As a songwriting teacher, I am compelled to challenge my students about their opportunity to learn how to write a hit song. I find myself doubly challenged since I must practice what I preach.
However, learning the tools and techniques of songwriting takes time and much practice before expecting to see some results. As I say to my students, I have had to throw away about 100 songs I write in the process. Each song I write is better than the previous. Where does it end? Never, or perhaps until the big break, but then again it's the start of another higher process, but it all comes back as the same routine. You wake up each day with ideas in your mind, you go to sleep after having written down some ideas you like if not a complete song.
A good friend of mine who has had a huge hit in the early 80's on the international market with Shaddap You Face, still write songs not with the hope of having another hit, having been there and done that, but for the satisfaction of experimenting with different new songs, finding a newer approach to his songwriting perhaps. Having had the opportunity to co-write on a song with Joe Dolce, 'Lynetta' released in 2008 on his 'The Wind Cries Mary' album, Lynetta was something Joe had never done before, a Cajun style French song with accordion sound which had the interest of radio stations in the vicinity of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA. We didn't write the song with any interest of having a hit, but for the satisfaction of doing a Cajun song, for the record. Shaddap You face though, called a phenomenon rather than a hit by Joe, wasn't written to become a hit, but proven itself as a best seller, and one which will remain for many years the best seller Australian single sold on the international market for over 30 years. In those days, listeners actually physically bought the vinyls rather than distributors buying them and the songs getting airplay and being at the top of the charts before anyone from the public had bought a copy.
I guess the simplicity in the song was the ticket to its success. I look at Shaddap You Face as a model. Another song which had similar marketable criteria was the Ketchup Song by Las Ketchup. Simplicity, a feel of humour, well approached lyrics, proper rhymes, hooky melodic lines, choice of the right instruments, and not necessarily artists with the best vocal potential. The difference is that artists writing their own songs can have a hit without their best vocal if the songwriting is excellent. But for a signed artist who record songs from outside songwriters, both the vocals and the songwriting must be excellent.
As for my own songwriting skills, I like to collaborate with those that can challenge me. I can then watch success approach each day, from radio airplay opportunities to sales of songs on iTunes and from winning songwriting contests to receiving songwriter’s awards and artist’s album credits. You go step by step, and success has to do with your own satisfaction in the process.
My songwriter's motto: 'Never, ever stop writing.'
