Boxes Quote by Billy Joel

[The lyrics and melody] usually come a little simultaneously, but I would say the lyrics are first; usually I have the idea for a…

— Billy Bob Thornton

The music comes first. Final lyrics are usually written very close to recording the vocals.

— Tobias Forge

Sometimes melody and sometimes lyrics. It depends on the tempo and feel of the song. Slower pieces usually begin with melody and faster ones…

— Ronnie James Dio

I always write the lyrics first. There are one or two exceptions over the years, but that's pretty much the way it's been. The…

— Bruce Cockburn

I generally have lyrics first, but you can't help that when you're writing lyrics you start to get a melody in your head. So…

— Billy Bob Thornton

You want songs to sound cohesive with the other songs on the record but when you first start writing you just want to write…

— Jon Foreman

Some people start with the lyrics first because they know what they want to talk about and they just write a whole bunch of…

— John Legend

Each song had a different way of coming about. In some, the music was written first while others it was the lyrics. We didn't…

— Elena Tonra

I've written about one song on several different albums.

— Gloria Gaynor

I always start with the lyrics, because starting with the music means the words will be bad.

— Dan Bejar

I'm not avoiding specifics, but I've always written songs from more of a global standpoint.

— William Beckett

Every writer writes in different ways, and so some write the music first, while others write the lyrics first, and some write while they…

— Valerie June