You could probably devote an entire video just to Burt Bacharach. He wrote so many songs, many of which you probably didn’t realize he wrote. For example, the song “always something there to remind me,” popularized by the group Naked Eyes in the 80s, is a Burt song and was originally a 60s R&B tune
Burt Bacharach is a good one. There was also Mike Chapman who wrote and produced songs for Sweet, Suzi Quatro, Smokie, Blondie, Exile, Pat Benatar, Tina Turner, Toni Basil, and he produced some huge hit albums like Paralell lines by Blondie, and My Sharona by the Knack.
The Bee Gees also wrote "Immortality", a minor hit for Celine Dion on her mega-album Let's Talk About Love. Like many other hits the Gibb Bros. wrote for other artists, they can be heard singing backup in the chorus.
Yep. It's why popular music has lots all its intrigue. There is still lots of good music being made today, but most of it isn't in the mainstream unfortunately.
They all seem to whip out the Dictionary of Common Cliches, pick a term and begin dribbling words over 1-4-5 and 1-5-6-4 progressions as fits with personal formulas not too far off of everyone else. That’s got to be why Paul McCartney and Peter Gabriel have MUCH more interesting songs. They’re writing from the heart, not just for a paycheck.
Prince wrote several songs that became huge hits for other artists, sometimes under pseudonyms. Manic Monday, Nothing Compares 2 U, I Feel For You, Sugar Walls, etc. (I know I probably forgot a few other massive hits...)
He wrote or co-wrote a ton of stuff for everyone in his "stable" The Time (Ice Cream Castles, Jungle Love, The Bird), Sheila E (The Glamorous Life, A Love Bizarre), Appolonia (Sex Shooter), Vanity (Nasty Girl), The Family (Nothing Compares 2U), Madhouse, Sheena Easton. Cyndi Lauper covered "When U Were Mine". Stevie Nicks based the verses of 'Stand Back' on the verses of 'Little Red Corvette'. She called Prince to tell him that and he said he would come out to LA and play keyboards on the track.
Stevie Wonder wrote for Syreeta wrote Let’s get serious for Jermaine Jackson write it’s a shame for the spinners wrote Tears of a clown for Smokey. You’ve already covered lennon and McCartney writing for others
Before co-writing and playing with 10cc, Graham Gouldman wrote a lot of British Invasion hits in the 60s including, Bus Stop and Look Through Any Window (Hollies), No Milk Today (Herman's Hermits), For Your Love and Heart Full of Soul (Yardbirds)
Here Here! If you like Michael Jackson's music then that means you like Quincy Jones. I respect Michael, I do and he is not a dummy but I don't think he's ever so much as plugged in a microphone cable much less sat down at a piano and wrote a song. I saw a video of him in a writing session so he gets props for contributing at that stage but he was directing others and not actually playing chords and notes. He wasn't like Prince who physically played his own instruments and wrote his own songs.
Quincy Jones was an idiot who said the Beatles were "emmer effers" who didn't know how to play their instruments. He also claimed that Ringo didn't play on some of their songs and he replaced Ringo with a jazz player named Ronnie Verell.
Looking forward to the next parts of the series. Spontanously I think of Guy Chambers, Leiber&Stoller and Goffin&King. On the other end of the spectrum there would be forgotten songs Taupin and Elton John wrote for others before they became famous.
I love songwriters. Hundreds of singers are carried by their composers but they get all the credit somehow. I hope one day the composers get more credit, they deserve all of it
Thank you for your amazing content. I missed Desmond Child (who could fill a whole episode), Bob Ezrin, Dianne Warren, Jim Vallance, Guy Chambers, Prince and Albert Hammond.
What a trip down the soundtrack to my life. Merci beaucoup. There is a lot of talk about Quincy Jones now, but I haven't seen anyone talking about his studies with Nadia Boulanger, who was one of the last practicioners of the old traditions of Napoli Orphanages who trained young boys to become master musicians. Her sister Lilli died at a young age but was the first woman to win a composing prize in Rome.
Thank you David, for giving the spotlight to some great song writers. You really knocked it out of the park with your selection. I really enjoyed the journey across all these great songs. Jim Steinman, Jimmy Webb, Steinberg & Kelly, the Motown alumni, SAW (if you are a certain age, were UK pop music). I am a keen reader of the writing credits, as often I prefer these people to whoever is the performer of a given song. I notice that Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic has a lot of credits on other performers songs which I like.
Great video as always David, one other suggestion might be Graham Gouldman who wrote a string of 60s hits for bands like the Hollies and the Yardbirds before achieving fame with 10CC in the 70s
Great video, as always! Was really hyped to see Jim Steinman on the thumbnail, as Meat Loaf is one of my favorite artists ever. Last Friday, Jim would’ve turned 77, may he and Meat rest in peace. Small correction: At 1:55 you showed the album cover of Bat out of Hell, which was released in 1977. I’d do anything for love was released in 1993 though, on the follow-up album Bat out of Hell II. What further adds to the confusion, is that on later revisions of the original Bat out of Hell album, they included Anything for love as a bonus single on the disc.
After hearing how so many of the ones in the 2000s felt repetitive in overall sound, it makes me wonder how much of that is the songwriters or whether there are also some key producers with their hands on so many of these hits. I'd honestly be interested in some videos that look at the role producers play, because I sometimes hear them credited with a song/album's sound as much as anyone else involved with the songs, and would love to find out more about that aspect.
I believe Dr. Luke and Max Martin also played a strong role in production, and there was another guy in that crew, Benny Blanco, who brought that kind of synth-heavy retro Funk/disco sound to all those late 2000s/early 2010s electro-pop songs
I agree, Max Martin is trailing only Paul McCartny for nr 1 songs but McCartney's overal songwriting for especially the Beatles is so much more varied.
Stock Aitken Waterman were not only the song writers behind many of the "British" hits of the mid to late 80's and early 90's but also the producers of those songs. "British" includes several Australian actors/singers, like Jason Donovan and Kylie Minogue.
