Maurice White / Philip Bailey / Verdine White / Larry Dunn / Al McKay (Earth, Wind and Fire)

The most popular r&b band of the mid-1970s, Earth, Wind and Fire won Grammy Awards for songs including “Shining Star” and “Runnin’” while staging ambitious and enormously entertaining concert productions. Founded by former session drummer Maurice White and featuring vocalist Philip Bailey, the nine-piece group’s uniquely employed White’s African kalimba-playing, but was heavily influenced by great jazz singers as well as legendary instrumentalists like Miles Davis and John Coltrane. Besides hit singles, they enjoyed multiplatinum album success, and were rewarded in 2000 with induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Key songs in the Earth, Wind and Fire catalog include “Reasons,” “September,” “Shining Star,” “Sing A Song” and “That’s The Way Of The World.”

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Bono (Paul Hewson) / The Edge (David Evans) / Adam Clayton / Larry Mullen (U2)

Together as U2, Bono (Paul Hewson), The Edge (David Evans), Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen have enjoyed unprecedented success as songwriters, recording artists and concert performers. Their catalog includes two No. 1 hits, “With Or Without You” and “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.” Other hits have been used in movies (“All I Want Is You” from “Reality Bites,” “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” from “Batman Forever”) and have tributed Martin Luther King (“Pride [In The Name Of Love]”) and Billie Holiday (“Angel Of Harlem”).

Key songs in the U2 catalog include “Beautiful Day,” “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” “New Year’s Day,” “Sunday, Bloody Sunday” and “Where The Streets Have No Name.”

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Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens)

Born Steven Demetre Georgiou and now known as Yusuf Islam following his conversion to Islam, Cat Stevens was one of the most successful singer-songwriters of the 1970s. After securing a U.K. deal with his song “I Love My Dog”—which eventually charted there in 1966—he wrote “Here Comes My Baby,” a hit for the Tremeloes in both the U.K. and U.S. P.P. Arnold’s 1967 British hit of Stevens’ ”The First Cut Is The Deepest” would later be a U.S. hit for both Rod Stewart and Sheryl Crow; meanwhile, Stevens became a major star on both sides of the Atlantic with his version of “Wild World,” which was a previous hit for Jimmy Cliff in England, and such follow-up hits as “Moon Shadow” and “Peace Train” and “Morning Has Broken.”

Key songs in the Islam catalog include “Moonshadow,” “Morning Has Broken,” “Peace Train,” “The First Cut Is The Deepest” and “Wild World.”

(Photo by Aminah Islam)

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Joe South

Songwriter-producer-performer Joe South was an important session guitarist in the 1960s, his estimable credits including Bob Dylan’s “Blonde on Blonde” album. But he was also writing songs like Lynn Anderson’s Grammy-winning signature “(I Never Promised You A) Rose Garden” and Billy Joe Royal’s “Down In The Boondocks” and “Hush” (the latter also a later hit for Deep Purple).” His songwriting prowess paved the way for his own recording career, which was marked by such hits as “Games People Play” and “Don’t It Make You Want To Go Home.”

Key songs in the South catalog include “Down In The Boondocks,” “Games People Play,” “Hush,” “I Never Promised You A Rose Garden” and “Walk A Mile In My Shoes.”

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Paul Vance & Lee Pockriss

Paul Vance and Lee Pockriss wrote several classic pop hits in the 1950s and ‘60s. “Catch A Falling Star” was a major hit in 1957 for Perry Como, and “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini” made a star of Brian Hyland in 1960. The partners also supplied such hits as “Leader Of The Laundromat” by The Detergents, which was a take-off on The Shangri-Las’ “Leader Of The Pack,” and The Cuff Links’ tuneful “Tracy.”

Key songs in the Vance/Pockriss catalog include “Catch A Falling Star,” “Dommage Dommage,” “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini,” “Playground In My Mind” and “Tracy.”
(Photo of Paul Vance)

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Garth Brooks

Garth Brooks became a country music superstar on the strength of dozens of hit singles including several chart-toppers that he wrote, among them “If Tomorrow Never Comes,” “Unanswered Prayers,” “The Thunder Rolls” and “What She’s Doin’ Now.” His songs crossed him over into the mainstream and attracted arena audiences for his sold-out concert tours. They also made him one of the biggest selling recording artists of all time.

Key songs in the Garth Brooks catalog include “If Tomorrow Never Comes,” “Papa Loved Mama,” “The Thunder Rolls,” “What She’s Doin’ Now” and “Unanswered Prayers.”

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Leonard Cohen

Canadian singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen turned to songwriting after establishing himself as an acclaimed novelist and poet. His resultant songs have earned him an adoring following of music fans and fellow artists including Judy Collins, who expanded his audience in 1966 when she recorded his song “Suzanne” (actor/singer Noel Harrison also had a hit with it) and Jennifer Warnes, who had been a backup singer for Cohen before releasing her own acclaimed album of his material, “Famous Blue Raincoat,” in 1987. His uniquely intelligent output was celebrated earlier this year with the documentary “Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man.”

Key songs in the Cohen catalog include “Bird On The Wire,” “Hallelujah,” “Hey That’s No Way To Say Goodbye,” “So Long Marianne” and “Suzanne.”

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Elvis Costello

One of the most acclaimed singer-songwriters of the modern rock era, Elvis Costello burst upon the scene in 1977 at the height of the New Wave and has been writing songs—many of which have been covered by artists from Linda Ronstadt to Johnny Cash--at full throttle ever since. But rock is only one of the many genres he has conquered. The indefatigable Costello has also written country and classical music while collaborating with Burt Bacharach and Paul McCartney and earning his way into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Key songs in the Costello catalog include “Accidents Will Happen,” “Alison,” “Radio, Radio,” “Pump It Up” and “Watching The Detectives.”

