The greatest artist in the last 25 years who wrote none of his/her own songs

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Way back in the day artists weren't expected to write their own material (Billie Holiday, Elvis, Sinatra). Since the Beatles, Dylan, and the founding of Rolling Stone magazine, they a lot of extra critical points for writing their own material.

What's interesting, though, is that people like Elvis and Billie Holiday are assumed to have a "voice" or point of view that binds their records into something that can be discussed as a body of work. Now that doesn't happen so much to pure performers. Since rockism, I guess.

So, then, who since 1980 is the greatest artist without any interest in songwriting? Whose persona/vocal performance/etc. makes his/her contribution as a songwriter totally irrelevant?

― Mark (MarkR), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 18:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Dr. Dre

― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 24 May 2005 18:15 (twenty-one years ago)

― Mark (MarkR), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 18:21 (twenty-one years ago)

This is a REALLY good question, Mark.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 18:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Showaddywaddy.

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 18:23 (twenty-one years ago)

What am I talking about...

I mean Shakin' Stevens...

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 18:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Baha Men

― PappaWheelie (PappaWheelie), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 18:24 (twenty-one years ago)

a-teens?

― peter smith (plsmith), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 18:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Cyndi Lauper, I would say. She managed to do something very personal, and even influence an over time more important act (Madonna) without writing her own songs.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 18:25 (twenty-one years ago)

but she (co)wrote "time after time"

― ()ops (()()ps), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 18:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Somebody who is a co-writer doesn't need to have an interest in songwriting. I mean, Bananarama and Spice Girls are supposed co-writers of most of their material, but obviously, they didn't contribute much.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 18:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, the ABBA chicks didn't write anything, did they?

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 18:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Did Michael Jackson write anything?

― Ian Riese-Moraine's Plateau Rouge! (Eastern Mantra), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 18:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Aaliyah

― The Lex (The Lex), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 18:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh and by the way, Geir Hongro, how do you know how much the Spice girls had to do with writing songs? Hmm? You there, were you?

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 18:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, Michael Jackson has written quite a bit, though many of his early songs were cowritten or written by others.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 18:35 (twenty-one years ago)

yes, Ian.
xpost

― ()ops (()()ps), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 18:35 (twenty-one years ago)

side question: who wrote the Jackson 5's songs?

― ()ops (()()ps), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 18:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Jackson's actual self-penned, quality output is pitifully small.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 24 May 2005 18:38 (twenty-one years ago)

(btw my initial Dr. Dre post is sort of a joke but also a reference to the fact that here is a guy who could not write music/play an instrument/rap for most of his career - yet climbed to the top of the industry on the back of other people's work; ie Ice Cube's rhymes, studio musicians playing George Clinton's riffs, etc.)

― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 24 May 2005 18:40 (twenty-one years ago)

(in other words he got other people to do most of the actual work, then delivered, packaged, and sold it - just like Elvis, Sinatra, etc.)

― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 24 May 2005 18:41 (twenty-one years ago)

side question: who wrote the Jackson 5's songs?

The Corporation (Berry (apparently), Holland, Dozier and Holland, and a couple of others I think).

― BARMS, Tuesday, 24 May 2005 18:43 (twenty-one years ago)

(... climbed to the top of the industry on the back of other people's work; ie Ice Cube's rhymes, studio musicians playing George Clinton's riffs, etc.)

Actually, I think the order of who really got dre where he is looks more like (in order):

Lonzo Williams
Yella
Dr. Rock (The Fila Fresh Crew)
Ice Cube (CIA)
Steve Yano (Roadium Swap Meet record dealer)
Eazy E
Dre Tray (The DOC)
Jerry Heller
The California Raisins
The DOC again by introducing him to...
Suge Knight
Snoop
Eminem

Those samples/riffs (et al) wouldn't have been in plae without Lonzo bailing out Dre from jail over parking tickets.

― PappaWheelie (PappaWheelie), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 18:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Roxanne Shante?

