Talk:I Do Believe (The Highwaymen song)

Notability?

Why a call for proof of notability when it is already sourced that this highly notable artist considers this to be his best work? Isn't that notability itself? DeistCosmos (talk) 21:02, 6 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

There are specific guidelines to help Wikipedia contributors determine if a song is notable or not, and they are listed at WP:NSONG. Most songs fail those criteria, but we [contributors] can always search for third-party (independent from the artist) sources that 'prove' the notability. As you can read there, charts or awards are also helpful, but they aren't necessary. Generally speaking, the more newspapers, magazines and other reliable sources write about a particular song, the easier it is to establish its notability. — Mayast (talk) 21:58, 6 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Nothing there would appear to grant any import at all to the songwriter's opinion of the place of a song within the body of their work. But ought that not be something to consider? DeistCosmos (talk) 22:11, 7 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Here's a quote from those guidelines:
"Songs and singles are probably notable if they have been the subject of multiple, non-trivial published works whose sources are independent of the artist and label. This includes published works in all forms, such as newspaper articles, other books, television documentaries and reviews. This excludes media reprints of press releases, or other publications where the artist, its record label, agent, or other self-interested parties advertise or speak about the work."
And you can read in the notes at the bottom:
"Self-promotion and product placement are not the routes to having an encyclopedia article. The published works must be someone else writing about the song/single. The barometer of notability is whether people independent of the subject itself (or of its artist, record label, vendor or agent) have actually considered the song/single notable enough that they have written and published non-trivial works that focus upon it."
So, to answer your question, the fact that singer X considers his song "Y" one of the best songs in his career doesn't mean that this song 'deserves' to be included in an encyclopedia. — Mayast (talk) 23:01, 7 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

With this musicologist's opinion the song looks a bit more notable, but it would still be good to look for more sources. Mayast (talk) 08:28, 8 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]