"I'll Be True to You"

Yester-day I figured out the chords for "I'll Be True to You," and I remembered a couple things I noticed about the song back in September 2015:  the internal rhyme in the line "My heart is sure you're the girl I've waited for" illustrates the singer/speaker's certainty, and the repetition of the title line (along with its own emphatic "yes, I will") assures the listener of the singer/speaker's commitment.

"Here Come the Monkees"

Earlier this month I watched the Beatles' Help!, and (although I forgot about it until a few days ago) I noticed something that may have been borrowed in "Here Come the Monkees," the pilot episode of The Monkees.

In Help! the Beatles are introduced via a film in which they perform the title song.  Clang, upset that Ringo is in possession of the ring that's integral to his cult's sacrifices, throws darts at the Beatles' images on the screen:

In "Here Come the Monkees," Mike also throws darts at a picture of the Beatles.  Ringo seems to be his target too:

Taken by itself and within the fictional context of the show, Mike's throwing darts at the Beatles illustrates the Monkees' frustration that the Beatles are so much more popular than they are.  If the reference is recognized, however, this seems to illustrate how significant of an influence the Beatles were to the creators of the show, who copy even this self-deprecating element of Help!  Or perhaps this similarity is just coincidental.

"D.W. Washburn" b/w "It's Nice to Be with You"

According to Andrew Sandoval's The Monkees: The Day-by-Day Story of the 60s TV Pop Sensation, "D.W. Washburn" b/w "It's Nice to Be with You" - the Monkees' seventh single (Colgems 1023) - was released in the U.S. fifty years ago this month (June 1968).  Sandoval gives a specific day (21 June) for the U.K. release (RCA 1706).