Songcraft: Spotlight on Songwriters

Four-time Grammy nominee Matthew West’s major label debut album, Happy, brought him to national attention in 2004, earning him five Dove award nominations, including Pop/Contemporary  Album of the Year, Song of the Year for the single “More,” and New Artist of the Year. He has gone on to score nearly twenty Top 10 hits on Billboard’s US Christian chart, including Dove award Song of the Year nominee “Only Grace,” “You Are Everything,” “The Motions,” which earned a Grammy nomination for Best Gospel Song,  “Strong Enough,” “Forgiveness,” which was another Grammy nominee for Best Contemporary Christian Music Song,  “Hello My Name Is,” and “Grace Wins,” which reached  #1 status for a record-setting 17 weeks at Christian radio. He has written songs for other artists, including Rascal Flatts, Scotty McCreery, Michael W. Smith, Amy Grant, and Casting Crowns, who earned Matthew yet another Best Contemporary Christian Music Song Grammy nomination for “Jesus, Friend of Sinners.” He has been named ASCAP’s Christian Music Songwriter  of the Year multiple times, earned the Best Contemporary Inspirational Artist honor from the American Music Awards in 2013, won a Billboard Music Award for Top Christian Song in 2014, and was named Billboard’s Hot Christian Songwriter of the Year in 2016. Additionally, he received a Primetime Emmy award nomination for Original Music & Lyrics for “The Heart of Christmas” from the film of the same name. His latest studio album is All In on Sparrow Records.

Though he is now a Nashville Songwriters Hall of Famer, the British-born Roger Cook began his career in the UK, first making a splash on the US charts with The Fortunes’ Top 10 hit recording of “You’ve Got Your Troubles.” Additional US singles in that era included the Top 10 hits “Green Grass” by Gary Lewis & The Playboys, “I Was Kaiser Bill’s Batman,” by Whistling Jack Smith, and “Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again” by The Fortunes.  In 1972 Cook scored with two different versions of “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing,” an international hit that began as a groundbreaking commercial jingle for Coca-Cola before becoming a successful single for The Hillside Singers and then The New Seekers. Later that year he topped the charts with The Hollies’ “Long Cool Woman (In a Black Dress).” He and longtime songwriting partner Roger Greenaway were named British Songwriters of the Year two years in a row for 1971 and 1972 at the Ivor Novello awards in the the UK. In the mid-1970s, Cook moved to Nashville, where he found success with a string of #1 hits, including BMI Country Song of the Year “Talking in Your Sleep” for Crystal Gayle, “I Believe in You” for Don Williams, and “Love is on a Roll,” a song co-written with John Prine that became another #1 for Williams. Additional chart-topping hits include ASCAP Country Song of the Year “One Night at a Time” and “I Just Want to Dance With You,” both #1 singles for George Strait. Roger’s songs have been recorded by The Drifters, Frankie Valli, Neil Diamond, Johnny Cash, John Prine, Sonny & Cher, Chet Atkins, Nancy Wilson, Bette Midler, Petula Clark, Brenda Lee, Clint Black, Amy Grant, Reba McEntire, and others. He is a Grammy nominee, ACM nominee, three-time CMA Song of the Year nominee, and the only British inductee into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. Additionally, he and Roger Greenaway were inducted into the national Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2009.  