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Dion DiMucci

Dion DiMucci first found fame as the leader of Dion & The Belmonts. The doo-### group (named for an avenue in the Bronx) scored high on the pop charts in the late 1950s with hits like “A Teenager In Love,” then found bigger success in the early 1960s with songs like the 1961 chart-topper “Runaround Sue” and its No. 2 follow-up “The Wanderer.” DiMucci later delivered solo hits including “Abraham, Martin & John,” and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989.

Key songs in the DiMucci catalog include “Born To Cry,” “Donna The Prima Donna,” “King Of The New York Streets,” “Love Came To Me” and “Runaround Sue.”

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David Gates (Bread)

Keyboardist/vocalist David Gates founded the hugely successful soft-rock group Bread in 1968 as a vehicle for singing his own songs. He wrote most of their trademark hits including “Make It With You,” “Baby I’m-a Want You” and “Everything I Own.” His songs have been covered extensively by others and also include the Murmaids’ 1963 Top 10 entry “Popsicles And Icicles.”

Key songs in the Gates catalog include “Baby I’m-a Want You,” “Diary,” “Everything I Own,” “If” and “Make It With You.”

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Tommy James

With his backing band the Shondells, Tommy James created truly classic pop-rock hits in the late 1960s. “I Think We’re Alone Now,” which broke Top 40 radio ground for its suggestive lyrics, and psychedelic masterpiece “Crimson & Clover” would be hits again much later via respective covers from Tiffany and Joan Jett. James’ 1968 album titletrack “Mony, Mony,” meanwhile, later became a signature song for Billy Idol, and over the years, James’ songs have been covered by many other artists, such as Bruce Springsteen, R.E.M., Prince, Tom Jones, Dolly Parton, Cher and Kelly Clarkson.

Key songs in the James catalog include “Crimson And Clover,” “Crystal Blue Persuasion,” “Draggin’ The Line,” “I Think We’re Alone Now” and “Mony, Mony.”

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John Mellencamp

Finding fame first as rocker Johnny Cougar, John Mellencamp gradually reclaimed his real name while staking out his own singular rock sound. Indeed, songs like “Small Town” and “Cherry Bomb” embodied the genre of music now known as roots rock, or Americana. Together with massive Top 40 hits like “Hurt So Good” and “R.O.C.K. In The U.S.A.,” they propelled Mellencamp into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame—one of many honors bestowed on him during his venerable career.

Key songs in the Mellencamp catalog include “Jack And Diane,” “Lonely Ol’ Night,” “Pink Houses,” “Small Town” and “The Authority Song.”

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Lou Reed

Lou Reed began the songwriting side of his influential music career as an in-house songwriter for Pickwick Records, delivering a hit in 1964 with the novelty dance hit “The Ostrich.” The Primitives were formed as a band to support it, and also included Welsh musician John Cale, with whom Reed would form the Velvet Underground in 1965 along with Sterling Morrison and Maureen Tucker. The historic group helped pave the way for the punk rock explosion of the 1970s, with songs like “Heroin” and “Sweet Jane.” They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996, long after Reed had established himself as a major solo singer-songwriter thanks to such titles as “Walk On The Wild Side” and “Dirty Boulevard.”

Key songs in the Reed catalog include “Heroin,” “Pale Blue Eyes,” “Rock & Roll,” “Sweet Jane” and “Walk On The Wild Side.”

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Leon Russell

A versatile musician whose session credits ranged from Herb Alpert to Phil Spector, Oklahoma native Leon Russell also had wide-ranging success as a songwriter. His stint as music director for Joe Cocker resulted in his initial songwriting success—Cocker’s 1969 hit “Delta Lady.” He scored his own hit in 1972 with “Tightrope,” and also wrote “Superstar,” which became a big hit for both the Carpenters and Luther Vandross.

Key songs in the Russell catalog include “A Song For You,” “Delta Lady,” “Superstar,” “This Masquerade” and “Tightrope.”

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Johnny Mandel

Johnny Mandel played trombone and trumpet in big bands of the 1940s, most memorably including Woody Herman’s Second Herd. He wrote “Not Really The Blues” for that band and later worked with the likes of Count Basie before settling in Los Angeles and composing for films. His film work included music for “The Sandpiper,” which yielded Tony Bennett’s 1965 hit “The Shadow Of Your Smile,” and the famed theme from “M*A*S*H*,” “Suicide Is Painless.”

Key songs in the Mandel catalog include “A Time for Love,” “Emily,” “Suicide Is Painless (Theme from M*A*S*H*),” “The Shadow Of Your Smile” and “Where Do You Start?”

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Billy Sherrill

An architect of the “countrypolitan” Nashville sound of the 1960s and ‘70s, producer Billy Sherrill also helped shaped music with some of the biggest country hits of the period. His 1966 collaboration with Glenn Sutton, David Houston’s hit “Almost Pursuaded,” topped the charts for nine weeks and won the Grammy for Best Country & Western Song. That year he also discovered Tammy Wynette, for whom he co-wrote her career-launching “Your Good Girl’s Gonna Go Bad” and signature hit “Stand By Your Man.” He later provided Charlie Rich’s signature hit with “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World.”

Key songs in the Sherrill catalog include “Almost Persuaded,” “Every Time You Touch Me,” “The Most Beautiful Girl In The World,” “My Elusive Dreams” and “Stand By Your Man.”

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Tommy Boyce (d) / Bobby Hart

The songwriting team of Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart were responsible for such classic hits by the Monkees as their TV theme song “Hey, Hey We’re the Monkees,” “Last Train to Clarksville” and “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone,” which was also a hit for Paul Revere and the Raiders. The duo’s first hit came in 1964 when Jay and the Americans reached No. 3 with “Come a Little Bit Closer.” Boyce & Hart eventually signed with A&M Records, where they recorded such hits as “I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonight” and “Alice Long (You’re Still My Favorite Girlfriend)” and toured with the Monkees.