When mentioning Cathy Dennis, you might've added (or noted) that she's the same Cathy Dennis who had a solo singing career in the early 90s (songs like "Too Many Walls," "Touch Me (All Night Long)" and "Just Another Dream") especially as most of the other songwriters had limited, if any, success as performers in their own right. Up to that point, aside from Rod Temperton, no one else was mentioned as having careers as performers (granted, the only other songwriters you'd mentioned to have careers as performers were Ashford & Simpson whose biggest hit as performers was their 1984 hit, "Solid").
Ryan Tedder, lead vocalist for OneRepublic, in addition to their own songs, has written many songs for others including: - Apologize (Timbaland) - Bleeding Love (Leona Lewis) - Halo (Beyonce) - Rumour Has it (Adele) - Not Over You (Gavin DeGraw) - Good in Goodbye (Carrie Underwood) - Love Don't Die (The Fray) - Burn (Ellie Goulding) - Ghost (Ella Henderson) - I Know Places (Taylor Swift) - Maps (Maroon 5) - Happier (Ed Sheeran) - Sucker (Jonas Brothers) - That's What I Want (Lil Nas X) - Together (Calvin Harris) And soooooo many more. Could probably do an entire video of just his non-OneRepublic credits.
Superb video, even though I lived through most of these songs first time out, I didn't know that much about the songwriters, save the Gibbs of course. Keep it up, I'm looking forward to the next one.
Hooray for David! Just constantly loving your knowledge and your approach to sharing it. I’m personally just starting my journey on pianos and keyboards as a guitar/bass player. You make it fun to spot and try things out. One of the best functions on my looper will always be the ‘undo’ button but you’re making me be brave and dare things and I’m super grateful.
Great video, David, but I would also put Patrick Leonard in this list. Here is his famous quote on writing songs for Madonna: "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Dark Side of the Moon, The Wall - that's what I grew up with and that's what I dreamed of doing one day," he recalled in 1992. "I was a big Gentle Giant fan. I was a huge Jethro Tull fan. But I had to feed my children and heat my house, so I wrote some songs with a little girl who became extremely popular. It's really that simple."
Hi David! Unsolicited video idea for you - what are the biggest flops of top songwriters? I'd be interested in Max Martin particularly how many mega flops he's written in relation to mega hits, but I'm sure it applies across the board too!
Never forget Desmond Child (Ricky Martin, Aerosmith, Kiss, Cher, Alice Cooper and Bon Jovi), Nile Rodgers (Chic, Sister Sledge, Diana Ross, Daft Punk and Carly Simon), and Dave Stewart (Eurythmics, Shakespeare’s Sister, Gwen Stefani, Tom Petty, and Candy Dulfer). Stevie Wonder, Prince, Geoff Lynne and Tom Petty have been pretty prolific for other artists as well.
A little late to the party here but want to give some love to: Burt Bacharach - wrote "Close to You" made famous by the Carpenters, "Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head" and many other hits of the late 20th Century. And Joel Pott, lead singer of British band Athlete, has since turned producer and songwriter, most notably co-writing much of George Ezra's first two albums.
Rod Temperton !!! Love him and his work ! Funnily enough, I first heard of him not because of his more famous work with the likes of Michael Jackson and George Benson, but because I discovered his band Heatwave and fell in love with the songs. But yes, after finding out about him writing some of my MJ favourites, as well as GB's "Give Me the Night", The Brothers Johnson's "Stomp", and Patti Austin's "Baby, Come to Me", I went "Oh, but of course!" I do agree about Paul Williams deserving his spotlight --- "I Won't Last a Day Without You", "We've Only Just Begun", "Rainy Days and Mondays", "You and Me Against the World", "Travelling Boy", "Evergreen", "Love Dance", "The Rainbow Connection", etc., all by him. Of course, I think much like The Beegees, Stevie Wonder's work as a songwriter for others should also be highlighted: "I Can't Help It", "Perfect Angel", "Lover and Friend", "All I Do (Is Think About You)", "Tears of a Clown", "It's A Shame", "Tell Me Something Good", and more !
Great vid - I didn't appreciate how prolific some of these songwriters' output was! Diane Warren comes to mind if you're doing a follow up - her songs were everywhere in the 90s
Mickey. Sung by Toni Basil. Heart and Soul. 3 different versions! The most popular is from Huey Lewis and the News. They formed in my hometown area the San Francisco Bay Area 🌉
Great topic! HDH really need more study - perhaps there is a deep music analysis treatise on them somewhere ? (PS - your fingers got crossed up in Jackson's first name early in the video - you might want to fix that at some point)
I found out recently that Manilow's version was a cover. Meat Loaf recorded it first and did not like Manilow's version at all. He said at the time that Manilow didn't get how to sing Steinman. Manilow was also tired of doing other people's songs so this was the last cover he released.
Cathy Dennis co-wrote a lot of her own songs as a performer in the 90s. Diane Warren, David Foster, Prince, Willie Dixon, J.D. Souther, Lieber & Stoller, Boyce & Hart, Doc Pomus, Desmond Child, Russ Ballard, Hoyt Axton, Paul Williams, Giorgio Morodor.
a man with my passion - yeap - Warren was a big miss from this list - I have spotify lists ordered by sogwriter release date... way too nerdy and dull eh!!
Not mentioned in this video, but Diane Warren is another prolific songwriter. “I Don’t Wanna miss a thing” by Aerosmith, “Blue eyes blue” by Eric Clapton to name a few. Babyface is also another one. Man, there’s quite a few. Nice list.
Man, though much of it didn’t age very well, Max Martin and Dr. Luke were on fire in the late 2000s and early 2010s. Some of those songs are still a lot of fun
Jerry Ragovoy is behind many Janis Joplin hits: Piece of My Heart, Get It While You Can, Try (Just a Little Bit Harder), Cry Baby, and also Time Is On My Side. Mort Shuman wrote or cowrote many standards such as Save The Last Dance for Me, This Magic Moment or Viva Las Vegas. And don't forget Willie Dixon who is credited for an incredible numbers of Chicago Blues tunes!
