Nutshell; a 'standard' song. Back at music college many of the song we learned to play we called a 'standard', knowing there was a unique 'something' in its crafting that our mentors wanted us to recognize and know its theory basis.

Today, we could survey 10 recognized standard songs and easily come up with a dozen or so different components that may have contributed to help make the song a standard.

A lovely melody, solid hook, cool chord changes, danceable rhythm, great lyrics, catchy riff, singable hook, draw dropping lick, even novel first time ever 'special effects' could qualify, to make a song into a standard among our library of songs.

The gems. Maybe a step above a 'standard' are the 'gems.' These songs have a 'something' too, but get elevated it into the 'one of a kind' standards.

Gems historically go straight into the top 10 on the radio charts and stick around forever after, with spot on the playlists of performers, jukeboxes, radio dj's, by request et all.

We as schooling up musicians, studied the standards and gems. The supplemental songs included here each bring something special, so that's where our schooling comes in. Imagine having a dozen or so cool 'theory somethings' to spice up our own everyday musics while learning new 'gem of a song.'

So the following listing of songs (all are faves of mine) and their discussions, aim to find the 'gems of theory within a gem of a song.' To find a magical component or two in its writing that may have helped to make them into becoming the super popular song or their era and forevermore.

Included here for both listeners and players, each listing has a 'something' that is identified by its theory component, which becomes a link back to its discussions in this e-book.