Wednesday, August 25, 2021

"The Girl from New York City"

I listened to Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) yester-day and noticed a couple things about "The Girl from New York City."

"Night and day" in the line "We'll turn 'em on with all the things that will be happ'nin' night and day" is a temporal merism.

The chorus shifts the rhyme scheme so that instead of occurring at the ends of the lines (as in the verses), the rhyming is now internal:
The California guys all got their eyes on that girl from New York City
The L.A. boys all heard the noise about the girl from New York City
The phrase "girl from New York City" is essentially rhymed with itself, and to some degree, this indicates how the "California guys" and "L.A. boys" are fixated on her.  In the same way that they continue to look at her, the phrase "girl from New York City" retains its position in the line.