Song: I’m All Over It Artist: Jamie Cullum (Originally published Nov.29, 2011)

Jamie Cullum was a discovery because of a guitar student (as so many of them are for me!).  She requested another song by Cullum called “All At Sea”, which I liked, but it wasn’t until I did more research that I discovered this song, which I immediately fell in love with.

It’s not a deep song, lyrically speaking, but the jazz/pop musical style of Jamie Cullum is so tasty that you can’t help yourself wanting to listen to it again and again.  I remember being a kid and listening to and falling in love with songs that I paid very little attention to when it came to the lyrics.

Some of that was not my fault…the recording quality and subsequent radio broadcast quality often lead to misheard or misunderstood lyrics.  In fact, there are a number of websites dedicated to misheard lyrics, one of them being Kiss This Guy which was originally called The Archive of Misheard Lyrics.  Kiss This Guy is a reference to a line in the song “Purple Haze” by Jimi Hendrix.  The actual line was “excuse me while I kiss the sky”, but many people heard it as “excuse me while I kiss this guy”.  But I digress :-).

Jamie Cullum’s lyrics are definitely not poorly recorded, but they are not remarkable either.  Many times when I’m writing lyrical tips on this songwriting blog I really emphasize the importance of lyrics.  So am I contradicting myself?  Not really.  “I’m All Over It” is a good hook, and it’s a typical break up song, lyrically speaking, but the music, the production and Jamie’s performance greatly overshadow any weakness in his lyrics.  He’s considered somewhat of a jazz prodigy, with a lot of his earlier recorded works being covers of old jazz standards.  But his songwriting really makes him a great find.  Have a listen to the song in the video below and tell me what you think!

IJ