JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum "Send Us Your Best Song"

When someone asks for the "best song" off one of my albums, I never know what to give them.
Here's a blog piece about it.
How do you decide?

Well,
That is the 64 dollar question. I usually invite them to go to the Web Site where I have a few of my songs posted and they can decide if any of them fit what they are looking for. Of course if they are looking for something to put on the Air I don't have but one song that is licensed for Air Play.

WE"RE HEADED YOUR WAY

Verse 1
Sweet loving Jesus,Your arms are wide open,
Your heart is glowing, And Your love is flowing,
We can't resist you, We want You to save us,
And we know You want to, So we're headed Your way,

Chorus
From way deep down inside us, From the thoughts in our heads,
To the tips of our toes, We want You to know, We're headed Your way,

Verse 2
We're driven to love You, Every day,
We can't wait to see You, We're headed Your way,
We tell the whole world, We're headed Your way,
It's no secret mission, We're headed Your way,

Chorus
From way deep down inside us, From the thoughts in our heads,
To the tips of our toes, We want You to know, We're headed Your way,

Bridge
We could be coming, Or we could be going,
But as long as we're rolling, We're headed Your way,
We're headed Your way, We're headed Your way,
We're headed Your way, We're headed Your way,

Chorus
From way deep down inside us, From the thoughts in our heads,
To the tips of our toes, We want You to know, We're headed Your way,

Repeat Chorus

© 2017 Robert Wynn
https://goo.gl/kKpsgQ
rjwynn@live.com

I know what you mean. It all depends on taste, my taste are different than others taste, so my best could be their worst. I found the same thing when pitching songs, the ones I thought were my best were passed over for song that I was dubious about pitching at all. One mans meat is another mans poison.

So true

I remember back in the early 00's, sending a work tape out to a few JPFrs.

There was, what I thought, a "throw away" that everybody really liked. Goes to show you that the audience is still the best judge of what they like...all you can do is keep writing

Most of the time, they are giving you one shot, and they're not going to take the time to go listen to a bunch of songs in order to decide which one they want. They want you to sneak past their defenses with one song, and convince them that your material is worthy of their consideration.
Is your one song your best song?

Your one post on here, and you waste it by putting it on a thread that has absolutely NOTHING to do with what you posted?
Good luck getting anywhere with that.

Truly.
The radio stations that play my music often have different choices than each other, so when a new station asks for one song, it can be such a crapshoot trying get them something they will play.

Sometimes the throwaways are the best. I had that happen with a publisher in Nashville in the early '00s as well. Nothing came of the song (well, it is on my "One More Night In Nashville" CD) but it got me in the door to write with some hit writers when I first moved to town.

An interesting aspect of this in my experience around hugely successful songwriters, are that almost without exception, the song THEY thought would be cut, didn't get cut, and the song they thought WOULD NEVER GET CUT, not only got cut, but became ENORMOUS HITS.

I could go on and on. DON SCHLITZ THE GAMBLER, turned down by every publisher, producer and record label, then cut ten times Without success, BEFORE getting to Kenny Rogers and revitalizing his career.

WIND BENEATH MY WINGS, written during a drunk bender, not even really liked by the writers, or publishers, getting cut several times with success and then becoming one of the biggest songs in history.

I AIN'T MISSING YOU AT ALL, written as a song to shut up a domineering and arrogant bass player who thought he had a song, forgotten about for years until it was cut many times and one of the most played rock songs in music history.

At the same time all of those writers, all who were or are personal friends of mine, had songs they were SURE would get cut and become hits and didn't. One of the most constants in Nashville.

You never know. You take your best shot and hope that is not your only shot.

Q: What are the greatest songs in history?
A. YESTERDAY. THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD. AND THE ONE I JUST WROTE THIS MORNING!!!!

MAB

Tis True,
I forget who cut Tennessee Waltz, Patti Page, I think without looking it up, was supposed to be the B side of the 45 and the song on the other side was the one that was supposed to be the Hit. So what did the public pick? Tennessee Waltz. You never know!

Brenda Lee, does about a 20 minute melody of songs that were first pitched to her that she did not cut. I think Tennessee Waltz was one of those. Everyone misses. And luck has more to do with it than anyone ever realizes.

Songs like "EVERYBODY LOVES SOMEBODY" and "I LEFT MY HEART IN SAN FRANSISCO" only were recorded in the first place because they had extra studio time and were out of songs.

And of course, the MOST SUCCESSFUL individual Beatles album, was ALL THINGS MUST PASS, by George Harrison. That was totally made up of songs rejected by the BEATLES.

All of this is sort of throwing rocks at cars blindfolded inside a house. You just have to do your best and hope. But you can't let one dead end stop you. You keep trying. You keep working at it. You do this for YOU, first and foremost. If you please yourself then hopefully others will follow your lead.

