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(Chris Brown and T-Pain's hit "Kiss Kiss" contains 740 words.)
The top songs of the 1960s contained an average of 176 words. These days, hit songs regularly top the 500-word mark. (Chris Brown and T-Pain plowed through "Kiss Kiss" with 740 words.) Today on Soundcheck, we debate quantity and quality in pop-music lyrics. And later: jazz vocalist and pianist Loston Harris pays tribute to Carolyn Leigh, a songwriter whose work was immortalized by the Rat Pack.
Guests:
Loston HarrisPop Singers Gasp for Air
Word counts in pop-music lyrics have been climbing since the 1960s, when instrumental songs often made the charts. These days, Top Ten songs regularly surpass the 500-word mark. And instrumentals? Forget about it. We’ll talk to Slate.com contributor William Weir, who says excessive lyrics are ruining pop music, and to ...
Loston Harris
Grab your martini glass. Jazz vocalist/pianist Loston Harris is known for blending traditional jazz riffs, gospel, and blues. He's singing in a tribute concert to Carolyn Leigh, the songwriter of "Young at Heart," "The Best is Yet to Come" and other songs made famous by the Rat Pack. He joins ...
Researchers Discover a Real Golden Oldie
History was changed today. It turns out that "Mary had a little lamb," recorded by Thomas Edison on a sheet of tinfoil, was not the first recorded sound after all. Researchers have unearthed a recording of the human voice made by a little-known Frenchman that predates Edison’s invention of the ...