What’s the most important part of a song: melody or lyrics?

While the two are often inextricably entwined, there can only be one winner when it comes to a song's vital ingredient

In the Guide's weekly Solved! column, we look into a crucial pop-culture question you've been burning to know the answer to - and settle it

Everyone has a favourite misheard lyric they can tell you. I had a schoolfriend who assumed that TLC's Waterfalls was a song of encouragement for someone called Jason Waterfall (Go, go Jason Waterfall!"). It's a misinterpretation that helps to answer the question: what's more important: lyrics or melody? The fact that Waterfall is a really weird surname didn't matter, because a great melody pulls you along and sweeps you up. You don't know any misheard melodies because of their wonderful lyrics, do you?