MAB

Thanks for chiming in, Marc!
One of the stupidest songs I ever wrote (yeah, I write some stupid ones) gets a tremendous response live, but I would in no way consider it my best song...nor is it the one (or one of the ones) that I would like to be remembered for.
I'll keep taking my shot. I just hope I'm not shooting myself in the foot.

Cowboy Copas first cut "Tennessee Waltz in 1947. A year later, Pee Wee King (one of the writers) was the first to release a version of it.
Patti Page did a pop version in 1950.
I used to find myself more attracted to B-sides than to the presumed hits.

IMHO "Dark Horse" was the best post-Beatles album by any of them.
I'm being the best me I can be, whether they like it or not, but it sure would be nice to gain a little remuneration for my efforts.

Aw Yes,
I am well aware that a lot of people "In the Music Business" won't go to a Web Site for songs they may need. Heck, I even wrote a song about it, THE SONGWRITER'S LAMENT! Today everybody wants everything delivered to them on a Silver Platter! They want it E-Mailed to them! I have a two word answer for them and my "Intelligence Finger! When I write a song, I can't phone it in, I actually have to do some work. Dang!

Hey Kurt,

My advice has never gone right, so please feel free to disregard:-) But if I were you, I wouldn't worry about trying to out-guess whichever "entity" is asking, and whatever "trends" they were hoping to follow...

I would send them the following link-song, and if "they" don't get it, well, yer no worse off! But if they do "get" it, then, well, who knows?

And if any JPFolks haven't heard this Kurt song before....

...Well....

Give it a listen....."My Dog Jesus"...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltX2HpNDmy4

Midnite

P.S...There's an old-old Country song, I can't remember the name, where a gambler explains to a preacher why every card in the deck reminded him of Gospel stories...

I understand where they're coming from. They get thousands upon thousands of songs pitched to them, and there are only so many hours in the day. The easier someone makes it for them to listen, the better the odds are that they will.
I also think that taking an adversarial attitude toward someone that you're trying to get on your side is a totally counterproductive move.

Thanks for the plug, but that song is not necessarily suitable for every occasion.
For example, they play my music on Texas Dance Hall Radio, but somehow that one doesn't fit in. It sells lots of CDs to the tourists at the Bluebird Cafe, but the honky tonk crowd is not so interested.

I think the song you referenced is probably "The Deck Of Cards" which was recorded by a whole bunch of folks over the years. Different versions included a cowboy talking to a preacher, a soldier in Africa explaining himself to his sergeant, and even a Vietnam-era rendition.

Hey MAB,

The hit Na Na, Hey hey, Kiss Him Goodbye was the one song of their's the group Steam hated and they fought tooth and nail to release another song instead of it. Now used in sporting events, TV and movies as well as sports fans to sing as an insult to a rival they just beat. Ya never know. I was in 7th grade when it came out way back then in the early 70s and it's still frequently used. Gettin' old, Brother.

Stevie

Well,
Going to a Web Site to check out some songs is pretty easy. If it is for a named Artist, I would suggest a song for them to listen to on the site.

One of the biggest hits of all time was cut because there was some extra time in the session.
Since I have a lot of "Best Songs" I would just have to pick one. Sometimes I would send my "Worst" song!

This is a great topic and great timing because we're about to announce our music award nominees and each time we do about 2/3rds of the artist/writers are shocked about which songs get selected since our judges screen the entire CD and it's blind screening so they basically just listen without any outside context or feedback, even from other judges and what ends up being selected rarely matches what the artists/writers would have picked. This is a danger for all of you who just pick stuff yourself without either an expert or two or an array of music fans helping you out who don't know you and have no biases or agendas. Now of course different people like different stuff, but it's interesting for us to watch votes come in and patterns develop over extremely diverse judges we use that match up to result in the nominees. And those nominees rarely match what the artists believe about their own work. (We've had a significant number of people actually get angry that their own favorites weren't chosen, not understanding that obviously their personal tastes are not in the mainstream collectives ideas of what they like. There's no true "right" or "wrong" but there are patterns which show what might go over well to a diverse audience and if you learn you're not in tune with that, rather than fight it, try to listen to those popular songs a little differently through fresh and open ears to perhaps help you direct your talents where commerce might meet your art. After all, it was YOUR talent that created all of it, be happy that you connected and teach yourself to hear what fans are hearing.

I typically find being able to correctly evaluate your own best stuff is often the last skill even very talented music creators ever (if ever) learn. So getting non biased feedback (especially when people aren't making money from you for a service of some type) is critical and when it comes, don't fight it, learn from it.

