The Hollies' "Do the Best You Can"

After listening to the Hollies' first five albums recently, I decided to listen to the three-disc compilation 30th Anniversary Collection 1963-1993.  Even before I listened to it, I realized something about "Do the Best You Can," specifically this section:

If you leave your car
And you're not going far
Remember what time to be back
If it slips your mind
I'm sure in time you'll find
A Rita waiting in a mac

Instead of the implied "meter maid," there's just the name "Rita."  I'm pretty sure this is something of a reference to the Beatles' "Lovely Rita" from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, specifically its recurring line "Lovely Rita, meter maid."  "Do the Best You Can" seems to assume familiarity with "Lovely Rita," and uses the name "Rita" as a short-hand for "meter maid."

I checkt the chronology, and it works out.  According to Mark Lewisohn's The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Sgt. Pepper was released on 1 June 1967, and according to the liner notes of 30th Anniversary Collection, "Do the Best You Can" was released over a year later.  It was the A side of singles in the U.S. and West Germany in July 1968, and the B side of "Listen to Me" in the U.K. in September 1968.

The Hollies' "Pay You Back with Interest"

While listening to the Hollies' For Certain Because... (for only the second time) last month, I noticed something about the bridge of "Pay You Back with Interest" (which I was already fairly familiar with because it's also included on the 30th Anniversary Collection, which I've had for years).

The lead vocals are:

How cold is my room without your love beside me
We look at the same old moon, but you're not here beside me

The backing vocals are more or less the same as the lead vocals, just with fewer words:

How cold is my room [be]side me
Lookin' at the moon [be]side me

Significantly, some of the words from the lead vocals that are left out in the backing vocals are "your love" and "you."  There's an omission in the backing vocals in the same way that the singer/speaker is absent from his love while he's "travelin'" and "wanderin'."

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.