Ballad Secrets of the Pop Song

Pop music. Glitz, glamour, stars.

A global industry worth an estimated 30 billion.

But none of it would exist without this.

# Baby love, my baby love... #

The song.

It all starts with the song. No matter if you're talking about

rock'n'roll or pop music.

If the song doesn't have it,

all the other stuff is just child's play.

You see the occasional little jewel or hear the occasional jewel

in the pop cannon and you think "OK, that's why I like pop music."

# It's not about the money, money, money... #

So what makes a great pop song?

Pop music has to be emotional.

Whether it makes you angry, makes you cry, makes you laugh,

makes you want to go and tell somebody you love them.

It's got to be the record you play before you go out.

It's gotta make you feel good.

There are certain songs that, you know what? Everyone loves this song.

Even if you say you don't, you really do.

You usually get a song,

a real song, from just something that happens in your head.

In this series, we're going to talk to some of the most successful

songwriters over the decades to find out how pop songs are written.

And for the first time we're going inside the process,

as we follow professional song writer Guy Chambers

write three brand new songs.

Most singles selling over a million in Britain are written with

the help of professional song writers like Guy.

He's worked with everyone from Tina Turner to Kylie Minogue,

but he's best known for his work with Robbie Williams.

Together, they've sold over 40 million albums.

In this series,

guy is going to collaborate on three very different types of song.

An anthem with chart busting band the Noisettes.

A breakthrough single with pop maestro Mark Ronson

and is going to start with the most enduring genre of all,

the ballad, with singer song writer, Rufus Wainwright.

We're going to follow the song writing process

as it unfolds from pen and paper to the very first performance.

And along the way,

we're going to find out some of the tricks of the trade.

# There I was in uniform... #

Canadian singer song writer Rufus Wainwright arrives in London

to perform a sell-out concert at the Royal Albert Hall.

# I was just a girl then... #

He's also here to collaborate with Guy Chambers

and write a brand new ballad.

I'm a little bit nervous.

First day of working with anybody new is always a bit nerve racking.

Er, I mean I've collaborated before in the past.

Er, it's never su-super easy.

Rufus has a massive following.

His albums are a critical triumph. He's even written his own opera.

Elton John has called him one of the greatest living song writers.

This summer he'll be the first ever contemporary artist to take

up residency at the Royal Opera House.

But can Rufus find success in the pop market?

One of my jobs is to try and make whoever walks through the door

here walk away with something that's accessible to a lot of people.

I can do opera. Pop is, is more my, er, you know soft point.

Guy and Rufus have just two days together to write their new song.

That's sort of what I can do with a piano.

-I mean I can write stuff like that.

-Yeah.

But then I can't like play happy birthday. It's really depressing.

But what does it take to write a mainstream commercial ballad?

# It's been seven hours and 15 days... #

And what is a ballad anyway?

# Since you took your love away... #

Torture, pain and more pain.

# The first cut is the deepest

# Baby, I know... #

The ballad is the biggest

and most successful genre in pop with an impressive back catalogue.

# Seems to me you lived your life like a candle in the wind... #

This one, Candle In The Wind, is the best-selling single of all time.

# ..when the rain set in... #

# Yesterday...

And this one, Yesterday,

written by Paul McCartney, is the most covered song of all time.

# ..such an easy game to play... #

# Love is all around me... #

These are all the songs that we listen to at weddings and funerals.

The songs that tell us how we really feel.

# Everybody hurts... #

This ballad by REM, according to surveys,

is the pop song that most makes men cry.

# Everybody cries... #

# I'm not in love... #

And what's the biggest theme of all?

Finding love and losing it

and everything in between and feeling horrible.

You know, wanting to jump off a cliff.

# I really need you tonight... #

Talk to any song writer and they'll all say the same thing.

# The winner takes it all... #

The secret to a ballad is simple.

# The loser's standing small... #

Feel the pain.

Yeah, there's an art to feeling sorry for yourself.

There really is, you know,

and there's an art to kind of melancholy.

# Never mind I'll find someone like you... #

I think everyone has torment in their lives.

We all have periods when there's drama.

# I will try... #

I think it's something to sooth the tormented soul, you know,

of the listener.

So how are Guy and Rufus going to tackle their ballad?

They begin at Guy's recording studio in North London.

Well, I actually thought there's ballads in different categories

I was thinking this morning.

There's soul ballads like, # When a man loves a woman... #

# When a man loves a woman... #

# Can't keep his mind on nothing else

# He'll change the world for the good thing he's found. #

-And then you have.

-There's folk ballads.

-Folk ballads.

-Like the first time I ever saw your face.

-Yeah.

-That's by Ewan MacColl.

# The first time ever I saw your face... #

And it's very, you know, like,

# The first time ever I say your face... #

You know this kind of ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.

-Yeah.

-You know, very earnest. That's a ballad. Romantic.

-Yeah.

-It later became a soul ballad.

-Yeah.

-With Roberta Flack.

# The first time

# Ever I kissed your mouth

# I felt the earth move in my hand... #

-Then you have your power ballads.

-Yeah.

-The power of love.

-Yeah.

