SongwritingHooks

Drum Week, Part 3: Everybody Bo Diddley on the Count of 4

First, work out this rhythm, emphasizing the bolded hits:

ONE and two AND three and FOUR and

one and TWO and THREE and four and...¹

Got it? That's the hook of the day. Now let's work our way back on the pop charts to see it in action, starting at 1982:

Hear the hook: I Want Candy MP3 (Bow Wow Wow version), Bo Diddley beat #3             Copyright info

Now let's try 1957:

Drum Week, Part 1: "Sweetest Taboo" by Sade

This is drum week at songwritinghooks.com, and we're going to feature hooks that are percussion-based. First off, a song from Sade's breakthrough album:

Hear the hook: Sweetest Taboo MP3, killer drum hook             Copyright info

Ah, so sweet, and incredibly addictive. I love how distinctive this hook is, and it's the very first thing you hear. (Actually, there's about 8 seconds of near silence on the track before the drums come in -- just a faint hiss -- which I think, based on the video, is supposed to be the sound of rain. Playing on the lyric in the chorus about a "quiet storm." Oh cheesy '80s, I forgive you.)

Beethoven's Greatest Hit

Its full title is "Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67." The bit that everyone can hum is from the start of the first movement, and it's supposed to represent Fate come knocking on your door.

Everyone knows it as "da-da-da-DUM."

Hear the hook: Beethoven's 5th MP3, rhythm of da-da-da-DUM             Copyright info

I was trying to think of the best hook in classical music, and I think it's this one. Then I tried to figure out how to catalog it. What makes it hook-y? I've decided that it's the rhythm, and not just how the rhythm is used in the first eight notes of the symphony, but how the pattern becomes a small building block that Beethoven uses in layered ways later on.

The rhythm is "short-short-short-long." In prosody (the study of poetic rhythm), this would be a quartus paeon and would be written like so: ˘ ˘ ˘ ¯ .

The intervals Beethoven uses between the third beat and the fourth are all over the place, so it's not really a melodic hook. In some cases, the interval is four steps down; in others it's three, or seven, or two steps up, and there are others. So the notes change, but the rhythm is everywhere.

Then Beethoven gets playful:

Hear the hook: Beethoven's 5th MP3, rhythm on rhythm

Lively, fast, and the violins are going all over the place, but always the same short-short-short-long rhythm, regardless what the notes are doing. Totally memorable, totally catchy, totally hook-y, even in 1808.

Can't Take My Eyes Off You, Lauren Hill: distinct remake, descending arrangement, dissonant hook

In 1998, Lauren Hill covered "I Can't Take My Eyes Off You," the classic Frankie Valli and the Fours Seasons tune. Eleven years later (oh my, has it been that long?), there are some fun things to pick at here.

First off, cover songs: so much can go wrong here, though a lot depends on the listener's state of mind. If you remake a song I already love, I will hate it. If you remake it note-for-note (like the Uncle Kracker cover of "Drift Away") I will hate it more. But that's me. Best case scenario (for me, anyway, and I think this is broadly true): cover a song that's fallen out of favor, and do it in a unique way.

That's exactly what Lauren Hill accomplished here with "Can't Take My Eyes Off You." The original song was something many people were aware of in 1998, but hadn't paid attention to in decades. The faint recollection of a song from the past is a brilliant (hook-y) way into people's heads. And the groove she put to it made it radically different from the Frankie Valli recording.

Arrangement: Descending Chromatic Scale

If you give the ear something that's subconsciously predictable, it's hook-y. Arpeggiated chords as solos fit this description. Melodic sequences that follow do-mi-so or something familiar like that are naturally pleasing. What this song has (in the original and in the Lauren Hill cover) is a descending chromatic scale in the verse, starting with an E and going down a half step each bar. Listen to the organ in the background here:

Hear the hook: Can't Take My Eyes Off You MP3, descending scale hook             Copyright info

I love that! Lots of other songs have descending bass lines -- right now I'm thinking of the first bars of Stevie Wonder's "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" -- which is also an arranging technique I love. 

Hook Needs a Name

There's something hook-y I like but haven't heard labelled before. It's when a song is going along nicely, and then the singer just opens right up with a huge belting passage. Something that sounds and feels cathartic almost, it's so big and free and letting out what's inside. The way k.d. lang sings "Crying" is one of these songs. (Or "Hallelujah," as we've covered.) The chorus of "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" is like that: it takes a big leap up from the dynamic and emotional level of the verse. Though in truth, this is more pronounced in the Frankie Valli version, I think because the whole song sits lower in Lauren Hill's register. Nonetheless, here's Lauren Hill:

Hear the hook: Can't Take My Eyes Off You  MP3, Cathartic Belt

I'm thinking of calling this hook the Cathartic Belt. Or maybe the Hallelujah hook. I'd love your suggestions.

Dissonance as Hook

One last thing. Have a listen to the "bah-da" backup singers in this passage.

Hear the hook: Can't Take My Eyes Off You MP3, dissonance as a hook

There's something a little off about this. Someone is singing out of tune! It's small but it's there. I have no doubt that this is intentional, and it definitely makes the hook memorable. The little flubs, the little human errors that exist in all real musical performance, are good things. Something scientifically precise is cold and ugly -- think of the first drum machines, the first synthesizers: absolutely rhythmically and sonically perfect, and musically hideous.
    In this case, the dissonance pushes the boundary of acceptable. It's off. The kind of "off" to send a choir director into a fit. But since it's small-ish, and the song has a loose funkiness to it anyway, it works.

Please comment below with any suggestions for the hook name! Thanks.