The Songwriter Thread

Bellycaster

I wanted to get a thread going that would reveal the talent and diversity of many of the most famous songwriters. There will be loads of songs out there that people don't realise "who" actually wrote it. As most of us know, a song is not always written by the "Band/Artist" in question.

I'm sure the "Font of Knowledge" is overflowing on here and would like people to post stuff to make us all think "Blimey, I never knew he/she wrote that" instead of the band etc. It's good education al round.

So dig deep into the part of your brains accessing Songwriters.

I'll start with these two songs I was surprised with.

Nicky Chinn who was more associated with the Glam Rock 70's era for bands like Mud, Sweet and Suzi Quatro Co-wrote this fantastic 70's 1 hit wonder.

Desmond Child wrote Bonnie Tylers "Eurovision 2013" entry (and David Huff of Giant produced it) and although D.C has wrote for her before I thought "Eurovision" might be something a great songwriter didn't want to be associated with ;-)

Get your thinking caps on and let's all hail the great songwriters of the last 60 years(or before).

 

 

Lixarto

Chuck Berry, without which none of this would have been possible.

rpr

Isaac Hayes

-'Soul Man',- 'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fS9-Yimdhw

Walk on by'-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLKWefsHrxg

' 'By The time i Get To Phoniex'-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUg5p3BncuQ

Ikes rap http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAAgWJZu36I

as sampled by Portishead/Trickyhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF-GvT8Clnk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3R_3h6zQEs

Bellycaster

@rpr

That's a good un, I never knew Soul Man was written by Isaac Hayes.

BTTIGTP and Walk on By are credited to Burt Bacharach and Jimmy Webb respectively though?

I do like a bit of Portishead as well.

rpr

Bellycaster said:

@rpr

That's a good un, I never knew Soul Man was written by Isaac Hayes.

BTTIGTP and Walk on By are credited to Burt Bacharach and Jimmy Webb respectively though?

I do like a bit of Portishead as well.

Whoops- My Bad- Blame the lack of caffeine -

8-}

johnnyurq

Bellycaster;33860" said:

@rprThat's a good un, I never knew Soul Man was written by Isaac Hayes.BTTIGTP and Walk on By are credited to Burt Bacharach and Jimmy Webb respectively though?I do like a bit of Portishead as well.

Nice to see the Stranglers even if they did not write it, their arrangement is very good indeed.

As an aside George Melly did a BBC doccie on the myriad versions of Walk on By and went on the record stating that the Stranglers version was his definitive favourite. Of course he may be biased at the time because he had just recorded Old Codger with them and a few other choice tracks.

Sorry huge long time Stranglers fanbooi.

Bellycaster

@johnnyurq

You have good taste, I am quite a fan of The Stranglers too. I like their version of Walk on By, but also like Dionne Warwick's and Gabrielle's version.

 

Whooooops, edited for Apostrophe pedants

johnnyurq

@bellycaster  

Like you I love most of the versions of Walk on By and that program with George Melly ( late 80's early 90's IIRC) exposed me to different versions from a variety of genres and styles worldwide. 

But Dionne Warwick and Gabrielle's versions are very good.

I have a fairly Eclectic taste musically speaking but me and The Stranglers go back to 1975 ish, Been lucky enough to see them live (old and new line ups) and met them too, great dudes indeed.

[Deleted User]

Neil Diamond; Red Red Wine, I'm a Believer, etc.

ICBM

Carole King.

If anyone says Diane Warren I may not be responsible for my actions.

equalsql

johnnyurq said:

@bellycaster  

Like you I love most of the versions of Walk on By and that program with George Melly ( late 80's early 90's IIRC) exposed me to different versions from a variety of genres and styles worldwide. 

But Dionne Warwick and Gabrielle's versions are very good.

My favourite version (apart from the original) is the one by  The Average White Band off the 'Feel No Fret' album:

[Deleted User]

Prince - Nothing Compares to U (Sinead O' Connor), Manic Monday (The Bangles), I Feel For U (Chaka Khan)....

johnnyurq

@equalsql

I do like p a wee bit of AWB and yet another good version.

Fish from Marillion and his own band a great writer and story teller. He really knows how to paint a picture and invoke an image.

Bellycaster

@ICBM

Carole King is a great one.

I'll have to ask what you have against Diane Warren though?

X_X

You may not like her songs but you can hardly call her "unsuccessful" as she has written literally 1000's of songs for some well known acts. Quite a career if you ask me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_songs_written_by_Diane_Warren

ICBM

Bellycaster said:

I'll have to ask what you have against Diane Warren though?

You may not like her songs but you can hardly call her "unsuccessful" as she has written literally 1000's of songs for some well known acts.

All shit ).

Formulaic and/or just plain annoying, with no real meaning, emotional content or connection to the singer. She is the definition of a production-line songwriter.

I never called her unsuccessful .

Bellycaster

Come on @ICBM, I thought calling things "Shit" was a "no no" on Forums, I know you're more intelligent than that.

If you don't like something it doesn't make it Shit. Someone might not like Neil Young and probably has called him Shit, but he's not "Shit", it's just a question of taste.

Writing any song requires talent and knowledge and I would put Diane Warren a class above, say, "Stock, Aitken and Waterman" who I would class a "Hit Factory" writers.

ICBM

Bellycaster said:

Writing any song requires talent and knowledge and I would put Diane Warren a class above, say, "Stock, Aitken and Waterman" who I would class a "Hit Factory" writers.

No, I would put her in exactly the same class, but using a different formula.

If anything I find her more annoying... the Diane Warren songs in my music library are there by accident because they're on albums I otherwise like. The SAWs I have are there on purpose .

Bellycaster

@ICBM

I also like several SAW songs, I'd have to check the list to find out if there are songs I like that I didn't know they wrote, probably several of those too.

I wouldn't class DW and SAW as the same beast though.

There are quite a few things in music that I don't like and I get tempted to call it "Shit" too, it's usually reserved for Rap, Hip Hop etc, although there will be a few tunes even in those categories that I can stomach(probably old skool though innit?).

 

 

rpr

Holland Dozier-Holland- Motown

'Where did our love go'

'Baby love'-

'Stop in the name of love'

'Same old song'

'Reach out and I'll be there'

'You cant hurry love'

'You keep me hanging on'

'Bernadette'

...etc...etc

johnnyurq

Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford from Squeeze who for my money are like a modern day Lennon & McCartney.

[Deleted User]

johnnyurq;35233" said:

Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford from Squeeze who for my money are like a modern day Lennon & McCartney.

Did you see the BBC4 documentary about them?

Unlike Lennon & McCartney, there was a very clear division of labour; words by Difford, tunes by Tilbrook. Amazing that two people so gifted in their respected field should have found each other.

I'm amazed they don't get more recognition.... Outstanding song-writers....