12th March 2002

"Silence fell on the cooling night. I thought I better fake it just to be polite." Lyrics from one of my all-time favorite songs. Do you have problems remembering the words to your most treasured tunes? The latest Windows Media Player, oddly enough, can help. Yeah, that means you have to be running Windows XP (but don't tune out prematurely). Right-click on a song in your Playlist (or in the Media Library), open its Properties, flip to the Lyrics tab, then enter (or paste) the words. Searching Google with the song title and keyword "lyrics" works wonders. Now, to see the fruits of your labor, start playing the song, then select View | Now Playing Tools | Lyrics. I know what you're thinking: "I think that [operating system] and [program name] is a piece of [derogatory remark]." Fine. Winamp will work just as nicely (and in some ways, better). The best plug-in available at this time can be found at PURELYRICS.COM. It will query against a database of over 60,000 song titles and import the lyrics directly into your player. Told ya not to tune out. Tune in!