# Cos I'm your lady... #

But, I mean like, Celine Dion is sort of

the last of the, you know, unabashedly.

-Yes.

-Er,

-Whitney Houston.

-Yeah. Horrifying.

I mean I think there has to be some kind of serious, er,

undertone to a ballad personally, you know.

Some kind of life or death situation, you know this is

the song you're going to hear before I jump out the window.

Mm.

To get the session going Rufus plays some ideas

he's recorded on his phone.

I mean they're all on the Blackberry here.

INAUDIBLE

This is my rap one.

RAPS: 'A piece of the action. Doo, doo, doo, doo, everybody.'

That's not unusual though people playing really rough stuff like that.

It's quite hard for me to, er,

I was just thinking we can't use any of that.

-Were you actually imagining that you'd rap?

-Er.

Well, that was a, that was an idea of doing like a totally Rufus rap.

The only trouble with it is it's, it's not in this ballad thing.

I knew what he meant about it being a good idea.

Er, I think it would be dangerous for him to, to rap though.

So, obviously you saw I didn't encourage that.

With the rap idea politely binned,

Guy tries to steer Rufus down a more radio friendly route.

Halo is an example of a ballad that you know, that great Beyonce song?

-Right.

-Halo...

that is a ballad but it's, it's a soul ballad and it's got

so much rhythm in it that it's got, that it feels up.

-Yeah.

-Even though it's actually slow.

# Remember those wall I built?

# Well, baby, they're... #

No, I would want to have rhythm.

-Yeah.

-Under the ballad.

Yeah, so, so the vocal might be... Will have like a double time feel

that will move it on and it won't fell like a dirge, basically.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

We don't want to go into dirge mode cos getting dirges on the radio

-is very, very difficult.

-Yeah.

# I sit and wait... #

If there's one thing Guy really does know about,

it's how to write a radio friendly ballad.

# ..contemplate my fate... #

Angels, his mega hit with Robbie Williams in 1997,

sold over 2 million copies.

It's still one of the most popular Karaoke

and funeral songs in Britain.

It's a hymn ballad, it's very you know, let us pray.

You know, when you hear the chords at the beginning.

PLAYS ANGELS OPENING CHORDS

It's very, you know, Psalm 106.

# ..that salvation... #

In a sort of choir world that I grew up with, hymns tend to be very.

PLAYS CHORDS

They're very sort of like that, er, and the Angels chords...

PLAYS ANGELS CHORDS

They're very, very, very conventional.

It's very, um...

They're not that surprising. You know, I didn't go.

PLAYS CHORDS

I didn't do something like that. Didn't wander off anywhere.

Didn't go there.

You know, it's, it's all very, er, conventional and,

er, pleasingly predictable.

Reassuring chords, I would say.

# And through it all she offers me protection

Angels was the song that really established Robbie as a solo artist,

but when Guy and Robbie wrote it,

they had no idea it would be so successful.

We knew it was good track,

but we didn't ever have an idea, at that early stage, of how huge

it would be because he hadn't been established at that point.

It was, I think, the second day we were working together

and he was really out of shape and I didn't have any kind of track record

so he probably didn't think the relationship

was that powerful at that point.

In the studio, Guy and Rufus haven't written a word yet.

But Guy had heard on the radio that morning that North Korea had

just attacked South Korea and it's given him an idea for a title.

I had a title this morning for you which was World War Three

and it can also be about war within families or war within...

-On a one to one basis with a partner.

-Right, right.

I thought that was interesting.

I like World War Three, but I don't think, I mean just

the very mention of World War Three is quite a dramatic.

-You can kind of back off from there.

-Yeah. Yeah, no absolutely.

You don't have to use that in the song. Anyway, let me play you...

-OK, great.

-Why don't you come next door?

Guy's got three possible piano riffs he thinks might work.

-There's that.

-Right, right. Cool.

And I've got another riff which goes...

Just with a bit different base notes.

Another things that's...

-It's quite you, I thought, this.

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Mm. Chorus.

What was the one before that? The...

That one?

Rufus latches on to the second riff.

If he hadn't have liked any of those then

we would have been fishing around in the dark for longer

and that might have been quite frustrating.

Er, play that a second.

Like... # World War Three

# Between you and me... #

And then, then he sang that first line

and the melody was really beautiful.

RUFUS SINGS MELODY

Everybody wants a piece of the action, baby.

-Sorry I...

-No, no, maybe or maybe do like a surge.

Oh, that's good.

# Everybody wants a piece of the action

# And everybody wants a piece of the action

# Wha-a-a... #

Yeah, that's nice.

I like that underneath the sheets the land and the sea. That's good.

Right, there's a reason that you have this studio.

# Those school girl days... #

So, what are the tricks to writing a hit ballad?

Around the corner from the studio,

Guy hooks up with an old friend, lyricist Don Black.

Don has been writing for nearly 50 years.

He won an Oscar with John Barry for the song Born Free and he's

had over 30 hits, including Diamonds Are For ever and To Sir With Love.

Well, I always think if you can recognise yourself in a song,

that is the key.

-If someone says to me after a song they've heard of mine...

-Yeah.

