Songcraft: Spotlight on Songwriters

One of the most successful and prolific writers and producers of all time, Desmond Child’s songs have resulted in nearly six dozen Top 40 singles on Billboard’s pop, rock, country, and R&B charts. His band Desmond Child & Rouge attracted the attention of Paul Stanley. He partnered with Child to write “I Was Made For Loving You,” which became a major hit for KISS in 1979. Desmond first collaborated with Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora for Bon Jovi’s 1986 album, Slippery When Wet. That partnership resulted in the #1 hits, “You Give Love a Bad Name” and “Livin’ on a Prayer.” Desmond has appeared as a co-writer on every Bon Jovi album since, co-writing additional hits such as “Bad Medicine,” “Born To Be My Baby,” “This Ain’t a Love Song,” and “(You Want To) Make a Memory.” He formed a similar alliance with Aerosmith, with whom he wrote the hits “Dude (Looks Like a Lady),” “Angel,” “What It Takes,” and “Crazy.” He co-wrote Joan Jett’s “I Hate Myself for Loving You” and all of the tracks on Alice Cooper’s wildly successful Trash LP, including the hit single “Poison.” Not limited to the rock world, Child began branching out, co-writing pop songs such as Michael Bolton’s “How Can We Be Lovers,” as well as co-writing and producing “Just Like Jesse James” and “We All Sleep Alone” for Cher. In the late 1990s, he returned to his Latin roots, joining forces with Ricky Martin and scoring with several singles, inluding the #1 worldwide smash, “Livin’ La Vida Loca.” Among the many others artists who’ve recoded his songs are Cyndi Lauper, Megadeth, Ratt, Hanson, Robbie Williams, Roxette, Boyzone, Daryl Hall & John Oates, Bonnie Tyler, Hilary Duff, Vince Neil, Lindsay Lohan, Jonas Brothers, Meat Loaf, Scorpions, Sebastian Bach, INXS, Kelly Clarkson, Joss Stone, and Weezer. He was inducted to the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2008 and is the Chairman and CEO of the Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame. 

Pop and R&B legend Bill Withers released nine albums between 1971 and 1985 that included such classic songs as “Lean on Me,” “Ain’t No Sunshine,” “Grandma’s Hands,” “Use Me,” “Lovely Day,” and “Just the Two of Us.” Though he stepped away from the limelight in the mid-1980s, his songs have become classics that have withstood the test of time and been covered by iconic artists including Aretha Franklin, Michael Jackson, Gladys Knight, Garth Brooks, Willie Nelson, Paul McCartney, Ike & Tina Turner, Smokey Robinson, Al Green, The Staple Singers, Diana Ross, Neil Diamond, Sting, Linda Ronstadt, Roberta Flack, Buddy Guy, Barbra Streisand, and George Benson. Additionally, his music has been sampled by Jay-Z, Dr. Dre, L.L. Cool J, Tupac Shakur, R. Kelly, and Kanye West. Withers was in the inaugural class of the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame, and is a nine-time Grammy nominee. He won three Grammy awards for Best R&B song for “Ain’t No Sunshine” in 1971, “Just the Two of Us” in 1981, and the Club Nouveau cover of “Lean on Me” in 1987. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2005 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015.

Nashville native Jaren Johnston co-founded the rock band American Bang which released one album for Warner Bros. He went on to form the Cadillac Three, a Southern rock-infused trio that was named one of the “10 New Artists You Need to Know” by Rolling Stone Country in 2014. While finding success with his own self-described “country fuzz” sound, Johnston forged a second career as a behind-the-scenes songwriter for top country artists. Since 2012, he has seen more than a half dozen of his songs hit the country Top 10, four of which have climbed to the #1 position. He has co-written the songs “You Gonna Fly” and “Raise ‘Em Up” for Keith Urban, “Southern Girl” and “Meanwhile Back at "Mama’s” for Tim McGraw, “Days of Gold” and “Beachin’” for Jake Owen, “Sunshine and Whiskey” for Frankie Ballard, “Don’t It” for Billy Currington, and “The South,” a Top 40 hit for his own band, which featured guest appearances by Florida Georgia Line, Dierks Bentley, and Mike Eli. Additionally, his songs have been recorded by Sara Evans, Lonestar, Danielle Bradbery, Miranda Lambert, Kenny Chesney, Rascal Flatts, Terri Clark, Meatloaf, Loverboy, Lynyrd Skynrd, and more. His music has been nominated for two Grammy awards and two Academy of Country Music awards, and it seems he’s just getting started.

