Cliff Richard's "Donna"

I just listened to the first disc of a two-disc set of Cliff Richard, and I noticed two things about his cover of Ritchie Valens' "Donna."

At first, I just noticed that one of the lines could be written one of two ways.  Either "For I love my girl; Donna, where can you be?" or "For I love my girl, Donna; where can you be?"  There's a slight pause in the vocals after "girl," so the first rendering is more accurate, but the second is grammatically viable.  There's no major difference in meaning between the two; one just has "Donna" as a vocative (asking her where she is), and the other has "Donna" as an appositive (specifying that the girl whom the singer/speaker loves is Donna).

But then I realized that this line (along with some others) illustrates something else.  "For I love my girl; Donna, where can you be," "I had a girl; Donna was her name," and "Oh, well, Donna, now that you're gone" all have "Donna" in the middle of the line, which reflects how Donna is at the center of the singer/speaker's life and how her leaving is what he's most concerned about.

I briefly referenced Valens' original (I haven't gotten around to transcribing it yet), and while these two points also apply to his version, there are some slight lyrical differences between the two recordings.

The Robins' "Riot in Cell Block #9"

This morning I listened to a compilation album of The Coasters, which also includes two songs by The Robins (an earlier group that evolved into the Coasters).  I found "Riot in Cell Block #9" interesting because of the connections it has to Ritchie Valens' "Framed," which I listened to a few days ago on a compilation album of Valens (I'm in the midst of the The Very Best of albums).  While listening to "Framed," I noticed some musical similarity between it and "Riot in Cell Block #9" - specifically that both songs are built around a riff that separates each line of the verses.  Both also have repetitious choruses and feature verses that - aside from the punctuating riff - are unaccompanied by any instruments (or mostly unaccompanied, there's slight percussion throughout the verses in "Framed").  So I noticed that they were similar, but I didn't think any more about it.

But then I listen to "Riot in Cell Block #9," and the first line is "On July the 2nd, 1953."  That was pretty good evidence for the two songs' being related since "Framed" contains the line "He says, 'Where were you on the night of July 1953?'"  Both songs are musically similar, refer to July 1953, and mention law enforcement in one form or an-other.

But then I looked up the publication data and discovered that both were written by Leiber and Stoller, so the two songs are irrefutably related.  They both seem to have the same setting, although the singer/speaker couldn't be the same in both.

Ritchie Valens' "Now You're Gone"

A few days ago, I listened to a compilation album of Ritchie Valens.  I really like his "Now You're Gone," so I decided to learn how to play it.  I think I figured it out one other time (or at least figured out most of it) because I sort of remembered it.

In any case, I learned some cool things about it.  First, it starts off with a key change... sort of.  It starts in C# minor (for three chords) but then changes key to E major.  They contain all the same notes though, so I'm not sure if it's technically a key change.

Second, while it is mostly a three-chord song, it has E major 6ths, which I don't think is something that's all too common in 1950s songs.

EDIT: I'd been playing this with a capo on the 2nd fret, so all of the chords I said are relative to the capo.  It actually starts in D# minor and changes key to F# major.  And it contains an F# major 6th.  So even aside from the sudden key change and major 6th chords, there's something else distinctive about it - it's in an unusual key compared to most 1950s songs.