"Will You Love Me Tomorrow"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

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I got to thinking about "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" last night, and I realized that Argent includes one of his descending diatonic phrases that uses a 7th chord after the third line in each verse.  I didn't notice it earlier because I inverted the preceding F# minor on organ and the guitar doesn't play the 7th chord.  It's F# minor (C#, F#, A), F# minor 7/inverted A major (C#, E, A), D major (D, F#, A).  It's only three notes, but it is an example of that common feature.  Incidentally, that diatonic phrase is doubled in the backing vocals.

I got wondering about whether it's in the Shirelles' original though, so I referenced that, and I found that not only is that phrase not there (so it's original to the Zombies' version) but also the chords are different (and not just in a different key).  I checked Carole King's version on Tapestry (she co-wrote it), and that has the same chords (in the same key) as the Shirelles'.

The Zombies' version is in A major, but the Shirelles' and King's are both in C major.  For the first line of the verses, the Zombies have I ii V (A major, B minor, E major) where the Shirelles and King have I IV V (C major, F major, G major).  Back when I figured out the chords for the Zombies' version, I thought that the A major to B minor change was a weird modulation.  The original is more conventional... in the first line at least.  Both have a III chord (C# major in the Zombies' A major version; E major in the Shirelles' and King's C major versions) starting the third line of the verses, which - as I've pointed out before - is also a feature of "She Does Everything for Me."