How to Find Lyrics to Most of the
5,000 Gold Standard Songs

As you probably know, countless thousands of websites have collections of song lyrics. Some feature small, specialized collections, others massive databases of charted hits.

Since the Gold Standard Song List spans 100 years and 14 genres, no single website on the Internet has more than a modest fraction of GSSL lyrics.

However, the following simple procedures will enable you to find most of the GSSL lyrics pretty easily, using Google.

EFFICIENT LYRIC-FINDING USING GOOGLE

Suppose you want to get the lyrics to “Birdhouse In Your Soul,” written by John Flansburgh and John Linnell, and recorded by They Might Be Giants (the duo’s stage name). Here’s how to do it:

1. Go to Google and enter the title of the song in quotation marks (upper/lower case does not matter), like this:

          “birdhouse in your soul”

2. Next, the word “lyrics”, without quotation marks. Now you have:

          “birdhouse in your soul” lyrics

3. Finally, the name of a performer known to have recorded the song (NOT the songwriter, unless it’s the same person). NOTE: Each of the 5,000 songs here at GoldStandardSongList.com names at least one performer who has recorded the song (usually more than one) following "REC" in the "Songwriter" column.
So ... here’s the full search string to enter at Google:

          “birdhouse in your soul” lyrics they might be giants

This will yield a healthy list of web pages with the lyrics to this song.

Some lyric sites have aggressive, annoying pop-up ads and spyware code. So make sure your browser and computer have adequate and up-to-date security systems in place.

If you’re looking for an old or decidedly non-mainstream song, leave off the name of the recording artist. For example, if you’re looking for the lyrics to “Ragtime Cowboy Joe” (composed in 1912), you would try the following Google search:

“ragtime cowboy joe” lyrics

How to Find Lyrics to Most of the 5,000 Gold Standard Songs

How to Find Lyrics to Most of the
5,000 Gold Standard Songs