Say My Name-Anatomy of a Hit: Cat Cohen

Anatomy of a Hit
Hit song analysis
View all Anatomy of a Hit Articles

Coming Soon:
Beyonce—Irreplaceable
Corrine Bailey Rae—Put Your Records On
KT Tunstall—Suddenly I See

Nelly Furtado–Promiscuous
Ne-Yo—So Sick
James Blunt—You're Beautiful
Rascal Flatts–What Hurts The Most
Eminem—Lose Yourself

Norah Jones —Don't Know Why
Avril Lavigne —Complicated
Alan Jackson—Where Were You When The World Stopped Turning?
Pink—Get the Party Started
Craig David—Fill Me In
Alicia Keys—Fallin'
Train—Drops of Jupiter
Janet Jackson—All For You
Dido—Thank You
Sisqo—Incomplete
Macy Grey—I Try
Faith Hill—Breathe
Destiny's Child—Say My Name
Santana/Rob Thomas—Smooth
Ricky Martin—La Vida Loca

More Anatomy of a Hit Articles...

Classic Songcraft Articles
Reprints from Cat's columns in The Music Connection and LASS/NAS Musepaper

Outside vs. Inside Songwriting
Cat describes the change of opportunities in today's songwriting scene from Outside Songwriting for established artists to Inside Songwriting for original acts.

Grabbers and Shakers
Cat lists many of hue characteristics that make a pop song a hit song including what grabs a listener's attention and what keeps an audience involved all the way through to the end.

A Songwriter's New Year's Resolutions
Cat lists some goals and resolves we as songwriters can make to improve our writing and our careers for the coming year.

Other Classic Articles

The Hispanic Invasion
Today's pop scene has much in common with that of the mid-'60s. American pop music is being invaded by foreigners. Only this time the British aren't coming, it's the Hispanics.

1999: A Year of Retro and Recycling
Cat looks at the year 1999 in pop music and saw a return to recordings with older more melodic writing and more romantic dance styles including latin dance styles. Hot and sexy began to replace alienation and rebellion as the millennium turned.

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Say My Name

Destiny's Child

The Writing's On The Wall

Buy this Album

Rodney Jerkins




		Singer who suspects her boyfriend is seeing someone else confronts him over the phone daring him to say her name.



		Strong story lyric about how her boyfriend is not treating her lovingly over the phone like he customarily does. She suspects he is not alone and not at liberty to talk to her romantically. She dares him to prove he is not with someone else and he just stammers. Good imagery. “Baby, I would call, you would say, how's your day. But today, it's not the same. Every other word is Uh-huh or OK



		This innovative groove is complex and layered in three textures. It starts off with a full 8th note feel used a foundation for overlaid 16ths, a half-time hybrid groove. At the slow BPM of 72 this gives the track a sound reminiscent of 70s rock and R&B. However, when the song arrives at the pre-hook, the drums add a layer of hyper-fast 32nd notes as one often hears in jungle music tracks which is now a feature in some of the new R&B dance styles. The vocals likewise alternate between 8th note phrasing and unusual 32nd note passages. This is especially heard in the pre-hook where it sounds like someone turned the tape recorder to twice as fast.



		The melody is sung mostly in the minor pentatonic scale with an occasional flatted 6th tone and one 9th tone above the octave. It is very hooky, riffy and repetitive. The most distinctive part of the melody is the huge phrasing contrast between sections.



		Say My Name is built on a 5 chord loop (i bVI iv bVII V7) that is constant throughout the song. The only change is a doubling of the harmonic rhythm in the pre-hook section.



		Three-part song form with chorus verse and pre-hook repeated. C A B C A B C breakdown (with rap) C.



		No signature used.



		A Rodney Jerkins production all the way an evolution of the style he used in Destiny's earlier hit “Bills, Bills Bills”.



		This recording was a number one hit for several weeks and has the elements to stay around as a genre hit for several years. It will be remembered as an important cut from 2000 but not a classic song that will see many if any covers.

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