For decades I’ve been wondering what this pop-rock instrumental, presumably from the early to mid 1960s, is. Usually people have suggested that it could be “Honkytonk” by Bill Doggett, and although it isn’t it, it does sound like it could have been another one by him. Like “Honkytonk” this one has a horn of some kind playing the lead, although from the tone I think it’s a cornet or similar instrument, rather than a sax.
I’m almost positive I asked about this years ago, but I can’t find the thread now, and at the time I didn’t have a practical way of writing down music.
I wrote out the first four bars using Musescore. My rendition is considerably more primitive than the original recording, because I’m not skilled enough with the software to insert the proper rests and ties to match the recording. But to anyone who has heard the the recording and can read music, it should be easily recognizable.
Link http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3721/11112686855_a06bb68960.jpg
Let’s see, what else can I say about this? The song has a typical I/IV/V progression, but all of the main melody has a very major feel to it without any flatted thirds or sevenths–in fact I don’t think there are any sevenths at all. On the recording there’s a rhythm guitar part that mostly does an eighth note shuffle. The guitarist also does a intro which I can’t remember well enough to include here; if memory serves it may be as long as eight bars because it does an extra lap around the chord changes before the horn comes in.