-..er, "I felt that." If someone says "My god, I felt that."

-OK.

Then you've cracked it.

# Ben, the two of us need look no more... #

Another of Don Black's hits is Ben.

He wrote it for a movie about a boy with leukaemia, who had a pet rat.

# ..looking for... #

It was a commission to write a song about a rat

but, of course, I didn't want to use words like cheese and traps.

I thought it's not going to have much of a future.

So I wrote it about friendship.

# And you, my friend, will see

# You've got a friend in me. #

Michael came over to us and I sang it to him

and then he said, "Oh, I love it, I love it," and funnily enough,

his favourite lyric of all time,

cos he said this in his biography, is the middle eight.

# I used to say... #

"I used to say I am me, now it's us, now it's we."

# Now it's us

# now it's we. #

He loved that because it was so simple.

I don't really have any theories.

-I mean, I've written complicated lyrics for musicals.

-Yeah.

But I think for popular songs, I think they have to be accessible.

I always say, if you can, in a perfect world, it would say,

er, something fresh about the human condition.

-OK.

-If that doesn't sound too lofty.

-No, no.

I always think, you know,

anyone can write a song saying you don't love me any more.

-Mm.

-It's very cliched,

but if you say you've lost that loving feeling it's a bit better.

# You've lost that lovin' feeling... #

Back in the studio, Guy and Rufus are on a roll.

They're sailing through the first verse and are now on to the bridge.

The bridge, hold on a minute. What's that again?

It's the bit before the chorus that leads you into the chorus

so it gives you the lift.

Hopefully it lifts you so there's this sense of expectation so...

"Right, oh, here comes the chorus,"

and it kind of sign posts it massively.

It's like opening the curtains of the show, you know.

To me it's that, the reveal.

# And everybody

# Wants a piece of the action

# And everybody

# Wants a piece of the action... #

-Shouldn't there be another verse in there and then...

-No.

-Oh, really, that's not... OK.

-Don't bore us, get to the chorus.

-Remember that one?

-Oh, really.

# Don't bore us get to the chorus

-That's actually a nice.

-Opening line.

-That's a good one.

-OK.

Guy's throwaway line, "Don't bore us get to the chorus,"

unexpectedly resonates with Rufus

and triggers a surprising revelation.

# Got to get to... #

I mean it's a nice, it's actually a nice thought because it's like...

Actually, cos you know, I mean I will, I will tell you...

-Yeah.

-..that I'm, you know, I'm expecting a child.

-Oh, wow!

-Congratulations. Wow, that's amazing.

-Yeah, in February.

-I'm seven months pregnant.

-Yeah. You're looking great on it.

Not only is Rufus going to be a gay dad,

but the mother of the child is Lorca Cohen,

Leonard Cohen's daughter.

This sudden life change has not been easy for Rufus.

We, we've been friends for many, many years

and she's always wanted to have a kid and...

Yeah.

You know, er, basically let's just say we haven't had the time

to really prepare, er, normally for what's about to happen.

And, and there's a lot of stuff kind of coming up

you know between these ego's and these new life forms,

and it's all been very, er, intense

and great, but also, you know, hard to manoeuvre.

Luckily, granddad to be Leonard has had a chance to sit down

with Rufus for a chat.

He was very, you know, excited about what's happening

and just sort of reminded me that, you know, this is all good and...

-Mm.

-And that one of his big things was you know,

-don't focus on those old issues, it is about new stuff.

-Mm.

And in terms of this, it's like focus on the chorus. What is it?

Don't bore us, get to the chorus.

Don't bore us, get to the chorus, you know what I mean?

You know like, let's shed some of this.

But we're not really fighting, it's just,

-it's just this sort of clash of cultures, you know.

-Yeah.

-Or, or...

-Well, if you can put some energy, if you can use that

-as energy to help write the lyrics, that could be great.

-Yeah.

-Unless...

'It's not often that you've just met someone

'and they tell you something as, as private as that.

'I was quite surprised.'

That's the sort of thing Robbie would do, actually.

He can... He's very confessional

and likes to tell people something that's juicy.

It's the sign of a really good song writer, actually.

So here's the song writer's mantra. Write what you know.

But how much of yourself are you supposed to reveal?

# Do you really want to hurt me? #

This song by Culture Club was number 1 in 12 countries

around the world, but when Boy George first recorded it,

he tried to block its release because it was just too personal.

# Love is never asking why... #

I had written this song about my boyfriend and I

just thought, well, it's just, you know, it's just not a single.

And Virgin heard it and were like "Oh, this is definitely the single,"

and I was like, "No, no,"

and I actually went in and screamed at them.

I absolutely went in and went mental.

"This can't come out as a record, the single.

"It's going to destroy... We will never get anywhere.

"It's going to end everything."

I really didn't get it cos for me it was too personal.

# Do you really want to make me cry? #

I learnt a really valuable lesson with that song

because I learnt that kind of being personal is really what it's about.

You should always be personal in your music

a always write about things that mean something.

# Words are few I have spoken... #

I like artists who are connected to what they write and sing

and you can tell.

Even if it's a pop act. I mean Abba, you know I think they're great

because, you know, it was personal.

