Songcraft: Spotlight On Songwriters

Doobie Brothers lead singer, guitarist, and founding member Tom Johnston wrote 9 of the first 13 singles issued by the band between 1971 and 1975. These include the hits “Listen to the Music,” “Long Train Runnin’,” “China Grove,” and the classic rock radio staple “Rockin’ Down the Highway.” His voice can be heard on additional Doobies hits, including “Jesus is Just Alright” and “Take Me in Your Arms (Rock Me).” After being sidelined by health issues, Michael McDonald replaced Johnston in the band, with Tom eventually going on to a solo career. He released two albums for Warner Bros., scored a Top 40 single with the self-penned “Savannah Nights,” and performed the song “Where Are You Tonight” for the Dirty Dancing soundtrack, which sold over 11 million albums in the US alone. He returned to the Doobie Brothers in the late 1980s, writing the Top 10 single “The Doctor,” and going on to pen such songs as 1991’s “Rollin’ On,” which was a hit on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart. Additionally, he wrote the title tr

The legendary songwriting team of Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart found early success with songs such as “Lazy Elsie Molly,” which was a Top 10 R&B hit for Chubby Checker, “Come a Little Bit Closer,” which was a Top 5 pop hit for Jay & The Americans, and the instrumental theme song for the long-running soap opera, Days of Our Lives. The pair are best known, however, for writing and producing more than 20 songs for The Monkees, including “Last Train to Clarksville,” “(Theme From) The Monkees,” “I Wanna Be Free,” “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone,” “She,” “Words,” and “Valleri.” As artists, the Grammy nominated duo found success in the late 1960s with the self-penned Top 40 hits “Out & About,” “I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonight,” and “Alice Long (You’re Still My Favorite Girlfriend).” Bobby Hart wrote a number of hit singles apart from Tommy Boyce, including “Hurt So Bad,” which was a hit for Little Anthony & The Imperials in 1965 before finding subsequent chart success with the Letterman, Jackie DeShan

Still in his 20s, Seth Mosley has emerged as one of the most sought-after and influential creators in the Christian music genre. Beginning as the founder, lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter of the band Me in Motion, Seth went on to become the go-to producer for major artists such as Newsboys, Michael W. Smith, Audio Adrenaline, and Toby Mac. In 2015 alone he scored a staggering eight #1 hits, including for KING & COUNTRY's "Fix My Eyes," Francesca Battistelli's "He Knows My Name," Mat Kearney’s “Air I Breathe,” and Jeremy Camps' "He Knows." In total, Seth has written nearly thirty charting radio singles. He was named Billboard Christian Producer of the Year for 2013; was awarded a Grammy for his production work on the Best Contemporary Christian Music album of 2014; was named SESAC Christian Songwriter of the Year in 2015; and took home four Dove Awards that same year, including both Producer and Songwriter of the Year.

Jon Foreman is the front man and primary songwriter for the spiritually-minded alternative rock band Switchfoot. The group has released nine studio albums, including 2003’s The Beautiful Letdown, which sold more than two and a half million copies, earning it double platinum status. Their last six albums have hit the Top 20 on the Billboard 200 Album chart, with five of them going to #1 on the Billboard Christian Albums chart. With RIAA certified Gold selling singles “Meant to Live,” “Dare You to Move,” and “Stars,” Switchfoot has won 14 Dove Awards, including Artist of the Year, which they took home in 2005. They won a Grammy for Best Rock Gospel Album in 2010 for their Hello Hurricane LP. Foreman has released two albums with Nickel Creek’s Sean Watkins under the name Fiction Family, as well as two thematic series of critically acclaimed solo EPs. His songs have been covered by Mandy Moore, Taylor Swift, Mutemath, Meatloaf, Amy Grant, and others. In 2001 Foreman was honored with the Les Paul Horizon Award as

