Tuesday, May 8, 2018

"Daybreak over the Ocean"

The last thing I noticed when I listened to That's Why God Made the Radio recently is that "Daybreak over the Ocean" is very similar to "Bluebirds over the Mountain" (written by Ersel Hickey) and that both have some resemblance to the folk song "My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean."

For comparison's sake, here's a section from each.

The verse from "My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean":
My Bonnie lies over the ocean
My Bonnie lies over the sea
My Bonnie lies over the ocean
Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me
The chorus of "Bluebirds over the Mountain":
Bluebirds over the mountain
Seagulls over the sea
Bluebirds over the mountain
Bring my baby to me
The beginning of first section of "Daybreak over the Ocean" as they're rendered in the liner notes:
Daybreak over the ocean
Moonlight still on the sea
Will the waves gentle motion
Bring my babe my baby back to me
All of these mention something either "over the ocean" or "over the sea" (or both) and end with the command to "Bring my baby/my Bonnie (back) to me."  In both "Bluebirds over the Mountain" and "Daybreak over the Ocean," the structure of the first two lines is essentially the same: noun, preposition, article adjective, object of the preposition.  "Daybreak over the Ocean" just adds an adverb ("still") for the second line.  I feel it's also worth mentioning that Mike Love sings the lead vocals in both (and wrote "Daybreak over the Ocean").

Both "My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean" and "Daybreak over the Ocean" also contain a whole section that's just variations on "Bring my baby/my Bonnie back to me."  In "My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean," it's:
Bring back, bring back
Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me, to me
Bring back, bring back
Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me
And in "Daybreak over the Ocean," it's:
Won't you bring back
Bring my baby back
Won't you bring back
Bring back my baby