Key songs in the Boyce & Hart catalog include “Come A Little Bit Closer,” “I’m Not Your Steppin’ Stone,” “I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonight?,” “Last Train To Clarksville” and “Valleri.”

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Jackie DeShannon

Prolific songwriter Jackie DeShannon co-wrote songs with the varied likes of Randy Newman, Jimmy Page, and Sharon Sheeley—with whom she wrote Brenda Lee’s 1961 hit “Dum Dum.” With Page, she wrote Marianne Faithfull’s Top 10 U.S. and U.K. hit “Come and Stay With Me.” As a performing artist, DeShannon toured with The Beatles in 1964; she scored with her biggest hit in 1969 when she reached No. 4 with her own “Put A Little Love In Your Heart.” Among the first female singer-songwriters of the rock era, Shannon’s songs have also been covered by The Searchers, Irma Thomas and Kim Carnes, whose cover of DeShannon’s “Bette Davis Eyes” topped the charts in 1981.

Key songs in the DeShannon catalog include “Bette Davis Eyes,” “Breakaway,” “Dum Dum,” “Everytime You Walk In The Room” and “Put a Little Love In Your Heart.”

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Luther Dixon

Luther Dixon had written songs for The Platters, Perry Como and The Crests before he took an artist development position with Scepter Records. He wrote many hit songs at the legendary label including the 1962 No. 1 single “Soldier Boy”—the biggest hit for its top group The Shirelles. He wrote many other classics including The Shirelles’ “Mama Said” and “Boys” (The Beatles covered “Boys”), The Crests’ “Sixteen Candles” and Elvis Presley’s “Big Boss Man.”

Key songs in the Dixon catalog include “Big Boss Man,” “Boys,” “I Don’t Want To Cry,” “Sixteen Candles” and “Soldier Boy.”

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David Foster

To say that everything David Foster touches turns to gold—and usually platinum—would be an understatement.  This stunningly talented songwriter is a 15-time Grammy Award winner with an unprecedented 44 nominations, a recipient of 7 Juno Awards, an Emmy Award in 2004 and a three-time Oscar nominee, all over the course of four extraordinarily successful decades. His newest accolade was his induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2007.  He has worked with the biggest and best talents in the music industry, including Barbra Streisand, Josh Groban, Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, Andrea Bocelli, Michael Buble, Madonna, N’Sync, The Corrs, Natalie Cole, and many more. The good news for the music industry and his followers is that he’s just getting started. 

Key songs in the Foster catalog include “After The Love Is Gone,” “I Have Nothing,” “Look What You’ve Done To Me,” “The Prayer” and “You’re The Inspiration.”

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Mark James

Memphis singer Mark James’ recording of his composition “Suspicious Minds” found its way to producer Chips Momans, who brought it to Elvis Presley. It topped the charts in 1969 for Presley, who hit big again in 1973 with James’ “(You Were) Always On My Mind.” James also wrote B.J. Thomas’s 1968 hit “Hooked On A Feeling” and songs for numerous films including “Kramer vs. Kramer,” “Honeymoon In Vegas” and “Reservoir Dogs.” He composed his first film score for the 2001 short film “Trade Day.”

Key songs in James’ catalog include “(You Were) Always On My Mind,” “Eyes Of A New York Woman,” “Hooked On A Feeling,” “Moody Blue” and “Suspicious Minds.”

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Robert John “Mutt” Lange

An immensely successful rock producer whose credits include Def Leppard, AC/DC, Foreigner, The Cars, Bryan Adams and Shania Twain, Robert John “Mutt” Lange has also enjoyed huge success as a songwriter. Among his major co-writes are “Photograph” and “Rock of Ages” for Def Leppard, and “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You” for Bryan Adams. But he also broke ground in country music, producing Shania Twain’s record-setting 1997 album “Come On Over,” which he co-wrote entirely with Twain.

Key songs in the Lange catalog include “Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car,” “Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman,” “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You,” “Photograph” and “That Don’t Impress Me Much.”

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Jerry Ragovoy / Bert Berns (d)

As a songwriting team, Jerry Ragovoy and the late Bert Berns supplied such classic hits as “Cry Baby” and “Piece Of My Heart”—both of which were immortalized by Janis Joplin (“Cry Baby” had been a hit first for Garnet Mimms, while “Piece Of My Heart” was later countrified by Faith Hill). Both writers also had notable success separately: Ragovoy scored with “Time Is On My Side,” a hit for both Irma Thomas and The Rolling Stones, and Miriam Makeba’s “Pata Pata.” Berns had Them’s hit “Here Comes The Night,” and “Twist And Shout”—a hit for both The Isley Brothers and The Beatles.

Key songs in the Ragovoy and Berns catalogs include “Cry Baby,” “Everybody Needs Somebody To Love,” “Stay With Me,” “Piece Of My Heart” and “Time Is On My Side.”

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Harvey Schmidt & Tom Jones

Composer Harvey Schmidt and lyricist Tom Jones are responsible for “The Fantasticks”--the longest running musical in history. The show ran off-Broadway from 1960 through 2002, and featured the song “Try To Remember”—now a standard. Other Schmidt-Jones musical collaborations included “110 In The Shade,” “I Do! I Do!” (the show that yielded “My Cup Runneth Over,” later a big hit for Ed Ames) and “Celebration.” Additionally, Schmidt composed the music for the 1972 film “Bad Company.” Jones authored the acclaimed book “Making Musicals: An Informal Introduction to the World of Musical Theater.”

Key songs in the Schmidt-Jones catalog include “Much More,” “My Cup Runneth Over,” “Soon It’s Gonna Rain,” “They Were You” and “Try To Remember.”