In 1995, Billboard magazine listed the Top 20 countrysongs of the previous 35 years. Bill Anderson wrote four of those20 songs, and has continued writing them ever since, becoming theonly country songwriter to land a Top 40 hit in seven consecutivedecades. After signing with the Decca label in 1959, Andersonreleased 37 records as an artist that reached the Top 10 onBillboard’s Country singles chart - eight of which climbedto the #1 position. Though wildly successful as a performer, Billis also a prolific songwriter who penned most of his own hits,including the classics “Po Folks,” “Mama Sang a Song,” “8 X 10,”and “Still,” which was named Billboard magazine’s Song ofthe Year in 1963. His initial songwriting success began in 1958when Ray Price took “City Lights” to the top of the charts for 13weeks. The song became a standard that charted repeatedly in the1950s, 60s, 70s, and 80s. Similarly, his “Tips of My Fingers,”reached the Top 10 four different times with versions recorded byRoy Clark, Eddy Arnold, Steve W

After finding early success with international pop acts such as Milli Vanilli, the German-born hitmaker Toby Gad went on to write and produce a string of international #1 singles, including Beyonce’s “If I Were a Boy,” Selena Gomez’s “A Year Without Rain,” and Nicole Scherzinger’s “Don’t Hold Your Breath.” He has twice been the recipient of the prestigious ASCAP Song of the Year award, first in 2008 for Fergie’s “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” and again in 2015 for John Legend’s “All of Me.” Toby’s contributions to officially certified Gold and Platinum album releases alone represent sales of more than 73 million units worldwide. Other artists who’ve recorded his songs include Ricky Martin, Miley Cyrus, Donna Summer, Brandy, Jordan Sparks, Robin Thicke, Alicia Keys, Demi Lovato, Jazmine Sullivan, Jessie J, One Direction, Kelly Clarkson, Carly Rae Jepson, Leona Lewis, and Madonna. 

Beginning his career as a key player in the UK folk revival of the early 1960s, Donovan scored early hits with “Catch the Wind” and “Colours.” Embracing jazz, world music, and psychedelic influences, he expanded his sound and found success with the major hits “Sunshine Superman” and “Mellow Yellow” in 1966. Additional hits followed, including the Top 20 US singles “Epistle to Dippy” and “There is a Mountain,” as well as the Top 10 hits “Hurdy Gurdy Man” and “Atlantis.” He has recorded nearly thirty albums. Donovan’s songs have been recorded by Neil Young, Joan Baez, Judy Collins, Richie Havens, Van Dyke Parks, Jefferson Airplane, the Animals, the Allman Brothers Band, Cher, Eartha Kitt, Glen Campbell, Johnny Rivers, Duane Eddy, Buck Owens, Chet Atkins, Kenny Loggins, Susanna Hoffs, Joan Jett, Sarah McLachlan, Richard Thompson, and many others. He was awarded the prestigious BMI Icon award in 2009, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012, and inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2014.

Shelly Peiken is a multi-platinum songwriter best known for co-writing Christina Aguilera’s #1 hits “What a Girl Wants” and “Come On Over Baby (All I Want is You).” She was nominated for a Best Rock Song Grammy for penning “Bitch” with Meredith Brooks, who took the song to #2 on the Billboard pop chart in 1997. Additionally, she’s penned songs such as “I Wanna Be With You” for Mandy Moore and “Out From Under” by Britney Spears. Celine Dion has recorded four of Shelly’s songs, while Miley Cyrus, NSYNC, David Archuleta, Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato, Plain White T’s and Gladys Knight have each recorded two or more songs from the Peiken catalog. Others who have covered Shelly’s music include Jessie J, the Divinyls, the Pretenders, Reba McEntire, Lisa Loeb, Jennifer Lopez, Expose, Aaliyah, Backstreet Boys, Vanessa Hudgens, Smash Mouth, INXS, Keith Urban, Michelle Branch, Natasha Bedingfield, and the cast of the hit TV show, Glee. Shelly is a regular blogger for the Huffington Post and has recently released her first

