In songwriting, what's a hook?

When I was starting out as a songwriter, this was one of my most frustrating questions. I would meet with publishers and record companies, and they’d say, "Great lyrics, nice music—where’s the hook?"

I’d say something like, "What’s a hook."

They’d answer back that it was that, you know, thing you could "hang your hat on" or other such garbage.

Simply put, a hook is something that stays in your head the first time you hear the song. It can be a repetitive lyric/music combination, or it can be a musical figure like the slide guitar in George Harrison’s "My Sweet Lord."

There are some tricks to coming up with hooks. It’s worth taking a minute to define one of the classic kinds of hooks that works so often in formulaic writing. You can find a lot of lyric/music hooks in the choruses of songs. They often are, or contain, the name of the song. Some examples:

Bridge Over Troubled Water – Simon and Garfunkel
It Only Takes a Minute, Girl (to fall in love) - Tavares
She’s Gone – Hall and Oates
Take it Easy – The Eagles
Peaceful Easy Feeling – The Eagles
Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown – Jim Croce
One Thing – Finger Eleven
Calling All Angels – Train
Another Day in Paradise – Phil Collins
American Pie – Don McLean

The list could go on and on, and there's a reason for that. If you can come up with a hook, you know what your song is headed. Without it, you are meandering all over the place until you find one, so I like to have the hook figured out first.

Take a look at this:

When you're weary, feeling small
When tears are in your eyes, I will dry them all
I’m on your side, when times get rough
And friends just can’t be found

Like a bridge over troubled water, I will lay me down
Like a bridge over troubled water, I will lay me down

*from Paul Simon, Bridge Over Troubled Water

Notice that, since the hook, "Like a bridge over troubled water, I will lay me down,' is SO strong, that it becomes a sort of psychological magnet that encourages every line to lead up to it. This is the magic of a good hook. It helps the song almost write itself.

Don't get me wrong, I’m sure Paul found lots of challenges for his formidable songwriting talent to turn this song into the masterpiece that it is. But I submit that it was probably easier to write if he came up with the hook first.

Pay attention to that the next time you write. Try to find a phrase, as I mentioned in another post (Where do ideas come from?) that encapsulates the idea of the whole song. Then make sure every line of the verse leads up to that payoff, the chorus (and the hook line).