SongwritingHooks

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"Suddenly I See," KT Tunstall: sweet groove, nice build

KT Tunstall's breakout song is much more than the "Ugly Betty" theme, right? This is a solid pop song with some real infectiousness.

It starts with the beat:

Hear the hook: Suddenly I See MP3, almost Bo Diddley (and nice bass line, too)             Copyright info

Anyone remember the 1982 cover of "I Want Candy," by Bow Wow Wow? The drums here in "Suddenly I See" are totally catchy in the same way. A little like a classic Bo Diddley beat, which I hope to get to in a post sometime soon (though I'll put in another plug here for guest contributors, in case anyone is in the mood to do the talking).

What is it about this beat that works so well? Feels a little primal, maybe. And it's unrelenting -- start to finish, the same beat drives through the song, and it catches you up and takes you with it. The only place it drops out is the bridge/breakdown the only exception. Which leads me to:

Hear the hook: Suddenly I See MP3, bridge/breakdown/buildup 

So much going on in this passage. First the drums drop out (not really evident in this clip -- sorry), and then it's a slow build, repeating "She's got the power to be the power to give the power to see yeah yeah" over and over, coming up from a slow simmer to a full boil. Right when the build starts up, the beat comes back in again, adding to the momentum. And I'd say you've got a bit of call-and-response too, with the backup vocals adding "Suddenly I see" after each "yeah yeah."

Repetition: the key to songwriting hook-y-ness

If I weren't already sold, I am by now: note how every hook we cover has repetition as a common point. Do something once and it's a lick. Do it more than once and it's a bit hook-y. Repeat something over and over in a song and you've got the basis for an effective hook.

In "Suddenly I See," there's repetition in the drum beat, in the bridge, and also within the verse structure:

Her face is a map of the world, map of the world
You can see she's a beautiful girl, she's a beautiful girl

Makes the lyric easier to sing when the song is new to you, easier to remember down the road, gives the listener cues on when/how to participate. 

You may have noticed that among the tags for each post is "repetition." I'm retiring this tag now, because I expect it to be applicable to virtually every post, which will make the tag kinda useless from an organizational perspective.

"Kiss," by Prince: catchy falsetto, cool chorus

A short post today, but I suspect it will still get stuck in your head.

Hear the hook: Kiss MP3, killer chorus             Copyright info

I've really liked Prince's music, sometimes in spite of myself, since the early '80s. I desperately wanted to see his Purple Rain tour, but was talked out of it by a girlfriend who found him objectionable. (She's not the only one, of course: it's said that Boy George once compared him to a dwarf dipped in a vat of pubic hair.)

Whatever Prince's trajectory -- from oversexed grape-flavored stiletto-wearing freakazoid who writes about "masturbating with a magazine" to born-again grape-flavored stiletto-wearing freakazoid who won't sing some of his own songs because he now finds them inappropriate -- the man does have a spectacular musical gift.

In "Kiss" I think the falsetto is half the hook. Tom Jones covered this song (with Art of Noise) some years after its release, singing it in full Tom Jones voice, and it didn't have the same sticking power.

Lyrically, too, the chorus is so good:

You don't have to be rich to be my girl
You don't have to be cool to rule my world
Ain't no particular sign I'm more compatible with
I just want your extra time and your... kiss

And how sweet is the last word: even if you can't retain the rest of the lyrics, there's the title of the song, set apart from the rest of the chorus, with a few empty beats before it to make sure you have time to get in position.

And the beat is so catchy...
And the chord structure is I-IV-V...
Great song.

"Hallelujah," by Leonard Cohen: Moody lyrical genius, and hook-y chorus

Ah, Leonard Cohen, you finally broke me down. I've never been a fan of singers who can't sing, and so I resisted you, just as I resisted Bob Dylan. But Dylan got to me with "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go," and you won me over with "Hallelujah." (Although, curiously, both had to do it via proxy: Dylan via Shawn Colvin's cover, and Cohen via John Cale, k.d. lang and Jeff Buckley's various covers of "Hallelujah.")

This song doesn't need more than one hook: "Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah." Here's Buckley's version (one of his recordings, anyway).

Hear the hook: Hallelujah MP3, hook-y chorus (Jeff Buckley version)             Copyright info

But how perfect is that as a hook! The song is so moody, the lyric so simple and apropos to the music and to the rest of the song, and repeated over and over -- in the song, in the chorus, in the title... It's impossible to hear the song once and not have the chorus memorized forever. That's a hook.

After that, as far as I'm concerned, it's all about Cohen's lyrical genius:

Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew ya
She tied you to a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah

No, I take it back, that's not fair. There's still more to this song than lyrics and one wicked hook. I also love the swell of the song just preceding each chorus, the way each verse builds up to the rapturous release (or reverent whisper) of the chorus. Here's k.d. doing it live:

Hear the hook: Hallelujah MP3, the pre-chorus swell (k.d. lang version, live at the 2005 Juno awards

In the first verse, Cohen even explains what he's doing, chord-wise:

It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth, the minor fall and the major lift...

I've included this song, and the Dylan song I mention above, in the Song Lyric Hall of Fame. Let me know if you have any other suggestions you'd like to see in there.