When A Hit Song Sucks

This morning I woke up and decided to turn on the TV while I made the bed, folded the laundry, etc.   The Graham Norton Show was on.   He’s my favorite talk show host and always provides a provocative and fun performance.

One of his guests was Jennifer Hudson.   She looked great and when she sang her song, she absolutely sang her buns off and truly sold the song.

Which was as remarkable as it was amazing was how truly bad the song was.   I haven’t slammed something in particular before, as a matter of fact, I have never done this before, but when a song is as poorly written as that one, I feel the need to object.

Not that it would hurt the sales any, but still, I have to say something.

This song is a perfect example of everything that an amateur with no gifts would do to a song.   Outside of the chorus (which I can only remember as being not so bad musically), the melody literally has no momentum, no ark, no destination and no arrival.

It is a tribute to Ms. Hudson that she could make it seem musical at all.

What melody there was suggested a rhyme scheme that was not only ignored but bludgeoned with bad choices, i.e. “I look in the mirror and see the same eyes, see the same feet.”  WHAT?

I assumed there was some good reason that the feet were mentioned.  I figured that they needed a rhyme so badly that they made that choice.   Or else there was going to be a simile or reference to feet, standing on my own two feet, feet planted firmly…something.  

Otherwise what were the feet doing there in the mirror where she was looking at her eyes?   A contortionist comes to mind.   Otherwise, it led no where.   Nothing led anywhere.   Mindless drivel!

But the payoff seemed to me to be incomprehensible (surprise, surprise).

She and the back up singers all singing “I remember me” with as much gusto as they could.

As if folks don’t already think about themselves too much  as it is.

This was the message.  

“I remember me”

I remember when the bar was somewhat higher than this.   Please don’t be influenced by such crap.  

Seek out the great songs, the great songwriters, and if you must listen to this stuff, use it as a template of what NOT to do when writing a song.

Okay, now back to something more creative.   Sorry for the rant.  I was just so stunned by the fact that someone actually wrote this thing, pitched it, SOLD it to someone, and it actually became a HIT?

As Randy Newman ( a truly great songwriter) once said, “where are we?  On the moon?”

Comments

[Eva]

As I see it, one of the problems is that someone like Jennifer Hudson can make bad material sound good. So good, in fact, that it becomes a hit. And if it's a hot, it MUST be good, so if I want to write a hit I should write one like THAT! Or so goes the logic. I think performers perhaps should be a bit more picky about what they are selling. That way bad material sinks to the bottom...hopefully.

But that's just me :)

[JoAnne]

I really like the idea behind the song- in fact I wish I had thought of it! I tried listening to the whole thing, but couldn't make it to the end. Teenage girls will have no problem singing along with it's limited note span. She has such a beautiful voice and is wasting in on this one.