Breakthrough Single 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 and roll, pop music, anything.

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 canon

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

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

So, what makes a great pop song?

Pop music has to be emotional,

whether it makes you angry, makes you cry, laugh,

makes you want to tell somebody you love them.

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

It's got to make you feel good.

There are certain songs that, 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 talk to some of pop's biggest songwriters

to find out just how they wrote their hits.

And we follow professional songwriter Guy Chambers,

as he collaborates on some brand-new songs.

Most singles selling over a million in Britain are written with the help

of professional songwriters like Guy.

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

But it's his collaboration with Robbie Williams that made him famous.

Together they've sold over 40 million albums.

So far in this series, Guy's written a ballad with Rufus Wainwright.

Now he's attempting what every up-and-coming artist is in search of -

the elusive breakthrough single.

And he's going to get super-producer Mark Ronson to write it with him.

We'll follow the process

from pen and paper to the very first public performance

and find out some of the secrets of the song-writing trade.

Hello. How you doing?

CHEERING

# Pop, pop, pop music... #

Pop. It dominates the charts.

We now buy more of it than any other style of music.

# ..Pop, pop, pop music... #

For people who write hit songs, there's serious money to be made.

Global sales of music may have dropped 40% in the past decade,

but one international hit can still set the songwriter up for life.

So what's the secret to a chart-busting single?

# ..Pop music, talk about... #

Feeling probably, mostly.

I mean I've had, what, 78 top tens.

And I still don't know what a hit is. All I can go by what I feel.

# If you feel that you can't go on

# Cos all your hope is gone... #

Pop music is a diary of contemporary culture.

You can listen to a good pop record

and it's rooted in its time.

# Music makes the people come together... #

'What makes a good pop song?'

'Airplay!'

It's quite essential!

There's been some dreadful records that've been number one.

-# Disco, disco duck

-Oh, right... #

The Disco Duck, Agadoo.

# Aa-ga doo, doo, doo Push pineapple, shake a tree... #

'A lot of people think what makes a good pop song is that it's been successful,'

and I hate that mentality!

"Oh, you've got to admire them. They've done well."

No, I don't. Arms dealers do well, I couldn't care less.

# New York, London, Paris, Munich Everybody talk about pop music... #

The music industry is a cut-throat business and the songwriter's place

within it depends on their ability to move with the times.

'The pressure of writing hit, after hit, after hit is immense now.'

You have to know why you're in the industry in the first place.

It's an increasingly scientific business, the business of getting pop hits.

Radio stations will only play

things that they're convinced their audience will like.

They'll go out and test these tunes before they'll put them on the air.

What's happened to pop? It never used to be this way. Or did it?

The music business has changed an awful lot since Guy Chambers started out.

He's one of Britain's most successful songwriters.

-Makka Pakka.

-Makka Pakka? Hmm. Daddy doesn't really know that one.

He knows how to come up with a number one.

He's had five of them with Robbie Williams.

MUSIC: "Millennium"

Guy's written over 1,000 songs.

In 15 years he's had 21 top tens.

That's one hit for every 47 songs he's written.

Now he's going to show us how he does it, with a rare peek into the process.

He'll be writing a chart song from scratch with music's man of moment.

ELECTRONIC SOUND EFFECTS

# Un, deux, trois... #

Mark Ronson has been dubbed the Prince of Cool

and is often celebrated as the Phil Spector of his generation.

A performer in his own right, he came to fame via DJ-ing,

before becoming one of the new breed of superstar producers

who helped make stars out of Lily Allen, Adele

and, most famously, Amy Winehouse.

# He left no time to regret... #

Ronson won four Grammys for his work on Back To Black,

and later bagged a Brit for Best Male Artist.

Between them, Mark and Guy have sold 60 million albums.

But can they write a song to put a critically acclaimed newcomer on the musical map?

-Hey.

-Hey, how you doing?

-Come in. Welcome.

-Are you Guy?

-Yeah.

-Oh, hey. Nice to meet you.

-I've seen pictures of you but it's always different in the flesh. How's it going?

-Good.

There's always trepidation cos it's like a mixture of...

First date and then the pressure to actually create something.

I get a mixture of nervousness and anxiety and excitement

before I start every project.

As long as you don't put ridiculously high expectations,

like, "I'm going to come in and walk out with Angels 2011," it should be all right.

-Oh, look at this desk.

-It used to be in Abbey Road.

-Insane!

We won't necessarily write a hit.

Be great if we did. That would be incredible.

But hits are very rare things, you know.

It's like spotting a lion when you're on safari.

You're more likely to see a few giraffes.

In the past, a song would have started with real instruments. These days, beats come ready made.

It'd be nice slowed down.

SERIES OF BEATS PLAYS

Just skimming through this...

SERIES OF BEATS PLAYS

You've got to start from somewhere, so we're starting from rhythm.

And the sort of feel of it, flavour of it.

GUITAR RIFF STARTS UP

Wow, that's a cool sound.

PERCUSSION SOUNDS START UP

How out of tune is that bass!