Please do a vid on Holly Knight! She wrote and co-wrote some of the biggest 80's tunes, many that "revitalized" artist that were on comebacks like Aerosmith, Pat Benatar, Tina Turner, Heart, Bon Jovi, Kiss; the list goes on. Amazing talent and was mostly over looked at the time because she was female in a male dominated industry, but seems to be finally getting the notoriety and credit she deserves now. I'm sure there are some that still do not know her contributions to the song writing world, so a mention on a future vid would be awesome!
Celine Dion once said that working with Jim Steinman, every song is like Gone with the Wind. An honourable mention Steinman song is "Making Love out of Nothing at All", performed by Air Supply. (Oh, and thank you for not mentioning MacArthur Park.)
I was thinking the same. There were some good ones in the early years. Step Inside Love for Cilla Black. World Without Love. Peter and Gordon. Goodbye for Mary Hopkin.
Xenomania (predominantly Brian Higgins and Miranda Cooper) are worth a mention too. Most famous for their work with Girls Aloud, but who also wrote No 1s for Cher and Sugababes.
Definitely should consider the giants of Philly soul, Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff ("Love Train", "For the Love of Money", “Only the Strong Survive", "If You Don't Know Me by Now”, "Me and Mrs. Jones”, "The Love I Lost”, "When Will I See You Again”, "Don't Leave Me This Way”, "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me”, "Back Stabbers”) and Thom Bell (with Linda Creed and others) ("La-La (Means I Love You)”, "You Make Me Feel Brand New”, “You Are Everything”, "I'll Be Around”, "Break Up to Make Up”, etc).
Great video, my thought immediately went to Russ Ballard, "Since You Been Gone" & "I Surrender", by Rainbow, "God Gave Rock and Roll to You" by KISS, plus many others like "New York Groove" Ace Frehley
Desmond Child helped get Bon Jovi's Living on A Prayer over the line. Jon didn't particularly like it to start with but once it was reworked by Child and guitarist Richie Sambora it became the huge hit we all now know
I LOVE songwriter details - been watching Diane Warren since the 1980s who started it with me... you meantioned many of my fav (Kelley,Steinbeg HDH, Martin, Gibbs)... I have a personal DB listing these 'writers'... I also have spotify lists by songwriter... Love it.. Warren is prob my fave... (and would have been my untimate job if I had any talent, the famouse people know you, but you can still walk down the street......)
I love this topic, and while I knew of Max Martin and Dr Luke, I was unaware of most of the others,.especially surprised to see who wrote some of MJ's biggest hits! I'd love to see a part 2: I forget his name, but the singer from Free Radicals, whose most famous song is You Get What You Give, went on to write arguably Sophie-Ellis Bexter's best song, Murder on the Dancefloor.
I had no idea that Ashford and Simpson wrote I'm Every Woman. There are a gazillion Rod Temperton songs that I like, starting with Boogie Nights. RIP Quincy Jones.
He's focusing on songs written for other performers, not for themselves....ie not mentioning Stayin Alive by The Bee Gees, etc.
15 днів тому
The Swedish songwriter Moa "Cazzi Opeia" Carlebecker is a cowriter of many kpop hits. Apart from Max Martin include Denniz Pop and Anders "Bag" Bagge. Fredrik Kämpe has written many hits, mostly in Melodigestivalen. One video game OST composer is David Bergeaud, for having composed the soundtrack for many of the Ratchet and Clank video games.
I was a teenager in the 80s, and I remember Stock Aitken Waterman absolutely DOMINATING the charts. It was a bit too much, really . It was a bit too uniform. It wasn't until later I would appreciate what a great song "never give you up" actually is.
Hello! Greetings from another musician in Argentina. I really like your channel. I've been following it for a while and I think both your ideas for the videos and their execution are very good! However, in the case of this particular video, I think the latter could be improved (in my humble opinion, obviously!). The idea is very attractive: I really didn’t know who the composers of so many iconic and beautiful songs were, and I found it very interesting to learn about them briefly. The problem is that everything happens very quickly! You spend very little time on each one and move from one song to another so suddenly that it puts the viewer in a state of anxiety. On the other hand, I also think it would have been better to stay longer with the more important or well-known songs by those composers. For example, in the case of Steinberg and Kelly, it would have been good to focus mainly on "Like a Virgin" and to learn a bit more about that song, rather than quickly passing through so many others that are not well known. The same thing happens in almost all cases. I hope it's clear that this is just a point of view and it's meant to be constructive criticism, nothing more. Thank you very much for the content you share with us! Keep it up. Best regards!
Rick Nowles wrote most of Belinda Carlisle's hits (with Charlotte Caffey/Ellen Shipley) and also wrote with Madonna, Dido, co-wrote The New Radicals You Get What You Give and Rooms on Fire with Stevie Nicks.
I guess you'll cover King and Goffin in the video about the Brill Building? I remember Cathy Dennis. She released albums of her own, and had a minor hit with Too Many Walls. I was just checking, All Night Long was also on the same album. Another songwriter that I like with some big hits is Martin Page. I liked his album In The House of Stone and Light. Russ Ballard had a varied career, and wrote songs for other artists like Starship (It's Not Enough), Frida (I Know There's Something Going On), and America (You Can Do Magic), but he also released a couple of his own albums. His 1984 self-titled album had the hit "Voices" on it.
Vanda and Young wrote the soundtrack to my youth, growing up in Australia in the 70’s and 80’s. A lot of their best work never charted overseas, but some did (Easybeats, ACDC). Their songs for John Paul Young and Stevie Wright are classics, along with many others.
For behind the scenes writers, I can't believe you didn't mention Bernie Taupin. Also, I think some of Jim Steinman's other stuff deserves a shout-out, such as the hits he wrote for Sisters of Mercy. Oh yeah, and thanks for keeping the 80s SAW compilation short. Hated them at the time, hate them now.
Do a video on the chord progression of wicked game or i VII IV!! I've never seen anyone talk about this while it's a very common progression and a beautiful one
When I first heard “It’s All Coming Back To Me Now” I thought, “Weird, I think this would sound better if Meat Loaf was singing it,” then it dawned on me and I looked up the songwriter!
