"Hello Goodbye"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

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Yester-day I learned the bass part in "Hello Goodbye" (although there are a few notes I'm not that confident about and I learned it only up until the tag).  I don't think any of the verses are the same because McCartney puts a lot of variation into his part, so in order to be accurate, I had to notate the whole thing.

After practicing it, I noticed that one phrase sounded familiar to me.  It's the phrase that links the chorus to the next verse (although it's different between the second chorus and third verse):

Excluding that first half note, the notes here have the same intervals (and at least a similar if not the same rhythm) as a phrase in George Gershwin's "Someone to Watch over Me," specifically the line, "There's a somebody I'm [longing to see]."  I don't think I've come across anything that says that the Beatles even knew about Gershwin, much less quoted him, so I think this melodic similarity is just a coincidence.  Still, I thought it was interesting.