You Don’t Have to Write a Hit to Write a Hit, Continued
The first round of this blog was such a success, that I decided to continue writing about songs that were not, according to Billboard, a success. Just as a reminder, for our purposes, we’ll define chart success as any song that didn’t peak higher than 20 on the Billboard charts. For this blog entry, we’ll also be looking at a few international artists, whose singles didn’t chart in the U.S.
Tip: Start with a common phrase, then flip it on its head
“Talk You Down” by The Script
What Works
Melodically: If you hear the phrase “Talk You Down”, you will probably envision somebody threatening to jump from a building, and the people watching discouraging the potential jumper from doing so. This song begins with a slow, simple piano part, recognizing the intensity of the situation at hand. Normally, when I think of that much tension or urgency, I think of putting a song in a minor key. However, it’s written in C major (Going from C to G to A minor to F [or I, IV, vi, V] on piano).
Lyrically: As was stated before, the slow piano part at the beginning recognizes the situation:
I can feel the color runnin’
as it’s fading from my face.
Try to speak, but nothing’s comin’.
Nothing I can say to make you stay.
So right there, it flips a phrase that we all know on its head. By the time the chorus ends, you know three things:
This isn’t some random stranger you’re trying to get to continue living, it’s someone you had a falling out with. But even then, it keeps twisting.
“Making them stay” refers to the relationship. You don’t want them to stay on the ledge, you want them to come down from the ledge. Not jumping represents making the relationship work. Jumping represents “relationship suicide” (which freaked my mom out the first time she heard me sing it).
The last line of the chorus then says, “If you go, I go”. This isn’t talking somebody down. This is a suicide pact.
Structurally: This follows a very interesting path. It starts off with just the piano and vocals, then the drums and guitar come in adding a new level of energy . After that, one of my favorite lines comes in:
Grab a suitcase, hail a taxi.
It’s 3 AM, now where you gonna go?
Gonna stay with friends in London,
and that’s all I get to know.
This could easily fall under the lyrics branch, because it’s such an incredibly gut-punching line. But the addition of instruments makes the delivery of the lyrics all the more powerful, including the rhyme scheme used (ABAB).
Interestingly, this song only peaked at 47 in the UK (though at 19 in Ireland), and was considered a flop, compared to their prior singles from the album. Maybe it’s because of the dark metaphor, but a lot of what they did in this song lyrically is what they did with “The Man Who Can’t Be Moved” and “Breakeven”. They took common themes and twisted the cliches into something new.
Tip: Don’t try to be poetic when you’re talking about how you feel
2. “Borrowed” by LeAnn Rimes
What Works
Melodically: The song features a light guitar pattern, backed by a mandolin, a slide guitar, bass, and brushes on the snare. The calming melody contrasts the hurriedness of the lyrics, which I’ll dive into in the next section.
Lyrically: The song details LeAnn Rimes' affair and subsequent dissolution of her first marriage. Although those events took place a few years earlier, it’s chronicled in the album as a whole, Spitfire. In this song, she talks about knowing the other person belongs to someone else (as does she), but remembering that they’re only borrowed. This line is incredibly powerful in two ways:
It takes the idea of “I can’t have you, because you’re too good for me” and turns it into “I can’t have you, even though you’re perfect for me.” She doesn’t love you like I do, but you’re still hers.
Again, coming up with this line a few years after it happened and being able to deliver the lyric this powerfully after the fact is a testament to LeAnn’s vocal and writing ability. But it’s also a testament to the other writers, Darrell Brown, and Dan Wilson. There are countless stories from artists such as the Dixie Chicks and Adele, who say Dan just has a knack for getting at the core emotion of the writer and performer to make the lyrics hit close to home for the listener. Among Brown’s credits are his hits for Keith Urban, “You’ll Think of Me” and “Raining on Sunday”, as well as writing for LeAnn Rimes previously on “Good Friend and a Glass of Wine”. There’s a lot to be said for finding a group of writers to help you tell your story.
Structurally: This song is very simple, structurally. It follows a Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Chorus pattern. The bridge doesn’t really take the song to another place, musically (like something big and booming to contrast the simplicity of the rest of the song), but it does introduce a ticking clock: “How much time is left and you don’t return?” and the use of this line twice shows just how desperate she is.
Maybe I’m biased, because the aforementioned Dan Wilson is from the great state of Minnesota. Maybe I’m crazy, because I didn’t know this song existed until he released his version of it in 2017. But the fact that this song didn’t chart at all upon its release is an absolute travesty. I always find it interesting when the original artist records the song after someone else cut it and made it famous, especially when they’re people of different genders. (“Stupid Boy” by Sarah Buxton and Keith Urban is another great example). But here are links to both LeAnn and Dan’s versions:
Tip: Ok, fine. Be poetic. But don’t get caught up in metaphors or visuals that take away from your message.
3. Down on the Lower East Side – Justin Townes Earle
What Works
Melodically: The tempo of this song fits masterfully with the tone of reflecting while wandering around a city, and not seeing anything too good. In addition to the muted trumpet, which fits the area of town he’s discussing, it also contains a distinct, laid-back upright bass part, with organ sprinkled in as well.
Lyrically: One look at Justin’s middle name and you know you’re in for an incredibly depressing song. This one harkens back to his tune, “Midnight at the Movies” from 3 years prior. It talks about the loneliness of wandering around a city alone, kind of needing that loneliness, but also despising it. He had a beautiful gift of being incredibly poetic with his writing, but also being able to paint a relatable picture with those same lyrics. My favorite example is in the second verse:
So lay a star up in Heaven,
shining down from up above.
And the city is unforgiving
when you’ve got no one to love
It’s a beautifully haunting tune.
Structurally: The more you listen to JTE, the more you pick up on his desired structure for songs. He’d do a verse, maybe a chorus, then a solo, bridge, and another verse. Here, he sticks to two verses, with a solo in between each of them, repeating the “When you’re down on the Lower East Side” line at the end of each one. The first solo serves to help you get the feel of him walking around. After the second verse, the song then fades out with another solo. Although this song was released as part of his 2012 album, Nothing’s Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now, it was written a handful of years prior with his friend Dustin Welch. Justin started living hard at an early age, so it’s not super surprising, but you could see even in his early years, he had an innate gift for crafting beautiful stories. The song is linked below.
Note: This song didn’t chart either. But darn it, it should have!