A legendary recording artist and songwriter for the Memphis–based Stax label, William Bell first found success with his own recording of “You Don’t Miss Your Water,” a song that would go on to be covered by Otis Redding, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Byrds, and others. He found chart success in the ‘60s and ‘70s with additional self-penned singles, such as the Top 20 hits “Everybody Loves a Winner,” “A Tribute to a King,” “Private Number,” and “Tryin’ to Love Two,” which hit #1 on the R&B chart and #10 on the pop chart. His Top 10 R&B hit “I Forgot to Be Your Lover” went on to be covered by Billy Idol as the Top 10 pop hit, “To Be a Lover,” and was reinvented once again when Jaheim sampled it in “Put That Woman First,” a Top 5 R&B hit and Top 20 pop hit in 2004. In 2016 Bell returned to the re-formed Stax label to release This Is Where I Live, an album of primarily original songs that featured William’s own interpretation of “Born Under a Bad Sign,” which was originally recorded by Albert King and went on to become a blues standard that was named one of the “500 Songs that Shaped Rock & Roll” by the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. A partial list of artists who’ve recorded titles from the William Bell songbook includes Lou Rawls, Percy Sledge, Big Mama Thornton, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Rod Stewart, Etta James, LaVern Baker, Dusty Springfield, Carole King, Linda Ronstadt, Melissa Etheridge, Robert Cray, and Sturgill Simpson. Additionally, his songs have been sampled by Ludacris, Kanye West, and others.  Bell was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame and the Memphis Music Hall of Fame. He was honored with the R&B Pioneer Award by The Rhythm and Blues Foundation, and the W.C. Handy Heritage Award from the Memphis Music Foundation. In 2016 the Americana Music Association honored him with its Lifetime Achievement Award. The following year he earned his first Grammy award for This Is Where I Live, which was named Americana Album of the Year. 

Launching her career with the Front Porch String Band in the 1970s, Claire Lynch went on to release solo material before ultimately assembling her own Claire Lynch Band. Dolly Parton calls Claire “one of the sweetest, purest and best lead voices in the music business today.” She has received over twenty nominations from the International Bluegrass Music Association, winning a half dozen of their awards, including Female Vocalist of the Year in 1997, 2010, and 2013. Her song “Dear Sister” was named the IBMA's 2014 Song of the Year. She was inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame, and has been nominated for three Grammy awards for Best Bluegrass album, most recently for her 2016 release North By South. In addition to her own recordings, Claire’s songs have been covered by a long list of bluegrass and folk artists, including The Seldom Scene, Patty Loveless, Kathy Mattea, Cherryholmes, and The Whites.

