Songcraft: Spotlight on Songwriters

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.  

Named by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time, Dann Penn’s impact on the Southern music triangle of Muscle Shoals, Memphis, and Nashville cannot be overstated. In the 1960s he teamed with Chips Moman to create two of Southern soul’s most revered standards: “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man,” which was recorded by Aretha Franklin, and “The Dark End of the Street,” which was first cut by James Carr. Along with his frequent collaborator, Spooner Oldham, Penn has crafted R&B classics such as James and Bobby Purify’s “I’m Your Puppet,” Otis Redding’s “You Left the Water Running,” Percy Sledge’s “It Tears Me Up” and “Out of Left Field,” Solomon Burke’s “Take Me (Just As I Am),” and The Sweet Inspirations’ “Sweet Inspiration.” Additionally, the pair found pop success with Janis Joplin’s recording of “A Woman Left Lonely,” as well as hits such as “Cry Like a Baby” and “I Met Her in Church” that were recorded by The Box Tops, who first broke through to national prominence with the Penn-produced hit “The Letter.” Other artists who’ve recorded songs from the Dan Penn songbook include  Bobby “Blue” Bland,  Jerry Lee Lewis, Clarence Carter, Joe Cocker, Cher, Arthur Alexander, Ruth Brown, Irma Thomas, Bobby Womack, Esther Phillips, Joe Tex, Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, Gregg Allman, Etta James, Dionne Warwick, Brenda Lee, Willie Nelson, Patti LaBelle, Elvis Costello, Buddy Guy, Arthur Conley, Sam & Dave, Elton John, Wilson Pickett, Roger McGuinn, John Prine, and many more. 

Emi Sunshine is a 13-year-old singer and multi-instrumentalist who first came to prominence in 2014 after a video of her performance at a flea market in her native East Tennessee went viral. Emi, who was 9 at the time, was invited to perform on The Today Show with her family band. Since then, she has released several albums, built up a catalog of over 100 original songs, and has performed on the stage of the legendary Grand Ole Opry over a dozen times.  Influenced by Americana, bluegrass, and Appalachian roots music, Emi has performed alongside personal heroes such as Loretta Lynn, Willie Nelson, Ricky Skaggs, Marty Stuart, and others. Though steeped in musical traditions of the past, Emi is bringing her music to a new generation. With over a half million Facebook followers and millions of YouTube views, she’s introducing the deepest roots of America’s music to her own generation. The Chicago Tribune wrote, “EmiSunshine is no tween novelty. Emi is a throwback to earlier eras of country music. With a sharp Appalachian streak in her voice, she's a strikingly powerful vocalist with potent phrasing.”  Her brand new album, Ragged Dreams, features 15 original songs produced by Emi and available now on Little Blackbird Records.

Revered by those in the know, David Olney is a prolific master craftsman who The Los Angeles Times once called “the best songwriter you’ve never heard of,” and about whom the San Francisco Chronicle observed, “In the tradition of Johnny Cash and Tom Waits, Olney has become a pioneer of the Americana music scene.” David was one of the few rockers to emerge from Nashville in the late 1970s and early ‘80s, where he launched his career with The X-Rays, who are best remembered for an appearance on the televised Austin City Limits. He went on to transform himself into a folk-infused singer/songwriter with a rootsy rock edge, releasing more than two dozen solo albums since 1986. Many of his songs have been recorded by other artists, including Emmylou Harris, who cut “Jerusalem Tomorrow,” “Deeper Well,” and “1917.” The latter was a duet with Linda Ronstadt, who also recorded her take on David’s “Women Across the River,” a song that’s also been covered by The Band’s Rick Danko. Other artists who’ve drawn from the Olney songbook include Del McCoury, who recorded “Queen Anne’s Lace” and Connie Britton, who recorded “Postcards From Mexico” for the hit television series, Nashville. The late great Towns Van Zant once wrote, “Anytime anyone asks me who my favorite music writers are, I say Mozart, Lightnin' Hopkins, Bob Dylan, and Dave Olney." David’s most recent album is called Don’t Try to Fight It, and he can been seen performing and discussing songs every Tuesday on his live stream cast called You Never Know at DavidOlney.com.        

