What’s the Word? Check Out the Top Lyric Sites on the Web
“Dancin’ Shoes” was written and performed by Carl Storie and the FAITH BAND which did quite well regionally and even nationally and remains a legend here in Indiana. (Around the same time as the FAITH BAND release, “Dancin’ Shoes” was covered by Nigel Olsson, former drummer with Elton John. If you’re familiar with the song, it was probably Olsson’s track you heard since it was the bigger of the two nationally.) Finding the lyrics to such an old song proved more difficult than I would had thought, but I finally came up with three great sites that yielded not only the lyrics I wanted, but a trove of other tasty musical goodness as well.
Let’s Sing It, www.LetsSingIt.com, was the first site I came across that allowed me to search, directly at the top of the page, for a song by artist, title, album, and/or lyric fragment. Truly some other sites have the same feature, many of which are listed as the ten best lyric sites on About.com, but since none of those sites coughed up the right lyrics to “Dancin’ Shoes,” I weeded them from the patch. Surprisingly I found that too many sites offer search capability by artist and song title, but not by lyric line.
With a database of over 125,000 lyrics and 25,000 artists, Let’s Sing It is loaded with information as well as being graphically colorful and easy to navigate. In addition to providing its own database, it has links to a slew of other lyric sites. Looking for some Turkish lyrics (of course you are) or something en FranÃ?§ais? Oui, oui. Visit www.LetsSingIt.com
Run by volunteers, International Lyrics Playground, www.lyricsplayground.com has an abundance of blue decor and clean simple graphics. I appreciated the lack of claustrophobic ads and a wide-open clean page to view lyrics. Lyric presentation was neat, too. Here is my cut and paste of the lyrics to “Dancin’ Shoes” from www.lyricsplayground.com
DANCIN’ SHOES
Nigel Olsson – 1978
Too many long conversations
And no one is hearing a word
Just trying to escape the frustrations
Till a song in the night can be heard
Put on your dancin’ shoes
Throw out those one night blues
Here’s one to love and to chance
For a spin on that wheel of romance
Too slow to unriddle all your problems
Too lonely for someone to care
Long, lonely silence keeps haunting
Till the song in the night finds you there
Put on your dancin’ shoes
Throw out those one night blues
And here’s one to love and to chance
For a spin on that wheel
Spin on that wheel
Spin on that wheel of romance
A face like an angel, she’s waiting
She smiles and looks over at you
You yearn for this situation
Now finally your dreams have come true
Put on your dancin’ shoes
Sweep her away with you
Cause here’s one to love and to share
Caught on that wheel
Caught on that wheel
Caught on that wheel of romance
Put on your dancin’ shoes
Put on your dancin’ shoes
Sweep her away with you
Put on your dancin’ shoes
Sweep her away with you
You, you, oh, you
(Fade to End)
Put on your dancin’ shoes
Put on your dancin’ shoes
(Transcribed by Carlene Bogle – July 2002)
Hope you noticed that the volunteer who entered the data is credited at the end. Sweet. Only misguide here is that Nigel Olsson appears to be the author, rather than Carl Storie. “Performed by” Nigel Olsson would have been more industry appropriate.
Finally, Lyrics on Demand, www.lyricsondemand.com, can lead you not only to the lyrics for old songs like “Dancin’ Shoes,” but can take you easily to the following categories:
* Child Songs Lyrics
* Christian Lyrics
* Fight Songs Lyrics
* Gospel Lyrics
* Holiday Songs Lyrics
* National Anthems Lyrics
* Patriotic Songs Lyrics
* State Songs Lyrics
* World Cup Lyrics (methinks this might be a UK site).
Also at your fingertips are TV Theme lyrics from the ’50s-on, sorted by genre as well as by decade. Although I’m too restless to watch SMALLVILLE for more than 10 minutes, the opening theme has always grabbed my attention. With relief, I know more of the song now than the snagging, nagging hook-line, “Somebody save me.” On the other hand, despite the fact that I am an ardent fan of HOUSE, I never even noticed the show had its own lyrical song: “Teardrop on the fire, Fearless on my breath.” It’s as esoteric and as dour a set of lyrics as you’ll ever hope to torment yourself with. Quite perfect for the Hugh Laurie character.
Most of the Child Song lyrics are spot on, with the exception, perhaps, of “100 Bottles of Pop on the Wall.” Right. Would it be any fun to sing about pop bottles when you’re seven years old and being shipped off to camp for the summer? Besides, who buys pop in bottles anymore? PC aside, that ditty should be all about the beer bottles smashing to the suds-soaked floor.
In the end, I had fun tripping through all the lyric sites, even the ones I haven’t mentioned. As my lyric search came to a close, I discovered I could actually even listen to the Carl Storie version of “Dancin’ Shoes” on the Clear Channel site by going to www.clearchannelnewmusicnetwork.com/artist/carlstorie.com. Seems like a dandy reward after a hard day tilling in the sometimes weed-infested fields of the web.
