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.
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
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.
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 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.
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 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
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
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 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.
3 години тому+1
I was definitely expecting Ryan Tedder for songs for Pink, Rihanna, Ellie Goulding, Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran and more.
As Billy Bragg once wrote 'Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong Are here to make right, everything that’s wrong Holland and Holland and Lamont Dozier too Are here to make it all ok with you'
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.)
You could easily do this 100 times over. There are so many other famous singers out there. Diane Warren, Sia, Jessie J., Prince, Neil Diamond, Burt Bacharach. If you do the couples one you of course MUST include Gerry Goffin and Carole King. You could even go back further and explore the writers and composers who wrote most of the songs in the so-called "American Songbook" that are sometimes referred to as standards. That's a whole other treasure trove of writers!
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.
Feel like Bonnie McKee should have deserved a mention by name. She’s only written for Katy Perry, Britney Spears, Kesha, Taio Cruz, Kelly Clarkson, Adam Lambert, Avril Lavigne, The Chainsmokers, Rita Ora, Bebe Rexha, Cher, Cheryl Cole, Christina Aguilera, Leona Lewis, Ava Max, Nicole Scherzinger, Carly Rae Jepsen, Charlie Puth, and Ellie Goulding. With 8 Billboard #1 songs. Worth a mention I think.
Dan Wilson from Semisonic made a huge amount of money writing for others. It seems that the ones who were most successful moved with the times and applied their roots songwriting knowledge to a more modern style. Basically good at melodic or rhythmic hooks and chord choice but less focused on a specific genre
16:13 this song, “woman in love,” sounds very similar to “oops I did it again” which we heard earlier in the video. I’m guessing I’m not the first to notice this. Did Max Martin take inspiration from this track, subconsciously or otherwise?
Most of the post-2000 songs featured here are awful. It's somehow not surprising to find out that the same four or five people wrote all of these. Compare them to the excellent Jimmy Webb, H-D-H, and Brothers Gibb songs from the last century, and it's hard not to wonder why things have gone so far downhill. I'd love to see a video exploring that question.
Max Martin and Dr Luke really were the kings of all those hoopy-doopy vocal melodies that were all over the radio from 2000s onwards. If I can't stand it, chances are they wrote it
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!
You know, I didn't actually hate Max Martin or Dr Luke until you pointed out just how many of the most annoying songs I've ever heard were written by them.
Its always a bit weird to think kids and young adults through the past 30 years have been bopping to Max Martin's repertoire. He has a distinct style, something I think sounds Abba-esque - that would be his Swedish heritage.
Can someone explain to me the phenomenon of these massive amounts of songwriters on a single song. Is it just a scheme of producers to get royalties split up evenly on as many songs as possible on an album or do they contribute creativly?
Would love to see you talk about Dan Wilson from Semisonic. He co-wrote and produced big Grammy-winning hits with Adele, the (Dixie) Chicks, and Chris Stapleton.
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.
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
2:34 Achivement unlocked: rickrolled by the GOAT of UA-cam music theory
Unless you remember the 3-man group S.A.W!
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.
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.
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... :/
For Part 2, Desmond Child, Jim Vallance, Diane Warren, Glen Ballard and Mutt Lange come to mind.
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
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.
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.
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
One of my favorite songwriters from the late 70s and early 80s was Russ Ballard
@@DocGeezer nice! I’d not heard of him but it looks like he’s written some real classics!!
@@DavidBennettPiano Not to be confused with Glen Ballard, who is also a songwriting titan.
Enjoyed this, thanks for the hard work.
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
Well done David! Very enlightening; so many of my favorite songs included. Thanks.
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
J.J Cale is another good one.
shellback, you' ve got him like 10 times in credits in this video
Burt Bacharach and Hal David are essential next video.
Diane Warren should be mentioned too
Chinn & Chapman - so many early 70s UK chart toppers, Dianne Warren, Desmond Child, Mike Batt just to pick a few.
@@pst_uk wow they wrote loads of glam rock classics!!
@@DavidBennettPiano Yes they were very much the Stock,Aiken, Waterman of their day.
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.
Great video David, and Witchita Lineman is one of my favorites too.
Glad to see Jimmy Webb get a mention. A brilliant songwriter, for sure.
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 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 was definitely expecting Ryan Tedder for songs for Pink, Rihanna, Ellie Goulding, Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran and more.
As Billy Bragg once wrote
'Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong
Are here to make right, everything that’s wrong
Holland and Holland and Lamont Dozier too
Are here to make it all ok with you'
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.
Ellie Greenwich is my fave. Basically half of the greatest pop songs from the 60s.
If you're including the Gibb brothers, then maybe Nile Rogers and Bernard Edwards in a similar context.
Definitely agree on this! I was anticipating Nile Rogers' name being mentioned. Maybe one video devoted to him would be nice.
Jim Steinman is the man when you want an over-the-top melodramatic pop song with a ridiculous title!
I got rickrolled in the end of 2024 wow
Chinn and Chapman wrote so much hits in de seventies ( Sweet, Mud, Suzi Quatro, Smokie, Exile and more)
Now I know who 'fills the world with silly love songs'...=)
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.
my ALL-time favorite music composers are. #1 Rod Temperton, El Debarge, who DON'T get enough credit. and #3. Norman Whitfield. who help build Motown.
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 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.
yes another video!
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.
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.)
