The Seven-Letter Rule of Songwriting

If you're spelling out your hook, I've got a number for you.

The other day, a student came in with a song that had one of those hooks that spell out the main idea (think “A-B-C, easy as 1-2-3…”). This is a time-honored technique, but when I played the song in class the refrain was:

B-L-U-E-I-S-M-Y-T-R-U-E-M-O-O-D

(That wasn’t the real refrain, but close enough.)

It may be a little easier to see on the page, but in a song, at speed, rising and falling with a melody…forget it. Everyone was lost. Some needed to inspect the lyric sheet to see what it spelled out. Safe to say, this was not the goal of the song.

Walking home after class, I tried to figure out what the problem might have been with it. I remembered successful examples of songs with spelled-out hooks. My process went something like:

• Aretha, my first thought: “R-E-S-P-E-C-T”—seven letters.

• Gwen Stefani: “B-A-N-A-N-A-S”—seven letters. Hm.

• Chappell Roan’s “H-O-T-T-O-G-O”—seven lett…wait, really? (Pause to recount.) Yep.

• Tammy Wynette’s classic: “D-I-V-O-R-C-E”—holy…

• Ariana Grande’s “Break Your Heart Right Back”: “G-A-M-B-I-N-O”—OK, I see…

• Tommy Tutone’s “Jenny Jenny”: “8-6-7-5-3-0-9”—…that it’s pretty clear…

• Beastie Boys’ “The New Style”: “B-E-A-S-T-I-E”—…that a pattern…

• OutKast’s “Intro”—“O-U-T-K-A-S-T”—…is developing…

• Megan Thee Stallion’s “Wanna Be”: “B-A-D-D-E-S-T”—…with seven-letter hooks.

I waded into childhood songs, and oh my God:

• “Jane and Peter, sittin’ in a tree/ K-I-S-S-I-N-G”

• “‘Cause Oscar Meyer has a way with B-O-L-O-G-N-A.”

Seasoned research scientist that I am, I did what scientists do, which is Google if there are more. Oh yeah, there are.

Some spell out their seven-letter titles:

• Gwen Stefani’s “Serious”: “S-E-R-I-O-U-S”

• Marshmello & Anne Marie’s “Friends”: “F-R-I-E-N-D-S”

…and some just spell it out in the title itself:

• Gayle, “a-b-c-d-e-f-u”

• Travis Tritt, “T.R.O.U.B.L.E.”

• Twinflame, “MIA (D-O-W-N-B-A-D)”

• Motörhead, “R-A-M-O-N-E-S”

I even learned something about Beyoncé, who spells out “B-E-Y-I-N-C-E” (seven letters) in “Ya Ya,” from Cowboy Carter. Is it a typo? Well, yes, but not by her: Beyoncé’s mother Tina’s maiden name was misspelled on her birth certificate as “Beyoncé,” even though her parents’ last name was “Beyincé.” On the “In My Head with Heather Thompson podcast, Tina explained:

“(I) asked my mother when I was grown. I was like, ‘Why is my brother’s name spelled B-E-Y-I-N-C-E? You know, it’s all these different spellings.’ And my mom’s reply to me was like, ‘That’s what they put on your birth certificate…’”

“So I said, ‘Well, why didn’t you argue and make them correct it?’ And she said, ‘I did one time, and I was told ‘Be happy that you’re getting a birth certificate,’ because, at one time, Black people didn’t get [them]…"

Spelling out “BEYINCÉ,” then, is both a seven-letter hook and a reclamation of her family’s true last name.

reclamation

By Now, I Bet I Know What You’re Thinking…

…and no. Obviously, not all songs spell out hooks with seven letters.

John Cougar’s got that huge hit “R-O-C-K in the U-S-A,” right? Fun song, huge hit. And the lyric “in the” is sitting right in the middle of…oh damn…seven letters.

And in “Drop It Like It’s Hot,” Snoop spells his name as “S-N double O-P, D-O double G,” which, though consolidated, calls out seven letters.

Wu-Tang Clan’s “Method Man” gives us “M-E-T-H-O-D…man” which is six, but it’s really six + one, rhythmically, because those six letters don’t land until #7 (“man”) drops and finishes the phrase. Do these get an asterisk?

If so, I don’t know what to say about Taylor Swift’s “Florida,” which doesn’t spell out anything, but has distinct drum hits that mimic the seven-letter title setting: “F-L-O-R-I-D-A.”

Is that a stretch? Is this all a stretch?

seven lettersTM

Yes, It’s a Stretch!

Seven is obviously not the only number for spelled-out song lyrics. As I’ve discussed in my book and elsewhere, we are conditioned in the West to like multiples of four, e.g. four- and eight-bar phrases; 32-bar song form, 4/4 time, etc. So it makes sense that four is a popular choice for spelled-out titles, with hits like “Y-M-C-A,” “L-O-V-E,” “L-O-L-A,” “G-O-L-D,” “H-O-V-A,” and “P.I.M.P.”

And speaking of multiples of four, there are twelve (4x3) letters in Hall & Oates’ “Method of Modern Love,” which for some reason drops the “modern” and goes with “M-E-T-H-O-D-O-F-L-O-V-E” (adding “modern” would have made it eighteen letters, and a flop); Faith No More takes the old cheerleader chant for their twelve letter, “B-E-A-G-G-R-E-S-S-I-V-E” hook that honestly, I hadn’t heard until I went down this rabbit hole.

In other news, Fergie seems to like nine letters, and uses them twice (“D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S,” “G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S”; The Bay City Rollers’ hit “S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y…night!” is eight letters, though I’m tempted to play the Wu-Tang exception card from above, and say it’s really eight-plus-one, because the musical phrase is incomplete without that last beat, “…night!”

Is it coincidence that both seven and nine straddle the number eight, which is a multiple of four? I’m going to say a) no; and b) enough counting! All I really wanted to know was how many letters are too many letters to sustain an impactful hook. In the end, it really is about the musical phrase, and the words (or letters) that fit well within it. Assuming that’s your goal, these numbers, and their results, are persuasive.

Unless…

…you really just want to blow the whole convention up with a satire of spelled-out songs the way Lonely Island did in “Spell It Out”:

“They call me
D U D E T H A T H A S S E X W I T H P I G S F O R M O N E Y
B U T O N L Y A S A S I D E T H I N G
R I G H T N O W comma I apostrophe M
J U S T S H O R T O N C A S H”

Which, you know, is another way to go.

The Lesson/Prompt

A spelled-out hook is fun to write, fun to hear, and has success across all eras and genres. Maybe you should try it?

And if so, maybe you should work with a seven-letter word?

Give it a shot. Let me know how it goes.

My book, Music, Lyrics, and Life, is available in print and audiobook (narrated by me).

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…and if this is all too much, you could just buy me a coffee, or seven.