Maroon 5 returns with Memories

The sexy pop star Adam Levine’s good-natured banter with country music star Blake Shelton in the talent show The Voice is badly missed. How could he leave? But then I heard Maroon 5’s latest single release and I do not feel bad anymore about not having the band’s lead vocalist on TV. 

Titled Memories, it is Maroon 5 at its sweetest, saddest and most sentimental. How unexpected. How painful. What a song to treasure for all time. At a time of the year when our thoughts turn to the loved ones we have lost, we listen to Memories and think, how can Maroon 5 say it so real? How can they be so cruel!  

The melody of Memories is based on Canon in D, a work by the German Baroque composer Johann Pachelbel that dates back to the 17th century. It is a popular piece for Christmas concerts and for weddings. One example is when Ally McGraw walked down the aisle to marry Ryan O’Neal in Love Story. Playing in the soundtrack is Pachelbel’s Canon in D.

 I do not know from where the inspiration came from but the hit powerhouse band Maroon 5 has decided to write new lyrics for this gorgeous piece of music and to give it a lilting waltzy touch. The result is the starkly simple, guitar-backed Memories, which is dedicated to the group’s long-time manager and close friend, the late Jordan Feldstein. It will probably be one of the tracks in the next Maroon 5 album. 

Released only two weeks ago, Memories has already reduced so many listeners to tears. I never thought of Pachelbel’s Canon as sad. I thought it expressed elation. But not anymore. And that video showing Adam’s face in extreme close-up with its lost expression while singing with his gentle falsetto is not helping things any. He ends his performance with the words, “For Jordi.”

Read the lyrics and feel the ouch!

“Here’s to the ones that we got/Cheers to the wish you were here but you’re not/‘cause the drinks bring back all the memories of everything we’ve been through.

“Toast to the ones here today/toast to the ones that we lost on the way/‘cause the drinks bring back all the memories/and the memories bring back/memories bring back you.

“There’s a time that I remember when I did not know pain/ when I believed in forever/and everything would stay the same/ now my heart feels like December/when somebody says your name/‘cause I can’t reach out to call you/but I know I will one day/hey.

“Everybody hurts sometimes/everybody hurts someday/ eh eh/everything will be alright/go on raise a glass and say/eh.

“There’s time that I remember when I never felt so lost/ when I felt that all the hatred was too powerful to stop/now my heart feels like an ember/and it is lighting up the dark/I’ll carry these torches for ya/that you know I’ll never drop.

“Everybody hurts sometimes/everybody hurts someday/ everything going to be alright/go on raise a glad and say.

“Memories bring back/memories bring back you.”

Maroon 5 is one of the most successful bands in the history of popular music. Aside from frontman Adam, it also includes Jesse Carmichael on keyboards and rhythm guitar; Mickey Madden on bass guitar; James Valentine on lead guitar; Matt Flynn on drums; PJ Morton on keyboards; and multi-instrumentalist Sam Farrar on everything else.

Maroon 5 broke into the big time with the Grammy-winning Harder to Breathe from the album Songs About Jane in 2002.  It was followed over the years by more hits that went from pop rock to funk to soul and other genres. Some of their biggest-selling singles are Makes Me Wonder, Moves Like Jagger featuring Christina Aguilera, One More Night, Sugar, Girls Like You and others.

Adam occasionally ventures out of the Maroon 5 fold to collaborate with other artists like Famous with French Montana and God Only Knows with Jordan Smith. He is also an actor and has appeared in films like Begin Again and the TV series American Horror Story: Asylum. He is a success in all that he does but fans love him best when he is with Maroon 5.