Love to hear your take on why so many songs today have a squadron of songwriters. You showed one that looked like it had 12 songwriters. Why would you need so many? Did they all write one verse?
Sometimes it has to do with sampling. If they sampled 2 other songs within a "new" song....and the two original songs had 3 songwriters each... that's 6 right there. Also, sometimes the artist has it in their contract to get partial credit on every song, and it's possible that the producer might as well... so that brings it up to 8. Nowadays, anytime anyone adds an element..a beat, a couple notes on the keyboard they get a piece.
@Kj_Gamer2614 Good point. You make me reflect, though, that I would still find it interesting to have videos on some of these better-known songwriters, too. People like Burt Bacharach were incredibly famous but are less-well-known to younger audiences, for instance. Others may be well known IF you pay a bit of attention to who writes songs, but may still have gone unnoticed by many (or it may not be appreciated just how prolific they were). It does feel like there could be a lot to explore in the topic.
Astonishing list. The only songwriter I knew well here was Jimmy Webb. Also astonishing - a reddit post mentioned Boogie Nights this morning, and I listened to it just hours before you released this. Great timing.
Please do David Foster! I took my mom to see him for his 75th birthday at the Hollywood Bowl. I knew some of work, but I didn't realize he wrote/co-wrote/composed/produced a lot of the hit ballad songs from the late 70s-90s
I am surprised you didn’t mention the Wrecking Crew. A loose group of session musicians that started during the Brill Building days. They went on to help create Phil Spector’s wall of sound. They worked on about 40 #1 songs and countless famous songs from the 60’s and 70’s. There is a really good movie about them on UA-cam called The Wrecking Crew.
There's a typo at 5:26, The album cover is correct "The very best of Marvin Gaye", but the singers for the 3 songs are credited as "Marin Gaye ..." missing the "v". I've only briefly skimmed comments and can't see any mention of it. Better multiple comments than none. It is correct, Marvin Gaye ...", at 6:05. Best Wishes. ☮
My understanding was that Waterman wasn't actually involved in much of the songwriting but it was agreed between them that credits were shared rather like the later Queen songs were credited to all four. Happy to be corrected if anyone knows for certain. But on the subject of secret songwriters the original line up on 10CC deserve a mention. They wrote played on and produced a huge number of hits. I think they totalled over 100 before the band was even formed. Kevin Godley and Lol Creme then left and started creating some of the most innovative music videos of the 1980's. Absolutely amazing concentration of talent.
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
You could probably devote an entire video just to Burt Bacharach. He wrote so many songs, many of which you probably didn’t realize he wrote. For example, the song “always something there to remind me,” popularized by the group Naked Eyes in the 80s, is a Burt song and was originally a 60s R&B tune
@@pensivepenguin3000 a video about him yeah sure, but also he was barely a “secret” song writer and was widely a well known songwriter
Even the Beatles recorded a Burt Bacharach song. Can you guess which one?
[EDIT] Baby, It's You
Burt Bacharach is a good one. There was also Mike Chapman who wrote and produced songs for Sweet, Suzi Quatro, Smokie, Blondie, Exile, Pat Benatar, Tina Turner, Toni Basil, and he produced some huge hit albums like Paralell lines by Blondie, and My Sharona by the Knack.
And Hal David
I always liked over the top style of Jim Steinman. ;-) And the Bee Gees guys are totally crazy what they did as a side job. Mindblowing.
The Bee Gees also wrote "Immortality", a minor hit for Celine Dion on her mega-album Let's Talk About Love. Like many other hits the Gibb Bros. wrote for other artists, they can be heard singing backup in the chorus.
Wow, and also that explains why a fair number of the hit sings sound quite similar!
Yep. It's why popular music has lots all its intrigue. There is still lots of good music being made today, but most of it isn't in the mainstream unfortunately.
It’s a formula.
They all seem to whip out the Dictionary of Common Cliches, pick a term and begin dribbling words over 1-4-5 and 1-5-6-4 progressions as fits with personal formulas not too far off of everyone else. That’s got to be why Paul McCartney and Peter Gabriel have MUCH more interesting songs. They’re writing from the heart, not just for a paycheck.
Prince wrote several songs that became huge hits for other artists, sometimes under pseudonyms. Manic Monday, Nothing Compares 2 U, I Feel For You, Sugar Walls, etc. (I know I probably forgot a few other massive hits...)
He wrote or co-wrote a ton of stuff for everyone in his "stable" The Time (Ice Cream Castles, Jungle Love, The Bird), Sheila E (The Glamorous Life, A Love Bizarre), Appolonia (Sex Shooter), Vanity (Nasty Girl), The Family (Nothing Compares 2U), Madhouse, Sheena Easton. Cyndi Lauper covered "When U Were Mine".
Stevie Nicks based the verses of 'Stand Back' on the verses of 'Little Red Corvette'. She called Prince to tell him that and he said he would come out to LA and play keyboards on the track.
Didn't he write a song for KISS as well?
@@gemfyre855 No but he wrote "Kiss".
i THOUGHT the title of nothing compares 2 U looked very… princey
Stevie Wonder wrote for Syreeta wrote Let’s get serious for Jermaine Jackson write it’s a shame for the spinners wrote Tears of a clown for Smokey. You’ve already covered lennon and McCartney writing for others
Before co-writing and playing with 10cc, Graham Gouldman wrote a lot of British Invasion hits in the 60s including, Bus Stop and Look Through Any Window (Hollies), No Milk Today (Herman's Hermits), For Your Love and Heart Full of Soul (Yardbirds)
R.I.P. Quincy Jones, amazing producer.
Amen. It was still a shock to see of his passing. I know he was in his 90s, but he just seemed like one of those guys who would be around forever
Here Here! If you like Michael Jackson's music then that means you like Quincy Jones. I respect Michael, I do and he is not a dummy but I don't think he's ever so much as plugged in a microphone cable much less sat down at a piano and wrote a song. I saw a video of him in a writing session so he gets props for contributing at that stage but he was directing others and not actually playing chords and notes. He wasn't like Prince who physically played his own instruments and wrote his own songs.
