Excuse You While You Kiss... This Guy?
Sometimes, no matter how much you like an artist, you just have no idea what the heck they're saying. Alternately, identifying a song by its lyrics might be the only possibility if you heard it on the radio - DJs sometimes slack on identifying the name or the artist, but if you can remember the chorus, you might be on your way to a musical discovery.
Unfortunately, like everything else on the Internet, lyrics sites are hit and miss with their quality. Furthermore, how do you find lyrics sites for specific topics - say, lyric interpretations, or misheard lyrics? That's what this lens is for. Helping you find the best song lyrics sites ever...
...ever.
(Also: kudos to you if you catch the reference in the intro title... and if you know what the line actually is.)
The Starting Line
(Pardon the Pun)
- Have you ever tried using Google to find lyrics? Chances are a lot of you have, and just haven't known how to use it properly. Allow me to train you in Google-fu: the single best way to find lyrics for a song is to do a search for either:
"song's title, and make sure it's RIGHT" lyrics
OR
"a lyric from the song, under ten words" lyrics
The quotes mean it'll look for the exact phrase - and the word 'lyrics' means you'll look for lyrics, which means you'll probably end up with either a review of the song's lyrics (less likely) or one of the sites linked below. - A-Z Lyrics Universe
- Large lyrics collection of all genres and ages.
I'm fond of A-Z Lyrics Universe for one thing because of their clean, simple interface. A lot of lyrics sites are cram-jammed full of ads and links to retailers - not this site. Even though it's got some ads in places, it's a well-designed lyrics site overall, and usually has the correct lyrics for many songs. They also have a nice list on their front page of newly-updated lyrics.
Sample lyrics page: Ludacris' "Money Maker". - Lyrics.com - Music for your head.
- Another well-designed lyrics site, content-filled and attractive without being overly flashy. Lyrics.com doesn't come up very high on search engine results, though, so unless you're specifically going to it you may not see it very often. Watch out for broken links in places.
Sample lyrics page: Hall and Oates' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling". Note that this isn't typical at all... because lyrics.com actually just links to OTHER lyrics sites! For example, here's some Pantera lyrics. Consequently, lyrics.com suffers from broken links a LOT more often than some other lyrics sites. - Sing365.com Lyrics
- Full Text Phrase Searchable Lyrics Database. 400000 Lyrics Included.
Sing365 is a decent site, although occasionally you'll find that the lyrics for some songs are just wrong. The weird part is, a ton of other sites will also have the same wrong lyrics. Confession time: apparently a lot of lyrics sites just blatantly rip each other off.
Sad, isn't it?
Sample lyrics page: Sublime's "40 Oz. to Freedom". - Leo's Lyrics
- More lyrics than I ever thought possible? Not quite. Leo's Lyrics lacks a lot of songs I can find elsewhere. However, it's still a fairly well-done lyrics site, and they offer a unique feature or two: a Firefox plugin to search for lyrics, and a Winamp plugin to display lyrics while you're listening to music. If, you know, you still use Winamp.
Also, watch out for AOL chatroom kiddie spelling.
Sample lyrics page: Prince's "Purple Rain".
Winamp plugin: here.
Specialty Lyrics Sites
Misheard Lyrics, Meanings of Lyrics, and More
- SongMeanings | music song lyrics
- SongMeanings isn't just a lyric site -- find song facts, information and plenty of music-related data. You can also add your own lyrics, comment on existing lyrics, discuss music in a forum, and much more.
Lensmaster's note: SongMeanings is also a place to see some really, really cracked-out theories. For example, someone actually thinks Elliott Smith's "Everything Reminds Me Of Her" is about heroin. Get it? Heroin? Ha. - The Archive of Misheard Lyrics
- The Archive of Misheard Lyrics - with a clever domain name, named after a misheard Jimi Hendrix lyric (or was it really misheard? you be the judge!).
Reading, Understanding, and Even Writing Lyrics
The Lyric Book: Complete Lyrics for Over 1000 Songs from Tin Pan Alley to Today
Amazon Price: $18.21 (as of 09/07/2008)
500 Best-Loved Song Lyrics
Amazon Price: $10.36 (as of 09/07/2008)
The Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics
Amazon Price: $23.10 (as of 09/07/2008)
Lyrics: Writing Better Words for Your Songs (Songwriting)
Amazon Price: $15.61 (as of 09/07/2008)
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