A# Sharp Recording Studio

What makes a HIT song

 

Hi yu'all... so what makes a HIT song eh.. this could be a VERY long newsletter... to tell the truth, I've made this Newsletter from a bunch of notes I've accumulated over the while, so just read and enjoy the obviously "short version".

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I remember back in 2000, that the top 5 songs of all time included "Yesterday" and "Imagine". It struck me some time later, that these 2 great songs were performed by the Artist, not on their MAIN instrument. Paul McCartney performed Yesterday on a guitar and John on piano, not their first instruments.

A few things went my mind. Though the performance of a piece of music is really important and that's why we all often do lottsa-lottsa takes of a song to get THE ONE, in the end, it's really THE SONG that makes it a hit. No-one has purchased "Yesterday" or "Imagine" because they're great performances, it's because they're bloody good songs.

Another thing, because the guitar + piano wasn't the musician's first instrument, that's why they came up with the chords or voicing that made these songs great.

New Zealand's  Dragon had their biggest hit with "April Sun In Cuba", written by their keyboard player who just picked up a guitar that was close by and played that identifiable riff.. dumb luck..?? . who knows.

Next time you see an Oboe or a Tibetan Octo-flute in the corner, pick it up and write a hit, presuming you can't play it.!!!!!

What does it take to be a hit.?

The amazing thing about Pop/Rock music, is that if you give me ANY example of what I SHOULD do, to get a hit song, I can give you an example of the OPPOSITE. There kind-of are some rules for making hit records, but just when you least expect it, something comes out that breaks the rules and then we all start again.

Do I need to be in tune..? well, it sounds better if you are, but 
Johnny Cash and Otis Redding both had pitching issues, but both singers are regarded as legends.. what about Lou Reed and Bob Dylan?  Forget pitching issues, they often don't even approach a melody.. both legends.

The Sex Pistols and Nirvana completely came out of left field and their main purpose was the "de-evolution" of Pop music, to get rid of the whole "nice melody and quality playing" that was the rule up till then..

A hit song's a short song. The Beatles biggest hit was "Hey Jude" @ over 7 minutes. One of the biggest hits of the Disco era was Donna Summers "Love to Love You Baby", it went for 17 Minutes, but for the first time DJ's in clubs could go for a loo break or a "chat that chick up" break.. big hit.!

In the 60's, when the ideal time for a song was 2.30 sec,  The Animals had "House Of The Rising Sun" and Procol Harum had "A Whiter Shade Of Pale" - both world wide hits and over 4 minutes long.

A Hit song has to be danceable.. referring back to these last 2 songs, "Rising Sun" and "Shade of Pale", both of these songs gave the Bands their greatest hits EVER and they were both DEAD SLOW. It's worth noting that most of Adele's songs are slow – Skyfall - a HUGE hit, was dead slow.!!!

A Hit song has to be well recorded.. Rod Stewart's "Maggie May" has the bass player making all sorts of missed notes + fudges but was No-1 world Wide.

The Rolling Stones' most memorable song "Satisfaction" has a wonderful FUZZ guitar doing that favour riff and it's wrong EVERY TIME, Keith Richards is late or early or out of time every time..!!!!

My favourite is Dusty Springfield's big hit "Son Of A Preacher Man", the bass player goes to the bridge 1 bar early, it's a clanger.

But the biggest one is from "Unchained Melody" by The Righteous
Brothers, regarded as the MOST PLAYED SONG EVER on radio, the bass player hits a wrong note @ 2.15.. this is one the most often played songs recorded by Mr Perfection himself Phil Spector.. so much for perfection.!!!

Bottom line, wrong notes never hurt these songs, they were all big hits, though it's an honourable motive to get your songs sounding "right", as history has shown, it's SONGS that sell not performances.

Having said that BIG generalization, there's probably a few exceptions, like some Hendrix songs, or Dire Straights "Sultans Of Swing" or an Aretha Franklin song, where the performance is just SO BLOODY BRILLIANT, the song is secondary, but this is the exception to the rule for sure.

A few naughty examples of some "bloopers" are:

Led Zep's "Since I've been Loving You". there's a really obvious squeaky bass drum pedal.. oops.

The Beatles "I'm looking through you" @ 1.21 min, there's a "rouge" Tamborine hit out of nowhere.. would have thought you'd get rid that wouldn't you.??

A quote not by me.. "Most mistakes will simply go unnoticed, some mistakes add character, and sometimes a looming deadline trumps all. "

Another thing while I've got your attention (I hope..!!). If you're spending money in a studio I reckon it's better to have 4 really well produced and performed songs for your budget than 2 "perfect-squeaky clean- impeccable- Mum will love this-it has to be a hit- this can't miss-makes "Bohemian Rhapsody" sound like Bah, Bah Black Sheep-  songs.

A couple of reasons.. the more songs you have out there, the more chance you'll have of "making it" and the more songs you record, the more you learn, the more you empty your "undemoed songs" basket and it just makes good economic sense to  have 4 songs done @ 98% than 2 songs @ 99.99999999%. 

Protools, Logic and similar programmes have made it possible to record and mix @ home, so that means you can tweak + tweak + tweak a song within an inch of it's life and do it forever, until you think it's "just right", oops, no, just one more tweak.. meanwhile, 6 months have passed, rather than getting the song out there in January and get another 2 more out in March + July, it's now August and you're still wondering if the song is ready. The great thing about doing songs in a Studio, you HAVE to finish it or you'll go broke, so there's an eventual "finishing of the song", which means you can now go and write more songs, finish more songs.. 

Permission to reproduce this article is available to all,
as long as you include attribution to myself including contact details
and let me know where you have used the material.
Jeff Cripps
A# Sharp Recording Studio
Email: jeff@asharp.com.au
Phone: +612 9153 9988

 

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Phone: (02) 9153 9988 • Email: jeff@asharp.com.au