Glenn Miller's "Wishing (Will Make It So)"

A few months ago, I listened to a Glenn Miller compilation album and transcribed some of the lyrics.  I noticed something interesting about the lyrics of "Wishing (Will Make It So)," which are pretty short and worth quoting in their entirety:

Wishing will make it so
Just keep on wishing, and cares will go
Dreamers tell us dreams come true
It’s no mistake
And wishes are the dreams we dream
When we’re awake

The curtain of night will part
If you are certain within your heart
So if you wish long enough
Wish strong enough
You will come to know
Wishing will make it so

The second verse has two instances of internal rhyme ("curtain" with "certain" and "long" with "strong") where the first doesn't have any.  In a way, the increasing prevalence the rhymes mirrors the first line (and the title): "wishing will make it so;" with prolonged effort and time, things will fall into place and become better.

Bach: Preise, Jerusalem, den Herrn, BWV 119

Last month, I got a box set of Bach's complete sacred cantatas.  I've been listening to them at the rate of a disc per day since 21 March (Bach's birthday according to some calendars).  One of the cantatas I listened to to-day is Preise, Jerusalem, den Herrn, BWV 119.  A particular phrase in the seventh movement caught my ear.  It's an arpeggiation after which the fifth is repeated.  I looked up the score and found it in the oboes at bars 69-70.  Four bars earlier, it's also in the violin and viola parts.  I've listened to the cantata only once (and just briefly looked at the notation in order to find some examples), but I think it appears in various instruments and arpeggiates different chords.

This particular phrase caught my ear because it's also in the first Orchestral Suite, BWV 1066.  I've been listening to one of the suites everyday this year, and I listened to the first Orchestral Suite everyday from January through March, during which I apparently became pretty familiar with it.  The phrase in question is in the violins and viola at the very beginning of the second gavotte, in the third movement.  The note values are twice that of the notes in BWV 119 (with an even longer ending note), but otherwise, the rhythm is the same.

(notation found here [BWV 119] and here [BWV 1066], click the image to enlarge it)

I'm not sure if there's anything more to this than just Bach's re-using this particular phrase, but I found it noteworthy.

The Mills Brothers' "Be My Life's Companion"

Last month, I listened to a compilation album of the Mills Brothers and worked on transcribing the lyrics (because I've become more or less obsessed with doing that).  I noticed something interesting about the rhymes in "Be My Life's Companion."  I feel it's worth quoting the complete lyrics:

Want no silver threads among the gold
Want no silver threads among the gold
Want no silver threads, want some action instead
Want no silver threads among the gold

Be my life’s companion, and you’ll never grow old
I’ll love you so much that you’ll never grow old
When there’s joy in living you just never grow old
You’ve got to stay young, ‘cause you’ll never grow old

People who are lonely can be old at thirty-three
Don’t let it happen to you, don’t let it happen to me

Be my life’s companion, and you’ll never grow old
You’ll never grow old, no, you’ll never grow old
Love and youth and happiness are yours to have and hold
Be my life’s companion, and you’ll never grow old

I know a man who’s lonely, and he’s old at thirty-three
No one wants to be old at thirty-three
Your disposition sours like a lemon on a tree
Don’t let it happen to you, and don’t let it happen to me

Be my life’s companion, and you’ll never grow old
Yes, I’ll love you so much that you’ll never grow old
Love and youth and happiness are yours to have and hold
Be my life’s companion, be my life’s companion, and you’ll never grow old

"You'll never grow old" is a recurring phrase in the song, and as if to reflect the stasis in age, the words that constitute the rhyme scheme don't change.  Or at least they don't change that much.  The first verse (after the introductory "Want no silver threads among the gold...") is exemplary in this stasis; the words that rhyme are all the same: "old," "old," "old," and "old."  In fact, each line ends with the phrase "never grow old."

The rhyming words at the ends of the other verses have more variance but not much.  A couplet in a later verse has both lines ending in "old at thirty-three."

Listening to the song, that stasis of rhyming words is somewhat noticeable, but it becomes especially obvious once you actually look at the lyrics.

Fats Domino's "Blueberry Hill"

Last month, I listened to a Fats Domino compilation album and worked on transcribing the lyrics (I've become kind of obsessed with lyric transcription).  I noticed something interesting about the rhyme scheme in "Blueberry Hill."

At first, the verses have an AAAB scheme:

I found my thrill
On Blueberry Hill
On Blueberry Hill
When I found you 

The moon stood still
On Blueberry Hill
It lingered until
My dream came true

It's significant that the mood hasn't yet been spoiled by the bridge.  The song is still optimistic, with the singer/speaker mentioning a "thrill" and a "dream."  But then the bridge provides a turn (like a sonnet's volta) with the lines "But all of those vows you made / Were never to be."  After the bridge, the rhyme scheme of the verses changes from AAAB to (with reference to just individual verses) ABBB.  Instead of the last line's not fitting into the rhyme scheme that the other lines share; the first line is the different one:

So we’re apart
You thought of me still
For you were my thrill
On Blueberry Hill

At first, the third verse continues with the sadness about separation with "So we're apart," but then it cycles back to the idyllic nature of Blueberry Hill:  "For you were my thrill / On Blueberry Hill."

So the bridge acts as a sort of mirror not only to the rhyme scheme but also to the mood.  The first two verses start off optimistically; the bridge shatters the "dream;" and then the third verse, while initially melancholic, achieves some nostalgia by mentioning the "thrill" again, ending the song with a shadow of the optimism present in the first verses.

For years, I knew "Blueberry Hill" only as a Fats Domino song, but it was actually written by Lewis, Stock, and Rose.  Among others, Glenn Miller did a version in 1940, which I became familiar with a few years ago.  I referenced Miller's version to see how Domino's version compares to it, lyrically at least.  Aside from a few word changes*, Fats Domino's version follows pretty closely.  The only thing I might take issue with is that Domino repeats the bridge and the third verse, which slightly distorts the mirrored structure that Miller's has.

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*Miller's version has "But all of those vows we made" in the bridge where Domino's has "you made" - a significant change about where the blame is laid.  The rest of the changes are minor: in the third verse Miller has "Though we're apart" and "You're part of me still" where Domino has "So we're apart" and "You thought of me still."  Domino's repetition of the third verse ends with "But all of those vows you made / Were only to be," which I can make sense of; I'm wondering if it might just be a mistake - either his singing or my hearing.

Carole King's "It's Too Late"

A couple months ago, I happened to hear Carole King's "It's Too Late" on the radio.  I hadn't heard it for about five months, and I don't think I'd listened to it that much, but in any case, I noticed an interesting poetic thing about the chorus:

But it's too late, baby, it's too late
Though we really did try to make it
Something inside has died, and I can't hide
And I just can't fake it

There's internal rhyme in the third line ("inside," "died," and "hide") which I hadn't noticed, but it doesn't end there.  The "I" in "I can't hide" has the same vowel sound as those "-ide"s.  So there's that internal rhyme, but with the "I" there's also assonance, resulting in four mellifluous elements in the line:  "inside," "died," "I," and "hide."

Listening to the Tapestry album so I could write this post, I also noticed that there are backing vocals ("We can't make it") after the line "Though we really did try to make it."  I don't think I'd really paid attention to those either, but that's the sort of thing I'm always excited to find: instances where the backing vocals are sort of duplicitous when compared to the main vocals.  I'm not sure I would describe the relationship between the main and backing vocals here as duplicitous, but they do have slightly different perspectives.  The main vocals seem sort of regretful that a relationship is ending, but the backing vocals seem more adamant that it can't work.