The Genius Of One-Chord Hits

I’m a big fan of one chord songs. You might think that I’m crazy but hear me out. Having a hit with a song revolving around a single chord means that the arrangement and production are so good that the listener overlooks the fact that there’s not much chordal movement in the song. That’s not an easy thing to do, especially these days when interest in just about anything can wane in just a few seconds.

There were actually 5 hits that were hits last year that were one-chord songs, and on first glance you’d probably think, “See, songwriters today just aren’t as good they used to be,” or “It’s all a product of computers doing the writing these days.” We’ll surprise – one-chord hits have been around for a long time. Here are a few that you’ve probably heard once or twice:

“I’m A Man” – Muddy Waters

“Who Do You Love” – Bo Diddly/George Thorogood

“Papa Was A Rolling Stone” – The Temptations

“Chain Of Fools” – Aretha Franklin

“Coconut” – Harry Nilsson

“Tomorrow Never Knows” – The Beatles

“Get This Party Started” – Pink

Or more recently songs like “Bodak Yellow” by Cardi B and “DNA” by Kendrick Lamar. Of course, lots of other hip-hop songs revolve around a single loop of a chord or riff, but that doesn’t stop people from liking the song. I’m sure you can think of a lot more, but the point is, a hit doesn’t have to be dense with chord changes to be interesting.

So what does a song have to do to become interesting if there are no chord changes involved? Here are 5 production tricks to make that one-chord song work:

1. Differentiate the sections. It doesn’t matter if there’s only one underlying chord or riff as long as it’s clear that there are other parts in the song. This occurs with the help of the following…

2. Adding and subtracting parts. Always the key to a good arrangement anyway, adding and subtracting additional parts in the different sections will define the section.

3. Changing the melody. A clear change in melody from verse to chorus frequently does the trick, along with…

4. Making the chorus bigger. Usually this happens via the addition of background vocals, additional instruments, or both.

5. Use a breakdown. Often a breakdown to just drums or the basic loop or riff will define a section as a bridge.

So if your songwriter friends are telling you that your song is going nowhere because it has only one chord, remember that a one-chord song can still be hugely interesting – as long as you spend time on the arrangement and production.