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Get Out The Vote! And the Nominees are…

The nominees in both the non-performing and performing songwriter categories for induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2010 follow. Note that the five songs listed after the brief biographies of each nominee are merely a representative sample of their extensive catalogs. Please make sure to vote by the December 11th deadline—and congratulations to all the nominees!

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Get Out The Vote! And the Nominees are:

The nominees in both the non-performing and performing songwriter categories for induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2009 follow. Note that the five songs listed after the brief biographies of each nominee are merely a representative sample of their extensive catalogs. Please make sure to vote by the December 12th deadline— and congratulations to all the nominees!

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Stephen Schwartz

Composer Stephen Schwartz made his indelible musical mark in the theater and in film. After writing the title song for the play “Butterflies are Free” while still an a&r executive at RCA Records, he won two Grammy Awards for his contributions to the 1971 hit musical “Godspell,” then wrote lyrics for Leonard Bernstein’s “Mass.” Other theater successes included the Bob Fosse-directed “Pippin” and the music for Doug Henning’s “The Magic Show.” Favoring lyric-writing in the 1990s he co-wrote the Oscar-winning score for the animated feature “Pocahontas” and the theme for “Colors of the Wind,” which earned another Grammy and Oscar. Another Oscar came for the song “When You Believe” from the animated feature “The Prince of Egypt.” He also scored the award-winning 2003 Broadway musical “Wicked.”

Key songs in the Schwartz catalog include “Colors Of The Wind,” “Corner Of The Sky,” ”Day By Day,” “Just Around The Riverbend” and “Popular.”

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Joe South

Songwriter-producer-performer Joe South was an important session guitarist in the 1960s, his estimable credits including Bob Dylan’s “Blonde on Blonde” album. But he was also writing songs like Lynn Anderson’s Grammy-winning signature “(I Never Promised You a) Rose Garden” and Billy Joe Royal’s “Down in the Boondocks” and “Hush” (the latter also a later hit for Deep Purple).” His songwriting prowess paved the way for his own recording career, which was marked by such hits as “Games People Play” and “Don’t It Make You Want to Go Home.”

Key songs in the South catalog include “Down In The Boondocks,” “Games People Play,” “Hush,” “I Never Promised You A Rose Garden” and “Walk A Mile In My Shoes.”

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Galt MacDermot / James Rado / Gerome Ragni (d)

Galt McDermot, James Rado and the late Gerome Ragni wrote the groundbreaking rock musical “Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical,” which furnished such pop hits as “Hair” and “Good Morning Starshine.” Rado and Ragni, who were also actors, later collaborated on the Off-Broadway production “Jack Sound And His Dog Star Blowing His Final Trumpet On The Day Of Doom.” McDermot is also known for scoring productions including “Woman Is Sweeter” and “Rhinoceros” and compositions that have been sampled by hip-hop artists like Busta Rhymes.

Key songs in the McDermot/Rado/Ragni catalog include “Aquarius,” “Easy To Be Hard,” “Good Morning Starshine,” “Hair” and “Let The Sunshine In.”

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Irwin Levine (d) & L. Russell Brown

The team of the late Irwin Levine and L. Russell Brown wrote some 40 songs, including “Tie a Yellow Ribbon,” a 1973 chart-topper for Tony Orlando and Dawn that was covered by Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby. It took a life of its own following the American hostage crisis in Iran and has now been recorded over 2000 times. Levine and Brown also wrote other big hits for Orlando and Dawn, including “Knock Three Times” and “Candida,” while Brown also co-wrote hits for others like Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels’ “Sock it to Me, Baby!” and the Four Seasons’ “C,mon Marianne.”

Key songs in the Levine-Brown catalog include “Candida,” “I Woke Up in Love This Morning,” “Knock Three Times,” “Say Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose” and “Tie a Yellow Ribbon.”

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Sandy Linzer & Denny Randell

As a team, Sandy Linzer and Denny Randell wrote and produced the Toys classic “A Lover’s Concerto” and “Attack!,” and wrote many other pop-rock hits of the 1960s. For Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons they provided “Working My Way Back To You,” “Opus 17 (Don’t You Worry ‘Bout Me),” and (with Bob Crewe) “Let’s Hang On (To What We’ve Got).” The duo also wrote songs for The Monkees and had numerous credits with other writers outside their own partnership.

Key songs in the Linzer/Randell catalog include “Dawn,” “Let ‘s Hang On To What We’ve Got,” “Native New Yorker,” “Opus 17 (Don’t Worry ‘bout Me)” and “Workin’ My Way Back to You.”

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Robert John “Mutt” Lange

An immensely successful rock producer whose credits include Def Leppard, AC/DC, Foreigner, The Cars, Bryan Adams and Shania Twain, Robert John “Mutt” Lange has also enjoyed huge success as a songwriter. Among his major co-writes are “Photograph” and “Rock of Ages” for Def Leppard, and “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You” for Bryan Adams. But he also broke ground in country music, producing Shania Twain’s record-setting 1997 album “Come On Over,” which he co-wrote entirely with Twain.

Key songs in the Lange catalog include “Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car,” “Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman,” “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You,” “Photograph” and “That Don’t Impress Me Much.”

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Mark James

Singer/songwriter Mark James was convinced the recording of his composition “Suspicious Minds” was the song he had been looking for to pitch to Elvis Presley. It topped the charts in 1969 for Presley, who hit big again in 1973 with James’ “(You Were) Always On My Mind.” James also wrote B.J. Thomas’s 1968 hit “Hooked on a Feeling” and songs for numerous films including “Kramer vs. Kramer,” “Honeymoon in Vegas” and “Reservoir Dogs.” He composed his first film score for the 2001 short film “Trade Day.”

Key songs in the James catalog include “(You Were) Always On My Mind,” “Eyes Of A New York Woman,” “Hooked On A Feeling,” “Moody Blue” and “Suspicious Minds.”

