At first glance, the phrase 'Words I Wish I Said' looks like a single, neat thing — but in practice it's a title a bunch of different creators have used across songs, poems, and social posts. I’ve chased down similarly ambiguous titles before, so here’s the clean way I’d nail this down: start with the release medium you saw it on. On streaming services like Spotify or Apple Music you can often click through to 'Credits' or the album page to see who’s listed as songwriter, composer, and producer. For older or indie releases, Discogs is my go-to for exact release dates and different pressings.
If you want songwriting registrations (the absolute source for who legally wrote a song), ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC databases are lifesavers — type the title in quotes and scan the writer/performer fields. For lyrics and community-sourced credits, Genius frequently lists writers and release dates too, but treat it as user-augmented data and double-check with official credits. YouTube upload dates are tempting, but they often reflect when someone posted it, not the original release.
I’ve used this detective flow to solve my own music mysteries more than once: find the album/EP on Discogs for the release date, crosscheck Spotify credits for writer names, and confirm via performance-rights databases. If the thing you mean wasn’t a commercial song (like an Instagram poem or a Tumblr post), then the poster is usually the author and the post date is your release date. I love how tracking these details can turn into a tiny history lesson about a song’s life, and it’s oddly satisfying to pin down the exact credits.