Top New York City guitarist Larry Saltzman recently reminded me of a song I love – NRBQ’s ‘If I Don’t Have You’ (written by Joey Stampinato & Skeeter Davis).  This song seems to me melodically and harmonically lush in a way that we often think of as ‘Beatle-esque’ – that is, it reminds us of and recalls the inventiveness of Lennon/McCartney’s early/mid-period Beatles songs.

I had that response to this song, and was thrilled to listen to it again (there’s a link to it below), but on closer examination I found something different and unexpected.  Although the melodic variations are very pleasing, the entire melody contains only 6 notes (A-C-D-E-F-G).

Lennon &McCartney’s vintage songs tend to be not that simple and diatonic melodically.  Their melodies tend to be more surprising, varied, and rangy in and of themselves, often going out of the key at some point.

So, although the ‘If I Don’t Have You’ melody has a lovely shape and flow, I think the real joy in the tune comes from the crafty way that melody is harmonized.

The structure is a classic 32-bar AABA song with the Title at the end of every ‘A’ section.

Here’s the chord progression of the 8-bar Verse:

| C D- | E- A- | D- E- | F E- | A-7 D7 | F/G | C F | E- D- |

(In the 2nd Verse, the last 2 bars are | C F | F/G C |)

The way these chords shift under the melody is to me quite beautiful and moving.  The melody notes repeat a lot, but the harmony makes you hear them in a fresh way every time.

There are 2 chords in almost every measure.  The chords are mostly diatonic – that is, all derived from a major scale – with two exceptions: in addition to the Dminor chords (the II chord), there is also a D7 in the 5th bar turnaround to the V chord which itself, interestingly, is an F/G – not a G7.  It could’ve been a G7, but staying away from the dominant chord makes for a smoother flow in this case.

Neither of these variations from diatonic harmony are that unusual – in fact you could practically count the F/G as diatonic – but they keep the colors moving underneath the melody.

Crucially, there are some and really nice ‘rubs’ in the melody – in the first bar, the way the G in the melody is held against the D- chord; in the second bar, the first melody note is sometimes an F (that resolves to an E) over the E- chord; in the third bar, a C is sung over the E-, in the sixth bar, E is emphasized in the melody over a F/G chord… etc.

The 8-bar ‘B’ section, the Bridge, starts with an obvious move – it goes to the IV chord, an F, but again the harmony moves quickly and surprisingly:

| F E- | A- F/G | F E- | D- C | F | E- A- | C/D D7 | F/G |

It uses the same chords as in the Verses (in different order), but with another exception on the II chord – this time, in addition to the D-, there’s C/D as well as a D7… and again, it’s to set up the V chord.

Also, don’t miss that on the only bar in the Bridge with just a single chord – bar 5; an F chord – the melody is a long ‘G’… the melody being the 9th of the chord is very satisfying at that moment.

This song is a great example of how to enrich and deepen a simple, inventive melody with fluid and eloquent harmonization.

And it’s only 2 minutes and 15 seconds long!