"Every Little Thing"

Yester-day, I realized that, provided I've figured them out correctly, the opening guitar phrases in "Every Little Thing" and Buddy Holly's "You've Got Love" have some similarity.  The guitar in "You've Got Love" plays E+G#, F#+A, G#+B, and A+C#, simply ascending and then descending (with the last pair of notes played a couple times in succession).  The guitar phrase in "Every Little Thing" is a bit more complex, but it too is made up of pairs of thirds that ascend and descend diatonically:  A+C#, B+D, C#+E, and D+F# (not in that order).

While Buddy Holly is an acknowledged influence on the Beatles, I think this similarity is more coincidental than intentional.  Still, I thought I'd note it.

Beatles for Sale

Yester-day, I learned the solo in "What You're Doing" (I'd forgotten that I learned it before, but I never wrote it down; compared to my old recording, what I have now is more accurate, anyway).  In the first half, I think there's a glissando'd double stop:  A+C# slid down to G+B.  Provided I have the parts figured out correctly, this same figure (played an octave higher) is also in the choruses in "Every Little Thing."

The songs are in different keys ("What You're Doing" is in D major, and "Every Little Thing" is in A major), but using this same figure in both gives some cohesion to Beatles for Sale.

"Every Little Thing"

Because yester-day was the 40th anniversary of Elvis' death, I've been listening to his music lately.  This evening I learned the chords and about half of the solo for "That's All Right," and I discovered a feature that I think might have influenced the Beatles.

I referenced the version of "That's All Right" that the Beatles did on the BBC (slightly retitled to "That's All Right (Mama)") and found that they performed the song in the same key that Elvis did:  A major.  In both Elvis' version and the Beatles' cover, the beginning of the solo alternates between a diatonic ascent starting on a low E and phrases higher up on the guitar neck.  In tablature, this ascending phrase is:

E|-0-2-4-5-

As a phrase, I don't think this is that distinctive; however, "Every Little Thing" from Beatles for Sale structures it the same way: the beginning of the solo alternates between this phrase and phrases higher up on the guitar neck (although I think the phrases are played on two separate instruments).

I checkt the chronology, and the Beatles' cover of "That's All Right" does precede "Every Little Thing."  According to the liner notes of Live at the BBC, it was recorded 2 July 1963 and transmitted 16 July 1963.  According to Mark Lewisohn's The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, "Every Little Thing" was recorded in late September 1964.

It seems relevant to note that the Beatles' cover of "That's All Right" also includes this phrase in the bass part.  Their version starts with that phrase where Elvis' version begins simply with guitar strumming.

"Every Little Thing"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

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When I listened to Beatles for Sale a couple days ago, I noticed that the electric six-string part in "Every Little Thing" is just two phrases and (I think palm-muted) chords at the end.  That seemed pretty easy to figure out, so I did that yester-day, but then I also got the entirety of the twelve-string part (which I'd tried to figure out months ago with no success).  I knew about half of the piano part (the four notes during the verses) although I don't remember quite when I learned it (I knew it last April at least), so I figured out the other part too.  There's timpani at the same time, so I'm not entirely sure those notes are accurate (I might be playing the timpani part instead, although it's entirely possible that the piano part just doubles the timpani).

I referenced The Beatles Complete Chord Songbook for the chords, although I didn't follow exactly what they have.  Like I mentioned before, I think they try to incorporate other elements of the arrangement into the guitar chords rather than just listing what was played in the original recording.

I'm not sure if I have the last half of the twelve-string solo right as far as where I played it on the fretboard.  The top two pairs of strings on a twelve-string guitar are tuned to the same note where the other four pairs are the same note an octave apart, so depending on where on the fretboard something is played, there's a difference in sound.