It’s rare when a song feels modern but also catches a believable retro vibe. These songs are often big hits!

Released in early 2015, ‘Sugar’ by Maroon 5 is a recording like this. It’s a pure pop song, nothing on its mind but love, sex, and dancing. It recalls a classic soulful feeling in a contemporary way. It feels good… and it exists to make the listener feel good (video is below).

So how did they pull it off? A catchy groove, yes… but a familiar one, performed in a straightforward, all-business, little-personality way. A classic dance tempo: 120 bpm. But it does groove and the sound is punchy and crisp.

The chords are a repeated 4 bar pattern: ||: Gb | Bbminor | Ebminor | Db :|| A nice chord progression, but nothing special going on there.

The lyrics get the job done – they sing and sound right. That’s a real accomplishment, but there’s not much going on in the lyrical content beyond that. But the Title fits the feel and the words fit the feeling of the song… also important.

It’s the melody and the vocal that bring it to life.

’Sugar’ has a Verse, Pre-Chorus, and Chorus, as well as a Bridge.

The Verse melody (8 bars) moves through only 3 notes – F, Eb, Db. But the first melody note is the major 7th of the first chord (Gb), which gets each 4 bars of the melody off to a sweet and somewhat unusual start.

The Pre-Chorus ups the ante by slightly extending the range and jumping a 5th, from a lower Bb up to another F, along with accelerating (at times doubling up) the rhythm of the notes. Again, note how they’re working that F against the Gb chord.

All of this is revving up to a big jump up in the Chorus. The melody notes are the same as in the other sections (F, Eb, Db, Bb), but this time they leap up a whole octave into Adam Levine’s sweet falsetto. It’s not complicated but it’s satisfying – a real cry from the heart (in a lighthearted way).

The Title is in the first line of the Chorus. The third line comes back down to the lower octave, then the fourth line pops back up again for a repeat of the Title.

The Bridge is an interesting hybrid. It’s 12 bars long, with each 4 bars doing something different melodically. The first 4 bars are a one note melody – the lowest note in the song, Ab. The second four bars jump an octave (sung in falsetto, even though it’s not that high). The last four bars are similar to the Pre-Chorus (with different notes) but then the song slips unexpectedly – since all the other sections are 16 bars, not 12 – into the Chorus.

The song’s melody has a big range – an octave and a 6th. They really take advantage of Adam Levine’s range and strong falsetto. (Maroon 5 and Levine don’t sound anything like them, but this reminds me of how The Four Seasons’ records were so canny in exploiting Frankie Valli’s voice, which had some similar strengths. Use what you have!)

A solid, catchy groove; fun lyrics; a strong melody with a great pop Chorus; and vocals that deliver the goods. There’ll always be room in pop music for songs like ‘Sugar’ – songs to dance to, songs that make the listener happy.

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