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Anatomy of a Hit

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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Breathe
Title
Faith Hill
  Artist
Album Breathe

Buy this Album

Breathe
 
Holly Lamar/Stephanie Bentley
  Songwriters
 
Byron Gilmore/Faith Hill
  Producers
Play Song Excerpt Help with Real Audio
Concept
Singer praises the romantic feelings her lover inspires in her. A simple song of love and intimacy.
Lyric
A straightforward lyric about the warm physical closeness of romantic love Not much of a story, just a laundry list of images of two people making warm gentle love. No earthshattering new lyrics, yet there is a freshness in describing what has been described many, many times before.

The only thing that I can hear is the beating of your heart. . I can hear you breathe, just watching over me, and suddenly I'm melting into you......
Groove
This groove starts off with a slow 16th figure on the guitar and slowly builds as the rhythm track gently takes over at the second verse. The drums give us a steady 8th note background over which 16ths float in the guitar and in the vocal line itself. Although the background is straight ahead, Hill's vocals add effective gentle syncopated pushes.
Melody
The melody is sung in a 6-tone major scale (no 7th, 1 2 3 4 5 6 - 8).The phrases in the verse are long, and shorter in the chorus with the button at the end of chorus short and memorable. The contrast between verse and chorus isg reat as the chorus is almost an octave higher giving the song a hefty range of an octave and a fifth, truly a melody for a diva, a country diva that is.
Harmony
Breathe uses simple major diatonic harmony without any surprises. The verse starts on the ii chord followed by I/3, IV and I/3 which contrasts with the I, ii, IV and V in the chorus. The chorus ends with a post hook on a cadence that lands on a IV chord before it resolves to the I.
Structure
Two-part song form with verse, post-hook, and chorus with verse, chorus and post-hook repeated. A A B (post) A B (post) half of B (post)
Signature
A simple acoustic guitar figure .
Production
Simple straightforward arrangement featuring guitar and drums, everything else very much in the background.
Predicted Longevity
This recording was a number one hit for several weeks and has the elements to stay around for a while. Not the most classicof love ballads, but there aren't many of these around today. Lovers may make this song their special song and this may keep it in circulation.

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