'If you sample something,'

'you have to pay for it and give them a percentage,'

so usually I just use the sample as an inspiration point to start with

and you end up replacing it or getting rid of it along the way.

It's like the same story that the Stones...

I don't know if it's true, but the Stones used to write their songs by jamming on a Beatles song

until, after a few hours, it just evolves into something else.

-You play that...

-It could alternate with the bass.

-Yeah, yeah.

HE PLAYS GUITAR RIFF AND SINGS ALONG

# Then it moves from there, goes da-na da, da-da... #

HE HUMS THE TUNE

See what I mean?

'Every experience is completely different.

'Sometimes we'll just be sitting in a room for 14 hours and nothing good comes out.'

JAMMING TOGETHER ON GUITARS

# They tried to make me go to rehab I said no, no, no

# Yes I've been black... #

When I worked on Amy Winehouse's album, we were just making music that we liked

and after so long of not having hits, I probably thought at the back of my head,

"I'm never going to have a hit. I might as well just make the music that I like."

That's when I had a breakthrough moment and started making stuff that WAS successful.

# ..I'd rather be at home with Ray... #

There are confines. You're sitting in a room and you're like,

"Let's not take five minutes to get to the chorus

"or make a seven-minute epic," but there is also...

You have to keep your own original voice in it, you know.

# ..Say no, no, no... #

There are critics who argue artists like Amy Winehouse are all too rare,

and that pop has become too formulaic,

but really, it's always been that way.

Some of the earliest chart music was created by assembly line.

But manufactured doesn't necessarily equal bad. Remember this?

OPENING CHORDS: "Baby Love" by The Supremes

# Ooo, oo-hoo

# Baby love, my baby love

# I need you Oh, how I need you... #

Motown was the ultimate hit factory, with 192 number ones worldwide.

Inspired by the car assembly lines in its hometown, Detroit,

it laid down the blueprint for the perfect pop machine.

Teams of songwriters and producers churning out songs to strict rules.

The most famous team was Holland-Dozier-Holland,

hit-makers for the likes of the Supremes, The Four Tops

and Marvin Gaye.

I always called Motown a college with music,

because a lot of us young songwriters and producers got together

and we dreamt up different, er, structures

and things and different things, er, that we felt would be infectious.

You know, things that would, er, get the kids running

to the record stores and buying this stuff.

We would have to have certain chords that brought out the sensitivity.

Drum beats and different things.

The marriage between the lyrics and melody had to be right on par.

They'd take you on a journey.

-# ..I never loved no-one but you

-Don't throw our love away

# Why you do me like you do... #

And in those day, those songs were like two, two-and-a-half minutes long

so, you know, you want to get them in...

We'd say "get them", in the first eight bars.

So we had to make sure that those eight bars were very infectious.

# Sugar pie, honey bunch

# You know that I love you... #

Motown's writing teams were often pushed to produce a song an hour.

They'd judge each other's work in quality control meetings.

Such was the pressure to produce hits,

the writers had to mine every ounce of their life experience for ideas.

My grandfather, watching him when I was a kid,

my grandmother had a home beauty shop

and he took his welcoming thing a little bit, you know...

he was a bit of a rascal, you know!

So he would say, "Good morning, sugar pie. How're you doing, honey bunch?"

Flirting, you know, in a way.

One day, years later, I'm sitting in there, you know...

HE PLAYS PIANO

His face came to me and I started thinking.

# Sugar pie, honey bunch... #

-# ..Sugar pie, honey bunch

-Sugar pie, honey bunch

# I'm weaker than a man should be

-# Can't help myself

-Can't help myself

# I'm a fool in love, you see... #

Now, decades and decades later,

because of the rules that Motown built,

we can say that they were a formula, but I don't know.

They had parameters, they definitely knew what a star was but...

Sure it was formula, sure. Of course. What was it?

# ..Tearin' it all apart

# No matter how I try

# My love I can't hide... #

So much art is in the nuance, you know.

Debussy said works of art makes rules,

but rules don't make works of art.

OPENING CHORDS: "Dancing Queen" by ABBA

Formula or not,

there are key elements every pop song needs to become a hit.

Most important is the hook.

No-one knew that better than '70s legends, ABBA.

It was one of the secrets of their huge success.

# You can dance... #

Benny and Bjorn once said that a pop song has to have at least five hooks.

A hook is the part of the melody that stands out the most, I suppose.

# ..Digging the dancing queen... #

Mamma Mia, for example, starts with something that's really hooky.

And then the...you know, this hook.

They put in hooks wherever they possibly could!

# Mamma mia, here I go again

# My my, how can I resist you... #

The hook can be a riff, the chorus, a repetitive lyric.

It's any bit of the song that sticks in our brains and refuses to leave.

# ..Blue since the day we parted

# Why, why, did I ever let you go?

# Mamma mia... #

Quite a common thing with uber-catchy things

is that they have an ability to repel as much as attract.

I think that's why they're quite scary when you're writing a hit.

You're thinking, "God, this is great. It's terrible."

You're thinking it's great and terrible at the same time.

