Mike Chapman - Writing Technique

Writing Technique

Chinn and Chapman delivered their songs rapidly, often conceiving and completing them overnight. They claimed they created their songs by first thinking of a title, around which they then wrote the lyrics. The claim is supported by the lyrics of early bubblegum pop songs such as "Wig Wam Bam" …

Wig-wam bam, gonna make you my man

Wam bam bam, gonna get you if I can

Wig-wam bam, wanna make you understand

Try a little touch, try a little too much

Just try a little wig-wam bam

… although other songs including those for Smokie such as "Living Next Door to Alice" injected a much more thoughtful, emotional tone (originally written for New World in the early 70s, much the same time as Wig Wag Bam) …

Oh, I don't know why she's leaving,

Or where she's gonna go,

I guess she's got her reasons,

But I just don't want to know,

'Cos for twenty-four years

I've been living next door to Alice.

Twenty-four years just waiting for a chance,

To tell her how I feel, and maybe get a second glance,

Now I've got to get used to not living next door to Alice...

The use of deeply emotional content is seen again in the Smokie single "Lay Back in the Arms of Someone":

If you want my sympathy

Open your heart to me

You'll get whatever you'll ever need

You think that's too high for you

But oh baby, I would die for you

When there's nothing left, you know where I'll be

In a 2002 interview with The Guardian, Chapman reflected that writing hit songs was an art to which many aspired but few achieved: "It's always a gamble. We'd written something like eight top 10 hits for Sweet when we heard that they'd entered the studio to record their own songs. After that, it was over for them. The bottom line is this -- writing songs might be easy to do, but it's incredibly hard to do well."