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Ivy George Hunter / Mickey Stevenson

Detroit songwriter/producer/singer George Ivy Hunter (who was best known as Ivy Jo Hunter) teamed with Motown a&r director William “Mickey” Stevenson in co-writing some of the greatest songs to come out of the Motown hit factory. Among their most memorable compositions were Martha & the Vandellas’ “Dancing in the Street” and the Four Tops’ “Ask the Lonely.” Hunter and Stevenson also found songwriting success independent of each other, with Hunter contributing to Francis Nero’s “Footsteps Keep Following Me” and Stevenson co-writing Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels’ “Devil with the Blue Dress On.”

Key songs in the Hunter-Stevenson catalog include “Ask the Lonely,” “Beechwood 4-5789,” “Dancing in the Street,” “Danger- Heartbreak Dead Ahead” and “Wild One.”

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Robert Hunter / Jerry Garcia (d) (Grateful Dead)

Robert Hunter is a hero to legions of Grateful Dead fans. He played in a bluegrass band with Jerry Garcia before being enlisted to supply lyrics for such classic Dead songs as “China Cat Sunflower,” “Dark Star” and “Truckin’”—from which came the immortal line “What a long, strange trip it’s been.” While most of his songs were collaborations with Garcia, he also co-wrote with the band’s Bob Weir, Phil Lesh and Ron “Pigpen” McKernan. He has recorded several solo albums as well for the Dead’s label.

Key songs in the Hunter-Garcia catalog include “Casey Jones,” “Ripple,” “Touch Of Grey,” “Truckin’” and “Uncle John’s Band.”

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Tony Hatch

English songwriter/ pianist/ arranger/ producer Tony Hatch wrote Garry Mills’ 1960 U.K. and U.S. hit “Look for a Star,” then went on to produce and write for numerous hit artists on both sides of the Atlantic including Bobby Rydell (“Forget Him”) and the Searchers (“Sugar and Spice”). Most significant was his producer/songwriter relationship with Petula Clark, which yielded such classic British Invasion pop hits as “Downtown” and “I Know a Place.” He wrote more songs with his then wife Jackie Trent (as a performing act they were called “Mr. & Mrs. Music”) and also excelled in composing TV themes, most notably the Australian soap opera “Neighbours.”

Key songs in the Hatch catalog include “Downtown,” “Don’t Sleep In The Subway,” “I Know A Place,” “My Love” and “Sugar and Spice.”

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Roger Cook / Roger Greenaway

Teaming for the first time in English harmony group The Kestrels, Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway began writing songs, scoring with “You’ve Got Your Troubles” for The Fortunes in 1965. They went on to become one of the top songwriting teams of the 1960s and ‘70s, thanks to hits like the Hollies “Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress,” White Plains’ “My Baby Loves Lovin’,” the New Seekers’ “I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing” and The Fortunes’ “Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again.” After their split in 1975, Cook wrote country hits like Crystal Gayle’s “Talking In Your Sleep” and Don Williams “I Believe In You” and became the first Englishman inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. Greenaway took on administrative roles including chairman of the Performing Right Society.

Key songs in the Cook/Greenaway catalog include “Doctor’s Orders,” “Green Grass,” “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing,” “Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress” and “You’ve Got Your Troubles.”

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Tommy Boyce (d) / Bobby Hart

The songwriting team of Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart were responsible for such classic hits by the Monkees as their TV theme song “Hey, Hey We’re the Monkees,” “Last Train to Clarksville” and “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone,” which was also a hit for Paul Revere and the Raiders. The duo’s first hit came in 1964 when Jay and the Americans reached No. 3 with “Come a Little Bit Closer.” Boyce & Hart eventually signed with A&M Records, where they recorded such hits as “I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonight” and “Alice Long (You’re Still My Favorite Girlfriend)” and toured with the Monkees.

Key songs in the Boyce & Hart catalog include “ “Come A Little Bit Closer,” “I’m Not Your Stepping Stone,” “I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonight,” “Last Train To Clarksville” and “Valleri.”

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Bob Seger

Detroit singer-songwriter Bob Seger is a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee thanks to 1970s album rock-era favorites like “Night Moves” and “Old Time Rock & Roll” (a “Songs of the Century” designee). His 1986 hit “Like a Rock” became monumental when it was the centerpiece of a Chevy truck commercial for over a decade. The “heartlands rock” pioneer also co-wrote the Eagles chart-topping “Heartache Tonight.”

Key songs in the Seger catalog include “Like a Rock,” “Night Moves,” “Rock & Roll Never Forgets,” “Still the Same” and “We’ve Got Tonight.”

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Leon Russell

A versatile musician whose session credits ranged from Herb Alpert to Phil Spector, Oklahoma native Leon Russell also had wide-ranging success as a songwriter. His stint as music director for Joe Cocker resulted in his initial songwriting success—Cocker’s 1969 hit “Delta Lady.” He scored his own hit in 1972 with “Tightrope,” and also wrote “Superstar,” which became a big hit for both the Carpenters and Luther Vandross.

Key songs in the Russell catalog include “A Song for You,” “Delta Lady,” “Superstar,” “This Masquerade” and “Tightrope.”

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Steve Miller

Schooled in guitar by his father’s friend Les Paul, Steve Miller picked up heavy blues influences from the likes of T-Bone Walker, Muddy Waters and Buddy Guy, eventually forming his own Steve Miller Blues Band—at one time including pal Boz Scaggs. After removing “Blues” from the band’s name, he became an album rock-era figurehead before breaking through to pop with the chart-topping title track of his 1973 album “The Joker.” “Rock ‘n Me” and “Abracadabra” likewise went to No. 1.

Key songs in the Miller catalog include “Abracadabra, “Fly Like an Eagle,” “Living in the USA, “Take the Money and Run” and “The Joker.”

