Start A Song With The Chorus?

[crawf57]

Hey all,

A song started coming to me the other day and as I developed it, I realised what I had was a perfect chorus.

But I'm thinking that it grabs the listener straight away and really could work better at the top of the song rather than a minute or so in...

What do you all think about maybe starting and finishing a song with the chorus with the verses and maybe a bridge in between?

[sub7th]

Its been done successfully before Im sure, I cant think of anything off the top n(still drinking my coffee), but I believe I've heard a song or two like that.

I'm guessing most people dont do it that way because it's fun to have the ascent in the music, from a quiet intro to a louder verse and then a full and vibrant chorus.

But starting out with a bang could also be a lot of fun, it grabs your listeners ear for sure.

Never hurts to give it a try, if you dont like it you can always reorganize it.

[Nightwolf]

Put the chorus where ever you feel it works best. As Sub says, it is usually placed later to aid in building the drama, but it is far from a hard fast rule.

[john]

Hey

Yeah, I've done it a couple of times, but more or less agree with Sub7th.

Cheers

John

[rodge]

to keep it interesting you can always arrange the instrumentation for the intro chorus so that they are sparser parts, and the full arrangment comes later. or simply remove some instruments for the intro chorus. that way you still have ascent in the music, and it keeps the listener engaged for the later choruses.

a song that comes to mind that is quite recent is sean kingston's - beautiful girls. it starts with the chorus but it's only vocals and dbl bass (playing the changes from "stand by me") the first time around, and perc and other things are used in the later choruses.

[typo]

another suggestion is to not have a sung chorus at the beginning, well at least not the words, but to introduce the chorus melody over a toned down standard chorus arrangement, or over different but sympathetic chords. that way when the actual chorus does come around the listener is already familiar with the chorus melody/chord. if i use this approach i tend to use subtly different chords. it's really good for implanting melodic chorus hooks, and the diff chords mean it's not totally what they expect... which in itself can be a good hook.

[Guest voclizr]

"Delta Dawn" is the first song that comes to mind for me. When you think about it, it makes perfect sense as most of the time the "hook" is in the chorus.

John B.

[Nick]

"I Shot the Sheriff" seems to work pretty well

[sub7th]

"I Shot the Sheriff" seems to work pretty well

Booya!

Great example.

[Threndor]

I don't think there's any hard-and-fast rule about them. Like they said, just do what feels best.

[Rudi]

Why not. In fact why not start a song with the bridge? (because then it wouldnt be a bridge huh!).

There was a tradition in old (20's & 30's) popular songs where the song was preceeded by a sung introduction. There is probably a name for this, though I have no idea what it might be (Lazz?). This would comprise of different melody & lyrics usually with only an implied rhythm.

I cant think of a period example, but 'Come to the Masquerade' or some similar title used this idea. There are a very few contempory examples such as Randy Newman's 'Rednecks' & Jerry Garcia's 'Mission in the Rain'.