Posts Tagged songwriting
Hal David #4…”I’ll Never Fall In Love Again”
Posted by jgarnerprod in Hit Song Analysis, Song Geek on December 21st, 2012
Masters of the singable lyrics, this single of Dionne Warwick’s has been covered by at LEAST 30 other artists.
2 points:
1) “Get enough germs to catch pneuomonia”, always makes me laugh!
2) dovetailing the end of the bridge into the last verse “That is why I’m here to remind you….what do you get when you fall in love…” Brilliant!
Okay, so maybe the “so for at least” gets a little sideways in the prosody department, but otherwise, this is another great example of Hal David’s effortless lyric writing (sounds that way anyway).
Just a few more, and we’ll step away from Hal into new territory.
Until next time…
Hal David #3…”Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head”
Posted by jgarnerprod in Hit Song Analysis, Song Geek on November 27th, 2012
This song was such a smash, it was NOT ONLY a #1 for four weeks on Billboard, it also won the Academy award for “Best Original Song”.
Simplicity, prosody, it’s all there.
And let the record show, Ray Stevens turned this song down when he was asked to sing it.
(okay, am I the only guy who wondered what this song had to do with “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” at all?? Truly seemed like a “square into a circle” “cram it in there” job to me)
Until next time…
Nikki Minaj (or “does irony work in song lyrics??”)
Posted by jgarnerprod in Hit Song Analysis, Song Geek on September 12th, 2012
Well, I had planned on discussing irony (or sarcasm) in music lyrics on a future post, but the news just made it more timely than anticipated!
(fyi, I was going link to the song, but the language, wow, I can’t feature that here…)
Nicki says she was being sarcastic, so of course, it was every one else’s fault for not understanding her.
So the question is, can sarcasm or irony work in a lyric?
Here’s a few examples from pop music history that might help answer the question:
This song really confused people when Randy Newman had this out as a single! Does the guy really hate short people?? Randy says it was a song making fun of the ridiculousness of prejudice. Plenty of people thought it was just Randy being a jerk. Apparently those folks just didn’t listen closely to the bridge.
Keri Hilson explains that this was more of an anthem for all women, and NOT a self-adoring song about how awesome she is. What do you think?
Okay, this is the only real reason I wanted to talk about this subject! In my opinion, THIS is how you pull off irony in a lyric. Unbelievable song, production, feel (yeah, can you tell I love this song??) Even if you’re not sure if Tina is serious or being sarcastic, you’re left FEELING sympathetic for Tina. Again, in my opinion, if you’re writing in 1st person, than the likability of the singer is important.
(and a shout out for my buddy Billy Livsey who played the DEFINITIVE dx-7 harmonica solo on both the demo, AND the final record of this hit…)
The conclusion? Tread carefully with those sarcastic lyrics! (But then again, a little controversy goes a long way in selling records…)
Until next time…
What do you do with that extra chorus at the end? #2!
Posted by jgarnerprod in Hit Song Analysis, Song Geek on December 7th, 2011
So I’ve mentioned the dilemma (or challenge) of the double chorus at the end in a previous post.
Here’s a current example that works when you have two distinctly different lyrics in chorus 1, and 2. It’s used deftly in the Blake Shelton single “Honey Bee”, written by Rhett Akins and Ben Hayslip.
After verse 3, chorus 3 kicks in with the lyric from chorus 1, with chorus 4 using the lyric from chorus 2.
Nice work guys!
Count this as another tool in your belt of song arranging!
Jason
Yes, my plans for world domination have been thwarted once again by me not being allowed to embed the video on this blog post! ARGGGHHHH!