The Unique Title vs. The Recycled Title
Exploring the idea that it's OK for there to be two "Workin' on a New One" songs
A few weeks ago, I was enjoying a Jon Pardi song on Sirius XM which was his new single. It got me interested in his other songs, so I did a quick search and he had a new album that was being released.
Jon Pardi is a California-Native neotraditional country singer, so right off the bat, I feel like I connected with his story. He grew up in a town called Dixon, which is not that far away from Sacramento, where I had spent time here and there because we would travel through on our way to the Sierras from Santa Cruz. I have fond memories of meeting up with Gram and Gramps at Ssm’s Hofbrau there in Sac, as well as all the fun times we had going to Old Town to check out the western-like environment and have some cold ice cream on a hot Summer day.
On his new album, he has a couple of songs that caught my eye, then my ears. One of them was, in fact, about falling in love with a girl in a Boardwalk town, riding that rollercoaster with her (I assume it’s the Giant Dipper), and just hanging out with friends on the beach during the Fourth of July. It made me nostalgic for a couple of reasons.
First of all, Santa Cruz is where I was brought up for the first 10 years of my life. I still smell that saltwater taffy and those burgers frying at the Dipper Diner when I think about the Boardwalk and also remember Westlake School, where I loved going to as a kid. I remember playing soccer on a team with people like Ed Marcum, who had been inducted into the Santa Cruz High School Hall of Fame for his athletic career. It wasn’t in soccer though, it was for tennis, a sport I played as well at Watsonville High. He was also a fantastic basketball player. Incidentally, he has a younger brother, Art, who also played tennis at Santa Cruz High, and is quite a screenwriter. He made a name for himself by collaborating with Matt Holloway on action film screenplays. The two most famous projects he was involved in were Iron Man and Punisher: War Zone.
Second, I can’t tell you how many times, the Boardwalk has been a great place to take a date. It’s where I took my wife Melanie for a spin on the Giant Dipper and the Log Ride. Here’s a picture I took while we were on vacation a few years ago.
Photo by Matthew Kenneth Gray
The other song that I saw he had on there was called “Workin’ On A New One.” For some of you who don’t know, I am a lyric writer and have been writing a long time but this title was one that I had already used.
One day, I sat down in our apartment here in Redbird Country, and I decided to write a breakup song about a guy who was down on his luck, in his messy house because his wife took off with the kids and all his beer. The character is singing about how he’s working on a new song about the experience because it’s all he knows how to do. This parallels my life because writing lyrics about something that happened to me or something that I can picture happening to me is something I love doing.
I sent the lyric to Ryan Bennett Price, who liked the lyric and wrote a scratch demo. I loved it so much. I then pitched the song to have it arranged by Jeff Jacobs, who worked with many pro performers and he recorded it.
Here’s the YouTube video with our song:
So, while we’re on YouTube, here’s Jon Pardi’s video of “Workin’ on a New One.”
Seeing a more thorough take on the same idea you had definitely can be humbling. Jon nails the song, and it is much more upbeat, and much more fun with the contrasting tempo with the optimistic lyrics about working on a new hangover because his girlfriend left him.
It shows the possibility of a rewrite, but I like both of the songs.
Seeing these contrasting takes on the same title, I now know why people write with recycled titles or titles that have already been used. Sammy Cahn was not a fan of this practice, but as Wanz told me, that is a limiting belief.
So, the lesson here for all you songwriters out there, it is perfectly fine for you to write a song with a similar title.
Also, it’s OK if someone uses what you think is a totally original title for their song because it will only bring more attention to yours.
Yee-Yee!
Matthew Kenneth Gray is an ASCAP songwriter/publisher and while in school, is doing freelance reporting and writing the “Redbird Country” articles to express himself in a different and expanded way. You can find many of his lyrics and other work at MatthewKennethGray.com