After serving in World War II, Irving Burgie attended Juilliard where he studied classical voice. He eventually fell in love with folk music, and landed a steady gig as a Calypso singer at a Caribbean-themed Chicago nightclub in the early 1950s. Returning to New York, he became known as Lord Burgess on the Greenwich Village folk scene. He contributed eight songs to Harry Belafonte’s Calypso album in 1956, which became the first million selling LP in any genre, and spent an astounding 31 weeks at #1 on the Billboard pop chart. Burgie went on to write the majority of Belafonte’s hit albums Belafonte Sings of the Caribbean in 1957 and Jump Up Calypso in 1961. In total, he wrote more than thirty songs for Belafonte, including the hit singles “Jamaica Farewell,” “Day-O,” “Don’t Ever Love Me,” “Cocoanut Woman,” and “Island in the Sun.” Thanks to his strong reputation for popularizing island music, Burgie wrote the National Anthem of Barbados in 1966. In addition to Harry Belafonte, other artists who’ve tapped the I

Two-time Grammy nominee Billy Mann released a couple of solo albums as an artist via A&M Records in the mid-1990s before finding success as a songwriter in the European market. He eventually returned to the US and began getting his songs recorded by artists such as Celine Dion, Dakota Moon, and Daryl Hall & Joan Oates, who made “Do It For Love” Billy’s first #1 Billboard single as a songwriter in 2002. Other artists who charted with Billy’s songs in this era include Michael Bolton, Art Garfunkel, and Jim Brickman. He soon began finding hits with a new wave of pop stars, beginning with Jessica Simpson’s Top 20 single, “With You.” Around the same time he became a frequent collaborator with Pink, who has included many of Billy’s compositions on her albums, including “God is a DJ,” “Stupid Girls,” "Dear Mr. President," "I'm Not Dead," "Glitter in the Air.,” and "The Truth About Love." Additionally, Mann co-wrote and produced Teddy Geiger’s platinum selling single “For You I Will (Confidence).” He has work

Though the father/daughter songwriting duo of Randy and Maia Sharp found their greatest collaborative success with the Dixie Chicks' recording of "Home" in 2002, they've enjoyed diverse songwriting careers, working both together and separately. Randy released his first independent album as a singer/songwriter in 1973, eventually finding chart success as a writer for other artists, including Jennifer Warnes, Marty Robbins, and Glen Campbell. Thirteen of his songs have reached Billboard’s Top 40 country chart, a half dozen of which hit the Top 10. He wrote the #1 hits “(Why Does It Have to Be) Wrong or Right” and “Tender Lie” for Restless Heart, as well as a string of hits for Exile, including “Nobody’s Talkin’” and “Yet.” He continued to write hit songs in the mid to late 1990s, such as “You Will” for Patty Loveless, “The Cheap Seats” for Alabama, and “Then What” for Clay Walker. In 2005 Emmylou Harris won a Grammy for Best Female Country Vocal Performance for Randy’s song “The Connection.” Additionally, his m

Best known for singing a string of successful trucking-themed country songs in the 1960s and 70s, Red Simpson was also a highly influential behind-the-scenes songwriter from Bakersfield, California. Buck Owens recorded more than 30 Simpson originals, including the Top 10 hits “Gonna Have Love,” “Sam’s Place,” and “Kansas City Song.” Additionally, Red penned perennial standards, such as “Close Up the Honky Tonks” and “You Don’t Have Very Far to Go.” As an artist, he released a total of seven albums for Capitol and logged seven charting singles onBillboard’s country rankings, including the Top 40 hits “Roll Truck Roll” and “The Highway Patrol.” He is perhaps best known, however, for singing “I’m a Truck,” which hit the Top 5 in 1972. Simpson played guitar on most of Buck Owens’ recording dates in the mid-1960s, including sessions that produced hits such as “Buckaroo” and “Waitin’ in Your Welfare Line.” He went on to play numerous sessions with Merle Haggard, who referred to Simpson as a “hillbilly hippy.” Merle