He can't drive
@@AderNEW producer...and composer, and musician. Jazz, TV themes and scores, film scores...
Quincy Jones was an idiot who said the Beatles were "emmer effers" who didn't know how to play their instruments. He also claimed that Ringo didn't play on some of their songs and he replaced Ringo with a jazz player named Ronnie Verell.
Looking forward to the next parts of the series. Spontanously I think of Guy Chambers, Leiber&Stoller and Goffin&King.
On the other end of the spectrum there would be forgotten songs Taupin and Elton John wrote for others before they became famous.
I love songwriters. Hundreds of singers are carried by their composers but they get all the credit somehow. I hope one day the composers get more credit, they deserve all of it
very nice video David, very ggod work! I just miss Diane Warren, who wrote Aerosmith's number 1 hit "I don't wanna miss a thing", a lot other songs...
I was also thinking Diane Warren should've been here.
@@MateusdeRezende great suggestion!
Diane Warren wrote some amazing songs.... and LOTS of songs.... Huge omission... :/
Also lots of Oscar noms but never win a competitive one
Diane Warren deserves her own video. She’s an AMAZING songwriter.
amazing how you can hear their distinct style
Thank you for your amazing content. I missed Desmond Child (who could fill a whole episode), Bob Ezrin, Dianne Warren, Jim Vallance, Guy Chambers, Prince and Albert Hammond.
What a trip down the soundtrack to my life. Merci beaucoup.
There is a lot of talk about Quincy Jones now, but I haven't seen anyone talking about his studies with Nadia Boulanger, who was one of the last practicioners of the old traditions of Napoli Orphanages who trained young boys to become master musicians. Her sister Lilli died at a young age but was the first woman to win a composing prize in Rome.
Thank you David, for giving the spotlight to some great song writers. You really knocked it out of the park with your selection. I really enjoyed the journey across all these great songs. Jim Steinman, Jimmy Webb, Steinberg & Kelly, the Motown alumni, SAW (if you are a certain age, were UK pop music). I am a keen reader of the writing credits, as often I prefer these people to whoever is the performer of a given song. I notice that Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic has a lot of credits on other performers songs which I like.
Honorable mention to Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, who wrote hits for Human League, George Michael, Janet Jackson among many others.
Great video as always David, one other suggestion might be Graham Gouldman who wrote a string of 60s hits for bands like the Hollies and the Yardbirds before achieving fame with 10CC in the 70s
Great video, as always! Was really hyped to see Jim Steinman on the thumbnail, as Meat Loaf is one of my favorite artists ever. Last Friday, Jim would’ve turned 77, may he and Meat rest in peace. Small correction: At 1:55 you showed the album cover of Bat out of Hell, which was released in 1977. I’d do anything for love was released in 1993 though, on the follow-up album Bat out of Hell II. What further adds to the confusion, is that on later revisions of the original Bat out of Hell album, they included Anything for love as a bonus single on the disc.
I loved this video! It amazed me how many songs I know and can hum are from barely known songwriters. Please, unveil more of this to us!
@@ademariojunior 😀😀
2:34 Achivement unlocked: rickrolled by the GOAT of UA-cam music theory
Unless you remember the 3-man group S.A.W!
Burt Bacharach and Hal David are essential next video.
After hearing how so many of the ones in the 2000s felt repetitive in overall sound, it makes me wonder how much of that is the songwriters or whether there are also some key producers with their hands on so many of these hits.
I'd honestly be interested in some videos that look at the role producers play, because I sometimes hear them credited with a song/album's sound as much as anyone else involved with the songs, and would love to find out more about that aspect.
I believe Dr. Luke and Max Martin also played a strong role in production, and there was another guy in that crew, Benny Blanco, who brought that kind of synth-heavy retro Funk/disco sound to all those late 2000s/early 2010s electro-pop songs
I agree, Max Martin is trailing only Paul McCartny for nr 1 songs but McCartney's overal songwriting for especially the Beatles is so much more varied.
Stock Aitken Waterman were not only the song writers behind many of the "British" hits of the mid to late 80's and early 90's but also the producers of those songs. "British" includes several Australian actors/singers, like Jason Donovan and Kylie Minogue.
Well done David! Very enlightening; so many of my favorite songs included. Thanks.
When mentioning Cathy Dennis, you might've added (or noted) that she's the same Cathy Dennis who had a solo singing career in the early 90s (songs like "Too Many Walls," "Touch Me (All Night Long)" and "Just Another Dream") especially as most of the other songwriters had limited, if any, success as performers in their own right. Up to that point, aside from Rod Temperton, no one else was mentioned as having careers as performers (granted, the only other songwriters you'd mentioned to have careers as performers were Ashford & Simpson whose biggest hit as performers was their 1984 hit, "Solid").
Ryan Tedder, lead vocalist for OneRepublic, in addition to their own songs, has written many songs for others including:
- Apologize (Timbaland)
- Bleeding Love (Leona Lewis)
- Halo (Beyonce)
- Rumour Has it (Adele)
- Not Over You (Gavin DeGraw)
- Good in Goodbye (Carrie Underwood)
- Love Don't Die (The Fray)
- Burn (Ellie Goulding)
- Ghost (Ella Henderson)
- I Know Places (Taylor Swift)
- Maps (Maroon 5)
- Happier (Ed Sheeran)
- Sucker (Jonas Brothers)
- That's What I Want (Lil Nas X)
- Together (Calvin Harris)
And soooooo many more. Could probably do an entire video of just his non-OneRepublic credits.
This was fun to watch! Thank you. The only one I missed was Graham Gouldman.
Amazing work, great video referencing in a very interesting way the way many composers have done so many hits.
Bravo!
Superb video, even though I lived through most of these songs first time out, I didn't know that much about the songwriters, save the Gibbs of course. Keep it up, I'm looking forward to the next one.
