It's sometimes hard not to laugh when listening to Sgt. Pepper's opening track. It's so straightforward, the guitar overdone for a mediocre riff, and the orchestra used in such a predictable marching band-esque manner. It makes me wonder what went wrong when the Beatles were trying to convert the inspiration from Pet Sounds into their own music.
She's Leaving Home, Getting Better, When I'm 64, and Lovely Rita are on the money though, so good job Paul.
Evan Sullivan
The Four Freshmen weren't writing pop songs with catchy hooks either.
This doesn't really prove my point, but is an example of their influence on him. Check out Girls On the Beach at 11:05. It sounds like it's going to be a straightforward ballad like Surfer Girl at first, until the last two chords of the opening sequence at 11:17. Then the key change(?) at 11:33 followed by several others throughout the track. To me, it sounds more like if The Four Freshmen had produced an arrangement of a rock ballad than something you'd expect from a surf/rock/pop group of the time to be putting out.
Angel Campbell
no they totally had a giant influence on him, i'm not disputing that.
i'm just saying the idea that the falsetto would take the melody seems like brian's idea
I highly recommend this documentary, even though David Marks and Carol Kaye come across as retarded a lot of the time. I couldn't say whether they have a grasp of music theory or not, but they certainly don't come across as having such. More input from intelligent, coherent musicians would've been nice.