Many people use song lyrics in their albums so I added a few to this site. I'm only adding songs, or parts of songs, that seem suitable for scrapbooks. If you need entire songs see the links to lyric sites below.

Example of using lyrics in a scrapbook.

I Love

(Tom T. Hall from the album The Last Hard Town)

I Love little baby ducks
Old pickup trucks
Slow movin' trains and rain
I Love little country streams
Sleep without dreams
Sunday school in May and hay
And I love you too.

I Love--leaves in the wind
Pictures of my friends
Birds of the world--and squirrels
I Love--coffee in a cup
Little fuzzy pups
Bourbon in a glass--and grass
And I love you too.

I Love honest open smiles
Kisses from a child
Tomatoes on the vine and onions
I Love winner's when they cry
Loser's when they try
Music when it's good and life
And I love you too

Stacy Kocur made a wonderful page for her little boy's album using this song. In the upper left corner she had a photo of her hugging her son. Down the right edge of the page she had photos of him. She used the title "I Love You" and added a little note telling him how she had liked this song when she was a kid and that he reminded her of the things she loves, etc. She hand-printed the words to the song using stickers throughout. She didn't replace the words with stickers (though you could do that if you wanted). She used colored hearts next to the word love. Other stickers she used were: duck, pickup truck, clouds and raindrops, church, hay bale, leaves, camera, bird, squirrel, cup, puppy, glass of lemonade, tomato, blue ribbon, etc. Since she doesn't like onions she changed that word to "pie". And she changed "bourbon in a glass" to "drinking from a glass".
It would be easy to expand this idea into a whole sentiments album using one or two lines of the song per page with photos of your child in addition to stickers. You probably already have many of the photos and it shouldn't be hard to do the others--baby ducks are at many zoos in the spring; many farms have an old pickup; and the train could be one at an amusement park.

On a scrapbook board I asked how people felt when they saw a page title that seemed inappropriate--not because of the title itself but because of the words to the actual song. For example "Cherish" on a wedding page.
There were varying opinions but it prompted me to look at song titles in a different way--putting aside what I knew about the song. I was surprised at the results. I am not a creative person. I can stare at a group of pictures for hours and not think up a clever title--or even a not-so-clever title. But looking at the titles first makes it easy. Try browsing a lyrics site for ideas.

There are still titles I would never use--like "Angel of the Morning" in a child's album; "Ten Years of This" for a 10th anniversary page--unless it was for someone I was divorced from; or "Goodbye Earl" for a retirement album--even if the person was named Earl ;-)

Here are a few ideas:

• "What a Difference You've Made in My Life" - new baby, wedding or tribute album
• "What a Wonderful, Wonderful Feeling When Liking Turns to Loving" - engagement pictures
• "Easier Said Than Done" or "Where Were You When I Needed You" - photos of children with shoes on the wrong feet, clothes on backwards, etc.
• "Glad All Over" - excited child or pet
• "I May As Well Try and Catch the Wind" - active children
• "Chantilly Lace and a Pretty Face" - bride
• "Now That I've Found You", "Love Can't Ever Get Better Than This" - wedding
• "I Love You More and More Every Day" - anniversary
• "Old Flames Can't Hold a Candle to You" - good photo of husband in the center of the page surrounded by out-of-focus, unflattering photos of ex-boyfriends.

Links to Lyric Sites

These are just a few of the many lyric sites on the internet. I welcome recommendations. I primarily search for 60's music and country music. Most lyric sites have links to other lyric sites.

• Google Search
  This is where I start if I want a specific song. I type in the word 'lyrics', the last name of the artist and the exact title or a distinctive phrase from the song in quotations marks. If I were searching for "Amanda" by Don Williams I would type:
  lyrics Williams "fate should have made you a gentleman's wife"
  If I just used the title and artist I would get many hits because the names, 'Don Williams' and 'Amanda', are so common.
  To search for "Alone With You" (if I didn't know it was by Faron Young) I would type "when the lonely night surrounds you" because the title would produce too many results--including some that I wouldn't be interested in ;-). If you don't get it the first time try a shorter phrase or a list of uncommon words in the song.
• Lyrics.com
  Lots of lyrics and includes recent releases.
• Absolute Lyrics
  Thousands of lyrics for all kinds of music and very easy to navigate.
• The Archive of Misheard Lyrics
  This is not exactly a lyrics site but it is a lot of fun to visit. People send in lyrics that they misheard and about how and when they realized they were wrong--sometimes a very embarrassing moment.
• Eric's Thematic Songlists
  This is NOT a lyric site but song titles by subject--a good place to get page titles.

The Story of You Life - in Music

It occurred to me one day that you could write the story of your life using song titles. I have seen song titles used in stories but have not seen any with nothing but song titles. So I am issuing a challenge for everyone to try it. If you want I will post your poem or story here. You can use the titles to represent the words of the song or you can use the titles to mean what they say without regard to the lyrics. If you write prose you can add incidental words to form sentences but all the meaningful content has to be song titles. This doesn't have to be about you. It can be a descriptive narrative of your child or spouse. This would be fun to put in a scrapbook with photos of a person dancing or listening to music. Here is mine: