A hit record is something that someone hears once, maybe twice, and can’t get out of their head.

Or as Ahmet Ertegun said… A hit record is something you hear on late night radio that causes you to get out of bed, get dressed and go to the all night record shop to buy.

A hit record can be a chart success, but not necessarily.

The Dave Matthews Band’s first hit record was “Ants Marching,” which showed up nowhere on the hit parade, but when you played it for someone they wanted to play it themselves and then turned everybody they knew on to it.

Going back further we’ve got “Sunshine of Your Love” by Cream, with its indelible riff. Part of “Disraeli Gears,” Cream not only had not had a Top 40 hit previously, underground FM radio, which played the track, was still only in a few cities. But the track was so undeniable that it ultimately crossed over.

And then you’ve got “Purple Haze,” released even earlier. Top 40 was not ready, but that was the track you played to turn people on to Hendrix.

As for this century, we’ve got Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy,” which didn’t even have to finish for me to love it, to immediately go home and download it.

But sans context “Crazy” was just a single. There’s a business in singles, but it’s a hard one. What you want is a culture, a whole belief system, surrounding music, so that someone can be involved in the song.

Culture… Think about it. I write that Billy Strings hasn’t written a hit song, but he does have culture. If he wrote a hit, he’d no longer be underground, but everywhere (you can be underground and play arenas today, that’s how narrow the niches can be).

As for writing hit songs…

Maybe work with Dan Wilson, who doesn’t compromise your culture in order for you to have a hit. Your hit must be “on brand,” must sound like you.

A great example is “Whole Lotta Love.” The first Led Zeppelin album as amazing, it penetrated society for nearly a year, and then came “Whole Lotta Love,” which AM radio embraced and the rest is history.

As for “Stairway to Heaven”… It was never a single. But it was the number one rock track for decades in the Memorial 500 of AOR stations, and still would be if any of those stations were still active.

Oh, let’s comb the past once more. Def Leppard was not new, but you only had to hear half of “Photograph” to love it.

Today everybody has it backward. They think that the hit comes first. But that is very rare. It worked for the Eagles and Sam Smith, but when all you have is the hit…you’re screwed, few are coming to your shows, you have no career.

Now just because you’re a fan of a band, that does not mean they have a hit. You love them, you’ve seen them multiple times, you stream their music, but the act’s base doesn’t grow, because there’s not that instant track.

Acts need that instant track.

I loved Dawes’s second album. But they could never come up with a hit and ultimately band members left, they were sick of the grind.

How do you write a hit?

It’s best if it’s organic, within your oeuvre.

Traffic had written hits covered by others, but the band broke through with “Low Spark of High Heeled Boys,” which sounded like them, sounded like a stretch, but sounded like nothing else.

That’s what we’re missing. Acts that go on their own hejira, are not me-too, that when ultimately embraced become legendary.

That was the paradigm in the late sixties and seventies, until me-too corporate rock and disco killed it. MTV made stars, they rocketed you to the moon, but many of those acts immediately fell back to earth, because there was no culture.

Same today. A track is embraced and after it fades…nothing.

Today’s paradigm is akin to the movie business, which wants only blockbusters, and therefore relies on sequels and superhero flicks. All the innovation is on streaming television, that’s where risks are taken, supported by subscriber revenue.

And, in truth, the major labels are supported by subscriber revenue, they call it “catalog.” Endless income with almost no costs. Allowing the labels to…

Put out me-too wannabe blockbuster product.

That’s why the scene is moribund. There’s no there there. No innovation. Either you’ve got dreck just like the previous dreck, or left field stuff sans the essential building blocks of success…instrumental dexterity, melody, changes and a good voice. You can play in today’s music business, you can put your music up on Spotify, but you won’t truly go anywhere unless you have a hit.

And then there are bands that do boffo at the b.o. who can’t write a hit. Tedeschi Trucks… Doesn’t anybody in that act know the formula?

It’s like it’s a lost art. Acts have no idea what a hit is.

As for acts that have one big hit and go on a big tour and are given hosannas by the press… There are 100 million more people in America than in the seventies. Oftentimes it’s a large niche with no trailing effect.

So…

It’s actually easy. Play your music for someone, if they don’t want to tell everybody about it, if they just say they like it, it’s not a hit.

And a hit can take many forms. And it doesn’t need to be on the chart.

But hits are the heart and soul of this business.

There’s example after example. Metallica was big before “Enter Sandman,” after the track they were legendary, can sell out stadiums to this day.

We’ve got too many acts with too few knowing how the game truly works, never mind not many having talent. Everybody’s got their heads in the clouds, detached from reality.

The truth is the public is hungry for new music. But you’ve got to make it easy for them, you’ve got to write a hit.

That’s your assignment.