Paul and Scott catch up with Jose Feliciano to find out why "Feliz Navidad" was written in July; chat with "Santa Baby" composer Phil Springer to hear the reason he was hesitant to write the world's first "sexy Christmas song;" get the scoop from Mike Stoller about Elvis recording "Santa Claus is Back in Town" when the song was less than an hour old; find out from former Ray Charles backup singer Mable John what the movie "Christmas Vacation" did for Ray's recording of her song "That Spirit of Christmas;" talk to Mark Lowry about how "Mary Did You Know?" went from a recitation in a local church play to a contemporary Christmas standard; listen to former Motown staff writer Bryan Wells explain why his "Someday at Christmas" is as relevant today as it was when Stevie Wonder first released it more than 50 years ago; and find out how TV producer Lee Mendelson became an accidental songwriter when it was time to add lyrics to "Christmas Time is Here" from "A Charlie Brown Christmas."   Jose Feliciano – “Feliz Navidad” (1970) A true international superstar, virtuoso guitarist and celebrated vocalist Jose Feliciano found fame in the US with his hugely successful Feliciano album in 1968. He earned a Top 5 hit with his interpretation of The Doors’ “Light My Fire” that same year and has gone on to win seven Grammy awards. “Feliz Navidad” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and was named by ASCAP as one of the most performed holiday songs of all time. Philip Springer – “Santa Baby” by Eartha Kitt (1953) At 91 years old, Phil Springer is one of the last living composers from the pre-rock “Brill Building” era of professional songwriters. In addition to writing the music for “Santa Baby,” Springer penned Frankie Laine’s Top 5 hit “Moonlight Gambler,” Frank Sinatra’s “How Little it Matters, How Little We Know,” and Cliff Richard’s “The Next Time,” which hit #1 in the UK in 1963. Additionally, he wrote songs that have been recorded by Judy Garland, Dusty Springfield, and Elvis Presley. Mike Stoller – “Santa Clause is Back in Town” by Elvis Presley (1957) One of the key architects of rock and R&B songwriting, Mike Stoller is a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and one of Rolling Stone magazine’s 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time. His long list of writing credits with partner Jerry Leiber includes “Kansas City,” “Yakety Yak,” “Stand By Me,” “Poison Ivy,” “Love Potion No. 9,”and more than 20 titles recorded by Elvis, including “Hound Dog,” “Jailhouse Rock,” and the perennial “Santa Clause is Back in Town.” Mable John – “That Spirit of Christmas” by Ray Charles (1985) Best remembered from the sentimental attic scene in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, “That Spirit of Christmas” was co-written by Mable John. She is Little Willie John’s younger sister and was the first female solo artist signed to Motown’s Tamla label in the 1950s. She would go on to score a Top 10 hit as a Stax artist with “Your Good Thing (Is About to End)” and serve as the leader of Ray Charles’ backing singers, The Raelettes, for more than a decade. Mark Lowry – “Mary Did You Know” (1991) Though he spent eighteen years as a member of the legendary Gaither Vocal Band and has released nearly twenty albums and, Dove award winning Christian singer and comedian Mark Lowry is best known to mainstream audiences as the co-writer of “Mary Did You Know.” The song was first recorded in 1991 by Michael English, who was a fellow member of the Gaither Vocal Band at the time. It would go on to be recorded by Natalie Cole, Reba McEntire, Glen Campbell, Jessica Simpson, Mary J. Blige, Cee Lo Green, Pentatonix, and many others. Bryan Wells – “Someday at Christmas” by Stevie Wonder (1966) Former Motown staff writer Bryan Wells co-wrote Stevie Wonder’s Top 10 hits “A Place in the Sun” and “Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday.” He has earned four Clio Awards for music he has composed for advertising campaigns and is Bette Midler’s former music director. Wells and partner Ron Miller co-wrote three songs on Stevie’s 1967 holiday album, including the title track, “Someday at Christmas” which has since been covered by The Jackson 5, Diana Ross, The Temptations, Jack Johnson, Justin Bieber, and others. Lee Mendelson – “Christmas Time is Here” from A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)TV producer Lee Mendelson became a songwriter by default when he scrawled the lyrics for “Christmas Time is Here” on the back of an envelope to complete the opening scene of A Charlie Brown Christmas. It was Mendelson who chose Vince Guaraldi to score the special, introducing generations of kids to jazz music. He went on to write additional songs for future Peanuts specials with collaborators including David Benoit.   

Mississippi native Joshie Jo Armstead began her professional career as a vocalist, touring and recording as one of the original Ikettes behind Ike and Tina Turner. She later settled in New York City where she began working with the legendary duo of Ashford and Simpson, who first found major success as the songwriting trio of Ashford, Simpson and Armstead when Ray Charles’ recording of “Let’s Go Get Stoned” became a #1 hit. Soon after, Charles recorded their “I Don’t Need No Doctor” and Aretha Franklin hit the R&B Top 40 with “Cry Like a Baby.”  After Ashford and Simpson went to Motown, Armstead relocated to Chicago where she launched Giant Productions and established herself as one of only a handful of female record label owners and producers in that era. There she scored Top 10 R&B hits with Syl Johnson’s “Come On Sock it to Me,” Ruby Andrews’ “Casanova (Your Playing Days Are Over),” Garland Green’s “Jealous Kind of Fella,” and Carl Carlton’s “Drop By My Place” while also releasing her own records as an artist for Giant Records and later Stax Records.  As a vocalist she has worked and recorded with Diana Ross, Bob Dylan, Roberta Flack, Nina Simone, BB King, Quincy Jones and Burt Bacharach. As a writer she placed 16 songs on the R&B and pop charts.  Her compositions have been recorded by a long list of artists, including James Brown, The Coasters, The Shirelles, Joe Cocker, Styx, Humble Pie, Joan Osborne, Ronnie Milsap, John Mayer, and others.  

