Colin McEnroe Show: The Art Of Great Songs
What makes a great song great? Is it the melody? A memorable chorus?
The idea for this show came from several different moments. One of them was the culmination of the one and only season of American Idol I watched all the way through.
On the final episode, Fantasia Barrino was the winner with, oddly enough, Jennifer Hudson finishing pretty far back in the pack. Barrino stepped up to sing what is called, in the AI world, her coronation song. It was called "I Believe." It immediately went number one, and let me assure you that you've heard it before even if you've never heard of it. There was nothing terribly wrong with it. It was just an averaging of about eight musical cliches.
My reactions to Fantasia came flooding back to me this year when I watched the Grammys. There were so many talented performers -- Beyonce and Pink, for starters -- and so little memorable songwriting. But what exactly, does that mean. What's a "Good song?"
You can join the conversation. What makes a great song? Why is your favorite song your favorite song? Leave your comments below, e-mail colin@wnpr.org or Tweet us@wnprcolin.
***This episode originally broadcast March 25, 2010.***
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Listener email from Leesa
Colin, you and your audience may enjoy the book: Reading Lyrics, edited by Robert Gottlieb and Robert Kimball. It has over a thousand of the best lyrics from 1900 to 1975.
As my partner Joe Hoke and I have often observed, the best lyrics have two things: small words, big ideas.
Listener email from Diane
Fly Me to the Moon and Summer Wind from the album arranged by Quincy Jones.
Skylark, as sung to Jonny Carson by Better Middler at his request on his last show.
And thank you for the Doris Day! So many people forget her roots.
Listener email from Joe
A great song, I believe, is one that almost any singer can perform and
have it sound great.
A performer can't do it on his own, a great song transcends who the
singer is. For example, I have a collection of dozens of songs by Tony
Bennett. As wonderful as he is, there are only a handful of songs I
consider "great" songs.
A couple of my Bennett favorites: "When Joanna Loved Me", and "I Wanna
Be Around".
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