# Anybody follow or admire specific songwriters? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 10, 2015, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-follow-or-admire-specific-songwriters/722169 "2015-06-10T14:52:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2015, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-follow-or-admire-specific-songwriters/722169/1 "2015-06-10T14:52:58Z")
I’ve come to appreciate Bob McDill’s amazing career. 31 number one hits. I don’t know if thats a record or not. But its one heck of an achievement. I bought a autographed copy of[his songbook](http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/ODk1WDEwNjU=/z/gFMAAOxyTMdTOxyh/$_35.JPG). A vintage item from the late 80’s and only $25. Cheap enough. There were several songs that I wanted to learn and perform. Its unusual to find a songwriter’s songbook. Most of my songbooks are by the performing artist. Bread, Bob Seger, Jim Croce, Linda Ronstadt an so on. I get a lot of vintage songbooks cheap. Theres always a couple songs in each that I want to eventually learn. But then I started really looking at Bob McDill’s songs. All hits that I recognized but never knew he wrote. I put together a mp3 playlist of many of those songs that I owned. Hearing his body of work just blew me away. I really like how his songs tell a great story but its not at the expense of the music. They are still very beautiful melodies and the three I’ve learned so far, are quite fun to sing and play on my guitar. Who are some other great songwriters that I should check out? > **[Bob McDill](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_McDill)** > > Robert Lee McDill (born April 4, 1944) is a retired American songwriter, active from the 1960s until 2000. During his career he wrote or co-wrote 31 number one country hits. His songs were also recorded by popular artists of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, including The Grateful Dead, Ray Charles, Joe Cocker, Anne Murray, and B. J. Thomas. His music credits in film include Primary Colors, The Thing Called Love, Texasville, and the documentary Grizzly Man. In addition to four Grammy nominations McD... > [@](#): > > Robert Lee “Bob” McDill (born April 4, 1944 in Walden (near Beaumont), Texas[1]) is a retired American songwriter. Active from the 1960s until 2000, he has written many songs for country music artists, including 31 number one hits,[1] as well as songs for Ray Charles, Joe Cocker, Anne Murray, Juice Newton and other popular artists. In addition to four Grammy nominations, McDill has received Songwriter of the Year awards from Broadcast Music Incorporated, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, and the Nashville Songwriters Association International.[2] In October, 2012, he was awarded ASCAP’s Golden Note Award in recognition of his “extraordinary place in American popular music.”[3][4] ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2015, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-follow-or-admire-specific-songwriters/722169/2 "2015-06-10T16:57:16Z")
Jimmy Webb comes to mind. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2015, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-follow-or-admire-specific-songwriters/722169/3 "2015-06-10T17:36:37Z")
Yes, Jimmy Web is one of the legendary songwriters. Wrote many many hits. > **[Jimmy Webb](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Webb)** > > Jimmy Layne Webb (born August 15, 1946) is an American songwriter, composer, and singer. He achieved success at an early age, winning the Grammy Award for Song of the Year at the age of 21. During his career, he established himself as one of America's most successful and honored songwriter/composers. > Webb has written numerous platinum-selling songs, including "Up, Up and Away", "By the Time I Get to Phoenix", "MacArthur Park", "Wichita Lineman", "Worst That Could Happen", "Galveston" and "All... Paul Overstreet is both a songwriter and a performing artist. Wrote major hits for Randy Travis, Blake Shelton, and Keith Whitley, The Judds and Kenny Chesney. He’s recorded 10 studio albums and gotten a handful of singles in the top 10, but most of his success has been in songwriting. > **[Paul Overstreet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Overstreet)** > > Paul Lester Overstreet (born March 17, 1955) is an American country music singer and songwriter. He began his singing career in 1982 with a self-titled album on RCA Records Nashville. From 1986 to 1987, he was a vocalist in the trio S-K-O (Schuyler, Knobloch & Overstreet), in which he had a number-one single on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts with "Baby's Got a New Baby". After leaving S-K-O he resumed a solo career, charting a second number-one single alongside Paul Davis and Tanya Tuck... > [@](#): > > During his songwriting career, primarily in the Country genre, Overstreet has written or co-written 27 Top Ten songs. During this time, he has won two Grammy Awards and also won ACM and CMA Song of the Year Awards (1987 and 1988). Overstreet was named the BMI Songwriter of the Year five straight years, from 1987–91, ---
**Author:** ![JackieLikesVariety](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackielikesvariety/32/296_2.png) [@JackieLikesVariety](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JackieLikesVariety)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-follow-or-admire-specific-songwriters/722169/4 "2015-06-11T01:52:57Z")
Paul Simon, no doubt. \*\*\*\*\*We sailed up a river wide as a sea And slept on the banks On the leaves of a banyan tree And all of these spirit voices rule the night Some stories are magical, meant to be sung Songs from the mouth of the river When the world was young And all of these spirit voices rule the night By moon We walk To the brujo’s door Along a path of river stones Women with their nursing children Seated on the floor We join the fevers And the broken bones The candlelight flickers The falcon calls A lime-green lizard scuttles down the cabin wall And all of these spirit voices Sing rainwater, seawater River water, holy water Wrap this child in mercy – heal her Heaven’s only daughter All of these spirit voices rule the night My hands were numb And my feet were lead I drank a cup of herbal brew Then the sweetness in the air Combined with the lightness in my head And I heard the jungle breathing in the bamboo * * * ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-follow-or-admire-specific-songwriters/722169/5 "2015-06-11T06:10:37Z")
Aye, lots of them. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-follow-or-admire-specific-songwriters/722169/6 "2015-06-11T06:25:36Z")