Hooray for David! Just constantly loving your knowledge and your approach to sharing it.
I’m personally just starting my journey on pianos and keyboards as a guitar/bass player. You make it fun to spot and try things out. One of the best functions on my looper will always be the ‘undo’ button but you’re making me be brave and dare things and I’m super grateful.
Great video, David, but I would also put Patrick Leonard in this list. Here is his famous quote on writing songs for Madonna: "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Dark Side of the Moon, The Wall - that's what I grew up with and that's what I dreamed of doing one day," he recalled in 1992. "I was a big Gentle Giant fan. I was a huge Jethro Tull fan. But I had to feed my children and heat my house, so I wrote some songs with a little girl who became extremely popular. It's really that simple."
Yessssssss
Hi David! Unsolicited video idea for you - what are the biggest flops of top songwriters? I'd be interested in Max Martin particularly how many mega flops he's written in relation to mega hits, but I'm sure it applies across the board too!
@@LinusBoman interesting idea! Thanks! I’ll keep it in mind 😊😊
Never forget Desmond Child (Ricky Martin, Aerosmith, Kiss, Cher, Alice Cooper and Bon Jovi), Nile Rodgers (Chic, Sister Sledge, Diana Ross, Daft Punk and Carly Simon), and Dave Stewart (Eurythmics, Shakespeare’s Sister, Gwen Stefani, Tom Petty, and Candy Dulfer).
Stevie Wonder, Prince, Geoff Lynne and Tom Petty have been pretty prolific for other artists as well.
Nile co-produced Let's Dance with Bowie. I know he helped compose the music on the title track but apparently didn't ask for songwriting credit.
It was Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards both members of chic, they produced and wrote together until Bernard Edwards died
Jeff Lynne
A little late to the party here but want to give some love to:
Burt Bacharach - wrote "Close to You" made famous by the Carpenters, "Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head" and many other hits of the late 20th Century.
And Joel Pott, lead singer of British band Athlete, has since turned producer and songwriter, most notably co-writing much of George Ezra's first two albums.
Great selection. Yes, the song writers are so critical to a songs success. Loving this collection
Rod Temperton !!! Love him and his work ! Funnily enough, I first heard of him not because of his more famous work with the likes of Michael Jackson and George Benson, but because I discovered his band Heatwave and fell in love with the songs. But yes, after finding out about him writing some of my MJ favourites, as well as GB's "Give Me the Night", The Brothers Johnson's "Stomp", and Patti Austin's "Baby, Come to Me", I went "Oh, but of course!"
I do agree about Paul Williams deserving his spotlight --- "I Won't Last a Day Without You", "We've Only Just Begun", "Rainy Days and Mondays", "You and Me Against the World", "Travelling Boy", "Evergreen", "Love Dance", "The Rainbow Connection", etc., all by him.
Of course, I think much like The Beegees, Stevie Wonder's work as a songwriter for others should also be highlighted: "I Can't Help It", "Perfect Angel", "Lover and Friend", "All I Do (Is Think About You)", "Tears of a Clown", "It's A Shame", "Tell Me Something Good", and more !
Enjoyed this, thanks for the hard work.
This was such a nostalgic feast. Thanks for giving these brilliant songwriters awareness.
Great vid - I didn't appreciate how prolific some of these songwriters' output was! Diane Warren comes to mind if you're doing a follow up - her songs were everywhere in the 90s
Wow, a plethora of great songs. Thanks!
Except for Max Martin. I've never heard any of those songs. Sounds like modern bubblegum pop.
Love your channel, David. Thank you for your hard work.
Another duo that comes to mind are Nicky Chinn & Mike Chapman, they wrote countless 70s classics for The Sweet, Mud, Suzi Quatro, Smokie etc.
@@Uffel80 the SAW of the 70s
Mickey. Sung by Toni Basil.
Heart and Soul. 3 different versions! The most popular is from Huey Lewis and the News. They formed in my hometown area the San Francisco Bay Area 🌉
This was good,.. and deserves a Part 2,.. or 3 or 4 ! 😊 😁👍🏽🎶
Brilliant video. Please do more like this one.
@@WogerWaaabbit will do!!
Great video David, and Witchita Lineman is one of my favorites too.
Great topic! HDH really need more study - perhaps there is a deep music analysis treatise on them somewhere ? (PS - your fingers got crossed up in Jackson's first name early in the video - you might want to fix that at some point)
Jim Steinman also wrote Read'm And Weep, sung by Barry Manilow and Making Love Out Of Nothing At All by Air Supply.
I found out recently that Manilow's version was a cover. Meat Loaf recorded it first and did not like Manilow's version at all. He said at the time that Manilow didn't get how to sing Steinman. Manilow was also tired of doing other people's songs so this was the last cover he released.
I thought about suggesting those two, but they are down a level or two in quality.
Cathy Dennis co-wrote a lot of her own songs as a performer in the 90s.
Diane Warren, David Foster, Prince, Willie Dixon, J.D. Souther, Lieber & Stoller, Boyce & Hart, Doc Pomus, Desmond Child, Russ Ballard, Hoyt Axton, Paul Williams, Giorgio Morodor.
a man with my passion - yeap - Warren was a big miss from this list - I have spotify lists ordered by sogwriter release date... way too nerdy and dull eh!!
@ 10:26 max martin section, title says one more night by maroon 5 but the audio and the on screen album are the weeknd save your tears (remix)
Not mentioned in this video, but Diane Warren is another prolific songwriter. “I Don’t Wanna miss a thing” by Aerosmith, “Blue eyes blue” by Eric Clapton to name a few. Babyface is also another one.
Man, there’s quite a few. Nice list.
Fantastic video. Creators deserve more recognition from us. More videos like this will be welcome. Thanks.
Man, though much of it didn’t age very well, Max Martin and Dr. Luke were on fire in the late 2000s and early 2010s. Some of those songs are still a lot of fun
I forget how much every song in that time period was just about partying, and I definitely didn't realize they were all by the same 3 people lol
Excellent Video again David!! "MacArthur Park" is a must when mentioning Jimmy Webb.
