Hit Song Quotes

The desire to hit a big home run is dominating the music business.

A couple of days working with Joe Jonas, I thought, 'This guy is a slayer of a singer; he's really funny, goofy, and sexy. We need to write that.' And that led to 'Cake By The Ocean.'

We were the ones that from the beginning said that 'Wide Open Spaces' was a hit. 'This is a hit, people are going to relate to it.'

When 'I'm Sorry' came out and became such a huge hit, that made 'Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree' start selling. Then that became a huge, huge hit.

Artists are taught to be humble about their impact, especially in folk music. It's so ingrained that I have a hard time even thinking I had any impact other than what a normal hit song would have.

Sometimes, I make 50 songs and pick out the best 10. I've been in the studio all day, all night, making the beat, writing the raps. You never know what's gonna be a hit.

With 'Love Shack,' once we put that chorus in, it did have more of a song structure. Even though the verses are all kind of different, the chorus was there along with 'The Love Shack' - I think that really made it a hit. Once we heard it in the studio, we played it for R.E.M., and they were like, 'Yes this is a hit.'

I could bear being in the charts and being on everyone's car radio 10 times a day. I'm just terrified of... a lot of people I respect have done it with a real little 'ditty' and that was the end of it - that was all they were ever known for.

I don't know if a song is going to be a hit or it's going to flop. I never know. I just do the music and if people like it, they like it.

In my music career, I never was interested in working and writing and creating songs based on what kind of rewards I could receive in return - a hit song, per se, is what most contemporary artists have to deal with when they deal with a label.

Ooh Poo Pah Doo' was a monster song.

You don't really write a hit song - you write a great song, and then, if the public decides it's a hit, they take over from there. The song becomes its own monster.

You can tell if something feels special. But there are so many moving parts involved in making the song a hit. The radio has to deliver, the management has to deliver in terms of booking the right promotions... just being a good song isn't enough.

I think that every song has to be like it could be the biggest hit of my album.

I had no idea 'Big Green Tractor' was going to be as big a hit as it was. You just can't predict those things.

Look, when a song becomes a hit, it happens because of its tune and melody, and not for the lyrics in the first place.

Everyone in the group sang when I joined them. That was one of the problems with L.T.D.: there was no focal point. It took until 1976, or about six or seven years, before I was put into the spotlight as a vocalist. That's when I recorded 'Love Ballad,' and it became a hit for the group.

I think in a way I was probably completely naive about what it takes to make something become a hit.

I was invited to L.A. when I was 16 for a weekend-long songwriting session by a writer I had met through my voice teacher in Pittsburgh. My first hit, 'Hide Away,' was one of the songs written during those sessions. It was played for a radio rep who then started a new label; the song got a pretty organic start at radio and then took off.

The second we were done on 'The Sing-Off,' we were like, 'All right, now we're competing with Rihanna and Taylor Swift.' We've always set the bar high. We want a hit.

You can make a hit song in 15 minutes. I don't know about someone else's song, but songs that people like of mine, I've created in 15 minutes or less.

I don't think a reggaeton song will break again like 'Gasolina' did.

Most writer's blocks come from people second-guessing to the point where they get discouraged, and they just quit. For me, if I write something and it's not amazing, I don't care because even if I feel like it might not be amazing, it could still be a number-one hit.

If I have a hit, then I hope the people who like the hit song go out and buy my album so they can hear it all.

To find out my song made the top 10 was honestly a dream come true. I think it's something that I've dreamed about, and anyone dreams about, their whole life.