If you were to pull some of these songs, the lyric and the melody, together, and study their construction, it might reveal to you many of the lessons of how and why they 'worked,' enabling you to employ those how's and why's in your own songwriting.

In "Close To You" it is immediately apparent to me that the rests are very significant.

The lyrical line might 'read'

"Why do birds suddenly appear every time you are near?"

But the melodic line employs rests to break it up, delivering the elements of the thought to you in 3- and 4- and 5-note 'phrases,' allowing, enabling, you to conceive the thought-fragments in 'bite-sized' pieces, slowly assembling the entire thought, with memorable melody. One hearing and you probably had both lyric and melody in your mind, probably with enough 'hook-factor' to repeat it when the song ends.

"Why do birds (rest)
suddenly appear (rest)
every time (rest)
you are near?"(rest)

Now, you've heard the question, and then the answer is given, again with the phrasing and rests;

"Just like me (rest)
they long to be (rest)
Close To You."

And that quickly you have been taken through the first musical movement, and arrived at THE hook. The 'hook-factor' of the lyric and melody succeed in their intended function, hooking your interest, and THE hook sums up, makes the point, makes sense of, the lyrical content of the verse.

The lyric and melody that come to you are 'inspiration.' Sometimes they come with those rests in place. But sometimes you can examine what your inspiration delivers, and 'craft' it, edit the line from the way one might speak it, to 'phrase' it, adding that hook-factor of making you wait to get the whole story.

What does the song do next? Does it repeat that musical movement, with new lyrical ideas, and again complete by arriving at THE hook? I'll have to go back to listen, rather than rely on memory.

And then it doesn't allow you to become bored by a 3rd repeat of the melody, even with new lyrical ideas; it gives you a change of dynamics in what I would identify as a Bridge, since the title is a refrain ending each verse, a 'refrain-type' chorus;

"On the day that you were born,
the angels got together (rest)
And decided to create a dream-come-true,
So they sprinkled a little stardust in your hair,
And golden starlight in your eyes so blue."

The tempo is different, a different dynamic from that of the verse. The 3-note lines with rests are abandoned in favor of longer phrases. The lyrical content is coherent in the storyline, this high praise concept begun in line one of the verse.

Then, having had that change of dynamics to 'refresh the ear,' it is possible to repeat the musical movement of the verse, and finish the song. I have to go back and listen to see if that's what it does, but I think it does. And that structure, crafting the inspiration, coherence of lyrical theme, and melodic positive of notes and negative of rests, all combine to hook the listener.

As the songwriter, YOU are the FIRST listener. YOU should be hooked in the same way you hope other listeners will be. You should not simply accept your inspiration, unless it is truly 'good,' hooking you. You should craft your inspiration, looking for all those elements of hook-factor and seeing if you can increase them, emphasize them, make them apparent where your inspiration may not have.

I would encourage you to select a number of the songs mentioned here and do that sort of analysis to dissect the lyric, the rests, the phrasing, the melody, the structure, and see if you can identify what may be the elements of the hook-factor that made you or others cite them as examples of well-crafted and inspired art.

Then apply what you learn to examine your own creations and see if you got some of it in inspiration and if you crafted some of it, or if you can now go back and craft some of that hook-factor into the works.

Thus educated by this 'study,' your future creations may begin to employ more of these elements from the moment of inspiration, leaving less need for re-crafting. Your self-education may give you better 'ears' to know what you're looking for in your own songs.

There will always be another song to be written. Someone will write it. Why not you? www.garyeandrews.com