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unusual facts about songwriting



100 Watt Smile

The band provided a vehicle for the quirky songwriting that Bradley was known for during her days with Ed's Redeeming Qualities, with her quiet, breathy vocals and signature violin work juxtaposed against heavy electric guitar and bass and driving percussion.

Alice Stuart

Her singing, songwriting, and guitar playing secured her invitations to tour nationally and internationally with Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Doc Watson, Jerry Ricks, Phil Ochs, and Joan Baez, in addition to television appearances on The Dick Cavett Show and the Old Grey Whistle Test.

Alina Simone

She is best known for her original songwriting, her album of cover songs by Russian punk poet Yanka Dyagileva, and her collection of autobiographical essays You Must Go And Win.

Allan Eshuijs

He started his songwriting career writing mainly for Dutch and German artists, including Cascada, Yvonne Catterfeld, Ch!pz and Sandy Mölling, but he now also works with US and British artists.

Andrew Loog Oldham

These were rediscovered in the 1990s when the indie band The Verve used a string loop based on the orchestral arrangement of "The Last Time" in "Bitter Sweet Symphony"; in the ensuing court battle, songwriting royalties for the Verve track were awarded to ABCKO Records, the owner of the copyright for "The Last Time".

Ben Weaver

He has a distinctive voice that is often likened to that of Tom Waits, and critics regularly compare his songwriting to that of Leonard Cohen.

Bluesology

As Baldry's music drifted more towards the cabaret market, Dwight became disenchanted with the band, and so simultaneously began to develop songwriting skills in collaboration with Bernie Taupin whilst working as a session musician.

Brent Bourgeois

In recent years, Bourgeois has become more well known in the Contemporary Christian Music world for his songwriting and production work for such acts as Michael W. Smith, Jars of Clay, 4Him, Jaci Velasquez, Michelle Tumes, and Cindy Morgan.

Capitol City Dusters

He was looking for an outlet for his continued songwriting from his former band Severin which had recently broken up in late 1993.

Charlie Major

Five major Canadian Country Music Awards followed, along with songwriting honours from SOCAN, and a BMI Award in 1993 for "Backroads", recorded by Ricky Van Shelton in 1991 on his Backroads album, as the “Most Performed Song in America.”

David Malloy

The success Malloy experienced with Rabbitt laid the groundwork for production and songwriting work with artist like Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton, Tanya Tucker, Badfinger and Billy Burnette in the 1980s.

Deep Obsession

By 2003, Deep Obsession had parted company with both their founding producer and songwriting partner Christopher Banks, and record label Universal Music.

Dennis Tufano

Following his success in the Buckinghams, Tufano was part of the singer/songwriting duo Tufano and Giammarese, who recorded three albums with Lou Adler's custom label, Ode Records.

Edward Holland

Eddie Holland (Edward Holland, Jr., born 1939), American singer, part of Motown's Holland-Dozier-Holland songwriting team

Geoff Everett

The remaining members after Lancaster's departure then became associated with the songwriting partnership of George Young (rock musician) and Harry Vander, from The Easybeats.

How to Make Enemies and Irritate People

Shortly after the release of 1993's Anthem for a New Tomorrow, bassist/backing vocalist/songwriting collaborator Danny Vapid left the band.

Idlewild South

The two most prominent of these were "Midnight Rider" and "Revival", the latter of which, in conjunction with the instrumental "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed", foreshadowed the impact of Dickey Betts' songwriting ability upon the band.

Jay Leonhart

Leonhart is noted for his clever songwriting often laced with dry humor, and his compositions have been recorded by such notable artists as Blossom Dearie, Lee Konitz and Gary Burton.

Jess Klein

After independently releasing her first two albums, winning the Telluride Troubador Songwriting Contest, and garnering several Boston Music Award nominations, she was signed to Rykodisc in 2000 by then-president George Howard.

Johan Åberg

Parallel to his education he left his band and started focusing more on songwriting for other artists, and started the production company Eclectic Music with Anders Hansson i 1998.

Jon Gutwillig

Since his part in founding the biscuits in 1995, Jon and bassist Marc Brownstein mostly share songwriting duties.

Kalmar and Ruby

One of them, Ruby, who had also had a number of collaborators, saw a strong compatibility between the two, and by 1920, Kalmar and Ruby recognized that they should form a permanent songwriting team.

Kiske/Somerville

The musical backing and the songwriting for the debut album were supplied by musicians Mat Sinner (Primal Fear, Sinner), Magnus Karlsson (Primal Fear), Sander Gommans (After Forever), Jimmy Kresic (Voodoo Circle) and Martin Schmidt.

Let's Get to It

Combining new jack swing, soul, dance, house and techno influences, Let's Get to It allowed Minogue to develop her songwriting with six tracks co-written with Mike Stock.

Martyn Joseph

Martyn Joseph (born July 15, 1960, in Penarth, Wales) is a Welsh singer-songwriter whose music exhibits primarily a brand of Celtic and folk, while his songwriting is often focused on social lament or protest.

Matt Noveskey

Matt also tours as a solo artist, often sharing the stage with Justin Furstenfeld, Joseph King, Casey McPherson, Paco Estrada, Johnny Goudie, and longtime songwriting partner Ryan Holley.

Mikey Jukebox

Much of his songwriting was influenced by a “1950’s Memphis & Rock ‘N’ Roll” phase (Bill Haley, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Sun Studios-era Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis) combined with a passion for Klaxons, CSS and a love for French House music and early Source Records.

Naomi Shemer

Shemer did her own songwriting and composing, set famous poems to music, such as those of the Israeli poet, Rachel, and the American Walt Whitman.

