"The Fool on the Hill"

I listened to Magical Mystery Tour recently and then figured out the bass harmonica for a section of "The Fool on the Hill."  To this, I could add the recorder part, which I learned back in April 2017.  This is the second instance of this section; the first doesn't have a trill in the recorder part.  I double-tracked the recorder, although I don't know if that's the case in the original recording.  I don't have a bass harmonica, so instead I used the lower register of a Mellotron accordion sound.

"I Don't Want to Spoil the Party"

I listened to a compilation album of the Shirelles earlier this week and noticed a similarity between "Foolish Little Girl" and "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party."  In one section of "Foolish Little Girl," the lyrics are "But I love him / I still love him," sung to this melody (with an-other vocal part in between the two phrases):

Lyrically, melodically, and rhythmically, there's a strong resemblance between this and the line "I still love her" in "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party" (specifically Lennon's part, which is the lower of the two):

Of course, the only difference lyrically is the pronoun.  As far as melody, both phrases begin with a falling fifth, go back up (a fifth in "Foolish Little Girl" but only a fourth in "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party"), and then ascend a whole step.  In terms of rhythm, both parts have long, drawn-out notes (especially compared to the surrounding vocal parts), and the last note has half the value of (most of) the others.

The Beatles were clearly familiar with the Shirelles (they covered "Baby It's You" and "Boys" on Please Please Me), so "Foolish Little Girl" may have had some influence on this part in "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party," even if only subconsciously.

"Honey Pie"

While thinking about "Act Naturally" recently, the lines "Then I know that you will plainly see / The biggest fool that ever hit the big time" stuck out to me, and I realized that there's some resemblance between them and the line "Now she's hit the big time" in "Honey Pie."  The situations described in each song are similar (movie stars finding success), although the use of this specific phrase in both may just be coincidental.

"Act Naturally"

I was thinking about "Act Naturally" recently and realized that the end of the line "And beggin' down upon his bended knee" descends ("bended knee" is sung to the notes D B A) and that this gives a sense of that "down."  This feature is also present in Buck Owens' original.

"Revolution"

I listened to LOVE yester-day and noticed a small feature in "Revolution."  In the second instance of the line "We all wanna change the world," "world" is sung with a melisma (C# G# F#, I think).  Musically, this gives a sense of that "chang[ing]."

"You Won't See Me"

I was thinking about "You Won't See Me" yester-day and realized that "hard" in the lines "We have lost the time / That was so hard to find" is sung with a melisma (E D C#, I think) and that this gives a sense of degree (for "so").