Saul nicely cites the alternation, in the latter song’s chorus, between the tonic major and minor 7th. Music which allows relatively sincere happy, sad, and bittersweet sentiment (not to say sentimentality) was refreshing to North American ears in the 60s-70s, and even more refreshing now, since sentiment, in music and practically every other kind of art, is even more thoroughly commoditized (much more) now than it was then.