One of the great tales of songwriting history is the story of Dr. Nadel and Mr. Starr. Dr. Warren Nadel was a successful New York dentist who maintained a dual career as Randy Starr, best known for writing and recording the Billboard Top 40 pop hit, “After School.” He appeared on American Bandstand several times and went on to co-write the instrumental hit “The Enchanted Sea,” which became a charting single for both The Islanders and Martin Denny. He wrote or co-wrote a dozen songs that appeared in Elvis Presley films, including the charting singles “Kissin’ Cousins” and “Almost in Love.” Additionally, his songs have been recorded by Jackie Wilson, Chet Atkins, Kay Starr, Connie Smith, George Hamilton IV, Connie Francis, the Kingston Trio, and many others.

Hugh Prestwood has written twenty charting singles on the Billboard rankings, including eight Top 10 hits. He began his professional career as a folk singer/songwriter in Greenwich Village in the 1970s before finding commercial success as a writer when Judy Collins began recording his songs toward the end of the decade. In the 1980s he appeared on the country charts with the #1 singles “The Sound of Goodbye” by Crystal Gayle and “The Moon Is Still Over Her Shoulder” by Michael Johnson. By the following decade Prestwood was regularly topping the charts with titles such as Randy Travis’ “Hard Rock Bottom Of Your Heart,” which earned him the BMI Country Song of the Year Award. Similarly, Trisha Yearwood’s recording of “The Song Remembers When” earned him NSAI’s Song of the Year honors and an Emmy award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music and Lyrics. Other artists who’ve recording his songs include Alison Krauss, Anne Murray, Conway Twitty, Shelby Lynne, John Conlee, Barbara Mandrell, Gene Watson, The Judds, Lee Greenwood, Tanya Tucker, Alison Krauss, Jimmy Buffet, Sammy Kershaw, Don Williams, Kristin Chenoweth, Vern Gosdin, Kathy Mattea, and Collin Raye, who took the song “On the Verge” to the top of the charts in 1997. Hugh recently released his first full-length album as an artist, I Used to Be the Real Me, on Judy Collins’ Wildflower Records. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2006. 

Tom T. Hall was named by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time. Known as “The Storyteller,” the Grammy winner landed 35 songs in the Top 10 on Billboard’s country chart between 1965 and 1996. Many of those featured Hall as both writer and artist, including “Homecoming,” “Me and Jesus,” “Ravishing Ruby,” “That Song is Driving Me Crazy,” “I Like Beer,” and the #1 hits “A Week in a County Jail,” “The Year That Clayton Delaney Died,” “(Old Dogs, Children and) Watermelon Wine,” “Country Is,” “I Care,” “Faster Horses (The Cowboy and the Poet),” and “I Love,” which also became a hit on the pop chart.   Tom T. Hall songs that hit the Top 5 for other artists include “Hello Vietnam” by Johnny Wright, “How I Got to Memphis” and “(Margie’s at) The Lincoln Park Inn” by Bobby Bare, “If I Ever Fall in Love (With a Honky Tonk Girl)” by Faron Young, “Pool Shark” by Dave Dudley, “You Always Come Back (To Hurting Me)” by Johnny Rodriguez, “I’m Not Ready Yet” by George Jones, “Little Bitty” by Alan Jackson, and “Harper Valley P.T.A.,” which Jeannie C. Riley took to the #1 spot on both the country and pop chart, making her the first woman to achieve that feat.    Hall was named NSAI Songwriter of the Year in 1972, was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1978, joined the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2008, was honored with the Academy of Country Music’s Poet’s Award in 2010, and earned the prestigious BMI Icon award in 2012.