"Devoted to You"

A couple days ago, I figured out and notated the vocal melody (and harmony) for the bridges in the Everly Brothers' "Devoted to You" (I'd done the verses a few years ago).  Yester-day, I was still thinking about the song and noticed a feature that's also present in the Beach Boys' version (on Beach Boys' Party!).  In the lines "It can't die because I'm so / Devoted to you," "devoted" is held for more than a full measure, illustrating the degree of "so."

"Devoted to You"

A couple months ago, I noticed a small feature in the Everly Brothers' "Devoted to You."  Since this also appears in the version the Beach Boys did for Beach Boys' Party!, I felt I'd write about it here too.

The bridge exhibits anaphora (the repeated "I'll never"):

I'll never hurt you; I'll never lie

I'll never be untrue

I'll never give you reason to cry

I'd be unhappy if you were blue

This repetition illustrates the narrator's determination.

"Devoted to You"

Recently, I discovered some features in the Everly Brothers' "Devoted to You."  Since the Beach Boys covered this on Beach Boys' Party!, I thought I'd write a post about it.  (I feel I should note that I have only Beach Boys' Party! Uncovered and Unplugged, not the original album.)

The first line of the second verse is "I'll be yours through endless time."  "Endless" is sung with a melisma (E D E in one voice; C# B C# in the other), and because it's drawn out, there's a musical sense of duration.

The first two lines of the third verse are "Through the years, my love will grow / Like a river, it will flow."  "Love" is sung with a melisma (E D in one voice; C# B in the other), and that extra syllable provides a musical sense of its "grow[ing]."  Both "river" (A G F# in one voice; F# E D in the other) and "it" (E D in one voice; C# B in the other) are sung with melismas, musically giving a sense of the movement of "flow[ing]."

There are two structural features that illustrate the speaker/singer's constancy:  every verse ends with the phrase "Devoted to you," and the bridge uses the rhetorical device of anaphora with the repeated "I'll never...."