As an artist, Mel Tillis scored 36 Top 10 country hits between 1968 and 1984, including six #1s. But Tillis was writing hit songs long before he found success as an artist  As a songwriter he hit the Top 20 an astounding 49 times, most often as the creator behind songs made famous by iconic artists such as Carl Smith, Kitty Wells, Ernest Tubb, Brenda Lee, Faron Young, Ricky Skaggs, and many others. His long list of songwriting successes includes "Burning Memories" and "Heart Over Mind" by Ray Price, "Detroit City" by Bobby Bare, "Honky Tonk Song" and "I Ain't Never" by Webb Pierce, "Mental Revenge" by Waylon Jennings, "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town" by Kenny Rogers and the First Edition, and Mel's own recording of "Sawmill." He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1976, the same year he was named the Country Music Association's Entertainer of the Year. He was named Comedian of the Year by the CMA six different times in the 1970s. In 1999 BMI named him the Country Songwriter of the Decade - for two decades! He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2007 and became an official member of The Grand Ole Opry that same year. In 2012 he was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama for his contributions to country music.

After establishing himself as a college football star in Mississippi, Jim Weatherly moved to Los Angeles to pursue a music career. He eventually found success as a songwriter, and is best known for penning “Midnight Train to Georgia,” a #1 pop and R&B hit for Gladys Knight and the Pips that would go on to be named one of Rolling Stone magazine’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and earn induction into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Gladys and her Pips recorded a dozen of Weatherly’s songs, including the Top 10 hits “Neither One of Us (Wants to be the First to Say Goodbye)”  “Where Peaceful Waters Flow,” “Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me,” and “Love Finds Its Own Way.” It wasn’t uncommon for Jim to appear on both the pop and country charts simultaneously with different versions of the same song. Bob Luman scored a Top 10 country hit with “Neither One of Us (Wants to be the First to Say Goodbye)” while Ray Price hit the top of the country chart with his version of “You’re the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me.” Price would record nearly 40 Jim Weatherly songs, including the Top 5 hits “Like Old Times Again” and “Roses and Love Songs.” Thanks, in part, to Ray Price’s success, Jim was named ASCAP’s Country Songwriter of the Year in 1974. Additional hits from the Weatherly songbook include Charley Pride’s #1 single “Where Do I Put Her Memory,” Ed Bruce’s Top 5 hit “You Turn Me On (Like a Radio),” Glen Campbell’s Top 5, “A Lady Like You,” and Bryan White’s #1 single “Someone Else’s Star.” Other artists who’ve recorded Jim’s songs include Eddy Arnold, Reba McEntire, Dean Martin, Vince Gill, Etta James, Neil Diamond, Bill Anderson, Kenny Rogers, Hall & Oates, The Temptations, Garth Brooks, Kenny Chesney, Peter Cetera, and Angie Stone. As an artist, Jim earned a Top 10 pop hit with “Need to Be” and a Top 10 country hit with “I’ll Still Love You.” The Grammy nominee and Dove award winner was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2006 and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2014.  