# Me with the floor show Kicking with your torso

# Boys getting high... #

Rock DJ which I wrote with Robbie,

he didn't really like it. He thought it was cheese!

Which it probably is.

# ..I don't wanna rock, DJ... #

But I just think, "This is really exciting. I'll get on the radio, fantastic."

But I think the artist is like, "Oh, God, I'll have to sing this for the rest of my life."

# ..Cos you're keeping me up all night... #

They obviously want to be cool and monster hits aren't necessarily cool.

# Karma karma karma karma Karma Chameleon... #

Boy George did understand that cool wasn't the fastest route to massive commercial success.

If he hadn't, one of the biggest-selling singles of the '80s might never have happened.

# ..Red, gold and green, Red, gold and green

I had to fight to get that on the album.

I had to physically fight with the band.

I had to say I was leaving.

When I first sang it to them,

they all got pots and pans, starting doing, "Yee-hah,"

really taking the piss out of me and I was really offended.

GUITAR PLAYS OPENING BARS

And I actually think that that guitar that Roy did was a piss-take.

The dur nur nur...

I think he was taking the Mickey cos none of them believed...

I think they knew it was a good song but that it'd be the end of us.

# Karma karma karma karma Karma chameleon

# You come and go

# You come and go-ooh oh... #

It was really only one of the few times in my life

where I thought, "No, this is definitely going to be number one."

It was number one for nine weeks in England.

I got sick of it in the end. Like, enough now!

-# ..Every day is like survival

-Survival

# You're my lover, not my rival

# Every day... #

If you're having a bad gig and you do that song, game over.

People just... And I can't do a gig without doing that song.

I haven't ever and I can't. And I won't ever.

Neither Guy nor Mark writes lyrics.

They've asked a singer to do that job.

-Hi.

-Hello.

Hi. Really nice to meet you. Welcome.

23-year-old Tawiah is one to watch.

# Can you see the wind... #

Recently signed by the chairman of a major record label,

she's already won a Best Newcomer award

and has toured with Ronson's band.

Great things are predicted for her.

She's even set to sing with chart-topper Cee Lo Green on his next single.

# Can you see the wind as it blows... #

I'm really excited. Obviously I have a history with Mark going on tour.

I was on the road with him for a very long time,

so to get in the studio and write with him is really exciting.

Guy Chambers is obviously a huge songwriter so it's an honour.

So we found some stuff and we kinda... Just one clap loop

-that was a good start point, it had a good energy.

-All right, wicked.

And then Guy had a cool chord progression.

I've got a chord sequence. I'll play you what we've got.

HE STARTS TO PLAY

-That's cool.

-Like it?

-Yeah, I like that.

Maybe what we should do is plug in and just...

-jam around it for a while.

-Yeah.

-Yeah, OK.

Just keep it close to your mouth. Yeah, yeah.

Kiss my mic - there's a title!

Mic, kiss my mic. Yep, yep.

-Let's see, let's just jam. This is a jam.

-Let's do it.

Before Tawiah can even begin to write lyrics,

she's going to have to find a vocal melody to fit the track.

She usually does this by improvising words and sounds

until something starts to stick.

# I thought I told you, boy

# But I didn't cross the line

# I never told you at the time

# At the time, way-ah

# Now we go, now we go

# Yeah... #

SHE SCATS

# ..Da dah da da da da dah

SHE SCATS

SHE SCATS

I don't know. What are you thinking?

-I like it.

-Honestly?

-Yeah, no, I do! I like where it goes.

Tawiah may like it,

but Mark and Guy don't seem happy with the sound they've created.

Time to change tack.

Let's try something... Let's try a different rhythm.

-That one's minor-y, shall we...? Let's try a major-y thing.

-OK.

-Something like that.

-Yeah, yeah.

Something that's a bit... isn't so dark.

Everyone loves all that African highlife type of guitar thing

and no-one's claimed it for pop yet.

Except for I guess Vampire Weekend and...

Something I've wanted...

Highlife is a style of dance music made famous in Ghana.

Mark thinks it's worth exploring.

RHYTHMIC PERCUSSION

# Don't stare at the sun It will burn your eyes out

# I told you so, I told you so

# I look at the stars

# I told you so, I told you so

# That's right, but breathe... #

Tawiah's spirit was in the song before she walked in the room

because Guy and I listened to her music and thought,

what would work? Progressions, sounds, things like that.

That's always in the back of your head as you start.

And then, yeah, as soon as Tawiah came

and started free-styling her melodies over it,

we all got excited and the energy comes up and it becomes...

You know, it's not Paul Simon any more, it's like youthful and...

Paul Simon's great too, don't get me wrong,

but yeah, of course it's her song.

Has more of an attitude, I suppose.

Mm-hmm. All right!

So it wasn't just a pretty song.

I think pretty and attitude is always good, great.

Can we put the kick on it, Lou, so it's just underneath it?

It's not unusual for songs to be written by a team of people,

each with different skills.

Rhythm and structure generally come first.

Next, the top line, the melody and lyrics.

But instead of small teams like the early Motown model,

chart hits today can have a dozen different people credited.

