Herman's Hermits' "I Know Why"

A couple weeks ago, I happened to hear Herman's Hermits' "I Know Why," and I realized something about the melody.  There's quite a drop for the "heart" in the line "I know deep in my heart," apparently to represent the depth mentioned in that line.  I learned the notes in the melody and discovered that between "my" (A) and "heart" (C#) there's the interval of a sixth.  The next line ("I'll always feel the same") picks up with an A note again.  Not only is that a fairly large interval, but it's the largest interval in the entire melody.  The interval between most notes is either a second or a third.  Aside from that one sixth interval, the largest is a fourth (between "at" [D#] and "me" [G#] in the first line "Ev'ry time you look at me, I know why" and - with the same melody - between "so" and "fine" in the line "Ev'ry time you look so fine, I know why").

The Hollies' "Here I Go Again"

Last week, I listened to the Hollies' 30th Anniversary Collection, and I noticed a small thing about "Here I Go Again."  At the end, there's the repeated line "Falling in love," and the melody to which it's sung descends.  It's B A G E, so there's a musical falling and a metaphorical falling.

The Apples in Stereo's "Floating in Space"

Last month, I learned the bass part to the Apples in Stereo's "Floating in Space" from Travellers in Space and Time.  The rhythms were pretty easy (which is part of the reason I decided to learn it in the first place) so I thought I would notate it (primarily just to practice notating).  In doing so, I discovered that I actually had a few notes wrong when I figured it out last month.  I'd thought the final section of eighth notes is the same as the first section of eighth notes, but there are a few different notes.

The Vogues' "Five O'Clock World"

A couple days ago, I happened to think of the Vogues' "Five O'Clock World," and I realized something about the melody in the third verse.  The end of the line "She talks, and the world goes slippin' away" has a descending melody.  "Slippin' away" is sung to the phrase B A G# E.  The backing vocals echo that line with "It slips away," which has the same sort of musical representation of slipping.  It's sung to the phrase G F# E G F# E (I think), so there's not a continuous descent, but there is something of a slide.  The melisma for "away" (E G F# E) also portrays that slipping; "away" is sung to more than just the two syllables it's pronounced with.

Herman's Hermits" "I'm Henry VII, I Am"

Last month, I challenged myself to learn at least thirty-two parts to songs (I ended up with thirty-six).  One of the parts I learned was the bass part to Herman's Hermits' "I'm Henry VIII, I Am."  Shortly after I learned it (within an hour or two), I realized that it consists of only eight notes.  In order of appearance: A D B E C# D F# B (there are D and B notes in two different octaves):

In the same way that there are eight Henrys in the song, there are eight notes in the bass part.  Furthermore, almost all of the "I am"s or "I'm"s in the song correspond to the bass's playing A notes, which is the tonic note because the song is in A major.  So there's a connection between the singer/speaker's affirming his identity as Henry VIII and the most important note in this key.

Here's the full notation:

To my own frustration yet also amusement, when I'd filled this sheet, I discovered I needed one more measure than my paper afforded me.  Rather than use an-other sheet of paper, scan both, and then edit them together into a single image, I just squeezed the last three measures into the space where I had written the penultimate two.  Initially I'd miscounted the beginning measures (and I'm still not sure whether the first measure, which is just drums, is a full four beats or whether it begins with an upbeat), so I ended up with a coincidental book-ending of three measures squeezed into the space of two.

The Shadows' "Driftin'"

Last month, I listened to The Very Best of the Shadows and decided to figure out the bass part for "Driftin'."  I'm actually more familiar with (and might even prefer) a live version that's included on a couple Cliff Richard compilation albums I have, but I discovered that that version is in between E minor and F minor, which made figuring it out too difficult.  The version on The Very Best of the Shadows is firmly E minor though (with some C# accidentals).  After figuring it out, I wrote out the notation too.  All of my notation comes with the disclaimer that I might be wrong, I feel I should stress that a bit more for this one. While writing it out, I found a few parts I'd misheard, and there are some slight variations in it, rather than repeated sections.  Additionally, I think there's an error where there's a D note played as a quarter note instead of two D notes played as eighth notes.  In any case, take this with a grain of salt:

There are a few empty measures at the end because I mark out all of the bar lines on a sheet before I start filling in the notes.