Mike Stoller has written more than 60 songs that have appeared on the Billboard charts, including the #1 hits “Hound Dog,” “Kansas City,” “Yakety Yak,”  “Searchin’,” “Jailhouse Rock,” “Poison Ivy,” “Stand By Me,” “Young Blood,” “Don’t,” and “Ruby, Baby." After Stoller and songwriting partner Jerry Leiber found early R&B success with recordings by Little Esther, Charles Brown, Ray Charles, and Big Mama Thornton, Elvis Presley turned their song "Hound Dog" into a #1 single on the pop, R&B, and country charts in 1956. Elvis went on to record more than 20 Leiber and Stoller titles, including the hits "Love Me," "Loving You," "Jailhouse Rock," "Treat Me Nice," "She's Not You," and "Bossa Nova Baby." Mike and Jerry signed an independent production deal with Atlantic Records in the mid-1950s, where they wrote and produced a series of hits for several artists, including the Drifters' "There Goes My Baby," "Dance With Me," and "On Broadway." Additionally, the pair wrote and produced all the Coasters' singles,

Canadian singer, guitarist, and songwriter Mars Bonfire began his professional music career with the Sparrows, a 1960s rock group that eventually morphed into the band Steppenwolf. Though he’d departed by the time they released their first album, Steppenwolf made Bonfire’s “Born to be Wild” a massive hit in 1968. The song was prominently used in the film Easy Rider the following year, cementing its place as a classic American anthem of free-spirited rebellion. The lyrics introduced the term “heavy metal” to the music world, and Rolling Stone magazine named “Born to be Wild” one of the Top 500 Songs of All Time. Steppenwolf went on to record five additional Bonfire compositions, including “Faster Than the Speed of Life” and “Ride With Me.” All Music called Mars’s 1968 self-titled psychedelic solo album a “lost masterpiece,” and in 2015 he was honored with the first ever Cultural Impact Award given by the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada. In addition to Steppenwolf, Mars Bonfire’s mu

Known as a respected “songwriter’s songwriter,” Jim Lauderdale is a versatile and highly prolific artist who is equally comfortable writing country, bluegrass, soul, or pop. His 1991 debut, Planet of Love, was packed with original songs that went on to be covered by George Strait, The Dixie Chicks, Gary Allan, Lucinda Williams, Mandy Barnett, and others. Since then, Lauderdale has recorded nearly thirty albums, including the Grammy winning releases Lost in the Lonesome Pines and The Bluegrass Diaries. Patty Loveless has recorded five of his songs, including the Top 10 single “Halfway Down” and her hit duet with George Jones, “You Don’t Seem to Miss Me.” Likewise, George Strait has covered well over a dozen Jim Lauderdale compositions, including the Top 5 hits “We Really Shouldn’t Be Doing This,” “What Do You Say to That,” and “I Gotta Get to You.” Others who have recorded Jim’s songs include Elvis Costello, Dave Edmunds, Tracy Nelson, Shelby Lynne, Vince Gill, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Blake Shelton, Gary A

Arkansas native spent his formative years playing in a jazz band with future President Bill Clinton, before going on to write a ton of #1 pop and adult contemporary hits, including Michael Johnson’s “Bluer Than Blue,” Steve Perry’s “Foolish Heart,” Toto’s “I’ll Be Over You,” El DeBarge’s “Who’s Holdin’ Donna Now,” and Anne Murray’s “You Needed Me,” which earned Goodrum a Grammy nomination and became the ACM Song of the Year.   Additionally, he wrote Chicago’s “If She Would Have Been Faithful,” Steve Perry’s “Oh Sherrie,” and “A Lesson in Leavin’,” which was a #1 country hit for both Dottie West and Jo Dee Messina. In 1981 Randy won six ASCAP awards in a single year and was named ASCAP country songwriter of the year. His music has been recorded by Gladys Knight, Reba McEntire, Ray Charles, Michael McDonald, Al Jarreau, Chet Atkins, Natalie Cole, The Commodores, Kansas, Dusty Springfield, Vince Gill, Trisha Yearwood, Michael Bolton, Isaac Hayes, Tammy Wynette, and many others. Goodrum was inducted into the Nash