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Tommy James

With his backing band the Shondells, Tommy James created truly classic pop-rock hits in the late 1960s. “I Think We’re Alone Now,” which broke Top 40 radio ground for its suggestive lyrics, and psychedelic masterpiece “Crimson & Clover” would be hits again much later via respective covers from Tiffany and Joan Jett. James’ 1968 album titletrack “Mony, Mony,” meanwhile, later became a signature song for Billy Idol.

Key songs in the James catalog include “Crimson And Clover,” “Crystal Blue Persuasion,” “Draggin’ The Line, “I Think We’re Alone Now” and “Mony, Mony.”

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John Mellencamp

Finding fame first as rocker Johnny Cougar, John Mellencamp gradually reclaimed his real name while staking out his own singular rock sound. Indeed, songs like “Small Town” and “Cherry Bomb” embodied the genre of music now known as roots rock, or Americana. Together with massive Top 40 hits like “Hurt So Good” and “R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.,” they propelled Mellencamp into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame—one of many honors bestowed on him during his venerable career.

Key songs in the Mellencamp catalog include “Jack and Diane,” “Lonely Ol’ Night,” “Pink Houses,” “Small Town” and “The Authority Song.”

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Yusuf Islam (aka Cat Stevens)

Born Steven Demetre Georgiou and now known as Yusuf Islam following his conversion to Islam, Cat Stevens was one of the most successful singer-songwriters of the 1970s. After securing a U.K. deal with his song “I Love My Dog”—which eventually charted there in 1966—he wrote “Here Comes My Baby,” a hit for the Tremeloes in both the U.K. and U.S. P.P. Arnold’s 1967 British hit of Stevens’”The First Cut Is the Deepest” would later be a U.S. hit for both Rod Stewart and Sheryl Crow; meanwhile, Stevens became a major star on both sides of the Atlantic with his version of “Wild World,” which was a previous hit for Jimmy Cliff in England, and such follow-up hits as “Moon Shadow” and “Peace Train” and “Morning has Broken.”

Key songs in the Islam catalog include “Moonshadow,” “Morning Has Broken,” “Peace Train,” “The First Cut Is The Deepest” and “Wild World.”

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David Gates (Bread)

Keyboardist/vocalist David Gates founded the hugely successful soft-rock group Bread in 1968 as a vehicle for singing his own songs. He wrote most of their trademark hits including “Make It With You,” “Baby I’m-a Want You” and “Everything I Own.” His songs have been covered extensively by others and also include the Murmaids’ 1963 Top 10 entry “Popsicles and Icicles.”

Key songs in the Gates catalog include “Baby I’m-a Want You,” “Diary,” “Everything I Own,” “If” and “Make It With You.”

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Ray Davies (The Kinks)

Ray Davies is the lead singer and chief songwriter for the Kinks, with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones one of the seminal bands of the 1960s British rock invasion. He authored widely-ranging rock song classics like “You Really Got Me” and “Lola” in a historic career commemorated in 1990 by the group’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Davies has also written and performed as a solo artist, mixing Kinks material with his own along with stories from his written works in a “Storyteller” format.

Key songs in the Davies catalog include “Come Dancing,” “Lola,” “Tired of Waiting,” “Well-Respected Man” and “You Really Got Me.”

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David Crosby / Stephen Stills / Graham Nash (Crosby, Stills and Nash)

The Byrds’ David Crosby, Buffalo Springfield’s Stephen Stills and the Hollies’ Graham Nash joined forces as rock’s most important vocal supergroup in 1968. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame trio (intermittently a quartet with the addition of Still’s Buffalo Springfield bandmate Neil Young) brought a focus on complicated harmonies—sometimes in such complex song structures as “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes”—and the flair for melodic pop songwriting from their past groups. Their popularity, like their music, has endured to this day, even as Crosby, Stills and Nash have simultaneously maintained successful solo careers.

Key songs in the David Crosby-Stephen Stills-Graham Nash catalog include “Guinnevere,” “Love The One You’re With,” “Our House,” “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” and “Teach Your Children.”

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Felix Cavaliere / Eddie Brigati

Felix Cavaliere and Eddie Brigati shared both lead vocal and songwriting duties for the 1960s hitmakers the Rascals. Because of the duo’s latter responsibilities, their group scored such classic chart entries as “How Can I Be Sure,” “Groovin’” and “People Got to Be Free.” These hits were marked by such a distinctive mix of r&b and rock, romance and social consciousness, that in 1997 the Rascals were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Key songs in the Cavaliere/Brigati catalog include “Beautiful Morning,” “Groovin’,” “How Can I Be Sure,” “I’ve Been Lonely Too Long” and “People Got To Be Free.”

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Jimmy Buffett

Jimmy Buffett has carved out a unique niche as a singer-songwriter thanks to hits like “Margaritaville,” the 1977 hit that is his signature. The easy-going, laidback tune exemplified a sunny Gulf Coast style that has enamored him to millions of “Parrotheads”—the collective name of his devoted fan base. They turn out ecstatically at concert performances that feature famed parrothead classics also including “Why Don’t We Get Drunk” and “A Pirate Looks at Forty.”

Key songs in the Buffett catalog include “Cheeseburger In Paradise,” “Come Monday,” “Havana Daydreamin’,” “Margaritaville” and “Son Of A Sailor.”

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Benny Andersson/ Stig Anderson(d)/ Björn Ulvaeus (Abba)

Sweden’s international pop phenomenon ABBA took its name from the first-name initials of its four vocalists, two of whom- Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus- collaborated in songwriting along with music publisher Stig Anderson. ABBA (which also included Agnetha Faltskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad) scored huge hits like “Waterloo” and “Dancing Queen” in the 1970s and early ‘80s before disbanding in 1982. But their body of work has only gained in stature, as evidenced by the huge success of jukebox musical “Mama Mia!,” which used ABBA’s music and originally premiered in London in 1999 before transferring to film in 2008.

