Insiders’ Grammy Bets

What makes a good song? No one knows better than the folks who write them. Calendar enlisted some experts to look at the Grammy nominees in three song categories--R&B;, country and pop (a.k.a. song of the year)--to determine whether this year’s crop yields any gems, or just a bunch of stinkers.

SONG OF THE YEAR

The Nominees: “Don’t Speak” by Eric Stefani and Gwen Stefani; “How Do I Live” by Diane Warren; “I Believe I Can Fly” by R. Kelly; “Sunny Came Home” by Shawn Colvin and John Leventhal; ‘Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?” by Paula Cole.

The Judge: Bernie Taupin, Elton John’s primary lyricist for the last three decades.

The Verdict: A meticulous craftsman, Taupin has very specific ideas about what constitutes a good song, and only a couple of this year’s nominees make the cut. “No Doubt’s ‘Don’t Speak’ is a really good pop record, but it’s more about the projection of the band’s image, which is sort of a Blondie for the ‘90s,” says Taupin.

Cole’s wistful “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?” is, for Taupin, more like a statement than a song. “It’s a really clever record, but it’s pieced together, so I don’t regard it as a song,” he says. “It’s more of a vibe. It’s really listenable, but it ultimately becomes a novelty record.”

Sometimes, according to Taupin, a great singer can overcome a song’s shortcomings, as is the case with “How Do I Live,” which was recorded by both LeAnn Rimes and Trisha Yearwood in ’97. “ ‘How Do I Live’ is a pretty song with a nice structure, but it’s ultimately about LeAnn Rimes’ performance,” says Taupin.

Taupin finds absolutely no redeeming qualities in Kelly’s “I Believe I Can Fly.” “I think it’s pedestrian and cliche, the ultimate conveyor-belt songwriting,” he says. “It’s an average melody, with a really wretched lyric. Kelly’s grandstanding vocal is like Michael Bolton--he attacks the song.”

Only one nominee--Colvin and Leventhal’s “Sunny Came Home”--truly captured Taupin’s imagination. “It’s mysterious, and it’s got a really cool groove,” he says. “That song conjures up so many vivid pictures, which is really what songwriting should be about--you take an ordinary situation and make it interesting by twisting it. It takes you somewhere, and that’s the only one of these songs that does that for me, so it’s my hands-down pick for best song.”