I mean they were writing about their kind of little soap opera.

# I apologise... #

You know, the fact that it was kind of cheesy infectious pop

was just, you know, part of that.

But there was also a kind of real... You know what I mean?

..underbelly to it and I think that's,

that's what makes the difference.

# The winner takes it all... #

As a writer, everything's about emotion. What do I feel, you know?

What do I want to say?

The only time I've ever messed up as a song writer is

when I've tried to sort of be like other people.

There was a period in the 80's when I sort of...

"Let's be Frankie Goes to Hollywood."

Let's face it, getting personal never hurt a record's sales.

If anything, it's the opposite.

This song, written by Sting, after the breakup of his first marriage

is one of the biggest ballads ever.

# Every breath you take... #

It's played on the radio all the time.

It's probably being played right now.

I got a certificate a few years ago for that song from an

American radio and it had been played 10 million times, right.

This was years, this is 10 years ago

so god knows how many times it has been played, let's say 20.

Add up 20 million 4 minutes and you'd probably get

something like, I don't know, 20 years of continuous airplay.

Actually Sting, your sums are way off.

The real figure is nearer 150 years of continuous play.

Every time a song is played on the radio,

it earns a royalty which is split between writer and publisher.

On Radio 2 that could be up to £66 a go.

If a track is played a lot, it could end up paying your pension

and even your children's pension.

The French call them gold songs.

All that means is that they're, they'll worth a lot of money.

Basically.

I think it's, it's my most successful song

and probably better known than any of the others and yet,

it's not in the least bit original.

It, er, you know, it has a standard chord sequence

which is probably nicked of, er, Stand By Me.

# Every breath you take

# Every move you make

# Every bond you break every step you take

# I'll be watching you

# Every single day... #

So it's not, it's not original

and the lyrics you could get from a rhyming dictionary,

you know make, take, fake, wake and yet it has something about it

which people respond to in that it seems at first like a very romantic

kind of seductive song which is what I initially intended it to be,

but then when you listen to it, you realise there's a compulsion

behind it to the point of obsession where it becomes quite sinister.

# Every move you make And every vow you break... #

All the time I get people writing letters saying,

"Oh, it's our favourite song. It was played at our wedding."

And I, you know, and I never contradict people

about what the meaning of the song is.

It think it's whatever it means to you, that's what the meaning is.

But for me it has this double edge thing and, er, it's,

I think it's pretty powerful.

You know, still, still what people want to hear.

It's all about stalking someone, isn't it?

It's all about I'll be watching you. That's the key line, isn't it?

# Every night you stay I'll be watching you. #

When you have songs where the line repeats and one word is different,

that you... The ear likes that because you're thinking

"what's he going to rhyme it with, where's he going to go with it?"

It leads you along when there's repetition like that.

That's very, er, that's a good trick.

Not that he... Not that he was thinking that was a trick.

Sometimes I'll spend months and months on a song

making it very technical musically,

and technical lyrically, and, er, I don't get anywhere.

Sometimes the simplest songs are the best.

Being simple is not easy though.

# Every move you make every step you take

# I'll be watching you. #

# Don't bore us...

In the studio, after nailing the first verse,

Guy and Rufus have suddenly hit a stumbling block.

They can't find a word that rhymes with battle.

Time for the rhyming dictionary.

-These battles.

-These battles.

Are... My only rhyming battles is a bastard.

-At all times.

-Chattels.

-Cattle, metal.

-It's a bit like, it's like rhyming orange.

-Yeah.

-No orange is famously hard.

-Battle's also quite tough.

-Maddle, saddle, saddle. Keep on the saddle.

-Get back on the saddle.

Don't battle, get back on the saddle.

Don't battle, but getting on the saddle is battling, you know.

The saddle. Why don't we just sing it?

# This battle back on the saddle... #

-Oh!

-No battles.

What about, what about like, er, this battle's back in the saddle.

-Mm.

-You might as well just run or something, you know.

# You might as well

# Just run away from the guns. #

-That kind brings it back.

-Yeah.

Yeah. That's cool.

Shall we just, er...

-Let's put that idea down.

-Yeah.

-In there.

-OK.

-Can you play?

-So with this song we call it Away from the Guns?

-World War Three.

-Oh, World War Three.

# World War Three

# Between... #

Nobody owns a title so you could write a song today called All You Need Is Love,

but obviously the danger would be

that that is an unbelievably famous song

and if you're going to write a song called All You Need Is Love,

you have to actually beat the original version and make it better

than that song which many people would argue is impossible.

But I don't think there's probably many songs called World War Three.

That's one of the good things about that title.

# We've got stars directing... #

Over 150 single are released every week in Britain,

so it helps to have a title you can remember.

Better still, pick one that will get you lots of radio play,

like this one by Guy and Robbie.

# Millennium... #

We wrote that in 1998 and we both knew there would be millennium songs

and we thought there won't be many, but if we get in there

really early with ours. It was quite calculating that song, actually.

But there's nothing wrong with that.

# Don't bore us

# Skip to the chorus

# There's so much more to come... #

Rufus is recording the chorus, but his voice is beginning to tire.