Before he retired in the early 2000s, Bob McDill landed 152 hits on the Billboard country chart, more than any other songwriter in history. He hit theBillboard Top 10 an astounding 55 times, and 23 of those singles climbed all the way to #1. Many artists returned to the McDill songbook repeatedly, including Don Williams, who scored with the #1 hits “(Turn Out the Light And) Love Me Tonight,” “Say It Again,” “She Never Knew Me,” “Rake and Ramblin’ Man,” “It Must Be Love,” “Good Ole Boys Like Me,” and “If Hollywood Don’t Need You.” Mel McDaniel enjoyed four Top 10 hits written by Bob, including “Louisiana Saturday Night” and the #1 “Baby’s Got Her Blue Jeans On.” Those who hit #1 at least twice with McDill compositions include Ronnie Milsap, with “Nobody Likes Sad Songs” and “Why Don’t You Spend the Night;” Doug Stone, with “In a Different Light” and “Why Didn’t I Think of That;” Alan Jackson, with “Gone Country” and his revival of “It Must Be Love;” and Dan Seals, who co-wrote several of his own hits with McDill, including the #1 songs “My Baby’s Got Good Timing,” “Everything That Glitters (Is Not Gold),” and “Big Wheels in the Moonlight.” Additionally, Bob wrote or co-wrote #1 singles such as “The Door is Always Open” by Dave and Sugar, “You Never Miss a Real Good Thing (Till He Says Goodbye)” by Crystal Gayle, “Amanda” by Waylon Jennings, “We Believe in Happy Endings” by Earl Thomas Conley and Emmylou Harris, “Don’t Close Your Eyes” by Keith Whitley, “Song of the South” by Alabama, and “She Don’t Know She’s Beautiful” by Sammy Kershaw. In addition to multiple Top 5 singles such as Johnny Russell’s “Rednecks, White Socks, and Blue Ribbon Beer,” Ed Bruce’s “You Turn Me On (Like a Radio)," and Pam Tillis’s “All The Good Ones Are Gone,” Bob has penned Top 10 hits for Johnny Cash, George Jones, Conway Twitty, Bobby Bare, Mac Davis, Johnny Rodriguez, John Anderson, Mickey Gilley, Anne Murray, and Lee Roy Parnell. He has also written charting singles for Jerry Lee Lewis, Charley Pride, Tammy Wynette, and both Duke Boys, Tom Wopat and John Schneider, with the latter taking Bob’s “I’ve Been Around Enough to Know” to #1. McDill was named Country Songwriter of the Year seven times between 1976 and 1994: three times each by the Nashville Songwriters Association and BMI, and once by ASCAP. Nine of his songs were nominated for Song of the Year by the Country Music Association, the Academy of Country Music, or both organizations. The four time Grammy nominee earned ASCAP’s Golden Note Award, received the Academy of Country Music’s prestigious Poet’s Award, and was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. 

Siedah Garrett is best known as the co-writer, with Glen Ballard, of “Man in the Mirror,” a #1 worldwide pop hit recorded by Michael Jackson. The Southern California native launched her career with a group called Plush in the early 1980s before joining Deco, which was assembled by her mentor, legendary producer Quincy Jones. It was Jones who played “Man in the Mirror” for Michael Jackson. The King of Pop fell in love with the song and the voice on the demo tape. In addition to recording “Man in the Mirror,” Michael invited Siedah to be his duet partner on “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You,” which was released as the first single from the Bad album and hit #1 on the Billboard pop chart. Siedah would go on to co-write “Keep the Faith” on Jackson’s Dangerous album and join him as a featured vocalist on the Dangerous world tour. As a backing vocalist, Siedah can be heard on recordings by Madonna, Sarah Vaughan, Barbra Streisand, Donna Summer, Natalie Cole, Santana, Jessica Simpson, and others. As a featured artist she’s scored hits such as the chart-topping R&B duet “Don’t Look Any Further” with former Temptation Dennis Edwards and her solo Top 20 R&B single “K.I.S.S.I.N.G.” Beyond her work with Michael Jackson, highlights from Siedah’s songwriting catalog include “Sometimes,” a Top 20 R&B hit for The Brand New Heavies, of which she was also a member, as well as five songs on Quincy Jones’s multi-Grammy award winning Back on the Block album. The long list of artists who’ve recorded Siedah’s songs includes Aretha Franklin, Ella Fitzgerald, Al Jarreau, Earth Wind & Fire, The Pointer Sisters, Paula Abdul, Amy Grant, Bobby McFerrin, Barry White, Al B. Sure, El Debarge, James Ingram, will.i.am, and others.   The Grammy winning songwriter was also nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Original Song. The first, “Love You I Do,” was performed by Jennifer Hudson in the film Dreamgirls. The second, “Real in Rio,” was from the animated film Rio, and was co-written with Sergio Mendes.