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 18:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Jackson's actual self-penned, quality output is pitifully small

if he'd only written billie jean you'd still be out of your damn mind

― jones (actual), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 18:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, Jackson receives solo credits for "Bad," "Beat It," "Billie Jean," "Dirty Diana," "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough," "Smooth Criminal," "The Way You Make Me Feel," and "Wanna Be Starting Something"!!

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 18:50 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah, BUT THAT'S IT (also Smooth Criminal, Bad, and Dirty Diana are not good songs, but that's just my opinion). anyway, my MJ-directed vitriol is well represented on other threads, no need to go into it here.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 24 May 2005 18:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Holly Cole has made a point of being strictly an interpretive singer. Probably many of this breed left in the jazz realm, too.

― brianiac (briania), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 18:57 (twenty-one years ago)

So, then, who since 1980 is the greatest artist without any interest in songwriting?

The word "any" makes this a difficult question ... I think Britney didn't write anything on her first two albums, but has been somewhat involved in the songwriting process since then. Aaliyah was also named, so I guess we shouldn't be surprised to see artists whose best work came at the hands of the uberproducers (Timba, Neptunes, etc.) appearing on this thread.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 18:58 (twenty-one years ago)

TS:
10 songs Michael Songs wrote solo:
Bad, Beat It, Billie Jean, Dirty Diana, Don't Stop Til You Get Enough, The Girl is Mine, Smooth Criminal, The Way You Make Me Feel, Wanna Be Startin' Something

vs.
10 songs he co-wrote or didn't write at all:
Baby Be Mine, Black or White, Human Nature, In the Closet, Man in the Mirror, Off the Wall, P.Y.T., Remember the Time, Rock With You, Thriller

(in almost all cases I picked singles or otherwise notable hits)

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 19:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Shante didn't write most of her stuff, but the ones she does get sole credit for ("Big Mama" etc.) are some of my favorites.

― Douglas (Douglas), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 19:11 (twenty-one years ago)

"Michael Songs"? Um, "Michael Jackson."

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 19:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Tina Turner. I was just listening to Private Dancer last night and I don't think she even had a co-write on that.

― Huk-L, Tuesday, 24 May 2005 19:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Actually, I think that's a really comparable set of songs in my TS. I'd never argue that Jackson's solo-written songs are miles better than the ones he didn't write (esp. since "P.Y.T." may be my favorite song of his, period), but I think this makes the case for the set of quality songs not being "pitifully small."

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 19:20 (twenty-one years ago)

The Ventures

― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 19:21 (twenty-one years ago)

I have a feeling record companies usually make sure artists get a number of songwriting credits now for marketting purposes, so maybe the era of singers who wrote less than 1% of their own material really is over (outside the jazz standard world, anyway). One of the primary marketting angles for pop stars is "The new record is all about me -- my life, how I see the world" and this carries more weight with songwriting credits.

― Mark (MarkR), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 19:26 (twenty-one years ago)

I can think of $ome better rea$on$ than marketing for an arti$t to want $ong-writing credit$.

― Huk-L, Tuesday, 24 May 2005 19:28 (twenty-one years ago)

I seem to remember the second Norah Jones album having more of that angle, Mark. (And a check of AMG tells me that she wrote or co-wrote 6 of its 13 tracks, compared to 3 of 14 on the debut.)

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 19:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Holly Cole is a good one, except she had a spate of trying to be a singer-songwriter and wrote a few songs, none of them really memorable. In the same vein, Cassandra Wilson, Diana Krall, Michael Feinstein, and Harry Connick, Jr. are all known mainly for versions of others' songs.

As of a few years ago, Margo Timmins had exactly 1 co-writing credit to her name ("Misguided Angel", on The Trinity Sessions). I don't know if she counts, though, since she is really "Cowboy Junkies" and her brother/band-mate writes everything. (But their first two records are mainly covers, and are the best things they did.) Not certain Margo Timmins is a "greatest artist" either.