# On my own, all alone #

Collaboration is not a dirty word

but some people took it a little far

when they get into nine writers on a song

and then you start to wonder who wrote what?

STRIKES SINGLE PIANO KEY "..There it is, he's a writer."

"And oh, yeah there's another word. He's a writer."

"OK, 'baby'..." "There's another."

You've got nine writers. What the hell?

That's suspect to me, you know. I mean, what does nine writers do?

# Do you believe in life after love? #

What multiple writers can do is create one of the best-selling singles of all time.

Cher's Believe has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide.

It had six different writers.

# ..What am I supposed to do?

# Sit around and wait for you... #

One of Believe's writers was Brian Higgins,

founder of British hit factory, Xenomania.

I had this theory, I guess a bit of a chaos theory

that if you throw four or five excellent ideas together,

that eventually something truly stunning will come out of that,

or truly original will come out of that.

It's just a question of if you have the patience to do it.

From the unlikely setting of this country house in Kent,

Higgins and his team turn out hits

for some of the charts' biggest acts,

including 15 top tens for Girls Aloud.

An eclectic collection of musicians and writers

including Higgins' long-term creative partner Miranda Cooper,

each work on separate sections of tracks.

Higgins then chooses the best bits, building up songs like jigsaws.

It's not a committee. If I don't think something's any good, it's no good, that's that.

There's no point debating it cos I'll never be convinced otherwise.

# When your stare in my face You're messing with my brain... #

Xenomania has had 35 top ten hits.

The very first was Round Round, a number one for Sugababes in 2002.

# If I'm too complicated That's the way I want to live... #

We had a drum track which was just stunning

and so I sat down with Miranda

on the one day that we had the Sugababes in the studio

and said, "Right, this is a hit, this piece of music is a hit.

"I haven't got anything on it. We don't have any song attached to it.

"What are we going to do about that?

"You have three hours to come up with something."

# ..Round round, baby Round round... #

I came back later and said, "Right, what have you got?"

And Miranda had gone back through all of the songs she'd written over the last few years

and sung the chorus of every song against this particular piece of drumming

and sang to me, # Round round, baby, round... #

I said, "That's it. That's amazing."

I grabbed the piece of paper off her, tore upstairs,

where I had about 15 minutes left with them and got Mutya in the studio immediately. "Sing this."

And straight away, you know it's a number one record.

# ..Round round, baby, round round

# Spinning out on me I don't need no man

# Got my kicks for free... #

You literally have eight bars of a chorus,

15 seconds with loads of this incredible drum track,

this incredible voice and nothing else.

I sat in the studio with Nick and Tim, who are two guys that I worked a long time with,

and got Nick playing a bass and Tim got on the keyboard

and then me and Miranda sat down

and started to write verse melodies with the girls in mind.

We didn't want to lyric it without them

because we knew they wanted a writing presence.

So there you have a pop song that's incredibly catchy.

It's been written over a time span of maybe two or three years

cos it's drawn on so many different things that have been done.

It's been written with the artists, who are 17, 18 at the time.

Do you know what I mean? There's a lot gone into that.

# Round round, baby, when I go

-# When I go

-When I go

-# When I go

-When I go

# When I go-oh

# Go, go, go, go... #

Ultimately people come to us cos they need songs written

so everything, to a certain degree,

if you want to throw the word manufactured at it, you can.

But there are varying degrees of manufacture.

Diana Ross doesn't write songs but she's a stunning singer,

and a stunning talent, and no-one would deny that.

Would you throw manufactured at Diana Ross? Of course not.

She doesn't write her own songs.

# You used to wake me up in the morning

# You used to wake me up in the morning

By the end of the first day in Guy's studio,

the three of them have found the bones of the song.

They've got the structure, melody and a potential chorus.

# ..You used to wake me up in the morning

# You used to wake me up in the morning... #

The track could really explode there.

This time... # Nah-nah noo-noo... #

# Ohhh, ohh-ah

# Oh ooh

# Wake me up in the morning

# You used to

# In the morning, yeah

# Wake me up in the morning

# Wake me up in the morning

# You used to wake me up

# In the morning Yeah, yeah, yeah... #

Another word for gone?

Lost.

Mm. Lost.

-I'd say ghost.

-Ghost is a good title.

-You are ghost.

-As in toast.

# And now you're ghost... #

Vibes.

Yeah.

I think the best thing was that,

Guy, every time you played a change,

you knew what the right great change was.

There wasn't a lot of fumbling through chords,

which is usually what happens when I'm writing.

Everything inherently felt quite good

so we didn't have a lot of that fumbling. It's not usually so easy.

I don't want anyone thinking,

"So you just sit down with three people and you just...?"

This just happens to be a pretty,

-I think this happens to be a good...

-Combination.

..energy in here and it's just, it's just come.

It's come along well so far.

One of the key skills for professional songwriters like Guy

is to be able work instantly and effortlessly

with different artists in different genres.

I think today went pretty well.

It went really well actually. I really like it.

And I like the fact that it made me play things I wouldn't normally play.

So it took me out of my comfort zone.

Tomorrow, it will evolve more, the style of it.