Felix Cavaliere began his music career playing with Joey Dee and the Starliters (of “Peppermint Twist” fame), before forming the Rascals in early 1965. They signed with Atlantic Records and were redubbed the Young Rascals, scoring their first major hit with the #1 single “Good Lovin’.” Beginning in the summer of 1966, the band released a string of fourteen consecutive Billboard charting singles written or co-written by Cavaliere, including the hits “You Better Run,” “I’ve Been Lonely Too Long,” “Groovin’,” “A Girl Like You,” and “How Can I Be Sure.” Changing their name back to the Rascals in late 1967, the group’s unbroken streak of Cavaliere-penned hits continued with “A Beautiful Morning,” “People Got to be Free,” “A Ray of Hope,” and more. By the mid-1970s, Felix teamed up with Todd Rundgren who produced a couple of his solo albums, including the Top 40 pop hit, “Only a Lonely Heart Sees.” In recent years he has collaborated with legendary guitarist and songwriter Steve Cropper on the albums Nudge it Up a Notch and Midnight Flyer. The New York continues to make music from his adopted home base in Nashville. Cavaliere is in the Grammy Hall of Fame, the Vocal Group Hall of Fame, the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. His music has been recorded by Wilson Pickett, Booker T & The MGs, The Ventures, Aretha Franklin, George Benson, Dionne Warwick, Marvin Gaye, Johnny Mathis, Dusty Springfield, Three Dog Night, Judy Garland, Gloria Estefan, Keb’ Mo’, Shelby Lynne, and many more.

Best known as the writer of classic Eagles hit such as “Peaceful Easy Feeling” and “Already Gone,” Jack Tempchin is a prolific Southern California troubadour. Emerging from the San Diego folk scene, Tempchin became a fixture in L.A.’s Laurel Canyon music community in the late 60s and early 70s where he formed personal and musical alliances with Jackson Brown, J.D. Souther, Glenn Fry, and others. Following his songwriting success with the Eagles, Jack’s band The Funky Kings scored with “Slow Dancing” a Tempchin-penned composition that went on to become a Top 10 pop single for Johnny Rivers and a Top 10 country hit for Johnny Duncan. In the 1980s he and former Eagle Glenn Frey collaborated frequently, co-writing Glenn’s hits “I Found Somebody,” “The One You Love,” “Smugglers Blues,” "You Belong to the City," and more. In the 1990s he found success in the country field when his songs were recorded by artists such as George Jones, Sammy Kershaw, Patty Loveless, and Trisha Yearwood. As an artist, Jack has released a half dozen studio albums and a handful of live records. His most recent EP, Room to Run, is available now via iTunes and Spotify, and his new album Leaning to Dance will be released this summer. Additionally, Jack has recently launched a series of online videos called "Go Write One," which is designed to inspire people to create their own songs. We assume he knows what he’s talking about because, in addition to the artists already mentioned, Jack’s songs have been recorded by Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, Wilson Phillips, Buck Owens, Tanya Tucker, the Desert Rose Band, Dwight Yoakam, Glen Campbell, Kenny Rogers, and the list goes on and on.... 

Bobby Braddock has written more than a dozen #1 country hits, including standards such as Tammy Wynette’s “D-I-V-O-R-C-E” and George Jones’ “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” which is frequently ranked as the greatest country song of all time. George Jones began finding success with Braddock’s songs in the 1970s with hits such as “Nothing Ever Hurt Me (Half As Bad As Losing You)” and “Her Name Is…” Jones and his then-wife, Tammy Wynette, also scored with Bobby’s “We’re Not the Jet Set” and “Golden Ring,” while Tammy found solo success with “Womanhood” and “They Call It Making Love.” Other Braddock-penned hits from the 1970s include “I Believe the South is Gonna Rise Again,” which Tanya Tucker took to the Top 20, “Something to Brag About,” which Mary Kay Place and Willie Nelson took to the Top 10, and “Come On In,” which was a hit for Jerry Lee Lewis in 1978. Bobby continued to reach the #1 position in the 1980s (“I Feel Like Loving You Again” and “Faking Love” by T.G. Shepard), the 1990s (“Texas Tornado” and “Time Marches On” by Tracy Lawrence), and the 2000s (“I Wanna Talk About Me” by Toby Keith and “People Are Crazy” by Billy Currington). He earned the CMA's Song of the Year award in both 1980 and 1981. He was, at the time, the youngest person inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1981, and he was honored with the BMI Icon award in 2011. Additionally, he discovered Blake Shelton and produced or co-produced Shelton's first five albums. Braddock was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2011, and was just inducted into the national Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2015. He is the only living person to have written #1 country songs in five consecutive decades. His second memoir, entitled Bobby Braddock: A Life on Music Row will be released in the fall of 2015.