Burt Bacharach never fails to amaze me for the songs he’s written. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-follow-or-admire-specific-songwriters/722169/7 "2015-06-11T11:55:13Z")
Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, and oddly enough Kris Kristofferson are all great poets IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-follow-or-admire-specific-songwriters/722169/8 "2015-06-11T13:12:39Z")
Jeff Barry. An unknown name to most, because he was never a performer, but one of, if not _the,_ most prolific pop songwriters of all time. There’s a listing of his songs at [the Songwriters Hall of Fame](http://songwritershalloffame.org/index.php/songs/C128/P0/) page. I’m not sure it’s complete, but it runs to 13 pages. You’d recognize about a zillion of them. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-follow-or-admire-specific-songwriters/722169/9 "2015-06-11T17:03:12Z")
Joni Mitchel and Carole King ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-follow-or-admire-specific-songwriters/722169/10 "2015-06-11T17:20:23Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Joni Mitchel and Carole King Carole King was a Brill Building stablemate of Jeff Barry’s in the early 60s. Before her successful singer/songwriter career, she also wrote a bunch of wonderful bubblegum hits, among them “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow.” ---
**Author:** ![Abracadebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f04885/32.png) [@Abracadebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abracadebra)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-follow-or-admire-specific-songwriters/722169/11 "2015-06-11T17:22:42Z")
I follow Jason Isbell. “Elephant” She said “Andy, you’re better than your past” Winked at me and drained her glass Cross-legged on a barstool, like nobody sits anymore She said “Andy you’re taking me home” But I knew she planned to sleep alone I’d carry her to bed, sweep up the hair from her floor If I’d fucked her before she got sick I’d never hear the end of it She don’t have the spirit for that now We just drink our drinks and laugh out loud And bitch about the weekend crowd And try to ignore the elephant somehow Somehow She said “Andy, you crack me up” Seagram’s in a coffee cup Sharecropper eyes, and the hair almost all gone When she was drunk, she made cancer jokes Made up her own doctors’ notes Surrounded by her family, I saw that she was dying alone But I’d sing her classic country songs and she’d get high and sing along She don’t have a voice to sing with now We burn these joints in effigy and cry about what we used to be And try to ignore the elephant somehow, somehow I’ve buried her a thousand times, given up my place in line But I don’t give a damn about that now There’s one thing that’s real clear to me: No one dies with dignity We just try to ignore the elephant somehow We just try to ignore the elephant somehow We just try to ignore the elephant somehow Somehow Somehow ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-follow-or-admire-specific-songwriters/722169/12 "2015-06-11T17:25:16Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > … among them “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow.” I hadn’t remembered this as a pop hit by some else, because she does s beautiful ballad version on _Tapestry_. She also wrote a lot of hits with Gerry Goffin. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-follow-or-admire-specific-songwriters/722169/13 "2015-06-11T17:33:47Z")
There are many of them. Johnny Mercer Alan and Marilyn Bergman Ira Gershwin …just off the top of my head. ---
**Author:** ![stillownedbysetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@stillownedbysetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stillownedbysetters)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-follow-or-admire-specific-songwriters/722169/14 "2015-06-11T18:16:50Z")
I have to throw Neil Young’s name in for consideration. I don’t think everything he’s done is genius, by any means, but at his best, he’s an excellent songwriter. Also, I’m not a country music fan, so I may be all wet here, but I think Dolly Parton has also done some wonderful songs. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-follow-or-admire-specific-songwriters/722169/15 "2015-06-11T18:51:56Z")
Joni Mitchell Pete Townsend Frank Zappa ---
**Author:** ![moldmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ee59a6/32.png) [@moldmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moldmonkey)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-follow-or-admire-specific-songwriters/722169/16 "2015-06-11T20:34:15Z")
JJ Cale Leonard Cohen Guy Clark Townes Van Zandt ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-follow-or-admire-specific-songwriters/722169/17 "2015-06-11T20:37:11Z")
Are we going to find that 1% of songwriters produce 99% of the hits? Does that mean anything? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-follow-or-admire-specific-songwriters/722169/18 "2015-06-11T21:56:00Z")
What’s the largest selling album with all the songs written by one person? Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell, that’s what. All the songs were written by one of my favorites Jim Steinman. And he penned a little tune called Annie Christmas 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-follow-or-admire-specific-songwriters/722169/19 "2015-06-11T22:07:41Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > What’s the largest selling album with all the songs written by one person? Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell, that’s what. All the songs were written by one of my favorites Jim Steinman. > > And he penned a little tune called Annie Christmas 😃 I woulda guessed Carole King’s _Tapestry_, but I’m not 100% certain that she wrote every song. But she did sing them all herself, which is more than your Mr. hoity toity Steinman can claim. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-follow-or-admire-specific-songwriters/722169/20 "2015-06-11T22:15:46Z")
Nope. > [@wikipedia](#): > > 1.“I Feel the Earth Move” > 2.“So Far Away” > 3.“It’s Too Late” (lyrics by Toni Stern) > 4.“Home Again” > 5.“Beautiful” > 6.“Way Over Yonder” > 7.“You’ve Got a Friend” > 8.“Where You Lead” (lyrics by Toni Stern) > 9.“Will You Love Me Tomorrow?” (Gerry Goffin, King) > 10.“Smackwater Jack” (Goffin, King) > 11.“Tapestry” > 12.“(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” (Goffin, King, Jerry Wexler) I would like to find out what is the largest selling album with all the songs written by the singer. I’d guess it’s either Dylan, Springsteen or Joel). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-follow-or-admire-specific-songwriters/722169.md?page=2)