"Time to Move"

Bill Haley's hundredth birthday was earlier this month (on the 6th), and when I listened to a two-disc compilation album of his music, I remembered something I'd intended to note here years ago.

In interviews, when Rod Argent tells the story of how Jim Rodford played him Elvis Presley's "Hound Dog," he occasionally adds that Rodford also played him some Bill Haley records first.  This is noted in Platts' Times and Seasons (p. 16).  It seems that Argent had a tepid interest in Haley before being completely knocked out with Presley.  It may be just coincidence, but Argent's "Time to Move" (from the Zombies' As Far As I Can See) uses the same unusual chord sequence as Haley's "Burn That Candle" (written by Winfield Scott).

The choruses of "Burn That Candle" have this progression:

G major

D major

G major | G7 | C major | C minor

G major | D major | G major

And I think the verses of "Time to Move" are something like this:

G major | C major | G major

G major | D major

G major | G7 | C major | C minor

G major | D major | C major | G major

The most characteristic part of these progressions is the sequence G major | G7 | C major | C minor, occurring under the line "Keep that doorway open wide" in "Burn That Candle" and under the lines "Didn't I give you one last chance / To change the circumstance" in the first verse of "Time to Move."

I don't know if "Burn That Candle" was one of the records that Rodford played for Argent or if Argent would really consider Haley as an influence, but there's definitely a similarity here.