Judy Collins really didn't write much (and really didn't have much of a career post-1980, I guess). Joan Baez has only written a few songs, and pretty much limits herself to covers. Emmylou Harris has 2-3 records of original material and countless covers on which her (well-deserved) reputation rests. Linda Ronstadt's career was pretty much entirely built on covers, too. There hasn't been so much of it post-1980, but she was certainly a widely popular artist in, say, 1979. x-post Tina Turner very OTM.

Then there's Leontyne Price . . .

And finally, Elvis Costello seems to have built his entire career on performing songs written or co-written by D. MacManus.

― Vornado, Tuesday, 24 May 2005 19:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Also, the lead singer of Cafe Tacuba (name changes each release) only has 2-3 writing credits in 6 albums, and he's pretty much the focus of their performance. Similarly, there was a British group a few years ago, Cousteau, whose very sexy, Bryan Ferry-ish l.s. didn't do any of the writing. They seem to have fallen off the edge of the earth, however.

― Vornado, Tuesday, 24 May 2005 19:49 (twenty-one years ago)

look, the simple fact is "songwriting" is not the same process as it was 40+ years ago. Given the current state of popular music, any reasonable answer concerning the "greatest artist in the last 25 years who wrote none of his/her own songs" HAS to be someone from hip-hop. Not just because that's where all the biggest stars have been in the last decade or more, but also because buying beats and ghostwriting rhymes is de rigeur in the genre.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 24 May 2005 19:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Maybe the practice of covering other people's songs or focusing on interpretations rather than writing is rooted in some kind of general creative impulse to draw from a communal body of work. In that case, the same impulse that drove Charlie Parker to appropriate Gershwin or artists in the '60s to cover Dylan is now manifested through sampling or through stylistic references.

This makes sense in light of an overall shift toward the exploration of timbre and sonic possibilities rather than melodic, harmonic, or lyrical possibilities. A band like Stereolab can be seen as "covering" the styles of different artists because they have an interest in sound over text (people who covered Dylan) or harmony (jazz tunes based on the chords of standards).

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 20:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Which brings up the question of why do we generally value the authorship of melodic or lyrical material over the authorship of sonic material. There is no equivalent complaint that "artist X doesn't produce their own albums" or "so-and-so's guitar sound was just created by the engineer in the studio." There's still a general distrust of sampling by many people but the objection seems to be focused on the sampling of actual hooks and chord changes more than the theft of sonic events. I guess these biases are reinforced by the way in which our copyright system works (lyrics & melody are the only material of value).

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 20:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Biz Markie, De La Soul, and many others might say the copyright system does not actually work that way, walter.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 24 May 2005 20:26 (twenty-one years ago)

This only counts halfway, but Elton John hasn't written any of his own lyrics. Of course, they're probably the worst part of his songs, so maybe it doesn't count at all...

― Brian Miller (Brian Miller), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 20:27 (twenty-one years ago)

altho your point about authorship is largely OTM, and was what I was getting at when I said that the songwriting process is different now than it was in Elvis's day and age.

x-post

― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 24 May 2005 20:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Kylie?

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 20:29 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm stickin with my Dr. Dre nomination. (maybe Puffy would fit here too...? I don't know enough about his material to say)

― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 24 May 2005 20:35 (twenty-one years ago)

The Ventures

-- gygax!

the ventures haven't done anything in the last 25 years!

― kyle (akmonday), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 20:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Biz Markie, De La Soul, and many others might say the copyright system does not actually work that way, walter.

