(May 28, 2023) The history of popular music is filled with the curiosity that is the “response song.” That is a song that is made to respond to an earlier hit. Think Barbara Mason’s “She’s Got the Paper (But I Got The Man)” in response to Richard Dimples Fields’ “She’s Got Papers On Me,” or the seemingly dozens of musical answers to UTFO’s hit “Roxanne, Roxanne.”
Response songs are usually fun, and keep a story going, often providing the perspective of other side. And while it seems that response songs peaked more than two decades ago, SoulTracks now has – in our own small way – helped birth a response song for the ‘20s.
(May 28, 2023) The history of popular music is filled with the curiosity that is the “response song.” That is a song that is made to respond to an earlier hit. Think Barbara Mason’s “She’s Got the Paper (But I Got The Man)” in response to Richard Dimples Fields’ “She’s Got Papers On Me,” or the seemingly dozens of musical answers to UTFO’s hit “Roxanne, Roxanne.”
Response songs are usually fun, and keep a story going, often providing the perspective of other side. And while it seems that response songs peaked more than two decades ago, SoulTracks now has – in our own small way – helped birth a response song for the ‘20s.
Back in January, we featured the new single “You Lied,” from SoulTracks Readers’ Choice Award winner Tanqueray Hayward. It was a powerful story of love and betrayal, and immediately hit with SoulTrackers. It also struck a nerve with Atlanta-based singer and songwriter Will Preston, who heard it on SoulTracks -- so much so, that he decided to write and perform a response from the male perspective called “Of Course I Lied.” In it, the singer doesn’t so much apologize as give his somewhat calculated take on why he did what he did.
Tanqueray and Will have had some fun going old school with these response songs, and so have we. Both are still on our Fresh Soul playlist (back-to-back).
Check out “You Lied” and “Of Course I Lied” below, and welcome these examples of great musical storytelling, 21st century style.
By Chris Rizik