Last night's gig at the Albert Hall has taken its toll.

-Cool.

-OK.

-Would you like...?

It would be good to hear... I don't know how tired your voice is,

it's probably very tired.

I just performed at the Albert Hall last night so, yes.

Er, is there a way you could sing the chorus more bigger?

-I could do it bigger, yeah.

-Do you want me to help you?

-Do you mean the don't bore us, skip to the chorus bit?

-Yeah.

-OK.

It will give me help when I build the track up to know how big to make it.

-Oh, OK.

-D'you know what I mean? Cos at the moment it's quite?

-OK let me just do some...

-Yeah.

-..which are big.

-Cool.

# They're gearing up

# For a beating

# Just face the hill... #

I, I definitely want to hear somebody completely open out

in their voice, absolutely.

Soaring is a good word, you know, and you can...

I think the chorus has got that.

Like Guy, who's classically trained, Rufus also has a musical background.

He and his sister, the singer Martha Wainwright

are part of a famous song writing dynasty.

His parents are folk balladeers Loud & Wainwright

and the late Kate McGarrigle.

Me coming from a folk tradition, my mother Kate McGarrigle

was a great folk musician and my father steeped in that world

and I grew up with all those old, really old ballads, you know,

English ballads and Scottish ballads and French Canadian ballads, and...

I think having had that, it gives me a good sort of resource to pull from.

But is there any connection between those old ballads

and the kind that Guy and Rufus are writing now?

Well, ballads are definitely medieval.

I'd say they probably go back further.

They were stories that people told and then if,

if it had a strong enough melody then that melody would be

passed from, you know, village to village, town square to town square.

Sooner or later they got written down.

# Love hurts, love scars... #

Samuel Pepys, the great diarist, he collected ballads.

A huge, huge amount of ballads.

We've got something like five volumes of these books here

which are all Pepys ballads.

What's interesting is when you've got them all together, you begin to

see themes emerging, and the biggest theme unsurprisingly is love.

Love lost in particular. Love's wound, love's cure.

Well, that's basically the same as loves, love hurts. Secret lovers.

The cruel lover. Dying lovers' last farewell. Love's power and greatness.

No love, no life.

It's essentially love's gone wrong.

They weren't worrying about the Plague or whatever.

They were worrying about the fact that their true love

had left them for, you know, the guy down the road.

These are collected by Vaughn Williams,

the Edwardian composer and great folk song enthusiast,

and so let's have a look.

Saucy Sailor Boy, can't say I know that one.

The Power of Love, there you go.

Now this is amazing.

You know, Hughie Lewis and the News and Frankie goes to Hollywood

do a Power of Love, and I think Jennifer Rush as well.

The ultimate cheesy, lighter-in-the-air power ballad.

And here it is, The Power of Love,

you know over a hundred years earlier.

# Cos I am your lady... #

The power of love. We've been singing about it for centuries.

Who knew there were so many different ways of talking about it?

Here's another ballad from the 1980s, this time with a twist.

A love song not about the power of love but about the power of money.

# You dress me up I'm your puppet

# You buy me things I love it... #

Well, with Rent,

the idea was to write a love song, but for it to be quite hard.

It's not a romantic love song.

It's probably not the story of a particularly happy relationship.

# Look at my hopes, look at my dreams

# The currency we spent

# I love you... #

I imagine this is a woman singing it,

which is a bit strange cos I am obviously a man singing it

but, um, when she sings, er, "Look at my hopes,

"look at my dreams, the currency we've spent",

but it's actually her life has been spent in this relationship and was it wasted?

# You phone me in the evening on hearsay

# And bought me caviar

# You took me to a restaurant off Broadway

# To tell me who you are... #

A very important thing in pop music is to mix hard and soft together,

which is quite simply John Lennon and Paul McCartney,

and this has a sort of pretty tune, and then...

it's got the brutal end. "You pay my rent."

# I love you, you pay my rent. #

It's got a ballady chord change in the bridge, the "Look at my hopes, look at my dreams,

"the currency we spent," it's this yearning melody.

# Look at my hopes, look at my dreams, the currency we've spent. #

And then the melody's then resigned.

# I love you, you pay my rent... #

# I love you, you pay my rent. #

I liked singing Rent.

I was struck by what a sad song it is,

and I don't think when we wrote it I was particularly thinking it's sad.

I think it was meant to be a little bit cynical when we wrote it,

but often you discover there's a real emotion there anyway,

even if it's not what you intended.

# Back in the saddle

# Just turn around... #

Over in the studio, Guy and Rufus have been cranking up the lyrics.

# Away from the guns

# Away from the guns... #

-Twice.

-Yeah, yeah.

That would attract more attention to that line.

Yeah, yeah.

-Which might be good.

-Yeah.

# Away from the guns

# Away from the guns

# Doo, doo, doo, doo. #

Oh, I like a bit of military, me.

Yeah, doo, doo, doo. Yeah, bring the guns in.

Yeah, 1812. What's the 1812 melody go?

How does that go? Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.

# La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la. #

We could sample that.

Dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. He's out of copyright, Tchaikovsky.