Well, the physical recording is also protected (which is I believe what most sampling lawsuits are based on) but you can't copyright a drum beat, the squelchy 303 acid sound, backwards guitar, etc. Obviously that's not a bad thing but I think it's clear that our copyright system considers the melody and lyrics of a song to be the only pieces of value. And in turn that's reflected in the value that the general public places on originality in songwriting.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 20:42 (twenty-one years ago)

the songwriting process is different now than it was in Elvis's day and age.

besides everything else that's been said, a key difference has been that artists have figured out how much money there is to be made in publishing. 40 years ago, you'd find producers' and even disc jockeys' names on songs they had nothing to do with writing. in more recent years, artists have joined that part of the party themselves, to the point that if a major artist didn't write any of his/her own stuff these days, there may well be know way of knowing because they're gonna make sure their name is on their songs anyway. i assume if, say, elvis was starting out today, he'd have lots and lots of writing credits.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 20:48 (twenty-one years ago)

on the other hand, nashville still runs largely on an old-school songwriting system, doesn't it? randy travis comes to mind as someone from the last 25 years who -- though he does have credits sprinkled throughout his records -- didn't fancy himself a songwriter and didn't get credits on any of his major hits. so he's kind of an answer, though there are probably even better nashville answers out there.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 20:50 (twenty-one years ago)

That financial motivation also means that artists who are thinking of covering a certain song might as well rip it off, change a few things and call it their own.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 20:52 (twenty-one years ago)

the judds are another major artist who hardly wrote anything.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 20:55 (twenty-one years ago)

The Corporation, the writing/production team on the early Jackson 5 stuff, didn't include Holland-Dozier-Holland, who'd left Motown by then. Freddie Perren, Deke Richards and Fonce Mizell were the other members, along with Gordy. Richards had been in the Clan, who did "Love Child" for the Supremes.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 21:15 (twenty-one years ago)

I'll assume we're staying out of opera and symphonic music, as you could apply it to pretty much all the performers in those fields.

― Brian Miller (Brian Miller), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 21:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Which is why I don't trust co-writing credits unless said act has at least some solo writing credits.

Anyway, the obvious answer to this until "Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants" would be Liam Gallagher.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 22:06 (twenty-one years ago)

not sure what you mean about Oasis.

Noel pretty much wrote everything first couple of albums.

― Viz (Viz), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 23:19 (twenty-one years ago)

the ventures haven't done anything in the last 25 years!

-- kyle (akmonda...), May 24th, 2005 2:35 PM. (akmonday)

That's what you think you filthy, filthy rockist:

http://www.theventures.com/

― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 23:22 (twenty-one years ago)

It is a good question. I've always thought that if Whitney Houston were born twenty years earlier, she would have been every bit the equal of her cousin, Dionne Warwick -- by which I mean one of two things:

1) That those who pick the material for pop singers nowadays have completely lost interest in anything of quality.

2) That all the halfway decent songwriters would rather perform their own material than entrust it to the likes of Sony, WEA and Celine Dion.

As a result, you're left with stuff that doesn't aspire to anything greater than teen pop -- which is fine for what it is, but not exactly Sinatra or Dusty Springfield. Which can only mean the most important artist of the last 25 years who doesn't write his or her own material is:

Justin Timberlake. I mean, the guy's helped re-elect a president with that Super Bowl routine.

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 23:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Cassandra Wilson?

And it seems like James Taylor stopped writing his own songs a really long time ago ...

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 23:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Seriously, though: the only pop people who don't write their own material now are teen pop stars and adult contemporary/R&B artists. And are there any in either category that spring to mind as "great artists"? The best case you can make for most of these people is that we'll never know if they're great b/c no one's giving them great material. Because for all I know, Celine Dion is a great artist -- but Dianne Warren keeps us from finding out.

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Wednesday, 25 May 2005 00:29 (twenty-one years ago)

And then there's Cher.

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Wednesday, 25 May 2005 01:13 (twenty-one years ago)

So, then, who since 1980 is the greatest artist without any interest in songwriting?

Is Klaus Nomi eligible under this restriction? (Finally saw The Nomi Song this past weekend. I could probably say more, but right now my biggest suspicion is that Taco was intended to be a Nomi ripoff.)

― j.lu (j.lu), Wednesday, 25 May 2005 01:19 (twenty-one years ago)

The Brill Building was selling those songs to someone--who was the biggest buyer? Girl Groups of the early 60s?

