How do you write a hit? A good song involves some basic elements: a memorable melody, a great lyric that tells a story that sticks with the listeners. The first line of a song is important.
Which is more important: the lyrics or the music? It’s the whole shamola working together to create another reality that is so seductive that we believe. The first time I heard “(I Think I’m ) Goin’ Out of My Head,” it just about brought me to my knees. And of course, the great white whale is “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling.” Everybody wants to write a song like that.
Can someone really learn how to write a good song? If they are really willing to listen to someone who’s had some experience and who understands how these things really work, they can improve their songwriting by 100 percent. Everybody who thinks they’re a better songwriter than John Lennon, put up their hand.
What about when bad songs are hits? Sometimes good songs don’t become successful, and sometimes mediocre songs do. If someone played the “Macarena” would you say, “Wow, that’s going to be huge”? The “Macarena”? It’s that chaos theory that says, well, the worst song ever written could become a hit.
Did it have any redeeming value? When the girls got up on the bar and started dancing—I liked that part. It had its uses.
TOP OF THE CHARTS “American Idol” hasn’t taken over completely, at least not yet. Take a tour of No. 1 albums from around the world in 2006:
