The Night Before (Beatles) (Completed)

The Night Before" is mainly in the key of D major, with a brief modulation to G major in the bridge, and is in 4/4 time.[ The verse's vocal arrangement uses what writer Kenneth Womack identifies as a call and response structure; however, musicologist Alan W. Pollack instead describes it as "hocket-like" due to it being a "single thread vocal line shared" between the lead and backing parts. According to author Jonathan Gould, writing in his 2007 biography Can't Buy Me Love, the arrangement "highlights the increasingly complex and conversational relationship between lead and backup singing that would figure heavily in the Beatles' music in the years ahead." In the opinion of musicologist Walter Everett, had the Beatles recorded "The Night Before" at a slower tempo, it "could have been a Kinks or Animals song".