Wish Labi Siffre was mentioned here
@ 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)
You could easily do this 100 times over. There are so many other famous singers out there. Diane Warren, Sia, Jessie J., Prince, Neil Diamond, Burt Bacharach. If you do the couples one you of course MUST include Gerry Goffin and Carole King. You could even go back further and explore the writers and composers who wrote most of the songs in the so-called "American Songbook" that are sometimes referred to as standards. That's a whole other treasure trove of writers!
Need a part 2!
Great Video
There are so many writers that you could make a video series about the subject.
Great video David. I’m going to throw Diane Warren into the mix. The songwriter who made Steven Tyler cry.
Dr Luke sounds like a film directed by Michael Bay.
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'v just been rickrolled🤦♂️
In 2024, ffs ! 😭
Feel like Bonnie McKee should have deserved a mention by name. She’s only written for Katy Perry, Britney Spears, Kesha, Taio Cruz, Kelly Clarkson, Adam Lambert, Avril Lavigne, The Chainsmokers, Rita Ora, Bebe Rexha, Cher, Cheryl Cole, Christina Aguilera, Leona Lewis, Ava Max, Nicole Scherzinger, Carly Rae Jepsen, Charlie Puth, and Ellie Goulding.
With 8 Billboard #1 songs.
Worth a mention I think.
Pete Waterman did not AFAIK write a single note nor write a single word. And yet he achieved I believe writing credits.
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.
Dude misspelled Michael Jackson
Graham Lyle. Wrote an incredible amount of hits, including most of Tina Turners 80s hits!
Very Good 👏👏👏
Bonnie McKee! She ruled the 2010's with her songwriting
You did not just rickroll me
Dan Wilson from Semisonic made a huge amount of money writing for others. It seems that the ones who were most successful moved with the times and applied their roots songwriting knowledge to a more modern style. Basically good at melodic or rhythmic hooks and chord choice but less focused on a specific genre
Very interesting! For me, the songwriters are the real genies of music.
16:13 this song, “woman in love,” sounds very similar to “oops I did it again” which we heard earlier in the video. I’m guessing I’m not the first to notice this. Did Max Martin take inspiration from this track, subconsciously or otherwise?
Beegees were definitely an influence on Mr. Martin
I've always heard Campbell pronounced so that it rhymes with gamble, but David pronounces it like two words, camp bell, or maybe cam bell.
Desmond Child
Chinn/Chapman, Paul Williams, Desmond Child
Most of the post-2000 songs featured here are awful. It's somehow not surprising to find out that the same four or five people wrote all of these. Compare them to the excellent Jimmy Webb, H-D-H, and Brothers Gibb songs from the last century, and it's hard not to wonder why things have gone so far downhill. I'd love to see a video exploring that question.
Max Martin and Dr Luke really were the kings of all those hoopy-doopy vocal melodies that were all over the radio from 2000s onwards. If I can't stand it, chances are they wrote it
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!
I've met Jimmy Webb.
First time I'm glad not seing any Beatle on a music related video thumbnail 😌
how have i not heard of max martin. these are half the songs i know
Xenomania might have been worth a mention.
Fun fact - Jim Steinman produced a cover of Holland-Dozer-Holland's "Band of Gold" for Bonnie Tyler. It uh... it was something all right.
Don't see anyone going to bat for Babyface. More Babyface, less Dr. Luke !
0:41 On Thriller, he's the V.O. artist!
You know, I didn't actually hate Max Martin or Dr Luke until you pointed out just how many of the most annoying songs I've ever heard were written by them.
Can you make a video of max martin chord progressions and producing please
OMG! This short amount of songwriters have generated trillions of dollars with their songs
Its always a bit weird to think kids and young adults through the past 30 years have been bopping to Max Martin's repertoire. He has a distinct style, something I think sounds Abba-esque - that would be his Swedish heritage.
Paul Williams, Harry Nilsson to name a couple.
Smokey Robinson; Thom Bell and Linda Creed
when you say "song writer" do you mean the lyrics or the tune or like a full-on score for all instruments and voices?
A couple more: Guy Chambers, Lauren Christy.
Can someone explain to me the phenomenon of these massive amounts of songwriters on a single song. Is it just a scheme of producers to get royalties split up evenly on as many songs as possible on an album or do they contribute creativly?
+1 on Wichita Lineman. Possibly the best country song
Jam and Lewis
The ONLY stuff I like from the Billy Steinberg & Tom Kelly's catalog is "Alone" and "Like a Virgin! the rest sound like a cheap AM radio!
Would love to see you talk about Dan Wilson from Semisonic. He co-wrote and produced big Grammy-winning hits with Adele, the (Dixie) Chicks, and Chris Stapleton.
What about Diane Warren who wrote loads of top pop/film hits and the couple that made up Boy Meets Girl who wrote for Witney Houston?
next installment: PRINCE!!!
RIP Quincy Jones
Max Martin is the GOAT
At least you spelled "Cyndi" correctly.
RIP Quincy Jones the GOAT
Giorgio Moroder?
Quincy Jones😢
Bob Dylan....
Interesting topic, although I'm not sure I'd call of these "classic" songs
How could you do Jimmy Webb without mentioning "The Highwayman"?
The people of England always tend to churn out the most legendary songs of all time imo. There’s something in the water over there.
It's that lingering poo in the Thames, methinks.
Its our proud individualism - from "we wunt be druv" to "Unconquered" as our county mottos