Key songs in the Andersson-Ulvaeus-Anderson catalog include “Dancing Queen,” “Fernando,” “Name of the Game,” “Take a Chance on Me” and “Waterloo.”

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Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens)

Born Steven Demetre Georgiou and now known as Yusuf Islam following his conversion to Islam, Cat Stevens was one of the most successful singer-songwriters of the 1970s. After securing a U.K. deal with his song “I Love My Dog”—which eventually charted there in 1966—he wrote “Here Comes My Baby,” a hit for the Tremeloes in both the U.K. and U.S. P.P. Arnold’s 1967 British hit of Stevens’”The First Cut Is the Deepest” would later be a U.S. hit for both Rod Stewart and Sheryl Crow; meanwhile, Stevens became a major star on both sides of the Atlantic with his version of “Wild World,” which was a previous hit for Jimmy Cliff in England, and such follow-up hits as “Moon Shadow” and “Peace Train” and “Morning has Broken.”

Key songs in the Islam catalog include “Moonshadow,” “Morning Has Broken,” “Peace Train,” “The First Cut Is The Deepest,” “Wild World,” “Oh, Very Young” and “On The Road To Find Out.”

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Steve Winwood

Only 15 when he joined England’s Spencer Davis Group, Steve Winwood co-wrote and sang on that 1960s band’s hits “Gimme Some Lovin’” and “I’m A Man.” But he left shortly thereafter to form the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame group Traffic, then joined Eric Clapton in the short-lived supergroup Blind Faith—for which he wrote “Can’t Find My Way Home.” After reuniting with Traffic, he went solo and delivered such huge hits as the chart-topping compositions “Higher Love” and “Roll With It.”

Key songs in the Winwood catalog include “While You See A Chance,” “Gimme Some Lovin’,” “Back In The High Life Again,” “Dear Mr. Fantasy,” “Can’t Find My Way Home,” “Higher Love” and “Finer Things.”

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David Gates

Keyboardist/vocalist David Gates founded the hugely successful soft-rock group Bread in 1968 as a vehicle for singing his own songs. He wrote most of their trademark hits including “Make It With You,” “Baby I’m-a Want You” and “Everything I Own.” His songs have been covered extensively by others and also include the Murmaids’ 1963 Top 10 entry “Popsicles and Icicles.”

Key songs in the Gates catalog include “Make It With You,” “Baby I’m-a Want You,” “Everything I Own,” “If,” “It Don’t Matter to Me,” “Diary” and “Lost Without Your Love.”

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Mick Jones/Lou Gramm

English guitarist Mick Jones and American vocalist Lou Gramm formed an exceptional songwriting partnership that provided their arena rock band Foreigner with major hits like “Hot Blooded” and “Urgent.” Other hits showed greater emotional depth, like the power ballad “Waiting For A Girl Like You.” But “I Want To Know What Love Is,” which topped the charts in 1985, featured the New Jersey Mass Choir and Jennifer Holliday in its striking fusion of gospel music and pop.

Key songs in the Jones/Gramm catalog include “Cold As Ice,” “Dirty White Boy,” “Double Vision,” “Head Games,” “Hot Blooded,” “Juke Box Hero” and “Waiting For A Girl Like You.”

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Loretta Lynn

Although country music icon Loretta Lynn came out of a coal mining community in Kentucky, she wrote songs that everyone could relate to (including The White Stripes’ Jack White, who produced her acclaimed 2004 comeback album “Van Lear Rose”). Foremost among them, of course, was the autobiographical “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” a No. 1 country hit in 1970 that became the title of her 1978 autobiography and was later made into an Oscar-winning biopic. The song is also in the Grammy Hall of Fame, and along with other hits like “Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind),” paved the way for her induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Key songs in the Lynn catalog include “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” “Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ On Your Mind),” “Your Squaw Is On The Warpath,” “I’m A Honky-Tonk Girl,” “You Ain’t Woman Enough To Take My Man,” “You’re Lookin’ At Country” and “Rated X.”

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Tom Petty

Tom Petty led his band The Heartbreakers to a unique position in the rock scene of the late 1970s and ‘80s with a distinctively rootsy sound and great songs like “Free Fallin’” and “Don’t Do Me Like That.” Such was his stature that he joined Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, George Harrison and Jeff Lynne in the late ‘80s supergroup Traveling Wilburys. He was rewarded in 2002 with induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Key songs in the Petty catalog include “I Won’t Back Down,” “Breakdown,” “Free Fallin’,” “Refugee,” “Runnin’ Down A Dream,” “Don’t Do Me Like That” and “The Waiting.”

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John Sebastian

John Sebastian was the frontman of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame group The Lovin’ Spoonful, for which he wrote such wonderful hits as “Do You Believe In Magic” and “Summer In The City.” But he also topped the charts solo in 1976 with “Welcome Back,” which was the theme for the hit TV sitcom “Welcome Back Kotter.” More recently he has returned to his folk and jug band roots with a collaboration with legendary bluegrass mandolinist—and former college classmate--David Grisman.

Key songs in the Sebastian catalog include “Do You Believe In Magic,” “Welcome Back,” “(What A Day For A) Daydream,” “Darling Be Home Soon,” “Did You Ever Have To Make Up Your Mind,” “Summer In The City” and “You Didn’t Have To Be So Nice.”

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Paul Vance & Lee Pockriss

Paul Vance and Lee Pockriss wrote several classic pop hits in the 1950s and ‘60s. “Catch A Falling Star” was a major hit in 1957 for Perry Como, and “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini” made a star of Brian Hyland in 1960. The partners also supplied such hits as “Leader Of The Laundromat” by The Detergents, which was a take-off on The Shangri-Las’ “Leader Of The Pack,” and The Cuff Links’ tuneful “Tracy.”