Until the '60s,

artists rarely felt the need to create their own material.

Up till then, it had been the record company's job

to match singer to professional songwriter.

But one band would come along and change all that.

And the way pop music is written has never been the same since.

There's a historical line here

to a day in December of 1962

when the Beatles recorded Please Please Me,

which went to number one, and they wrote it themselves.

And that had a catastrophic effect on the music business really,

making every Tom, Dick and Harry think,

"I could write my own material because then that would be a reflection on my enormous genius."

But it's not just about gaining artistic credibility.

A writing credit on an international hit

can also add millions to your bank balance.

So it was only natural that the bigger stars

would soon start to demand a slice of the songwriter's pie.

There is an expression, "Add a word, take a third."

Who's to say that in adding a particular word to a lyric

or a particular idea, a particular hook,

you haven't had a huge effect in the commercial appeal of this thing? You could do.

# Yo, I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want

# So tell me what you want, what you really, really want

# I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want

# So tell me what you want, what you really, really want

# I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna

# I wanna really, really, really wanna zigaziga. #

You know, the classic example

is when the Spice Girls were involved in writing Wannabe

with Stannard and Rowe.

They just kind of brainstormed loads and loads of ideas.

And the zigazaga idea

was I don't know whose.

And it went in there,

and it was part of the great selection box that was that record.

And so, you know, they get their name on it

because they played a part in the authorship of it.

# If you wanna be my lover

# You have got to give

# You've got to give

# Taking is too easy but that's the way it is

# So here's a story from A to Z

# You wanna get with me... #

I've done writing sessions where a certain person hasn't done that much writing

and...well, I actually wrote that.

But because they were there and, sort of, some energetic thing,

-sometimes you go, "Oh,

-BLEEP,

-give them a share."

Because they brought something.

I don't know what it was. Biscuits?

Cup of tea!

# You make me so lonely... #

Elvis realised quicker than most, that there was money to be made.

As early as the '50s,

his star power meant he could demand writing credits

on songs he sang but didn't write.

And why not?

The truth is a star can make an average song a monster hit.

After all, would you have bought THIS?

HE MUMBLES A MELODY

# ..Change your mind now. #

MORE MUMBLING

PERCUSSIVE, MUMBLED HUMMING

# Uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh, oh-no-no. #

But over five million of us

rushed out to buy the album when Beyonce sang it.

# When I talk to my friends, so quietly

# Look what you did to me. #

The NME called Crazy In Love the song of the '90s.

It won a Grammy for writer/producer Rich Harrison.

# The beat in my heart skips when I'm with you... #

The way that I write is when I have the instrumental that I like,

I just grunt a melody,

you know, and then... I grunt a melody over and over and over again,

then I pick the one I like, all right?

And then, um, that's the melody

and flow for the verse, right?

Then I grunt over and over and over again.

That's the melody that I want for the hook.

# Uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh, oh-no-no. #

I didn't have any words in the 'uh-oh' part.

The 'uh-oh' was just a residual after the grunt hook.

# Uh, uh, nn, uh, nn, uh, nn

# Uh-nn, uh-nn, uh-nn, uh-nn-nn... #

# When I talk to my friends... #

So she comes in while I'm recording.

She says, "Run that back."

I've got to give credit to her, man.

She knows how to, you know,

she can see the soul of a record.

I did not know that'd be the part that everyone would sing.

# Uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh, oh-no-no

# Uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh, oh-no-no

# Uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh, oh-no-no

# Uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh, oh-no-no

# When I talk to my friends, so quietly

# Who he think he is... #

It's day two

and Mark's ready to start sprinkling some magic dust on the track.

Today, we're going to put down some drums

so we have a better version of the demo.

Even if these aren't the final drums,

it's nice to know what the chorus is going to feel like

with a live drummer behind it.

And, er...and then we're also...

I guess I'm going to sit back and watch Tawiah and Guy write lyrics.

Yesterday, I guess,

"You used to wake me up in the morning" was what they picked up on,

so when I went back home, I kind of listened to the demo

and it's like what am I saying? "Deep in sleep."

OK, I'll write that down and, "You never said a word."

And kind of try and figure out what I'm saying and just the vibe,

and see if I can make sense of that and write around that.

So I've got...

# Oh, something's got to give

# I can't go on like this

# What to do, I'm feeling blue

# Your love I must receive

# We did not agree

# To end so suddenly

# What to do, oh, where are you

# You used to wake me up in the morning

# You used to wake me up in the morning

# You always used to wake me up in the morning

# You used to wake me up in the morning

# And now you're ghost. #

Mark played drums before any other instruments

and, despite his extensive use of samples,

for him, nothing sounds better than the real thing.

And thanks to Guy,

he has no problem getting top class musicians at a moment's notice.

You're such a great drummer, man.

A quick call to ex-Razorlight drummer, Andy Burrows

and he's only too happy to come in and play.

Although it's a little bit boring,

just for the first two choruses,

could you literally play...

doo-doo doo-GAT, doo-doo doo-doon-GAT.

So there's no extra...