― Orbit (Orbit), Wednesday, 25 May 2005 01:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Judging by recent charts, it's still Elvis.

― Sasha (sgh), Wednesday, 25 May 2005 05:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Tony Christie

― zeus, Wednesday, 25 May 2005 07:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Pink has performed a lot of great material during her career. I don't know how much that has to do with her talent though, but rather the talent of those writing her songs.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 25 May 2005 09:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Hmmm. Outside rap, R&B, and country, I would nominate people like Mary Lou Lord and Paul Young, whose output consists of mainly covers.

Or people whose output is mainly trad stuff--Eliza Carthy, Nic Jones, Jean Redpath.

― The Mad Puffin, Wednesday, 25 May 2005 12:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Just thought of another mainly-covers person: Joe Cocker.

― The Mad Puffin, Wednesday, 25 May 2005 12:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Hmmm. Outside rap, R&B, and country, I would nominate people like Mary Lou Lord and Paul Young, whose output consists of mainly covers.

Paul Young still falls somewhat outside of this, since "Come Back And Stay" and "Everything Must Change", two of his biggest hits, were both his own songs. Plus the entire "Between Two Fires" album as well.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 25 May 2005 13:26 (twenty-one years ago)

The Sadies deserve mention here. Even though I love them like crazy, I don't think they quite qualify for "Greatest Artist in the last 25 yrs" status in any category, except maybe live performances. It's worth noting, however, that all of their best songs were covers until about 4 albums into their career.
You could say the same about the Beatles, I guess.

― Huk-L, Wednesday, 25 May 2005 13:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Steps

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 25 May 2005 13:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Even though I have the "rockist" view that I don't really respect the artist if the melody was composed by somebody else, I am still surprised how few acts from the past 25 years fit in here.

I mean, before 1980, there would be Ray Charles, The Surpremes, The Four Tops, The Temptations, The Monkees, The Hollies (pre 1966 anyway), Gerry & The Pacemakers, Dionne Warwick, Jackson Five, Sweet, Donna Summer, Chic, that is, lots of obvious greats, and then, what is there left after 1980? Not a lot, I would say.

It seems like the pre-1980 songwriters were a bit more busy trying to create art while today's professional songwriters are most of all trying to make money.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 25 May 2005 19:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Justin Timberlake writes his own material, we've been over this a thousand times.

― Mike O. (Mike Ouderkirk), Wednesday, 25 May 2005 23:37 (twenty-one years ago)

"It seems like the pre-1980 songwriters were a bit more busy trying to create art while today's professional songwriters are most of all trying to make money"

must be that "poverty of ambition" Bono was talking about.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 25 May 2005 23:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Paul Young did not write "Come Back and Stay," according to Allmusic. And Ray Charles wrote most of his own material prior to 1960. Donna Summer had a hand in writing (and, in some cases, got sole credit) for a lot of songs.

But who cares anyway?

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Thursday, 26 May 2005 00:46 (twenty-one years ago)

How about Olivia Newton-John? She was still charting through 1987 ...

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Thursday, 26 May 2005 02:01 (twenty-one years ago)

what's kylie's song-writing percentile?

― chris andrews (fraew), Thursday, 26 May 2005 02:20 (twenty-one years ago)

the bottom 5%

― shine headlights on me (electricsound), Thursday, 26 May 2005 02:48 (twenty-one years ago)

but it includes Confide In Me = the top .5% of all her songs

― kit brash (kit brash), Thursday, 26 May 2005 09:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Justin Timberlake writes his own material, we've been over this a thousand times.

Fucking take me to court then.

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Thursday, 26 May 2005 10:47 (twenty-one years ago)

one year passes...

Kylie Minogue has co-written a lot of her 00s material. Which is about the only period she has been releasing quality material.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 15 September 2006 22:15 (nineteen years ago)

Minogue's quality material is her T&A.

― Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Friday, 15 September 2006 22:37 (nineteen years ago)

diana ross?

