Quote:
Originally Posted by Guitars+gems
John Lennon wrote I'll Be Back after hearing Del Shannon's Runaway. Both songs flip between Am and A major keys. So that's pretty un-simple. And you'd never think the 2 songs were related, or at least I wouldn't. I think I'll Be Back is more sophisticated and nuanced in its melody.
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They have the same "andalusian cadence" chord sequence: Am-G-F-E. (Which was used not only in Runaway, but also Hit The Road Jack and Walk Don't Run from the same period.) But it's obviously the parallel minor-major thing in Runaway that caught Lennon's ear.
The interesting thing - as you say - is he didn't directly copy or steal. Neither Lennon nor McCartney were interested in faithful transcription as a learning process. While they would learn songs properly in order to cover them, influences like this one were often fragmentary or vague. All Lennon took from Runaway was the chord sequence (of the verse) and the minor-major flip. Where Runaway sticks to the minor sequence in the verse, only going to major in the chorus, Lennon goes straight to A major after the first E chord.
And he makes the lyric fit too, which is the genius. So the minor part is "you know, if you break my heart I'll go". But "I'll be back a-
gain" is where it turns major, to reflect the positive confidence of that phrase. He knew instinctively (or without thinking about it too much) how to marry major and minor to the mood of the lyric - or vice versa.
(The strange thing about Runaway, in comparison, is that the major section is not associated with a more positive lyric. In fact it suggests a kind of proud stoicism in misery, as if owning up and expressing it makes it a positive, not a negative. "Tears are falling and I feel the pain" - but
it's OK because I'm in a major key! 
Arguably that's a lot more subtle than Lennon's very obvious sad-happy switch, although Lennon's song has other subtleties.)