Nichya

Elena Kiper became known for her songwriting talents as a songwriter for another duo, t.A.T.u. However, after breaking up with Ivan Shapovalov (t.A.T.u.'s main producer), professionally as well as privately, the only way for realizing her artistic ambitions was to start her own project.

Original songs in Smash

It was written by Pasek and Paul (per the episode's credits), but in the show's universe, it was written by songwriting team Jimmy Collins (Jeremy Jordan) and Kyle Bishop (Andy Mientus) for their Hit List musical.

Patrik Magnusson

Patrik Magnusson, born Öland, Sweden on 17 March 1970) is a Swedish songwriter.

Peter Biker

Later on he moved to songwriting and producing and is well known for cooperation with many successful Danish artists including Szhirley, S.O.A.P., TV·2, Søs Fenger, Lis Sørensen, Det Brune Punktum, Juice and Heidi Herløw.

Pop Trash

In his stead, keyboard player Rhodes and guitarist Cuccurullo took on more of the songwriting than usual, reworking some of their TV Mania material into some of the songs on the album.

Que Estés

It was written by songwriting team Carlos Nilson and Cris Morena, who is also the creator of Rebelde Way and Erreway, and recorded by Erreway for their second studio album Tiempo (see 2003 in music).

Richard Shindell

Shindell's songwriting often involves storytelling from a first-person point of view: an INS officer and illegal immigrant in "Fishing," a World War II soldier in "Sparrow's Point," a Confederate drummerboy in "Arrowhead," an Argentine grandmother in "Abuelita," and a power broker in "Confession."

Roberto Enrique

Inspired by Spanish songwriting greats like José Alfredo Jiménez, Manuel Alejandro and Pablo Milanés, his words are playful and passionate full of the optimism and romance.

Skip Battin

Many of his songwriting contributions were co-written with longtime collaborator and songwriter Kim Fowley.

Sonja Aldén

Sonja Aldén (born 20 December 1977 in St Albans, England) is a Swedish singer mostly famous for her 2006, 2007 and 2012 Melodifestivalen entries, her friendship with Shirley Clamp and her songwriting for other artists, for example the hard rock/heavy metal band The Poodles, who also participated in the Swedish Melodifestivalen 2006.

String Driven Thing

Singer Kim Beacon, guitarist Andy Roberts and bassist James Exel joined the band, with Roberts and Exel collaborating for much of the songwriting, including the single "Cruel To Fool" produced by Shel Talmy.

The Mercy Now

They formed in 2006 and have released several notable independent recordings including 2010's Ian Blurton produced Self Control, which included the song Hard Times, nominated as a finalist and receiving an honorable mention in the rock category in the International Songwriting Competition whose judges included Peter Gabriel and Tom Waits.

The Obsidian Conspiracy

Jeff Loomis has also stated in a recent interview that Peter Wichers had a major part in the songwriting, encouraging Loomis to "cut out the fat, and make the songs catchier and hookier", thus creating a simplistic and stripped down sound that differs from the original 7-8 minute complex tracks which Loomis originally wanted to record.

The Records

They were hired to back Stiff Records singer Rachel Sweet on the "Be Stiff Tour '78". The Records opened the shows with a set of their own. Birch and Wicks also wrote a song for Sweet's debut album entitled "Pin a Medal on Mary". The songwriting duo also penned "Hearts in Her Eyes" for the Searchers, who made an unexpected comeback with their power pop oriented album The Searchers in 1979.

The Transmissionary Six

The Transmissionary Six is actually the songwriting team of Terri Moeller and Paul Austin, the former a longtime drummer of The Walkabouts, the latter a founding member of the Willard Grant Conspiracy.

True Love Travels on a Gravel Road

True Love Travels on a Gravel Road is a song written by the Frazier-Owens songwriting team and popularized by Elvis Presley.

Waiting for Herb

While Spider Stacy took the role of lead vocalist, much of the songwriting fell to Jem Finer, who along with Terry Woods had previously been the most prolific songwriter apart from MacGowan.

Walk the River

The Fly were taken by surprise by the album's approach to Shoegaze and how Fyfe Dangerfield has moved on in songwriting since his success with his solo album Fly Yellow Moon, giving it 7 out of 10.

We've Gotta Find a Way Back to Love

"We've Gotta Find a Way Back to Love" is a song by Freda Payne from her 1973 album Reaching Out, written by the songwriting team of Holland–Dozier–Holland.

Weed Forestin'

Weed Forestin was recorded in 1986 and 1987, when Barlow was the bassist of the American indie rock band, Dinosaur Jr. Sebadoh, which Barlow co-founded with Eric Gaffney, started as a songwriting outlet for Barlow outside of Dinosaur Jr, whose lead singer and guitarist, J. Mascis, Barlow would later publicly clash with.

Whatcha Gonna Do About It

The songwriting duo of the group Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane already had the melody for the song, the inspiration coming from Solomon Burke's hit record "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love", however they had no lyrics so Don Arden quickly brought in Ian Samwell to provide the words for the song.

Woody Lissauer

His second solo CD, 'War and the World' (2006) is known for the single 'Shred,' 'Leaf,' and an unusual remake of Jefferson Airplane's 'Somebody to Love.' His third solo CD, "Adventures and Misadventures in Loveland," contains the song 'Hard Times' about the recent global economic crisis, 'Bent, but not broken,' as well as a cover of the Leonard Cohen song 'Suzanne.' 'Hard Times' won the October 2011 Searchlight Songwriting Competition.


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