It is a truth universally accepted (sorry, Jane) that a song with a good Title/Chorus needs a strong point of view in the Verses.  The writer needs to take a position regarding the Chorus – pick a story or character(s), or both; make decisions and stick with them (unless a better idea comes up – then stick with that one).

One of the reasons for this is that good Titles themselves are often kind of vague… the lyrics could be about many different things. The rest of the lyric needs to tell us what the Title’s all about.

Take for example a few relatively straightforward R&B/Pop classics.

Sam and Dave’s ‘Soul Man’ (Hayes/Porter) is a good title.  They even made a movie with that name.  But think about writing the lyric… The song could be about almost anything.  And if it was about anything… it wouldn’t be nearly as good.  It needed to be about something… something specific. Lyricist David Hayes saw the song as “a story about one’s struggle to rise above his present conditions. It’s almost a tune [where it’s] kind of like boasting ‘I’m a soul man’. It’s a pride thing.”

The lyric focuses on this, with emphasis on the singer’s prowess as a lover, with Verses like –

I was brought up on a side street
I learned how to love before I could eat
I was educated from good stock
When I start lovin’ I can’t stop

And the Chorus is simply ‘I’m a Soul Man’ – a declaration of pride.  They took the title and built a character and a story around it.  Everything points towards that title.

Another example is ‘The Way You Do The Things You Do’, written for The Temptations by Smokey Robinson and Bobby Rogers.  The Chorus is –

You coulda been anything that you wanted to
And I can tell… The Way You Do The Things You Do

The Verse is a list that sets this Chorus up with a long series of pickup lines (that’s actually how they thought of it), such as –

You’ve got a smile so bright, you know you could have been a candle
I’m holding you so tight, you know you could have been a handle

Etc.  Every line follows that template.  All leading to – ‘You coulda been anything that you wanted to…‘  Everything working, with a strong commitment to a specific point of view, towards the Chorus.

One more: Prince’s ‘Little Red Corvette’  Great Title.  But again… the lyric could’ve been about many different things.  Prince decided to use the car as a metaphor for a woman and as a way to tell the story of the singer’s relationship with her and feelings about her.

I guess I shoulda known
By the way you parked your car sideways
That it wouldn’t last

See you’re the kinda person
That believes in makin’ out once
Love ’em and leave ’em fast

But both the car and the woman are, in the singer’s opinion, too fast…

Little Red Corvette
Baby you’re much 2 fast
Little red corvette
You need a love
That’s gonna last

These lyrics start with the Title, take a strong point of view, and build a world around it.  I find this to be true in most good songs, even if it’s sometimes done in a more abstract or wide-ranging way than the examples I’ve used.  Don’t waste a good Title!

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