"Little Town Flirt"

I recently learned the bass part for the cover of Del Shannon's "Little Town Flirt" that's included as a bonus track on the CD re-issue of Discovery.  I wrote it out in notation and put the chords in above the staff, but - as always - there's the disclaimer that I may have something wrong.

Looking into the song reminded me of some old notes I'd forgotten about, and I also found a few new things.

"Around" and "by" in the line "She plays around with ev'ry guy that goes by" are sung with melismas (E D E D C and A B A B A B A G respectively), musically giving a sense of breadth for "around" and of movement for "by."  "Apart" in the line "When she starts to tear it apart" is sung with a melisma (E C A) for a sense of the word's meaning, and "go" in the line "That's when she'll let you go" is sung with a melisma (C D) for a sense of movement, although more metaphorical.

All of these features are also in Del Shannon's original, although some of the articulations are a bit different.

"Little Town Flirt"

I recently listened to Discovery.  The edition I have has bonus tracks, one of which is a cover of Del Shannon's "Little Town Flirt."  A few months after I'd figured out the chords for ELO's cover, I got a two-disc compilation album of Del Shannon, which I've been listening to fairly regularly this year.  Listening to Discovery reminded me that I'd never gotten around to comparing the two versions of "Little Town Flirt," so I finally did.

The only major difference I noticed is that ELO's version (in C major) is a half-step lower than Del Shannon's original (in C# major).  I went through the chords measure by measure to find that the two versions have the same structure, although the fade-out in ELO's version starts a bit later.

Here are the chords; each instance represents one measure:

Introduction
C major | C major | C major | C major

Verse one
C major | C major | A minor | A minor
F major | F major | G major | G major
E major | F major | F major | F minor
C major | A minor | C major | A minor
F major | G major | C major | A minor

Verse two
C major | C major | A minor | A minor
F major | F major | G major | G major
E major | F major | F major | F minor
C major | A minor | C major | A minor
F major | G major | C major | C7

Bridge
F major | F major | C major | C major
F major | G major | C major | C major
E major | E major | A minor | A minor
F major | F major | G major | G major

Verse three
C major | C major | A minor | A minor
F major | F major | G major | G major
E major | F major | F major | F minor
C major | A minor | C major | A minor
F major | G major

Fade-out
|: C major | A minor :|

"Little Town Flirt"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

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A few days ago, I learned the chords for the verses of "Little Town Flirt" (a Del Shannon cover included as a bonus track on Discovery).  Before I recorded it this afternoon, I discovered that I'd been missing a chord, and then I figured out the bridge, so I have the whole thing now.  It's probably not that interesting to listen to, but I'm pretty sure it's accurate.

The chords in this are really interesting.  They start out as the normal 1950s chords, but then there are some weird modulations.  I thought a particular one was interesting:  The song is in C major, but halfway through the verses, there's an E major (with a G# accidental).  The lyric for that part is "Yeah, I know she's gonna treat you wrong," which that accidental note seems to help convey.