I can’t tell you how many times I heard that in my years in the business. One of the truths of music is that everyone is an expert at what they do….and music. The best advice I ever received was at a party from friends who were also struggling and looking for that big break, it came from the wife of a singer I was working with. She said, “Why don’t you just find a group like the Beatles?” I just hit my forehead with my hand and said, “God, thank you, I never thought about that…how could I be so stupid?” Turns out, there never was another group like the Beatles. That hit song thing has some merit, however. Forget the fact that by the time someone heard a song on the radio, it was a hit already! But there is something about a hit that immediately grabs you and from the first time you hear it to the time it’s an “oldie” it never stops being a hit. My own personal theory is that once the songwriter writes that song it’s not his song anymore…it’s yours…it’s mine…it’s universal. It affects us emotionally and like a good story, we become immersed in that emotion. I can’t imagine a world without that. What those people should have said is, “I knew that was a hit song the first time I heard it…and now it’s mine.”