"Walking in the Sun"

A couple weeks ago, I figured out one of the backing vocal parts during the bridge of "Walking in the Sun" (this is one of the overdubs added in December 1968).  I don't know if this is just coincidence or if it's an indication of Rod Argent's cathedral choir background, but the first few measures bear some resemblance to the first phrase in hymn tune "Jefferson."

Here's the backing vocal phrase (during "You will laugh and walk with me..."):

Here's a recording I made of "Jefferson" a few years ago for my blog about hymns.  Here's the first phrase in notation (I adjusted the key so that it's easy to compare with "Walking in the Sun"):

The note values in each tune are considerably different, but if the first note of "Jefferson" is disregarded, the intervals of the first seven notes match.

I also noticed a small point about the lyrics in the bridge:  "ecstasy" in the line "And we will share our ecstasy" is sung with a melisma (I think it's E F G F E in the lead vocals), and since it's divided among a number of notes, there's a musical sense of that "shar[ing]."