"Whatever's Right"

Last night, I figured out the guitar phrase and chords in "Whatever's Right" and noticed a few interesting musical features.

Like the riff in "Last Train to Clarksville," the first two notes of the guitar phrase are Gs an octave apart.  Both songs were written by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, so I think this might be an intentional resemblance.

While the song is in G major, there are quite a few chords that contain accidentals:  E major (G# accidental), A major (C# accidental), C minor (Eb accidental), and D minor (F natural accidental).  This disregard of what notes "should" be in G major musically represents the sentiment of the song:  "I know that you'll do whatever's right."

At the end of the line "And even if it doesn't turn out like I planned," the chords change from C major to C minor, which musically demonstrates the feeling of disappointment in that lyric.

"Here Come the Monkees"

A little over a year ago, I was thinking about the song that the Monkees sing in "Here Come the Monkees" in order to help Vanessa Russell study for her history test.  I think the words are:

When Patrick Henry was in Virginia
He made a speech we all recall
He said to the people of a Charlotte town,
"United we stand, divided we fall"

The melody is something like:

What I realized back in March last year is that "divided we fall" is sung to a descending phrase (G G Gb F Eb), musically illustrating that "fall[ing]."  One of the tune's two accidentals occurs in the same phrase, which gives a sense of dissidence.  In the opposite sort of illustration, almost all of "United we stand" is sung to the same pitch (Eb).

"Oh My My" b/w "I Love You Better"

According to Andrew Sandoval's The Monkees: The Day-by-Day Story of the 60s TV Pop Sensation, "Oh My My" b/w "I Love You Better" - the Monkees' twelfth and final single (Colgems 5011) - was released in the U.S. fifty years ago this month (April 1970).  The U.K. release (RCA 1958) was "probably 1970."