What Makes a Hit Song? Popularity. Duh.

Ugh, I clicked on this article about what makes a hit song. Guess what? Hit songs are what other people say they are. Duh.

In a related note, I watched ER last night, something I almost never do anymore. At the end of the show they had this really cool Blues musician sit down at a piano in a tavern and start singing Jimmy Cliff's Many Rivers to Cross while they did a video montage. Beautiful. Now that's a great song. I say so. And so do thousands of others. You can hear a little snippet of Many Rivers to Cross here.

Okay, one last little piece of trivia (you know that rabbit hole of internet searching): Here's a database of cover songs - who did the original and who did the remakes. The rundown of Many Rivers to Cross is here.