..there's no, cos you're going,

doo-doo-doon GAT, doo-doon-doon GAT,

so it's literally like robot shit.

Can you make it sound, like, Outkast-y,

-so it sounds like it's just like a break, you know?

-Yeah, yeah.

We'll do it one more time. Is that cool?

DRUMS AND MUSIC PLAY

Meanwhile, Guy's picking over Tawiah's lyrics.

There's a lot riding on this collaboration, so every word counts.

Tell you what does bug me a little bit, it's the two I's right at the beginning.

And then I was in a dream.

-# I was in a dream I was deep in a sleep.

-#

I got one other arrangement idea.

-# Mama in a dream Dreaming nah, nah, nah.

-#

Somewhere in a dream?

# Somewhere in a dream. # Yeah.

-How about that?

-# If only I could see.

-#

Yeah, yeah.

-Yeah.

-It's good.

-It doesn't say too much.

-Uh-huh.

-It's not too much information.

-Mm-hm.

So I'm just thinking, er...

HE STRUMS GUITAR AND SINGS WORDLESSLY

Something like, "He haunts me," or...

Mm. Maybe there's a better word than haunt. It's weird.

-Not an ugly word!

-Haunt.

-Haunt.

Erm...

# You used to wake me up in the morning

# You used to wake me up in the morning

# You used to wake me up in the morning

# You used to wake me up in the morning, yeah

# And now you're... In the morning. #

Or lonely.

# Lonely, lonely I'm so lonely, lonely. #

Like that.

# You used to wake me up in the morning

# And now I'm lonely, lonely. # Just write that down there.

-"Lonely, lonely. Now I'm so lonely."

-Yeah.

Did you ever look over Amy's words, Mark?

When you were working with her. Did she ever show them to you?

Yeah. She would come in and she would be like, "What do you think of this?"

I still have, like, scraps of studio that I probably nearly threw away

with, like, all the lyrics from Back to Black, like chicken scratches,

like little drawings on the side and shit.

It's kind of cool. It's good to save them cos you never know what the good ones are either, you know.

# Wake me up in... # Cool.

With the lyrics done, they start to add colour to the track.

Next, the horns, to give it sparkle.

# You never said a word... #

Tawiah rounds it off with a belting vocal.

# It's all I have Why d'you turn so cold?

# Where in the world Did you take my heart?

# It's just too quiet now Now that we're apart

# Something's got to give, I can't go on like this... #

Love her voice.

-# What to do, I'm feeling blue... #

-Really love her voice.

# Your love is all I miss Something's got to give

# I can't go on like this What to do, oh, where are you?

# You used to wake me up in the morning

# You used to wake me up in the morning

# You always used to wake me up in the morning

# And now you're ghost

# Oh!

# And now you're ghost

# Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

# You're ghost

# Oh, oh, oh

# And now you're ghost. #

-Great last ghost there, weren't it?

-Yeah, that was really good.

-Thank you.

-She records it in just one take, in time to impress the man from her record label.

It's his job to help steer Tawiah's career and decide whether this could be her breakthrough single.

# Morning, morning. #

I heard it really rough last night when I went to bed

and this morning it was like, "Can I remember the chorus?"

And I could, and I sung it and texted Tawiah and I was like,

"I can't believe I still remember the chorus." And they'd hardly laid it down.

I think it's fresh and it's got so many influences, it's brilliant. Love it.

It's not unusual for a record company to spend £1 million launching a new act,

but they'll just as soon drop them like a stone if they don't make an instant impact.

# Seems like everybody's got a price... #

This year, Jesse J made a stunning breakthrough with her chart-topping debut Price Tag.

Add to that a Brit, for Critic's Choice and a platinum album.

She's become one of the hottest names in the charts.

I think pop music for me is an exaggeration of life.

You want to sing along. You know all the words.

You feel like you're involved in the story, makes you cry, makes you laugh, makes you wanna hit the wall,

makes you wanna go and tell somebody you love them.

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

Price Tag was definitely a song that, once we'd finished it, we all sat down in the studio.

We always do a listen at the end, and you know when it's good

because you're there for the whole day and you're going for lunch

and you're like, # Money, money, money, price tag. #

And everyone's singing it. The runners are singing it,

the people that work in the office, and you're like,

"We only wrote it four hours ago. That's a good sign."

# Ain't about the ch-ching ch-ching... #

Jesse began her career writing hits for artists like Justin Timberlake and Miley Cyrus.

Price Tag was her own take on the difficulties of making it in modern pop.

# We need to take it back in time

# When music made us all unite

# And it wasn't low blows and video...

# Am I the only one getting tired? #

For me, music became so much about "I've got this and my cars,"

and, you know, money and I don't know, just, it became so contrived and it had to fit a box.

And I wanted to break the mould but

I wanted to do it in a really pop way cos I love pop music, and, for me, "pop" stands for popular.

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

# We don't need your money, money, money

# We just wanna make the world dance

# Forget about the price tag... #

'The expectation of me as a songwriter

'is now higher in the media than what I'm actually able to give.'

