Songcraft: Spotlight on Songwriters

PART ONE Scott and Paul have some fun talking about artists who look just like they sound - and those who don't! PART TWO - 11:23 mark The guys talk about their Patreon page, Billy Edd Wheeler's new book, and how five lucky listeners can score a free signed copy for themselves. PART THREE - 18:00 mark Scott and Paul's in-depth conversation with Nashville Songwriters Hall of Famer Billy Edd Wheeler Scott & Paul chat with the Yale-educated "hillbilly poet" about how Pat Boone covering his song gave him a crash course in music business shenanigans; why he wishes Richie Havens hadn't covered "High Flyin' Bird" at Woodstock; the reason legendary songwriter Norman Gimbel said he'd never make any money; the advice Jerry Leiber gave him about how to write lyrics; why he felt like a "man without a country" while appealing to both commercial country audiences and playing at the Newport Folk Festival; the time he picked up the phone to discover Elvis on the other end of the line; and a big revelation about which "Jackson" the iconic song actually refers to. Billy Edd Wheeler’s early chart successes were collaborations with the legendary songwriting team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who worked with Wheeler more than they did any other outside writer. The team of Leiber & Stoller & Wheeler’s first significant hit came with The Kingston Trio’s Top 10 pop recording of “The Reverend Mr. Black” in 1963. The trio then found success on the country charts that same year, scoring a Top 10 hit with Hank Snow’s version of “The Woman Who Loved the Man Who Robbed the Bank at Santa Fe And Got Away.” Wheeler is best known for writing “Jackson,” a major hit for Johnny Cash and June Carter in 1967, and “Blistered,” which was a Top 5 hit for Cash shortly after. Other artists who reached the Top 20 with Wheeler’s compositions include Hank Williams, Jr., Johnny Duncan, Jerry Reed, Elvis Presley, and Kenny Rogers, who took “Coward of the County” to #1 on the country chart, and #3 on the pop rankings. Additionally, Wheeler’s songs have been recorded by Judy Collins, Jim Croce, Richie Havens, Bobby Darin, Neil Young, Gram Parsons, Jefferson Airplane, Jerry Lee Lewis, Flatt & Scruggs, Conway Twitty & Loretta Lynn, Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood, Merle Haggard, Glen Campbell, John Denver, Jimmy Buffett, Wanda Jackson, Chet Atkins, George Strait, Warren Haynes, and others. As an artist, Billy Edd has released nearly 20 albums, and has placed seven singles on the Billboard country chart. His first, “Ode to the Little Brown Shack Out Back,” became a Top 5 hit in 1965. He has earned multiple ASCAP awards, and is a member of the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame and the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2001. Wheeler, who pursued his graduate studies at the Yale School of Drama, is also an accomplished playwright, painter, and author, most notably of a revealing new memoir, Hotter Than a Pepper Sprout: A Hillbilly Poet's Journey From Appalachia to Yale to Writing Hits for Elvis, Johnny Cash & More.

Grammy winner Tony Banks is the co-founder and keyboardist of Genesis, which helped define prog rock in the ‘70s with lead singer Peter Gabriel and emerged as a pop powerhouse in the ‘80s after drummer Phil Collins took over the lead vocalist role. Banks and Mike Rutherford were the only two musicians who were members of the band throughout Genesis’ entire history from the late 1960s through the early 2000s. He is a co-writer of Genesis classics, including “The Knife,” “The Musical Box,” “Supper’s Ready,” “Firth of Fifth,” “Follow You Follow Me,” “No Reply at All,” “That’s All,” “Invisible Touch,” “Throwing it All Away,” “Land of Confusion,” “Tonight Tonight Tonight,” “In Too Deep,” “No Son of Mine,” “I Can’t Dance,” and “Hold On My Heart.”     In addition to releasing five solo albums, Banks began scoring films in the late 1970s, including a British horror movie called The Shout, a science fiction film entitled Starship, and Quicksilver, staring Kevin Bacon. It was his work on the Faye Dunaway film The Wicked Lady that first exposed Banks to working with an orchestra, reigniting his long time love for classical music. In 2004 he released Seven: A Suite for Orchestra, which featured the London Philharmonic and marked the start of a series of classical albums. The most recent is simply titled Five.   As a member of Genesis, Banks has sold over 21 million albums in the US alone. He received a Prog God Award at the Progressive Music Awards in 2015, and was named among MusicRadar’s “greatest keyboard players of all time” in 2011. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame alongside Genesis bandmates Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Steve Hackett, and Mike Rutherford in 2010.

Best known as the writer and performer of “American Pie,” Don McLean and his songs have hit the Billboard pop, country, and adult contemporary charts nearly twenty times. Staples of his catalog include “Vincent (Starry Starry Night),” which hit #12 in the US and landed at the top of the UK chart; “Castles in the Air,” which charted twice with different versions in 1971 and 1981; and “And I Love You So,” which was covered by Bobby Goldsboro, Perry Como, Johnny Mathis, Glen Campbell and Elvis Presley. McLean’s compositions have been covered by Madonna, Fred Astaire, James Blake, Chet Atkins, Garth Brooks, George Michael, Harry Connick Jr., Josh Groban, Ed Sheeran, and others. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2004 and received the BBC Folk Music Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. “American Pie” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2002 and was named one of the Top 5 Songs of the 20th Century by the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts. McLean has recorded nineteen studio albums. His most recent is Botanical Gardens.

Bob DiPiero has written 15 #1 hits, including “Southern Voice” for Tim McGraw, “If You Ever Stop Loving Me” for Montgomery Gentry, “Blue Clear Sky” for George Strait, “Daddy’s Money” for Ricochet, “The Church on Cumberland Road” for Shenandoah, “Money in the Bank” for John Anderson, “Little Rock” for Reba McEntire, and “American Made” for The Oak Ridge Boys. Neal McCoy’s recording of his song “Wink” stayed at #1 for 4 weeks in 1994 and was named BMI’s most performed country song of the year. Other highlights from DiPiero’s catalog include Faith Hill’s “Take Me As I Am,” Reba McEntire’s “Till You Love Me,” George Strait’s  "Cowboys Like Us" and Vince Gill’s “Worlds Apart, which was named Song of the Year at the Country Radio Music Awards in 1997. Other artists who’ve recorded Bob’s songs include Garth Brooks, Toby Keith, Travis Tritt, Rhett Akins, Billy Ray Cyrus, Patty Loveless, The Mavericks, Marty Stuart, Darius Rucker, Etta James, Martina McBride, Neil Diamond, Trace Adkins, Steve Wariner, Lonestar, Tracy Byrd, Sunny Sweeney, Easton Corbin, Toby Keith, and Little Feat with Bob Seger. Bob received Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for his song “Coming Home,” which Gwyneth Paltrow performed for the film Country Strong. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2007, was named Songwriter of the Year at the Nashville Music Awards in 1998, and received the prestigious BMI Icon award in 2017.  

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.