A lucky break: the word that gave Whitesnake their only number one hit
What makes a hit song? If there were a secret then everyone would be at it. The idea of being able to write tracks that are projected to the top of the charts in the same way The Beatles, Elton John and Fleetwood Mac were able to is held dear by musicians all over the world, but few will ever actually get to experience the feeling of having a hit single.
As a PhD student, Vincent Cheung carried out a test to try and work out the fundamental elements that go into creating a hit song. He explained that there were good psychological benefits to such a study. “Understanding how music activates our pleasure system in the brain could explain why listening to music might help us feel better when we are feeling blue,” he said.
Striking the right balance to create a hit single is difficult, as the audience essentially wants predictable unpredictability. In other words, music should sound familiar, and people should be able to latch onto it after a quick listen; however, it should also be unfamiliar enough that we identify it as something brand new.
“Songs that we find pleasant,” Cheung explained, “Are likely those which strike a good balance between knowing what is going to happen next and surprising us with something we did not expect.”
It also depends on the artist. Some people are keen on creating a commercial success that millions will hear. Meanwhile, others are happy writing songs personal to themselves that are only heard by a select few, but those select few engage with that song on a profound level.
This was one of the main reasons that The Beatles split up, as Paul McCartney was always drawn towards writing a hit, whereas John Lennon wanted to write more personal music. “That’s another McCartney. Smells a mile away, doesn’t it?” said Lennon when discussing the track ‘Hello, Goodbye’.
“An attempt to write a single,” he added.
Glam rock was famously a genre of music that championed the hit. It wasn’t often that music in this genre went introspective as Lennon did with some of the tracks he wrote. Instead, songs followed themes of partying, living wild and free, and enjoying the air in your lungs while it’s still there.
This can be heard clearly in Whitesnake’s classic, ‘Here I Go Again’, a glam rock song that embodies the idea of being a free spirit and living life on the road. It’s a fun track to listen to, and it also represents one final pillar of writing a hit that many people underestimate: good luck.
When the track was initially released in 1982, it didn’t chart and flew entirely under the radar. The band re-released the song in 1987 and made no changes apart from one word. In the chorus, they changed the word “Hobo” to “Drifter”. This hardly altered the track, but the rereleased version of the song became number one. It shows that sometimes you might have a hit on your hands, but because of timing and other external factors, it just won’t work. Luck is a big part of success.
