It takes some songwriters days, months, or even years to write a song that will become a hit. However, there have been rare instances of artists producing hit songs for the music industry in a matter of minutes.
Just consider how much you could accomplish in 30 minutes, from getting a manicure to reading a book to working out your entire body. Nowhere on our to-do lists did we find “write a hit song for a massive fan base,” but then again, we’re no Taylor Swift.
Swift has stated that the legendary “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” was written in an under 25 minutes. The following eight tracks were completed in less time than it would take to have takeout brought to your door.
8 Beyoncé Wrote ‘Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)’ In 20 Minutes
Beyoncé and producer The-Dream wrote the lyrics to their popular hit in less time than it takes to master the song’s signature dance steps. According to The-Dream, “When Bey came in, she had that smirk that I see when I know a record is happening,” and the tune was finished 20 minutes later.
The-Dream is a blessing for the music business, and you’re losing out if you haven’t heard of him. He has written and produced hits for a wide variety of singers, Beyoncé being one of them.
The-Dream discussed crafting this single lady anthem in just 20 minutes in an interview with Genius. “Usually, those songs that take the small amount of time are usually the bigger ones because you’re not thinking about it. It’s just a mood.”
7 Kanye West Wrote The 2004 Hit Song ‘All Falls Down’ In 15 Minutes
It’s difficult to deny that writing the 2004 hit song “All Falls Down” in only 15 minutes is pretty damn amazing, whether or not you agree with Kanye’s frequent claims of the craziest things. The secret? Learning “how to make raps with a message sound cool,” claims the contentious artist.
He spoke about the significance of this 2004 success in a 2013 interview with the New York Times, stating, “It wasn’t until I hung out with Dead Prez and understood how to make, you know, raps with a message sound cool that I was able to just write ‘All Falls Down’ in 15 minutes.”
6 Lorde Wrote Her Breakout Hit ‘Royals’ In 30 Minutes
The achievement of the number-one single “Royals” was one of Lorde’s defining milestones in her career. It appeared to be with us wherever we went! The singer told Billboard in an interview that she was able to write the song fairly quickly.
“Yeah, I was just at my house, and I wrote it before I went to the studio,” the singer said. “I wrote it in, like, half an hour — the lyrics, anyway. I wrote all the lyrics and took them to the studio, and my producer was like, ‘Yeah, this is cool.’ We worked on that and on two other songs on the EP in a week, and just did a little bit every day.”
They had no idea that their affirmation that “Yeah, this is cool” would be the century’s greatest understatement. A 15-year-old vocalist who was still relatively unknown in the world wrote a song in 30 minutes that would eventually launch her to success. Like, what?
5 Taylor Swift Wrote ‘We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together’ In 25 Minutes
The idea for this song abruptly struck Taylor Swift, who is clearly the queen of breakup songs, as she was in the studio working on other tracks.
When a man entered the recording studio and informed Swift that he had heard she was reuniting with her ex-boyfriend, Swift replied with the now-famous song title, and the rest is history.
“I just grabbed the guitar, and it just happened very randomly. It was hilarious – we wrote the song in 25 minutes,” said Swift to Digital Spy about her ex-dumping the 2012 hit. With the track selling more than 7 million copies, those 25 minutes must rank among the most profitable in music history.
4 Lady Gaga Wrote Her Breakout Single ‘Just Dance’ In 10 Minutes
Doesn’t it seem as though Lady Gaga has been a part of our lives for all time at this point? It’s difficult to recall a time before she revolutionized the music industry with her dance-pop sound.
Although it might appear that she has always been a formidable force, everything actually started with her single “Just Dance,” which turned fifteen in April 2023.
The singer claimed in an interview with Heat magazine that the song only took a short while to write with producers Akon and RedOne. “It’s been unbelievable the way the song has crossed over into the mainstream. It took 10 minutes to write!”
In an intriguing twist, “Just Dance” dethroned Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” from the top of Billboard’s Hot 100 chart when it reached #1. War of the hastily composed songs?
3 Ed Sheeran Said His Hit Song “Photograph” “Fell Out” In 10 Minutes
If the song itself doesn’t make you bawl your eyes out, the music video will make you want to snuggle up on the couch with a box of tissues. Sheeran felt inspired to write about a recent breakup after hearing a few chords from Johnny McDaid of Snow Patrol.
The UK singer claims that it was simple to write the song because he and McDaid were touring together when the song’s hook magically appeared out of nowhere. In just ten minutes, they had created one of the greatest pop songs of all time.
“I wrote it with Johnny from Snow Patrol, and he just had a loop on his laptop that he just put down that was just a three-note piano thing. I just started singing over that, ‘loving can hurt, loving can hurt,’ and then the song just kinda fell out within about 10 minutes,” he told Capital FM.
Sheeran may live like a C-list star, but his music certainly holds the highest ranks of stardom.
2 The Spice Girls Wrote Iconic Anthem ‘Wannabe’ In 30 Minutes
Who among us wasn’t a Spice Girls fanatic? With their distinctive styles, enduring nicknames, and endless bops, they had an impact on an entire generation.
Co-writer and producer Richard ‘Biff’ Stannard said that four of the girls (excluding Victoria) assisted in writing the song ‘Wannabe’ in under 30 minutes. Their song was an instant fan favorite.
“There were seven of us sitting on the floor in this tiny room. Everyone had their role; Geri was always concentrating on the theme, and all the others would chip in with melodies and lyrics. There would be two or three things going on at once; we would have three or four mics up, and we would record everything, then pick the bits we liked and play it back to them.”
The trio spent roughly 30 minutes coming up with the lyrics for this song about the importance of female friendships, according to Melanie Chisholm, a.k.a. “Sporty Spice,” who verified this to MPRNews.
The Spice Girls may have had a short shelf life, but ‘Wannabe’ will forever be on the list of best songs of all time.
1 Adele Wrote Her Debut Hit, ‘Hometown Glory,’ In Under 10 Minutes
Adele never fails to touch our hearts, and when she was just 16 years old, she developed the idea for her song “Hometown Glory.” She locked herself in her room after arguing with her mother over where she should attend university and composed the masterpiece in just ten minutes.
“It’s called ‘Hometown Glory,’ and it was all about how I felt about London and stuff like that. I actually wrote it on guitar, and I was at school at the time. I actually find this song really emotional now because so much has happened since I wrote it, and it’s been like 11 years since I wrote it. So my whole career has happened, and it’s one of my favorites still, to this day,” she told Billboard.
The singer-songwriter was solely responsible for ‘Hometown Glory.’ She supposedly wrote it while she was only 16 years old, making it the first song she ever composed. And for it to make a splash with 10 minutes of writing? Positively incomprehensible.