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<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by DavidW:
Well Truman,

If you have ever looked at (ascap) Ralph Murphy's laws of songwriting his Publisher survey that he conducted says the number one important thing publishers are looking for are the lyrics.

DAvid</font>


Sure. Not only that, I had Ralph explain it to me in person once. Ralph is a very cool guy. Funny. And very astute. And, he did not say that lyrics were the ONLY important thing. What is posted above is a LYRIC ONLY.

A song lyric does not exist independent of a song. It is a part of the whole.

There are a lot of cool songs with pretty lame lyrics. That is because a great musical vibe, or a cool groove, or a fabulous melody...or just a great vocalist...all can produce a great record.

Ralph, I believe, would also be the first guy to agree with what Brian mentioned earlier: when you see an obviously successful song, that you don't like, you can either rip it or learn from it. Each of us decides which path to take.

Sometime, just for fun, read the lyrics to "Wild Thing," and ask yourself if you would give a songwriter a $10,000 advance based on the lyric alone. Of course you wouldn't. You would say it is stupid and throw it in the can. BUT, as a whole, the song was pretty cool. It was effective. It worked. People loved it and STILL DO. You don't believe that, play it at a wedding reception sometime. Maybe people just love a good ocarina solo every now and then.

I believe the song at the top of this thread is popular because people like it. Does anyone have a better explanation?

Does anyone here think that Jimmy Wayne, or his producer, or the president of his label, heard that song and said, "Gawd that is awful! Let's cut it." Of course they didn't. They LIKED THIS SONG. You guys don't. What can you learn from that?

What do YOU think? What is your theory? Why did Jimmy Wayne cut THIS song? Why, among 10 or 12 songs on his CD, did the record company choose THIS one as a single? The results seem to indicate that these guys know what they are doing and that they made very effective choices. What can we all learn from that?

Here is something else Ralph Murphy told me. When I asked him if he was having a good day, he said, "Every day that I wake up is a good day." Very astute, indeed.