Long before Little Big Town took her song “Girl Crush” to the #1 spot on the Billboard country chart for a record-breaking thirteen consecutive weeks in 2014, Lori McKenna established herself as a highly respected singer/songwriter on the Boston-area folk scene. She recorded four independent albums in the late 1990s and early 2000s before country superstar Faith Hill released her versions of four of Lori’s songs in 2005. The pair appeared together on The Oprah Winfrey Show, and McKenna soon signed a deal with Warner Bros. Records. After releasing the Top 20 country album Unglamorous in 2007, she returned to her folk roots with the critically acclaimed independent albums Lorraine, Massachusetts, and Numbered Doors. McKenna has expertly balanced both her career as an emotionally evocative musical poet and consistent mainstream success as a commercial songwriter. Her songs have been recorded by Sara Evans, Tim McGraw, Mandy Moore, Keith Urban, Alison Krauss, Ashley Monroe, Hunter Hayes, Reba McEntire, Carrie Und

After a successful career in commercial real estate, Tom Douglas scored his first charting single as a songwriter when Collin Raye took "Little Rock" to the top of the charts in 1994. "Little Rock" earned Tom a CMA Song of the Year nomination and marked the start of a long string of Top 10 singles that has stretched for more than two decades. His catalog of hits includes "The Gift" for Jim Brickman; "Love's the Only House" and "God's Will" for Martina McBride; "Grown Men Don't Cry," "My Little Girl," "Let it Go," "Southern Voice," and "Meanwhile Back at Mama's" for Tim McGraw; "Something Worth Leaving Behind" for Lee Ann Womack; "I Run to You" and "Hello World" for Lady Antebellum; "I Got a Car" for George Strait; "Raise 'Em Up" for Keith Urban and Eric Church; and Miranda Lambert's recording of "The House That Built Me," which was nominated for two Grammy awards, and won Song of the Year honors from the Country Music Association, the Academy of Country Music, and the Nashville Songwriters Association Interna

Though a prolific singer/songwriter in his own right, Chip Taylor’s music has been covered by a wide range of artists, including Fats Domino, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Johnny Cash, George Strait, Nina Simone, Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt, The Pretenders, Jackie DeShannon, Ronnie Spector, Cheap Trick, and many others. He has written 39 songs that have appeared on Billboard’s pop, R&B, country, or adult contemporary charts, with many of them appearing on multiple charts simultaneously. Chip was born James Wesley Voight in Yonkers, New York, He joined a country band in high school, started writing songs, and signed a contract with King Records while still a teenager. As a songwriter he began finding success in the early 1960s with recordings by Johnny Tillotson, Aretha Franklin, and Willie Nelson. In 1966 The Troggs took Taylor’s “Wild Thing” to the #1 spot, which caught the attention of Jimi Hendrix, who covered it the following year. In 1968 he wrote “Angel of the Morning,” which became a

Growing up in Greenwich Village, New York, John Sebastian cut his teeth on American roots music. He formed the Lovin’ Spoonful in the mid-1960s, blending folk, blues, country, rock, and pop to create a string of seven consecutive Top 10 hits, including “Do You Believe in Magic,” “You Didn’t Have to Be So Nice,” “Daydream,” “Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind,” Summer in the City,” Rain on the Roof,” and “Nashville Cats.” Each of them was written or co-written by Sebastian, and two of his compositions - “Summer in the City” and “Do You Believe in Magic”- are listed in Rolling Stone magazine’s ranking of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.” In 1976 he scored a #1 solo hit with “Welcome Back,” the theme song to the popular TV show Welcome Back Kotter. He has continued to create engaging roots-oriented sounds with his celebrated J-Band. The Lovin’ Spoonful was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000, and Sebastian became a member of the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame in 2008. His songs have been reco