Randy Newman has always been one of those songwriters I admire. His advice to those who want to make it with their music: ‘Don’t bend over!’ Here’s a guy who wrote songs for Dusty Springfield, Petula Clark, and Jackie DeShannon. Three Dog Night recorded his song, ‘Mama Told Me Not to Come’. Joe Cocker, Linda Ronstadt, and Ray Charles did versions of his song, ‘You Can Leave Your Hat On’. In the 1970’s he had a small hit called, ‘Short People’. His song, ‘I Love L.A.’ became, ‘You’ll Love It!’ and is now the Dodgers, Lakers, and Kings theme song and was used extensively to promote Los Angeles. Mr. Newman has scored seven Disney/Pixar films including ‘Toy Story’, ‘It’s A Bug’s Life’, and ‘Monster’s Inc.’, to name just a few. Numerous other film scores were to his credit, such as, ‘James and the Giant Peach’, ‘Seabiscuit’, and ‘Meet the Fokkers’. To quote Randy from a recent interview, “I write a lot of songs for people I am not good enough to play with, but I have a bigger house on a bigger hill than most of them.” Randy Newman is a personal favorite of mine because his voice and attitude are very tongue-in-cheek and although until he began to do movie soundtracks he wrote beaucoup songs for beaucoup artists.
Burt Bacharach wrote songs for The Carpenters (‘Close To You’), Gene Pitney (‘The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance’), The Stylistics (You’ll Never Get To Heaven If You Break My Heart’), and BJ Thomas. Dionne Warwick was the one vocalist that would bring him the most success. Over a twenty year period in the 1960’s, Burt (with lyricist Hal David) and Dionne Warwick had 38 Billboard chart hit singles, such as ‘Do You Know the Way to San Jose?’, ‘I’ll Never Fall in Love Again’, ‘Walk on By’, and ‘Anyone Who Had a Heart’. Bacharach wrote ‘The Look of Love’ as the theme for James Bond’s ‘Casino Royale’ and Dusty Springfield sings the song. He also wrote, ‘Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head’ for the movie, ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’ which was sung by BJ Thomas (his other hit was, ‘Hooked on a Feelin’ NOT by Burt). Burt Bacharach was pretty much the sound of the 1960’s but especially, Dionne Warwick.
Jim Vallance co-wrote with Aerosmith on 13 songs since their career comeback with ‘Rag Doll’ being the most memorable. Bryan Adams worked with Vallance on over 60 tunes, including ‘Cuts Like a Knife’. Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart garnered a hit with Jim Vallance’s song, ‘What About Love?’ He wrote for countless others, including Tina Turner, Uriah Heep, Rod Stewart, Rick Springfield, Bonnie Raitt, Ozzy Osbourne, Ted Nugent, Juice Newton, Brett Michaels, Loverboy, Kiss, Lita Ford, Neil Diamond, and Alice Cooper. This guy is prolific!
There was a period in which Bruce Springsteen could not record because of lawsuits and contractual disputes. During this time he wrote consistently for other folks. Patti Smith recorded ‘Because The Night’, and it became her only claim to fame, besides the fact that she looks like Keith Richards. Manfred Mann charted a Springsteen hit you know called ‘Blinded By The Light’. The Pointer Sisters did a Springsteen song called ‘Fire’ that went to No.#2 on the charts. While Bruce is not particularly a favorite of mine, I am impressed by the diversity of material and how a wide range of artists made use of his tunes.