It's lunch time, and the morning has been unusually productive.

It's good that we've got somewhere, cos sometimes

we could be at this point, well, you know, say a third through the day,

where you haven't actually got anywhere.

But you might find that the words do change,

er, as we go further down the road with it.

In the afternoon, Guy starts to build up the track,

while Rufus wrestles with the lyrics.

Oh, OK, I got it, I got it.

There's no more blood to run.

Yeah. Yeah.

The song is almost done.

All they have to do is work out how to end it.

So what time is that?

End on the same chord is 3.08.

See, 3.08, which means there isn't time for a bridge.

I have a "nothing over 4 minute" rule.

What about one of those, like you just sort of say something repetitively at the end.

Oh, yeah, like a...

# Waga waga, na, na, na, na... #

-An outro thing.

-An outro, an outro.

-Yeah.

-Sort of that then fades out.

Like the Hey Jude thing. Like a "nah-nah" section.

# Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah

# Just put your cards on the table and call it a day

# Run away. #

I think it should be the same rhythm.

Yeah.

The times we live in, that could be good for the chart.

The times we live in.

# The times we live in

Are unforgiving.

# Are very unforgiving

-That's really nice melody, that. I really like that.

-Good.

-Thank you.

-That's really hooky. Hold on, hold on a minute.

# The times we live in are very unforgiving

# Run away

# Run away

# Run away

# The times we live in are very unforgiving

# Run away

# Run away

# Run away

# The times we live in are very unforgiving

# Run away

# Run away

# Run away

# The times we live in are very unforgiving

# Run away

# Run away! #

-That was an exhausting outro.

-Yeah.

Cool.

Can I come hear something?

Cool, yeah, yes, that would be great.

Can I put some strings on it, quickly, just to...

It's the end of the day, and Guy and Rufus listen back to their work.

# There's no more blood to run. #

They're joined by Barbara Charone.

Known in the business as BC,

she's famous as Madonna's formidable publicist,

and has been working with Rufus during his stay in London.

The World War Two and World War One line's really good.

Are we good for today?

-Yeah, I think we are.

-Are we getting there?

OK, an open house...

Guy and Rufus have one more day together,

but not for a couple of months.

They'll be picking up in Rufus's town, Los Angeles.

-See ya later.

-See ya.

The fact that it's reasonably finished is, is good.

That's a nice feeling and it's, it's definitely the melody,

I'm pleased with the melody and, so definitely it's

a really good melody for him, he sounds amazing on it.

But Guy's not sure about the chorus.

"Don't bore us, get to the chorus" was his idea.

Now he's getting cold feet.

I'm just wondering if the first line in the chorus

is maybe a bit gimmicky,

like maybe it's a bit of an in joke,

and I might suggest to him to try some other lines.

Yeah, let's try it like that and try not to rush, OK,

it's a little bit slower than you think, the track.

With Rufus gone, Guy can start putting some layers on the track.

Once you start putting instruments on songs, that can then mean

you look at it again in a different light.

It could just change the way you hear the song,

cos it started off as a ballad, which tends to mean slow tempo,

but once you put rhythm around it, it can turn into something else.

If you just played it on the piano and voice,

it would sound quite operatic probably, but that's very much him.

That afternoon,

Guy invites his friend Don Black around for a listen.

Well, if the day went well in that,

when he walked through the door there was nothing,

and by the time he walked out, we'd done that. So that was a result.

Very good, I like it very much.

He brings a kind of theatricality to it as well,

everything he does has a theatricality.

-Like Oscar Wilde singing?

-Yeah, it is, it is.

It's class, he's a class act, he's terrific.

Part of me would like to see a different lyric.

-A completely different lyric?

-A different first line in the chorus,

-Make the chorus more...

-What don't you like, the bore us and...?

I think it's too knowing, it's what my instinct's saying.

-Make it more universal and more...

-Yeah.

Try and make it more of a standard.

On the other hand, you could read it, don't bore us,

get to the chorus, but you could read it like

-let's get to the nitty gritty.

-That's what it's meant to be.

That's what it's about, yeah,

well it's another way of saying it in today's language.

Because he's the artist, you get away with it.

If you had to sell this to someone and say now who can we get it to, you wouldn't get it to anyone.

-No, you wouldn't.

-No, you're right.

Well, you wouldn't get it to anyone, but the fact that he's the artist...

No, it's good. It's a nice tune as well.

Mm.

Yeah, very good, you've done something right.

But what will Rufus think of the latest version?

Hello.

Hello, Rufus, it's Guy Chambers.

Hi.

After a two-week break, Guy contacts Rufus while he's on tour in New York.

The camera's there, right? Are we...? Oh, there you are.

Yeah, he camera is here, and we are recording this as well.

Oh, OK, good...

-So we...

-And I love being recorded.

So, um, how do you feel about the song?

Sounds amazing, I mean I've, er, you know I've listened to it a lot,

er, you know, by choice!

So, so that's always a good sign, um...

I think the "Don't bore us get to the chorus",

I wasn't sure about it, but now I think it's very Oscar Wilde.

Yes, yes.

-I think...