Bobby Peterson's R&B recording of "Irresistible You" became Al Kasha's first charting hit in 1960. It was soon covered by Bobby Darin, and Al went on to land more than twenty additional titles on the Billboard Pop, R&B, Country, and Adult Contemporary rankings. His songs have been recorded by Jackie Wilson, Aretha Franklin, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Johnny Cash, Neil Diamond, Etta James, Peggy Lee, Roy Orbison, and Donna Summer, just to name a few. He has been nominated for two Tony awards, two Grammy awards, an Emmy, four Golden Globes, and four Academy Awards - two of which he won when he and songwriting partner Joel Hirschhorn took home the Oscar for Best Song in 1973 ("The Morning After" from The Poseidon Adventure) and again in 1975 ("We May Never Love Like This Again" from The Towering Inferno). 

Holly Knight’s songs have earned three Grammy awards and garnered more than a dozen ASCAP performance awards. She is the writer or co-writer of a seemingly endless list of hits, including “Love is a Battlefield” and “Invincible” for Pat Benetar, “Better Be Good to Me” and “Simply the Best” for Tina Turner, “The Warrior” for Scandal, “Obsession” for Animotion, “Rag Doll” with Aerosmith, “Just Between You and Me” with Lou Gramm, and many more. Additionally, her songs have been recorded by artists as diverse as Bon Jovi, Chaka Khan, Hall & Oates, KISS, Bonnie Tyler, Heart, Ozzy Osbourne, John Waite, Aaron Neville, Dusty Springfield, and the list goes on and on. In 2013, her remarkable songwriting accomplishments earned Knight a well-deserved induction to the prestigious Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Gospel music legend Bill Gaither is best known to general audiences for penning “He Touched Me,” which earned Elvis Presley a Grammy for Best Inspirational Performance in 1972. Gaither and his wife Gloria virtually pioneered the “Inspirational” genre by applying traditional theological themes to the struggles and realities of everyday life. The pair was jointly honored with the Christian “Songwriter of the Century” award by the American Society of Composers and Publishers (ASCAP) in 2000. Additionally, Gaither has received a half dozen Grammy awards, and more than thirty Gospel Music Association “Dove” Awards, including the “Songwriter of the Year” honor for 1969, 1970, and every year from 1972 through 1977. Many Gaither songs are staples of church hymnals, including “Because He Lives,” “There’s Something About That Name,” “Gentle Shepherd,” “Get All Excited,” “Jesus, We Just Want to Thank You,” and “The Family of God.” Gaither’s songs have been recorded by the Statler Brothers, Glen Campbell, Kristin Chenoweth, the Oak Ridge Boys, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Johnny Cash, and many others. He has sold countless millions of albums as a solo artist, in partnership with Gloria, or as part of the Bill Gaither Trio and the Gaither Vocal Band. Gaither was responsible for earning the first Gold Record for a Gospel label, and he was inducted into the Gospel Music Association Hall of Fame in 1983.

PART 2 OF 2: R&B cult favorite Jerry “Swamp Dogg” Williams is best known as the co-writer, with Gary U.S. Bonds, of the cross-genre classic, “She’s All I Got,” which became a Top 10 R&B single for Freddie North and a #2 country hit for Johnny Paycheck in 1971. Tracy Byrd recorded it in 1996, hitting #4 on Billboard’s Country rankings and introducing the song to a new generation of fans. Williams’ career began in 1954 when, at the age of 12, he made his first record, “HTD Blues.” He found success in the 1960s, recording the Top 40 R&B hit “Baby You’re My Everything” under the name Little Jerry Williams, and writing songs for other artists, including Gene Pitney’s Top 20 Pop single, “She’s a Heartbreaker.” He became Atlantic Records’ first African American staff producer in 1968, but left the following year to pursue independent projects in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. By the 1970s he was an in-demand producer and songwriter, penning Top 40 R&B hits for Doris Duke, Arthur Conley, and Dee Dee Warwick. Around the same time, he reinvented himself as Swamp Dogg, releasing a series of eccentric deep soul albums whose gonzo lyrics were marked by frank sexuality, biting satire, radical politics, and provocative social observations. His debut LP, Total Destruction to Your Mind, was eventually certified Gold, while subsequent releases, including Gag a Maggott, I’m Not Selling Out – I’m Buying In, An Awful Christmas and a Lousy New Year, and The White Man Made Me Do It have earned considerable accolades among underground music lovers and earned Swamp what one journalist described as “a cultural niche somewhere between Rudy Ray Moore and Frank Zappa.” In recent years, his vast catalog has been sampled by Kid Rock, Talib Kweli, DMX, and others.