

 Anyway, according to sheet music plus (dot com) – the chord progression is very similar, only it’s a half step below in the springsteen version..

Jenny: Gm Eb/G Bb C
Radio: F#m D(9) A E/G#

Of course the final chord in the progression is different as well.. Where as it does have a familiar feel, it’s “just different enough” — wikipedia writes: The opening guitar riff and chord progression are so reminiscent of Tommy Tutone’s 1982 hit “867-5309/Jenny” that Tommy Tutone lead singer Tommy Heath was quoted as saying: “Everybody’s calling me about it,”^[1] and that, “I think it’s close enough that if I wanted to [take legal action], I could work with it.”

Someone then called in the radio program and claimed that another bumper selection I use “Splendid Isolation” is the same song as well.. Splendid follows this progression:

Splendid: Em C G D/F#
Jenny: Gm Eb/G Bb C
Radio: F#m D(9) A E/G#

With is a full step and a half below the Tutone song, and a whole step below Bruce’s.. To put it in numeric terms, this is the progression each song follows, which is what you’d use to determine similarities in songs –

Splendid: (Key Em) 1, 6, 3, 7
Jenny: (Key Gm) 1, 6, 3, 4
Radio: (Key F#m) 1, 6, 3, 7

So, the springsteen version is actually much closer to the Zevon song than the Tutone song.. Although, the melody is closer in the Tutone song.. Any way.. Fun with music theory.