I came in here to post about Leonard Cohen. When I mention his name to other people they often say they’ve never heard of him, to which my usual response is “Maybe not, but I can practically guarantee you’ve heard one of his songs.”
“Hallelujah” has been so widely covered that people probably attribute it to any number of other artists. “Suzanne” has also been covered a LOT, but I think it’s best known as a Judy Collins song. “Bird On a Wire” also has a lot of covers out there. The Concrete Blonde and Don Henley versions of “Everybody Knows” get a fair amount of radio airplay and also pop up on soundtracks. I’m blanking on the artist, but I know I’ve often heard a cover of “So Long, Marianne” on the radio too.
There must be lots of people who have no idea all the above songs were written by the same man.
Joe Cocker didn’t write “Up Where We Belong”. The music was by Jack Nitzsche and Buffy Sainte-Marie, lyrics by Will Jennings. (Buffy Sainte-Marie is sometimes incorrectly given full credit for the song.)
Most people probably don’t have any idea who wrote disco hit “It’s Raining Men”, and if asked to guess would probably never hit the right answer: Paul Shaffer (of The Late Show with David Letterman fame) and Paul Jabara.
With the Monkees songs, you can almost assume that if Nesmith sang it, he wrote it. This was almost always the case, so it’s fitting for this Thread to note songs like “The Door Into Summer” and “What Am I Doing Hanging 'Round?” which Nesmith sang but didn’t write.
Also there were some songs performed by the Monkees, written by Nesmith, but not sung by Nesmith: your list already includes “The Girl I Knew Somewhere” and “Mary, Mary”, both sung by Micky Dolenz (“Mary Mary” had previously been recorded by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band), I’ll add “Daily/Nightly” also sung by Micky Dolenz.
Peter Tork also wrote a handful of Monkees tunes, notably “For Pete’s Sake”- the season two closing credits song, sung by Micky Dolenz, as well as “Long Title: Do I Have To Do This All Over Again”, which he sang himself, and “Can You Dig It?”, sung by Micky Dolenz- both prominently featured in the movie Head.
Davy Jones had a co-write or two, one half-way decent (but far from great) song, “You and I” features Neil Young on lead guitar- admittedly Young’s contribution is about the only thing that makes the song half-way decent.
Micky Dolenz didn’t write much (though more than Jones) but the songs he did write were quite good: the bizarre and subversive “Mommy and Daddy” as well as, easily one of the best songs from the Monkees catalog, “Randy Scouse Git”.
I’d bet more people can name Holland–Dozier–Holland than can name most of the Brill Building folks- except maybe Goffin/King. Seems to me folks with a passing knowledge of pop history connect Motown to HDH, especially since the documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown, which was about the Motown session guys. Anyway, I know I’ve heard Oldies Radio DJs mention HDH before/after playing their songs.
But yeah, most people wouldn’t know them- but I think people with a passing knowledge of pop history would.
Particularly since their 1969 album “Early Steppenwolf,” which covered some stuff done as The Sparrows, carries this quote prominently on the cover right under the big type that says it was recorded live at The Matrix in San Francisco on May 14, 1967:
“…improvising, jamming, squeezing and shaping a musical thing which lasted for 20 minutes and broke finally into ‘The Pusher.’”
For years, I thought that meant they’d jammed their way into a song that became The Pusher, and were just lucky enough that it had been taped.
Although it seems like a bazillion people* have recorded Wind Beneath My Wings, the guy who wrote is practically unknown- Jeff Silbar. I remember the first time I heard it- his little brother sang it at the 1984 NHHS graduation ceremony. I thought it had a shot at radio…
There’s a strong case for Robbie Krieger having written Light My Fire in its entirety rather than just the first verse as stated by Wikipedia.
My source, alongside information from several websites and half-remembered other books, is Jim Morrison: Life, Death, Legend by Stephen Davis. If a student of The Doors can confirm this I’d be happy (I am merely a fanatic).
I’ve never heard that version of events; I always thought the song was entirely Krieger’s (except for Manzarek’s contribution of the intro lick). Judging by the songs he wrote on The Soft Parade (one of the two albums where Morrison and Krieger took individual songwriting credits rather than crediting everything collectively to “The Doors”), Krieger was perfectly adept at coming up with Doors-type song lyrics. Ironically, the one song on that album where he collaborated with Morrison, “Do It,” barely has any lyrics at all.
Dammit, I missed the edit window. I take it all back. Manzarek himself says in his book that Morrison wrote the second verse lyrics to “Light My Fire.”
I actually called a radio station once to correct a DJ who announced that Ringo Starr had written “Act Naturally.” When I told him that it was Johnny Russell, he pretty much said “yeah, whatever” and hung up on me. I listened for a while to see if he followed up with the right information, but he never did. Yeah, whatever.
Sedaka & Cody also wrote the English lyrics to “Ring Ring”–one of only two songs ABBA recorded that wasn’t written by members Benny Andersson & Bjorn Ulvaeus and (sometimes) their manager Stig Anderson. The other was a folk song medley.
I once had a talk with Rudolph Isley about touring with the Beatles back in the early 1960’s. He was amazed that I actually knew that the Isley Brothers wrote “Twist & Shout.”
I’ll give a plug to a guy many Americans have never heard of (I imagine he’s much better known in England): Graham Gouldman, one of the best songwriters of the British Invasion era.
Among his songs:
“Heart Full of Soul” and “For Your Love,” the only top ten hits the Yardbirds ever had in the U.S.
“Bus Stop” and “Look Through any Window” by the Hollies
He was later a co-founder of the band 10cc, and wrote or co-wrote many of their hits.
I think everybody knows that Steinman writes the songs that Meatloaf sings. He also wrote “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” made famous by Bonnie Tyler. And he wrote the lyrics for “Whistle Down The Wind,” with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, which didn’t go very far, and “Tanz der Vampyr,” which was a megahit in Germany, and brought it to Broadway as “Dance of the Vampire,” starring Michael Crawford as Count Von Krolock , which bombed!
When Crawford later played Count Fusco in ALW’s “The Woman in White,” a person I know who hates him wrote “Why does Crawford always play c*unts (Oh. Did my finger slip?)”
Contrary to popular belief, the Isley Brothers’ version was not the original. The first recording of “Twist and Shout” was by the Top Notes, produced by Phil Spector. The songwriters were Phil Medley and Bert Russell.
“Reason to Believe” and “If I Were a Carpenter” have more or less become pop-rock standards, but not many people have heard the original versions by their writer, Tim Hardin.
Likewise, I doubt too many people know that Jackie DeShannon (of “Put a Little Love in Your Heart” and “What the World Needs Now” fame) wrote and performed the original version of “Bette Davis Eyes.”
