The Chorus as Lyric's Catylyst
Like most of you out there, I have many years of song listening and song enjoying experience. That being said, I can tell you first that pending any illustrative examples I might use from popular culture to show you exactly where most song titles appear in song lyrics, it is unlikely that the most concise answer should take as many as 400 words to get out. Secondly, if I were to do the responsible thing as an advocate for the many "starving artists" out there that struggle each day to create the hits that we all listen to, I would engage in a brief debate as to whether the lyrical examples I would use to teach you should, in fact, be quoted or not-per licensing and publishing restrictions and contracts that protect artists' rights. And very succinctly, I would tell you that the ethical quotation of someone else's work is now very much on the honor's system.
And if that system is violated, there is more than likely some very high fees to pay. I would also tell you that the "rat" as to your inappropriate use or quotation of someone else's song lyrics could be amongst you at any givin time without your knowledge. He or she could be an audience member at any one of your many unbilled presentations or exibitions of the material or he or she could be surfing (and perhaps monitoring) the Internet as I speakto determine how his or her work is being represented and by whom. So, buyer-(or non-buyer) beware and be cautious when quoting song lyrics (or any other written or printed creative material for that matter) that you yourself did not create. Directly below are some basic guidelines that I am sure will keep you in compliance to the honor system:
a. a person who is not the creator of said song lyrics or creative material is always free to use some portion of the material for quoting purposes so long as the whole piece is not displayed.
b. a person is more often than not able to quote said song lyrics or any other creative material in an educational setting (such as a school, continuing education class or corporate seminar) provided that the material is used solely for that purpose and promply discarded following its presentation. Depending in the educational purpose intended, however, some resrictions might apply and some nominal fees might apply.
c. a person is more often than not able to quote said song lyrics or creative material under "private use" circumstances only. That is, an individual is free to copy lyrics into his or her journal or in a note or letter to a friend provided that the mention of said song lyrics does not become public or does not land in the hands of someone who uses them for display or exhibition in a public space (such as a concert hall, ampitheatere, movie theatere, or conference room).
A very obvious circumstance under which a person might break the honor system occurs as simply as when a teacher looking for a new idea for what his or her theater class should be performing that year pulls something like "Mame," "Hair," or "Cats" from the repotoirre, starts rehearsing it, and then books and has performances while neglecting to reseach whether or not the copyright holder requires payment of an exhibition or presentation fee. Nine times out of ten, the teacher who has not paid the appropriate copyright fee will be fine. But there is a 1% chance that the copyright holder or someone associated with them will be sitting in the audience during one of the performances and that the teacher and/or his or her art department will be billed for every booked performance that generated ticket sales. The reason for this is that depending on the copyright's life and the contract governing the original copyright, the revenue generated from the school's ticket sales actually legally belongs to the copright holder and cannot be used as the artistic fundraiser that the school hopes for.
Now, that I have done as responsible of a job as I know how to protect you from too many or too few costs associated with song lyrics, I will give you my opinion and provide some song titles to ilustrate my point about where titles appear in song lyrics. My best and most simplistic answer is that the song titles to songs are contained more often than not within that song's chorus. And why is this, you ask? This is because song writing teachers from all over the world looking to help the many struggling song writers trying to eek out a living by song writing, very often start off their classes by encouoraging students who might be experiencing "writer's block" to begin the writing process with the chorus first and then to write the verses, bridges and interludes only after a solid chorus is formed. The chorus is the part of the song that is usually repeated at least twice-making the song title very easy for its listeners to locate.
In some rare instances, the song titles to songs are repeated for emphasis in the song's bridge either for effect or because the compositional structure of the song lends itself to some sort of repititon. But, this is most certainly not always the case and song's listener looking to locate the title quickly and easily will almost never be let down by its chorus. Finally, below is a partial list of song titles in which a song's title is contained within its chorus:
Fast Car by Tracy Chapman
Ironic by Alanis Morissette
We've Only Just Begun by Richard and Karen Carpenter
Sara by Jefferson Starship
I Just Called to Say I Love You by Stevie Wonder
Black Velvet by Alannah Myles
Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haley
and
Layla by Eric Clapton.
The above mentioned songs are only a few of the many songs whose song titles are contained within the chorus. And, now, my dear listener, stop reading and start "rocking out" to your own list of songs whose title is clearly chorus-conceived.