The overwhelming majority of broadside songs are unsingable

An even more overwhelming majority of songs created by complete amateurs are even more unsingable.

We know broadside songs were sung, because the street sellers sang them. They were good enough to get a paying clientele.


Can we tell anything from the style of language?

There are a few Scottish songs with a mangled-Gaelic refrain. This never goes along with Gaelic influence in the language used in the main text of the song, and usually the content in English/Scots has no relation to any known Gaelic song either.