MacArthur Park is a crazy long song!
Jerry Ragovoy is behind many Janis Joplin hits: Piece of My Heart, Get It While You Can, Try (Just a Little Bit Harder), Cry Baby, and also Time Is On My Side. Mort Shuman wrote or cowrote many standards such as Save The Last Dance for Me, This Magic Moment or Viva Las Vegas.
And don't forget Willie Dixon who is credited for an incredible numbers of Chicago Blues tunes!
Excellent, David, thank you.
Please do a vid on Holly Knight! She wrote and co-wrote some of the biggest 80's tunes, many that "revitalized" artist that were on comebacks like Aerosmith, Pat Benatar, Tina Turner, Heart, Bon Jovi, Kiss; the list goes on. Amazing talent and was mostly over looked at the time because she was female in a male dominated industry, but seems to be finally getting the notoriety and credit she deserves now. I'm sure there are some that still do not know her contributions to the song writing world, so a mention on a future vid would be awesome!
How about a James Jamerson video? As a bass player. He leaps from your Motown pastiche, his sound is unmistakable & influenced your favorite 60s band.
Wow, Stock Aitken Waterman really loved that "dow dowdowdowdowdow" synth bassline.
They basically ran mainstream UK pop music for a decade. It was... an interesting time.
@@vurogj Interesting ... and painful.
Celine Dion once said that working with Jim Steinman, every song is like Gone with the Wind.
An honourable mention Steinman song is "Making Love out of Nothing at All", performed by Air Supply.
(Oh, and thank you for not mentioning MacArthur Park.)
Good stuff as always. You should do a video on the songs that the Beatles wrote for other artists!
I was thinking the same. There were some good ones in the early years. Step Inside Love for Cilla Black. World Without Love. Peter and Gordon. Goodbye for Mary Hopkin.
@@rickalexanderguitar "Bad To Me" - Billy J. Kramer and The Dakotas. "Come and Get It" - Badfinger
Xenomania (predominantly Brian Higgins and Miranda Cooper) are worth a mention too. Most famous for their work with Girls Aloud, but who also wrote No 1s for Cher and Sugababes.
“ The Promise “ Girls Aloud with Florrie on drums 🎵
@@JuniperCo Biology is a great song, and really unusual for a "girlband" pop song.
@ it is yeah 👍😄
absolutely!!
Definitely should consider the giants of Philly soul, Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff ("Love Train", "For the Love of Money", “Only the Strong Survive", "If You Don't Know Me by Now”, "Me and Mrs. Jones”, "The Love I Lost”, "When Will I See You Again”, "Don't Leave Me This Way”, "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me”, "Back Stabbers”) and Thom Bell (with Linda Creed and others) ("La-La (Means I Love You)”, "You Make Me Feel Brand New”, “You Are Everything”, "I'll Be Around”, "Break Up to Make Up”, etc).
I would perfectly fine if you made this an on going series. This is fascinating to me.
Another great video David - thanks 😁 I'll add the fantastic songwriter Diane Warren to the list 😊
Wonderful video, thankl you. Jimmy Webb also wrote a whole album for Art Garfunkel "Watermark" with great songs on it.
Great video, my thought immediately went to Russ Ballard, "Since You Been Gone" & "I Surrender", by Rainbow, "God Gave Rock and Roll to You" by KISS, plus many others like "New York Groove" Ace Frehley
Desmond Child helped get Bon Jovi's Living on A Prayer over the line. Jon didn't particularly like it to start with but once it was reworked by Child and guitarist Richie Sambora it became the huge hit we all now know
I LOVE songwriter details - been watching Diane Warren since the 1980s who started it with me... you meantioned many of my fav (Kelley,Steinbeg HDH, Martin, Gibbs)... I have a personal DB listing these 'writers'... I also have spotify lists by songwriter... Love it.. Warren is prob my fave... (and would have been my untimate job if I had any talent, the famouse people know you, but you can still walk down the street......)
Great Video
There are so many writers that you could make a video series about the subject.
I love this topic, and while I knew of Max Martin and Dr Luke, I was unaware of most of the others,.especially surprised to see who wrote some of MJ's biggest hits!
I'd love to see a part 2: I forget his name, but the singer from Free Radicals, whose most famous song is You Get What You Give, went on to write arguably Sophie-Ellis Bexter's best song, Murder on the Dancefloor.
I had no idea that Ashford and Simpson wrote I'm Every Woman. There are a gazillion Rod Temperton songs that I like, starting with Boogie Nights.
RIP Quincy Jones.
Regarding Ashford and Simpson, I'm kind of surprised you didn't mention their hit as an actual performing duo: "Solid As a Rock".
I love that song!
He's focusing on songs written for other performers, not for themselves....ie not mentioning Stayin Alive by The Bee Gees, etc.
The Swedish songwriter Moa "Cazzi Opeia" Carlebecker is a cowriter of many kpop hits. Apart from Max Martin include Denniz Pop and Anders "Bag" Bagge. Fredrik Kämpe has written many hits, mostly in Melodigestivalen.
One video game OST composer is David Bergeaud, for having composed the soundtrack for many of the Ratchet and Clank video games.
I was a teenager in the 80s, and I remember Stock Aitken Waterman absolutely DOMINATING the charts.
It was a bit too much, really . It was a bit too uniform.
It wasn't until later I would appreciate what a great song "never give you up" actually is.
i agree. and controversially, i feel the same way about Max Martin's music
I hope you one day do a video like this just for Burt Bacharach. One of the best songwriters ever!
Hello! Greetings from another musician in Argentina. I really like your channel. I've been following it for a while and I think both your ideas for the videos and their execution are very good! However, in the case of this particular video, I think the latter could be improved (in my humble opinion, obviously!). The idea is very attractive: I really didn’t know who the composers of so many iconic and beautiful songs were, and I found it very interesting to learn about them briefly. The problem is that everything happens very quickly! You spend very little time on each one and move from one song to another so suddenly that it puts the viewer in a state of anxiety. On the other hand, I also think it would have been better to stay longer with the more important or well-known songs by those composers. For example, in the case of Steinberg and Kelly, it would have been good to focus mainly on "Like a Virgin" and to learn a bit more about that song, rather than quickly passing through so many others that are not well known. The same thing happens in almost all cases. I hope it's clear that this is just a point of view and it's meant to be constructive criticism, nothing more. Thank you very much for the content you share with us! Keep it up. Best regards!