I've screened music personally from appx. 200K artists/writers over the years (that's roughly 4 years of full time work just to listen to one song from each and in truth I have likely listened to well over a million songs just from our awards and showcases over the years (we've had over 25K different artists play live at one of our showcases in the past 31 years). and done roughly 2000 showcases featuring an average of 35 live artists per show (up to 60 full bands some nights, up to 75 solo artists other nights). It's always interesting to watch and see what songs connect live better than they connect on recording which is another factor to also consider, but I digress.

Great topic Kurt!

Brian

Reminds me of a family I know.....the mother's favorite is the one everyone else thinks is worthless.

Personally, I perform mine live and listen for feedback. I am often surprised at which one gets the comments. But I would bet it's usually the simplest one with the best hook.

Ray, that is TOO FUNNY. Around here, we have this guy, Mike Williams. He is a BIG TIME KERRVILLE FLOKIE guy, has gone every year for decades and is known by EVERYBODY! Can't miss him, he is about 6 2 and has a HUGE BASS voice and plays this custom made guitar that has the deepest sound I have ever heard.
For many years Mike would host a "five chair picking party" where he invited five hit and monster writers to play in his living room. No PA, just acoustic. There would always be about 100 people in the living room listening and a small combo "band" that would back everyone up. Was amazing.
Then he had to quit to move to New York City where his wife ran the Girl Scouts of America. They moved back here a few years ago but have never started the party back. Too many people.

But one year, Mike wrote a song called "SONGWRITERS LAMENT" all about ME. LOL! It was a pretty funny song but all about my trials and tribulations in this town. You see a lot of people think I should have been the huge star years ago but just never took off. Would get cuts but not singles, have deals that fell through. I'm kind of the patron saint of "almost there."
But the song is all about that. Has the lines "This F***ING TOWN!!! All through it. LOL! Really radio friendly.

But it is something we all share. Trying to find our best. Ol' Kurt here is another example of things I talk about all the time. An amazing writer with tons of great songs, (My Dog Jesus, and Inside that Box" are two of my favorites%

Thanks for the kind words, Marc.
Mike's guitar is a baritone 12-string. He tunes it 5 half steps down (B instead of E) but other than that, the tuning is standard. It has a positively thunderous sound. I was in a circle with him about two weeks ago. Always fun. He brings great energy everywhere he goes.
Yours forever in failure,
Kurt

Marc, I think the word you were looking for was medley, not melody.
Best,
Pat Hardy Lockwood

Many, many years ago I entered the Music City Song Festival [1988] I entered two lyrics and the second one titled, "Its Christmas Eve" [not necessarily the one I thought would get noticed did and came in the top 100.]

One never knows how a song will be accepted. You / Me might think it is, "That one!" because in your own opinion it has all the elements you believe are needed and then "BAM" you find out it was, "That one?"

Great topic.

You can either use your own taste as a reference point to make the judgement of "best", or consider the taste and/or needs of the one asking.

In case of the latter you can make an informed guess or inquire further.. is it a library - then whom are their clients?... is it an a&r person - then what are they looking for? is it a fan, a scam..ect

Most people don't give a dam* about your taste, it's theirs that counts.. especially if you are holding the hat..

This is a great topic. As a performer and writer there or so many aspects to "best". I've had airplay for several of my songs on commercial and college radio. I've had songs that placed well in International song writing competitions. I get requests from the audience for certain songs at the venues I perform. The "best" is relative to the one hearing the song or watching the performance. For radio, one would have to consider the genre and target market to make that judgment because commercial radio is obviously looking for a song that will keep a listener tuned to their station so that they'll listen to their ads. A club owner is concerned about live song performance - and some songs just seem to come off better live than on the air. As far as your songs are concerned Kurt, you could pick one of your top ten and be good.

Hi Kurt:

Most music creators are hard-pressed to point out their "best song" but a good rule of thumb would be those that get lots of "listens" on sites like JPF and it's MP3 forum. For the humble lyricist, there are at least three lyric forums here... same rule applies but it would be a rare lyric to get as much attention as a song. Melody continues to be the most important part in most genres... but there are exceptions.

Then there is the all important factor of "air-play" if one is fortunate enough to get through the "gate guards" of music. LOL!

I know I don't need to remind you "to never give up!" Nobody ever promised creating or performing music would be easy. It does tend to get into one's blood after a while!

My best song is by Travis Green titled Made A Way

Made a way
Don’t know how but you did it
Made a way
Standing here not knowing how we’ll get through this test
But holding onto faith you know best
Nothing can catch you by surprise
You’ve got this figured out and you’re watching us now
But when it looks as if we can’t win
You wrap us in your arm and step in
And everything we need you supply
You got this in control
And now we know that

You made a way
When our backs were against the wall
And it looked as if it was over
You made a way
And we’re standing here
Only because you made a way
You made a way

Your one post on here, and you waste it by putting it on a thread that has absolutely NOTHING to do with what you posted?
Good luck getting anywhere with that.