― Godfrzej Ljang (godfrzej), Friday, 15 September 2006 22:43 (nineteen years ago)

Dr. Dre makes no sense here. To say he doesn't play an instrument makes no sense. The studio is an instrument. He hasn't had anything to do with a Parliament riff in ten years. And Ice Cube owes just as much to Dre as vice versa.

― Period period period (Period period period), Saturday, 16 September 2006 02:35 (nineteen years ago)

This is an interesting idea for a thread, and very bound up in a question I've asked myself many times (and about which there are probably other threads, whatever): what happened to artists doing tons of covers? Not just the occasional novelty, but having, regularly, 25% or up of their recorded output being covers? Not to mention the whole phenomenon of covering current hits - when exactly did this stop? At whose behest? I wonder how much of this is bands rising up and turning down (possibly foolishly) the material their labels were offering in favor of integrity, maaaaan. ???

― Doctor Casino (Doctor Casino), Saturday, 16 September 2006 03:26 (nineteen years ago)

Not to mention the whole phenomenon of covering current hits - when exactly did this stop?

Dunno, but surely not before "Macarena" or even "Dragosta Din Tei"

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 16 September 2006 13:51 (nineteen years ago)

the "covering current hits" thing seems to be happening a bit again - sugababes doing arctic monkeys, lily allen doing kaiser chiefs etc. i applaud it.

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Saturday, 16 September 2006 15:11 (nineteen years ago)

Now they tend to do it for b-sides/bonus tracks rather than singles though. And I find that better, because I view a cover version - particularly of a new song - as nothing but a novelty of sorts.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 16 September 2006 15:28 (nineteen years ago)

all songs are novelties, no?

― King-a-Ling (King-a-Ling), Saturday, 16 September 2006 16:03 (nineteen years ago)

...Roxanne Shante didn't write her own material?

alison krauss

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Saturday, 16 September 2006 23:22 (nineteen years ago)

Rod Stewart hasn't written his own material since, oh, 1977.

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Saturday, 16 September 2006 23:38 (nineteen years ago)

...Roxanne Shante didn't write her own material?

Big Daddy Kane wrote most of it.

― kit brash (kit brash), Sunday, 17 September 2006 01:24 (nineteen years ago)

Doesn't Dr. Dre play drums and keyboards?

― Marmot (marmotwolof), Sunday, 17 September 2006 01:26 (nineteen years ago)

Rod Stewart hasn't written his own material since, oh, 1977.

Has he ever?

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Sunday, 17 September 2006 07:57 (nineteen years ago)

OMG, you have to be kidding me. Rod Stewart was a very promising songwriter in the early days. He wrote/cowrote some songs that are classic rock staples (Gasoline Alley, Maggie May, Every Picture Tells A Story, Stay With Me).

― Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Monday, 18 September 2006 00:24 (nineteen years ago)

are we forgetting american idol?

not that fantasia could write her own songs ahahahahahaaaaaafasfklndf.

― Emily B (Emily B), Monday, 18 September 2006 03:43 (nineteen years ago)

I'm still reeling from the notion upthread that "Taco was supposed to be a Klaus Nomi rip-off."

― Myke. (Myke Weiskopf), Monday, 18 September 2006 08:30 (nineteen years ago)

again:

AALIYAH

― The Lex (The Lex), Monday, 18 September 2006 08:35 (nineteen years ago)

Rod Stewart hasn't written his own material since, oh, 1977.
Has he ever?
-- Geir Hongro (geirhon...) (webmail), Yesterday 8:57 AM. (later) (link)

Yeah, c'mon Geir, you're better than that usually.

Rod's a case in point. I don't know when or why he gave up the writing as he was usually excellent. Just seemed as if he "couldn't be arsed" after a time.

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 18 September 2006 08:44 (nineteen years ago)

Jose Jose obviously.

― Romolo Tobias (Romolo), Monday, 18 September 2006 13:04 (nineteen years ago)

Derek Bailey.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 18 September 2006 13:05 (nineteen years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.