Boy George Quotes

Things like 'Lucky Man' were never written to even be a record, let alone a hit record.

There is a difference between a great producer and somebody who is a big advocate of your music. Just because you're a big advocate for a band doesn't mean you need to be in the studio with them, and at the same time - we don't need to get into this conversation - you can write a hit, but it might not hit.

I can take a three-year-old and make a hit record.

I wrote 'Don't Stop' just like I wrote 'Pumped Up Kicks' - I didn't try to make either a hit. I just wanted to write a song I liked.

The success of 'Take Me To Church,' I never imagined it. I never imagined that it would work on radio, that it would find its way onto the charts, even at home and certainly not in America.

Back in the day it was like, I got a great record from a great producer and writer and it's a hit single, so let's sing it. But it's different when you're really living out your lyrics.

Anything can wait for a hit record. That, after all, is what everyone wants at the end of the day.

We used to call it recurrent airplay when someone had a hit.

Every record I have done was because I was a person's friend. The only time we did not continue to be friends was if the record did not become a hit. If it did, we became great friends.

My next record I really just want it to be a collection of great songs, classic songs in a way.

It's a songwriter's dream to have a song recorded and run up the charts.

You need to know what makes artists tick. Having been through the process myself as a musician, since I was an early teen, gave me an advantage - understanding them from their point of view, because it's about them, it's not about you - it's their vision and what they're capable of achieving, and you're the conduit.

I actually quite like promo, which is quite odd for an artist, but recording's not the easiest thing.

When I'm making songs, I never call them hits. I knew 'Bandz A Make Her Dance' was a good record, but I never knew it was gonna be a hit.

I don't ever have the pressure of making a hit, because I've never had a hit song, per se. The closest thing to a hit song was 'Shiraz,' and it's not your prototypical hit song, with a catchy hook and all this other stuff.

And frankly, when I made that record, hit songs were not what I was trying to achieve.

I don't like working with hitmakers. I don't want hits! You're not even allowed to say that word around me.

I don't have the desire to just keep every record and put it out. That's not what I do. I make records for people; that's why I just continue to be consistent, where a lot of the other top writers, they kind of fell off because they started focusing on their own careers as artists. That's not where my head is at.

I follow a simple formula when I compose. I ask myself, 'What would the audience want to hear?' and 'Why would they buy my CDs?' And the process of answering these questions through music follows. Sometimes, it works. Sometimes, it backfires.

Things began to pick up for me record-wise when in 1971 I wrote 'She's a Lady' for Tom Jones.

I've never written a song that I thought was a hit.

I think somewhere along the way I realized, 'O.K., no one's gonna care about a chubby Jewish dude rapping.' I realized I'd be better behind the scenes.

They're hit writers. They're gonna write me a hit whether I wanted it or not you know? I could have put out a single a year ago with the Neptunes and maybe been writing now on top but that was not the path that I chose.

I'm a creative person, and I've got a lot of ideas. People probably thought that my mentality was quick fame because I made 'Rack City' and it blew up fast, but I have over 1,000 songs recorded.

I don't know if it's my music, my lyrics, my sound, and knowing the music business the way I do-all I can say is, my career has lasted way longer than I expected.