-I am Oscar Wilde's heir, musically so. I mean,

I'm also hearing that, you know, 1812 Overture bit at the end.

Oh, OK.

You know, I hear a possibility for it,

of how it could work with the chords and then, er,

yeah it would be great to get some harmonies, um...

Shall we do that in Los Angeles?

Yeah, let's definitely do that.

And are you cool to do it in my house?

Yeah, yeah.

-It's in Beechwood Canyon.

-Yeah, I love Beechwood, I love Beechwood.

-Good, all right.

-OK.

-OK, Rufus, well, enjoy your gig.

-I will, bye.

Bye, bye, see ya.

It's February, and Guy's on his way to LA

to record Rufus's backing vocals and finish the song.

Well, the background vocals are often

described as the makeup on the face of a song,

and the sort of colour around the lead vocal,

and they sort of support it and give it additional strength, I suppose.

First, in a studio off Sunset Boulevard, some live drums.

This is Victor Indrizzo,

one of the most sought-after drummers in America.

He's worked with everyone from Willie Nelson to Sheryl Crow.

In the second version you go back to the tom thing,

but it'd almost be cool to have like this kit almost sans amp doing half time against it.

Oh, yeah, that's something new happens, hm.

Oh, yeah, cos at the moment it's,

it's the same as the first verse, which isn't good.

Next it's over to Guy's house in the Hollywood Hills.

Rufus arrives bleary-eyed.

The new baby, Viva Catherine Wainwright Cohen, was born just three weeks ago.

Fantastic crescendo.

Yeah.

The session begins with Tchaikovsky.

Rufus is still keen to get the 1812 Overture into the track.

The thing is that it's a lot slower the way I want to do it,

the way I was thinking.

HE HUMS 1812 OVERTURE

-There you go.

-Yeah.

-Build it up.

Yeah. This is how you write a hit song. You have to reference Tchaikovsky.

That's what Black Swan did.

-It's quite glorious, the ending, though.

-Yes.

It's very, very you.

My endings are always glorious.

Beefing up a ballad with orchestration is not a new trick.

We are, after all, in LA,

the spiritual home of the super-sized power ballad.

# If I could turn back time

# If I could find a way... #

This is Diane Warren,

one of the most successful songwriters in the world.

She's written more top ten hits than the Beatles,

with stars like Cher, Celine Dion and Aerosmith.

And she has her very own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

So what are the secrets from this serial hit-maker?

Finding a new way of saying something

that's been said a million times.

Finding that little tweak, that little slight difference, you know,

that one little slight difference, you know, is a huge difference.

# Unbreak my heart... #

That's exactly what Diane Warren did when she came up with

her blockbuster ballad Unbreak My Heart.

I came up with the title for that song and, and I thought wow,

that's like, I've never heard that said that way.

I remember talking to a couple of friends, and saying what do you think?

And I remember one of my friends goes, nobody would say that.

I go, yeah, but, I could create something that said...

# Unbreak my heart... #

Don't break my heart, you know, fix my heart or,

you know wouldn't have the same ring, would it.

# Unbreak my heart... #

# Unbreak my heart

# Say you love me... #

I mean it just had this thing that just, you know, kind of, I mean...

It did it to me when I was writing it. I said oh, my God that's so cool.

I was really excited about it and I went to play it for Clive Davis,

and he said I want that for Toni Braxton, and I think he had to convince her.

See what happens when an artist isn't sure,

they don't want to do it, you know, it's like you can go, wow,

how did you, how do you not hear that, how do you not want to do that?

And it worked out she did it and, I don't know,

it was, like, probably one of the biggest songs of all time.

I don't really have that much musical education, you know,

cos I'm mainly self taught, um,

so I don't know what I'm doing stuff that's, you know, wrong

or you know not the correct way which is great cos, you know,

I can just go where my heart tells me to go, so that works out.

# I can't live... #

Big hair, big feelings, serious key changes.

Power ballads have been a noble fixture

in the ballad hall of fame ever since they were invented in 1971 with this one.

# I can't live...

Once a guilty pleasure, they're now enjoying a bit of a comeback.

This is Ultimate Power, one of the biggest club events in Britain.

They play only power ballads.

We love these songs more than anything.

-And, more to the point, the general public do.

-Yeah.

So many of the tracks that we play in a night were massive number ones for weeks on end.

# I would do anything for love...

Meatloaf, Total Eclipse Of The Heart.

-Aerosmith.

-Bryan Adams.

-Cher, If I Could Turn Back Time.

-November Rain. Enormous.

Always end on double rain. November Rain into Purple Rain.

# Purple rain, purple rain... #

The production on all those songs is astonishing.

The performance is incredible.

I mean you know, you hear those vocals and, and they come across

like they're giving their heart and soul into a microphone.

# And I-I-I-I... #

Here is my heart, it is on a plate, it belongs to you.

And you've just smashed it into a million pieces with a glass,

and a hammer, and, you know,

and you literally like really feel where you're coming from.

No-one wants to be big any more,

and these people were writing songs to be enormous.

And that's, you know, it's a difficult thing. Being cool's really easy.

Up in the Hills, Guy is ready for some power harmonies from Rufus.

