Number 2700: The Story Behind the Song Is Chicken Soup for the Music Lover's Soul

Three years ago, my friend Libbie and I went to see Music and Lyrics, a romantic comedy that also has a lot to do with the songwriting process. I found it both entertaining and inspiring, as it helped motivate me to do some more lyric-writing. This past Christmas, Libbie gave me Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Story Behind the Song. I was anxious to read it, and I also hoped that it would provide a similar boost. Given my love of music as both a fan and an aspiring lyricist, I thought this would be a fitting review with which to mark my 2700th post on Epinions.

Chicken Soup for the Soul is a series of books, each featuring 101 contributions pertaining to a particular theme. Usually, a majority of the authors in any given book are ordinary people who happen to have a great story to tell. Libbie and I both have read several of these feel-good collections, and I even had a poem included in 2008’s Chicken Soup for the Soul: Love Stories. This volume is a little different in that every contributor is a songwriter, or at least is intimately acquainted with one. It’s a bit on the long side as each entry includes the lyrics to the song in question after the reflection on what brought that song about. Some of these entries are quite detailed; most are between one and two pages.

Another difference between this book and most others in the series is the fact that there are no sub-sections. Typically, a book will be divided into several smaller categories, ranging from the silly to the tragic. In this volume, the arrangement is alphabetical by the last name of the song’s composer. In most cases, this is also the person who wrote the essay. One exception to this is Ingrid Croce, who writes about the people and circumstances inspiring Operator and Bad, Bad Leroy Brown, two hits by her late husband Jim Croce. I’ve always been a big fan of his, so I was especially interested in those stories, and I had to chuckle over the fact that as many as 40 guys have approached Ingrid over the years to identify themselves as “the real Leroy Brown”.

As I perused this book, I was surprised at how many of the songs I didn’t recognize. Only about a quarter of the songs were ones I knew. No doubt everyone who picks up this book will gravitate toward different songs and songwriters. My interests tend toward classic and folk-rock. While most of my favorite songwriters - Paul Simon, Gordon Lightfoot, Billy Joel, Elton John and Paul McCartney, to name a few - did not chime in, I enjoyed reading about several songs from artists I’m not quite as familiar with, and the book introduced me to plenty of songs that were new to me.

Among the entries that interested me most were the reflections on Bohemian Rhapsody (Roy Thomas Baker), That’s What Friends Are For (Carole Bayer Sager), Right Here Waiting (Richard Marx), The Rose (Amanda McBroom) and Eye of the Tiger (Jim Peterik). One of the most detailed entries is Tony Asher’s recollection of writing Wouldn’t It Be Nice with Brian Wilson after a chance meeting brought them together in the mid-sixties. Asher talks about the back-and-forth nature of their collaborative process and the way they pushed the envelope with this song, which now seems so innocent.

Chicken Soup for the Soul books are always designed so that you can skip around as much as you like, reading an essay here and an essay there and not worrying about the order in which the stories are presented. I’ve certainly read The Story Behind the Song in this way, often opening it up at random and seeing what song I end up with. The first entry that I read was Tom Higgenson’s description of how he came to write Hey There, Delilah as a tribute to a girl he liked but didn’t know very well. There was a very appealing sweetness and scrappiness to the story, as he hadn’t really hit the big time yet when he wrote the song in fulfillment to a promise that he had made to this young woman. I must have had his reflections rolling around in my head for the next month or so because my streak of new LOST filksongs began in February with a parody of Hey There, Delilah.

If you’re interested in songwriting or the music business in general, The Story Behind the Song is a fun and fascinating collection that celebrates songs spanning half a century. My only complaint is that it makes me curious about what a lot of other songwriters would have to say about their own work. I’m hoping that they will consider a follow-up volume and that even more musicians will participate. Until then, this volume has plenty to keep me reading.