I started out as a singer songwriter but, in my last six months in being in the spotlight,

80% of my time isn't singing or writing songs.

It's talking about writing songs and singing songs but not actually being given the time to write.

# Whoa-oh-oh It's not about the money, money... #

'I could happily live without fame if I could write songs and put songs out.'

# We just wanna make the world dance, forget about the price tag

# It ain't about the, oh! Ch-ching ch-ching

# Ain't about the, yeah, bl-bling bl-bling... #

'When you're young and inexperienced,'

there's a kind of beautiful naivete that you can't always have.

It's kind of, you get a moment of that, you know,

and I think probably two albums, you still have that.

The first album is like, you know, just really exciting,

you throw everything into the pot,

and then when you get to the second album, I think, usually it's the best album.

I mean, that's certainly proven historically with a lot of bands, you know.

The second album is the gem.

The third album is a nightmare, everyone's falling apart.

# You sent my letters back... #

The majority of careers don't survive past the first album,

but for stars like Sting who do stay the course,

inspiration can prove harder and harder to come by.

# You can call it lack of confidence... #

As you get older, your filters are much more refined.

You know, the critical mind takes over from the creative mind

and I think they are opposed and so my critical faculties are highly attuned.

The creative child in me, you know, that sense of wonder about music,

is often under the oppression of this critical thing.

It's, "Oh, you've written that before",

or "Somebody else wrote that. It's not as good", you know, "Come on try harder."

And I have to try and lose that, have to try and maintain that wonder and curiosity

about the creative process that I had when I was a kid.

# If you need somebody Call my name

# If you want someone... #

I have children who are songwriters and they write a song every day.

Two a day. It takes me months now to write a song. Years.

# I get up and throw away the key

# You want to hold on to your position

# Don't wanna think about me. #

# But it's not...

# In today

# Pretty catchy Yeah, yeah, yeah

# I would say. #

All right!

Thought he was great.

He was very precise about what he liked and didn't like,

which I always, I like that.

I don't like grey area. He's very good at suggesting something

that's different from what you're doing without you feeling

like he doesn't like what you're doing. That's a talent.

I'd like to hear the song on the radio.

That would be amazing and I'd like to see it on any festival.

You know, it would be great to, if it became part of her set

and became part of her first record, that would just be fantastic.

How long's the track by the way?

-3:30.

-3:30. This is a good time.

Anything longer that four, you commit hara-kiri.

# When I was young I listened to the radio

# Waiting for my favourite songs

# When they played... #

Ultimately, the aim for any songwriter is to get their song out and get it heard.

But what's the best way for them to do it?

There's no Top of The Pops, there's no CDUK,

there's no Saturday morning TV for kids any more

because kids and teenagers don't

gather round television sets any more to watch that sort of stuff.

I think we're back into the equivalent of the late 1950s,

where there's very, very, very few opportunities on television to get a mass audience.

Very few opportunities. So therefore the only way you're really gonna be heard

by a mass audience is radio, which is just massive.

I think it's more important than ever before.

Despite the internet, radio still rules when it comes to having a hit,

so how does a new artist like Tawiah get on the airwaves?

The same way most acts do, through a radio plugger.

We are a bridge between a label and radio.

You essentially go and see every producer,

head of music, DJ, broadcast assistant

at the stations you think it's relevant to

and you sit down with him, play him the music, tell them all the great things about it,

why they should play that record over the over 200 they've been given that week.

When I got into this industry, I had this romantic idea

that every DJ just went in with a box of his favourite records

and played them, you know, to all and sundry that would listen.

Um, quickly learnt that it was just utter fantasy.

There's a process that pretty much every music radio station will have and that's a playlist meeting.

The key people of that radio station will sit round, in a meeting room,

and they will listen to all the records that they figure,

the new records that should be put on rotation, that should start playing immediately.

It is clinical to a degree. They're sitting round a table and looking at facts and figures and,

"OK, well that's got 2% and that's got 3% but that's got 8%

"but this is 4% and that over there is a bigger margin share.

They do do that, because that's important.

I mean, their audience is telling them by voting with their ears or the things on the internet

or they're, you know, all sorts, or buying tickets or buying a magazine if they're on the front cover,

but they do have, I hope, they do have still a love for music, and there will be times,

few and far between, where a radio station will go, "D'you know, we just really like it."

But, before Tawiah can make a play for the playlist,

the record label has insisted on some last minute changes.

# I was deep in sleep

# Somewhere in a dream No way I could see

# Or even hear you leave You picked the perfect time... #

I'm back here with Guy to take another look at the chorus for Ghost.

We've had feedback and it's all been positive but they're like, "Can you try tweaking the chorus?"

The A&R guy, Thomas, thought that the song could perhaps be a little bit more sexually interesting,

might be the best way to put it!

# I can't go on like this... #

Well, we're gonna try, "We used to make sweet love in the morning."

We're gonna try that.

Which is very obvious, but it might work.

# You used to wake me up in the morning

# We used to make sweet love in the morning

# And now you're ghost Oh, oh, oh

# Said you're ghost. #

I try not to be overly precious but there are a few songs

that I am super precious about, and I'm like, "I'm not changing it."