# And everybody got a piece of the action

# Everybody got a piece of the action

# Don't... #

-Nice.

-Are we going to double that again?

-OK.

# And everybody

# Got a piece of the action

# Everybody

# Got a piece of the action... #

-Shall we have a listen to that?

-OK.

-We'll put some delay on it, I think.

-Yeah.

# Everybody

# Got a piece of the action

# Everybody

# Got a piece of the action... #

All right, well, I gotta go take a nap...

-Yes, no, I understand.

-..cos I'm a father.

Rufus and Guy will re-convene tomorrow night. Their plan...

to test the song out at an impromptu gig

in front of its first ever live audience.

We're going to do a concert at the little venue in Hollywood,

and we're going do a stripped back version of the song with piano,

just piano and voice and, er, see how his fans relate to it.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Hello.

Hi, everybody, my name is Rufus Wainwright

and this is Guy Chambers and, er, yes.

And we're all working tonight and the reason you're all here

is because I'm introducing a new song called World War Three,

which is a happy piece.

So actually, I'm going to take the mic out cos it's more kind of pop.

LAUGHING

Better get ready for my hit song...stuff.

Um, yeah, and it's called, World War Three, here we go.

# World War Three

# Between you and me

# Under siege

# The land and the sea

# And everybody

# Wants a piece of the action

# Everybody

# Wants a piece of the action

# Don't bore us

# Skip to the chorus

# There's so much more to come

# The battle's back in the saddle

# Just turn your back and run

# Away from the guns

# Away from the guns... #

I have to be honest, I was extremely apprehensive

about writing with anyone, I mean I'd written before with people

and usually it's bit of a, sort of a dentistry experience,

but with Guy... Um, the sensibility was one of, you know,

let's do this for the song.

# ..Despite World War One... #

It was a really great experience and I'd love to try something else

with him, he's got a phenomenal voice.

# ..Got a piece of the action... #

I still don't know if the first line in the chorus is a terrible mistake,

um, but apart from that, I really, really enjoyed it.

# ..Don't bore us, get to the chorus

# There's no more blood to run

# Don't bore us... #

But what do industry insiders think of the song?

# Battle... Just... #

To find out, we took it to two of Britain's top radio pluggers.

Is this the commercial ballad Rufus was hoping for?

# Away from the guns

# Away from the guns... #

This is a classic song, it soars at the right moments, it just...

-It's lovely, it drops back again, it doesn't just settle again.

-Yeah.

# ..World War Two... #

-You just, kind of, have to stop and go, "I've got to listen to that."

-Mm.

But what do the pluggers think of the chorus.

I really like the line, "Don't bore us, get to the chorus."

I don't think it's an industry line,

I think most people out there will understand and I do think it works in there.

God, if that's the first time Rufus and Guy have written together

you kind of think, "Do a bit more, guys."

Will the song make the all important radio playlist?

-Well, Radio 2, yeah...

-All over, yeah.

-..record of the week.

-Radio 2.

-It's Radio 2.

I think in commercial radio, Absolute would want to bit of that big time, that's a big...

You know, you can imagine people in their cars singing it.

See, I hear this in, in a big old British romcom, with Curtis...

-Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

-..cos this is a massive, like, kind of...

-It is, it's totally that.

Right at the end where he gets the girl, she's run off, he realises he loves her, she's at the airport,

-he has to get there, the train's stuck, it's one of those.

-Yeah.

-It's Notting Hill, it's...

Yeah, totally, it's a big... Or even a Disney film, as well.

Hold it for the Olympics when someone gets a gold medal,

going through the line, like that.

I can just... It's got that, it's emotive

and, um, you know, I know that this is part of the ballad...

-I know exactly what you're going to say.

-..But it's anthemic.

-Totally, yeah.

-It's completely anthemic.

# ..Run away, run away, run away

# The times we live in are very unforgiving

# Run away, run away, run away. #

Thank you so much.

And goodnight.

Thank you, Guy.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

I thought it was a triumph, I think it could be a hit,

it's a very commercial record for Rufus

and I think it marries Guy and Rufus's sensibilities

really, really well.

I think it went well. What about you?

It was a buzz, it was a really good buzz, you know, er,

-I couldn't see their faces...

-Yeah.

-I was looking at the piano.

-Yeah.

-Were they listening?

Oh, yeah, no, they were listening,

but they always do when I'm up there.

# World War Three... #

You seem to be taking it in and... Cos they're all thinking,

"Hmm, what is this?"

My daughter was there, Viva Catherine Wainwright Cohen, which was sweet.

I didn't call too much attention to that.

No, you didn't, you were very subtle.

-Yeah, back in the saddle.

-Yeah.

# ..The land and the sea... #

# They tried to make me go to rehab... #

Next week, it's the break through single.

The Holy Grail for any new artist.

Guy joins forces with pop maestro Mark Ronson.

Can they create a song to put exciting new talent

Tarwea on the musical map?

# The times we live in are very unforgiving

# Run away, run away, run away

The times we live in are very unforgiving

# Run away, run away, run away

# The times we live in are very unforgiving

# Run away, run away, run away. #

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd