Originally Posted By: Noel96
floyd,

Once more you take ordinary, everyday superlatives such as "outstanding, terrific, first class, top notch, fantastic, etc." and give them vitamin shots and redefine them! This is a superb listen. I particularly enjoyed the feeling of lift associated with entering the chorus.

Everything about this weaves together to create a really engaging listening experience. Your melody is beautiful and twists and turns in exactly the right places to maximise the emotional resonance of the lyrics. You captured my wholehearted attention. This particular melody sounded very considered and well planned, and very skillfully written to my ears. Then, when you performed it, you added vocal enhancements that take it well beyond that often-referenced 'next level'.

From a lyric perspective, a couple of things grabbed my attention and made me ponder. These were...

ONE
You've used a two-line refrain at the end of both verses and choruses.

Originally Posted By: floyd
if what you want is one true heart
then, baby, i'm your man

This is very unusual.

As I'm sitting here typing, for the life of me, I cannot think of any other song in which I've come across this technique of using the same two-line refrain at the end of verses and choruses. While many textbooks would not encourage such a lyric approach, in "One True Heart", you've shown very convincingly that such repetition can be powerful and can strengthen a lyric journey when lyrics develop strongly and so offer the listener an increasingly more emotionally intense view of the refrain.

To explain what I mean, I’ll use Pat Pattison’s concept of lyric boxes.

For me, the lyrics of “One True Heart” develop through two boxes as shown below.

Quote:
Section 1
Verse 1
I’m not good at romance but if you want a guy who is 100% sincere then “baby, I’m your man”.

Chorus 1
Given the lyrics of Verse 1, the listener’s interpretation of the chorus hinges on the guy’s sincerity and honesty; it resonates with these qualities. The second time the refrain is sung, at the end of Chorus 1, it reinforces the guy's sincerity and honesty.

Quote:
Section 2
Verse 2
I give you my word. I won’t let you down. “Baby, I’m your man”.

Chorus 2
From the perspective of Verse 2, the chorus now resonates with the guy’s conviction and promise and this adds to the guy’s sincerity and honesty developed in Verse 1. The refrain at the end of this second chorus, the fourth time it's been sung, magnifies the lead character's sincerity, honesty, conviction and promise.


So at the end of the second chorus, the refrain has been sung four times and it has been used to amplify increasingly more important personal traits of the lead guy. At no time does the repetition of the refrain sound over-used. This is powerful writing indeed!


TWO
The second thing that stood out to me was the way you used the third person perspective in a song that is written using the 'direct address' point of view. This was very clever and made me think “yes…. that’s DEFINITELY something that I’m going to try!”.

In the second verse, when you say…

Originally Posted By: floyd
but i can give you this man's word
i can give you this man's hand

… the guy talks about himself as if he is another character in the song.

To my ears, this added freshness to the lyrics as well as boosted their meaning. Moreover, the words used in these lines radiate with “wedding ceremony” where those getting married give their hands and make solemn promises. This is mighty writing and ratchets lyric intensity up a few notches. These lyrics come across as straightforward. Underlying them, however, there is precision and strategic complexity.

To my way of looking at songwriting, the above epitomises expert writing… it comes across as natural and simple yet, on analysis, it is crafted and skillfully woven into a fine tapestry of words, their meanings and the way they interact with listeners’ experiences.

As always, I really enjoyed what you brought along.

All the best,
Noel


Noel - I very much enjoyed your analysis of this song. You touch on the key aspects of what I believe make this song "work". It was, in fact, an effort to write a truly "simple love song" that "really sings" - meaning the melody write was an important part of this. This one happened quickly - one of those that "writes itself" and as the melody evolved it just seemed to "go where it needed to go". I've always enjoyed singing it - from a "singer's perspective"... it is always satisfying to hit that mark...

The use of the main phrase at the end of the verse and the chorus was "a happy accident". After I had done that, I, too, thought it unusual - but it seemed to work, so I quickly forgot about questioning it at all (or even wondering where else I might have heard it done)...

Thanks. Your thoughts on "One True Heart" truly gave me a smile!

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