So that's how it's staying and I don't care.

But in this situation I'm pretty open.

# Where in the world Did you take my heart? #

So have Guy, Mark and Tawiah done enough to get their track onto the radio and into the charts?

What's the plugger's verdict?

# What to do? I'm feeling blue Your love is all I miss

# Something's got to give... #

I like this bit. I love this bit with the trumpet.

# You used to wake me up in the morning... #

I like the progression of it. It starts not expecting what you're gonna get.

The more you listen to it, the more it sticks. The first couple of times I liked but I didn't love.

-I'm definitely warming to it.

-No, I have to admit, it's grown on me.

I wasn't struck by it at all. I still don't like the chorus.

It sounds like it should be a chorus of another song.

# And now you're ghost

# You're ghost. #

-I like it.

-It kind of feels like there might be four singles from the album.

I was thinking, "Would this be the first single you'd launch your album with?"

And, if that was, you wouldn't be releasing that album.

-The intro and the verse, it feels like a songwriter's written it and...

-Precisely, yeah.

He's put that structure in and it's building, it's building, it's building

-and then the chorus goes where it shouldn't, really.

-Yeah.

I liked it and then but I don't, I don't know.

I'm talking myself out of the record now.

-It's not bad.

-No.

-But...it's not great.

-And that's, I think...

-Yeah, you're right.

-That's quintessentially what everyone's looking for, is something great and something memorable.

-Mm.

A good plugger would get it on the playlist but would it cut through?

Would the audience buy it? No, so is it deemed a hit?

I'm not using the 'H' word.

# Pop, pop, pop music Pop, pop, pop music

# All around the world Wherever you are... '

I think now the industry's kind of all wrapped up.

Everyone knows what to do, how to create the perfect record,

how to manufacture the perfect artist and that has its pluses...

but on the wrong side of that is the fact that everyone's doing the same thing.

Now it's all sort of done to demographics and market research

and, you know, target audiences which is not really what artistic things are about, you know.

And I think, with all these kind of reality shows, you've got the audience dictating the art form.

Dreadful. Imagine if David Bowie had gone on X Factor!

What would he have said to him? "Lose the cape, honey, the orange hair ain't gonna work."

# Well, I'm up on the 11th floor

# And I'm watching the cruisers below... #

The number of songs that are purely written from the perspective of someone in a night club,

that would suggest that there's a fairly narrow lyrical palate that people are operating from right now,

so right now that's not great but it won't last

because it will get overtaken by something that really is excellent.

# Everybody talk about pop music

# Talk about pop music. #

Pop's cyclical, so as much as you hate it one day, in six months' time,

someone's come along that changes it all and everybody is in love with it all again, you know.

But that's why it's the greatest music genre, because you can do anything with it.

It's like life itself. It's amazing. You can change the world with a pop record.

You could try to change the world but most acts would happily settle

for a hit single and it will be the audience who decides that.

Tonight, Tawiah is testing her song with a debut live performance.

Only time will tell if she's done enough to crack the charts.

I was lucky enough to write a song with Tawiah here.

And Mark, Mark Ronson who's there,

and, er, we wrote this song.

Hello, how're you doing?

# I was deep in sleep, hey

# Somewhere in a dream

# No way I could see Or even hear you leave

# You picked the perfect time

# After vodka, lime and soda I'm still in a daze

# Can't say we were sober Something's got to give

# I can't go on like this

# What to do, I'm feeling blue Your love is all I miss

# Something's got to give I can't go on like this

# What to do, oh, where are you? You used to wake me up in the morning

# You used to wake me up in the morning

# Hey, we used to make sweet love in the morning, yeah

# And now you're ghost, yeah

# Hey! And now you're... #

# You never said a word But you left a note

# It's all I have Why d'you turn so cold?

# Where in the world Did you take my heart?

# It's just too quiet now Now that we're apart

# Something's got to give I can't go on like this

# What to do, I'm feeling blue Your love is all I miss

# Something's got to give I can't go on like this

# What to do, Oh, where are you?

# You used to wake me up in the morning

# Hey! You used to wake me up in the morning

# Hey! We used to make sweet love in the morning

# And now you're ghost

# And now you're ghost... #

I was dancing along. I would definitely buy it.

# And now you're ghost

# And now you're ghost... #

Excellent song, man. I think that'll go far, definitely.

# And now you're ghost

# Oh-oh-oh... #

I loved it, loved it, loved it.

# We used to make sweet love in the morning

# And now you're ghost

# Yeah

# And now you're ghost. #

All right! Thank you very much.

-# We will, we will... #

-Next week, it's the anthem.

The song that gets everyone going.

Can Guy and top band The Noisettes conquer what is a fiendishly difficult form?

Will they be able to write a crowd-pleasing sing-along?

# It's so quiet now Now that we're apart

# Something's got to give Can't go on like this

# What to do, I'm feeling blue

# Your love is all I miss

# Something's got to give

# I can't go on like this

# What to do, oh, where are you?

# You used to wake me up in the morning

# You used to wake me up in de morning. #