Rick Nowles wrote most of Belinda Carlisle's hits (with Charlotte Caffey/Ellen Shipley) and also wrote with Madonna, Dido, co-wrote The New Radicals You Get What You Give and Rooms on Fire with Stevie Nicks.
Thank you! Material for the next probable video: Ali Tamposi, Toto Cutugno, Emily Warren
Great video David. I’m going to throw Diane Warren into the mix. The songwriter who made Steven Tyler cry.
Ellie Greenwich is my fave. Basically half of the greatest pop songs from the 60s.
I guess you'll cover King and Goffin in the video about the Brill Building?
I remember Cathy Dennis. She released albums of her own, and had a minor hit with Too Many Walls. I was just checking, All Night Long was also on the same album. Another songwriter that I like with some big hits is Martin Page. I liked his album In The House of Stone and Light. Russ Ballard had a varied career, and wrote songs for other artists like Starship (It's Not Enough), Frida (I Know There's Something Going On), and America (You Can Do Magic), but he also released a couple of his own albums. His 1984 self-titled album had the hit "Voices" on it.
Fantastic compilation of songs that shaped and amped my tempestuous youthful emotions. Lol
Vanda and Young wrote the soundtrack to my youth, growing up in Australia in the 70’s and 80’s. A lot of their best work never charted overseas, but some did (Easybeats, ACDC). Their songs for John Paul Young and Stevie Wright are classics, along with many others.
For behind the scenes writers, I can't believe you didn't mention Bernie Taupin. Also, I think some of Jim Steinman's other stuff deserves a shout-out, such as the hits he wrote for Sisters of Mercy.
Oh yeah, and thanks for keeping the 80s SAW compilation short. Hated them at the time, hate them now.
yes another video!
Chinn and Chapman wrote so much hits in de seventies ( Sweet, Mud, Suzi Quatro, Smokie, Exile and more)
Glad to see Jimmy Webb get a mention. A brilliant songwriter, for sure.
Do a video on the chord progression of wicked game or i VII IV!! I've never seen anyone talk about this while it's a very common progression and a beautiful one
Diane Warren should be mentioned too
Agreed but i noticed tbey shouldd write at least 6 tophit. So what about JACKSON BROWNE??
@@normatible9795 what did he write?
When I first heard “It’s All Coming Back To Me Now” I thought, “Weird, I think this would sound better if Meat Loaf was singing it,” then it dawned on me and I looked up the songwriter!
Meat Loaf also covered it on his 2006 album
Now I know who 'fills the world with silly love songs'...=)
never expecting a rickroll in david's video lol
Can you do a follow up video on specific song writer tropes?
Love to hear your take on why so many songs today have a squadron of songwriters. You showed one that looked like it had 12 songwriters. Why would you need so many? Did they all write one verse?
Sometimes it has to do with sampling. If they sampled 2 other songs within a "new" song....and the two original songs had 3 songwriters each... that's 6 right there. Also, sometimes the artist has it in their contract to get partial credit on every song, and it's possible that the producer might as well... so that brings it up to 8. Nowadays, anytime anyone adds an element..a beat, a couple notes on the keyboard they get a piece.
Burt Bacharach....was one of the most prolific songwriters of the 20th century...
Paul Williams is also quite notable..
Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection...
Yeah but Burt Bacharach isn’t a secret songwriter, I think a hell of a lot of people know about him
@Kj_Gamer2614 Good point. You make me reflect, though, that I would still find it interesting to have videos on some of these better-known songwriters, too. People like Burt Bacharach were incredibly famous but are less-well-known to younger audiences, for instance. Others may be well known IF you pay a bit of attention to who writes songs, but may still have gone unnoticed by many (or it may not be appreciated just how prolific they were). It does feel like there could be a lot to explore in the topic.
Until recently, I didn’t know that “Say a Little Prayer” was a Burt Bachrach composition.
Bernie Tauljn snd Elton John
Astonishing list. The only songwriter I knew well here was Jimmy Webb. Also astonishing - a reddit post mentioned Boogie Nights this morning, and I listened to it just hours before you released this. Great timing.
Please do David Foster! I took my mom to see him for his 75th birthday at the Hollywood Bowl. I knew some of work, but I didn't realize he wrote/co-wrote/composed/produced a lot of the hit ballad songs from the late 70s-90s
And sucked out everything that made those artists unique on the road to making those hits.
@MKPiatkowski I'm sure they're wiping their tears with the millions they made
Great video!
I am surprised you didn’t mention the Wrecking Crew. A loose group of session musicians that started during the Brill Building days. They went on to help create Phil Spector’s wall of sound. They worked on about 40 #1 songs and countless famous songs from the 60’s and 70’s. There is a really good movie about them on UA-cam called The Wrecking Crew.
brilliant video
There's a typo at 5:26, The album cover is correct "The very best of Marvin Gaye", but the singers for the 3 songs are credited as "Marin Gaye ..." missing the "v". I've only briefly skimmed comments and can't see any mention of it. Better multiple comments than none.
It is correct, Marvin Gaye ...", at 6:05.
Best Wishes. ☮
No mention of "You Spin Me 'Round" by Stock/Aitken/Waterman?
My understanding was that Waterman wasn't actually involved in much of the songwriting but it was agreed between them that credits were shared rather like the later Queen songs were credited to all four. Happy to be corrected if anyone knows for certain.
But on the subject of secret songwriters the original line up on 10CC deserve a mention. They wrote played on and produced a huge number of hits. I think they totalled over 100 before the band was even formed. Kevin Godley and Lol Creme then left and started creating some of the most innovative music videos of the 1980's. Absolutely amazing concentration of talent.