Key songs in the Vance/Pockriss catalog include “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini,” “ Catch a Falling Star,” “Playground in My Mind,” “Dommage Dommage,” “Leader of the Laundromat,” “She Lets Her Hair Down” and “Tracy.”

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John Densmore / Robby Krieger / Ray Manzarek / Jim Morrison (d)

As The Doors, drummer John Densmore, guitarist Robby Krieger, keyboardist Ray Manzarek and vocalist Jim Morrison wrote some of the most important songs of the rock era. Starting with their chart-topping 1967 hit “Light My Fire” the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame group helped define a generation. Its long album track “The End” was the soundtrack centerpiece of the movie “Apocalypse Now,” and the legendary group itself was the subject of the 1991 movie “The Doors.”

Key songs in the Densmore/Krieger/Manzarek/Morrison catalog include “Light My Fire,” “Touch Me,” “Break On Through (To The Other Side),” “Hello, I Love You,” “LA Woman,” “Riders On The Storm” and “People Are Strange.”

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Jon Bon Jovi / Richie Sambora

Vocalist Jon Bon Jovi and guitarist Richie Sambora provided the hits for Bon Jovi, one of the biggest rock acts to emerge in the 1980s. The band’s biggest album, “Slippery When Wet” (1986), yielded two No. 1 singles in “You Give Love A Bad Name” and “Livin’ On A Prayer,” both written by the pair in collaboration with Desmond Child, and two more hits “Wanted Dead Or Alive” and “Never Say Goodbye” penned by the two. Their Grammy-winning 2005 hit “Who Says You Can’t Go Home” even topped the country charts, thanks to help from Sugarland vocalist Jennifer Nettles.

Key songs in the Bon Jovi/Sambora catalog include “Livin’ On A Prayer,” “It’s My Life,” “You Give Love A Bad Name,” “Wanted Dead Or Alive,” “Bad Medicine,” “I’ll Be There For You” and “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead.”

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Robert Lamm / James Pankow

Keyboardist Robert Lamm and trombonist James Pankow are founding members of Chicago-and remain with the trailblazing rock band, which formed
in Chicago in 1967, to this day. The songs that they wrote for the group are among its most enduring and include such signature hits as “Color My World,” “Make Me Smile” and “Saturday In The Park.” Their enormously influential work helped pave the way for jazz-oriented rock.

Key songs in the Lamm/Pankow catalog include “25 Or 6 To 4,” “Color My World,” “Saturday In The Park,” “Make Me Smile,” “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?,” “Wake Up Sunshine” and “Old Days.”

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Elvis Costello

One of the most acclaimed singer-songwriters of the modern rock era, Elvis Costello burst upon the scene in 1977 at the height of the New Wave and has been writing songs—many of which have been covered by artists from Linda Ronstadt to Johnny Cash--at full throttle ever since. But rock is only one of the many genres he has conquered. The indefatigable Costello has also written country and classical music while collaborating with Burt Bacharach and Paul McCartney and earning his way into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Key songs in the Costello catalog include “Alison,” “Oliver’s Army,” “Radio, Radio,” “Watching The Detectives,” “Pump It Up,” “Red Shoes (The Angels Wanna Wear My)” and “Accidents Will Happen.”

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Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel first found fame as lead singer of Genesis. But he made a name for himself in the 1980s with his solo hits—and innovative accompanying videos—“Shock The Monkey” and “Sledgehammer,” as well as “Biko,” his protest song about the South African anti-apartheid activist who died of a head injury while in police custody. The originator of the world music WOMAD Festival, Gabriel has also scored the films “Birdy” and “The Last Temptation of Christ.”

Key songs in the Gabriel catalog include “Sledgehammer,” “Solsbury Hill,” “Biko,” “Red Rain,” “Shock The Monkey,” “Games Without Frontiers” and “Don’t Give Up.”

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Sandy Linzer & Denny Randell

As a team, Sandy Linzer and Denny Randell wrote and produced the Toys classic “A Lover’s Concerto” and “Attack!,” and wrote many other pop-rock hits of the 1960s. For Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons they provided “Working My Way Back To You,” “Opus 17 (Don’t You Worry ‘Bout Me),” and (with Bob Crewe) “Let’s Hang On (To What We’ve Got).” The duo also wrote songs for The Monkees and had numerous credits with other writers outside their own partnership.

Key songs in the Linzer/Randell catalog include “A Lover’s Concerto,” “Workin’ My Way Back to You,” “Let ‘s Hang On To What We’ve Got,” “Native New Yorker,” “Opus 17 (Don’t Worry ‘bout Me),” “Keep the Ball Rollin’” and “Dawn.”

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Alan Menken

Composer/lyricist Alan Menken broke through in 1982 with the Off-Broadway musical “Little Shop Of Horrors,” a collaboration with playwright Howard Ashman. The show went to Broadway and film, and while Menken has also composed musical theater pieces including “God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater” and “A Christmas Carol,” he is best known for the music for numerous Disney animated features including “The Little Mermaid,” “Beauty And The Beast,” “Alladin” (which featured the hit song “A Whole New World”) and “Pocahontas” (“Colors Of The Wind”). His efforts have been rewarded with eight Academy Awards.

Key songs in the Menken catalog include “A Whole New World,” “Under the Sea,” “Be Our Guest,” “Colors of the Wind,” “Go the Distance,” “Here in My Neighborhood: and “Seize the Day.”

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Billy Sherrill

An architect of the “countrypolitan” Nashville sound of the 1960s and ‘70s, producer Billy Sherrill also helped shaped the music with some of the biggest country hits of the period. His 1966 collaboration with Glenn Sutton, David Houston’s hit “Almost Persuaded,” topped the charts for nine weeks and won the Grammy for Best Country & Western Song. That year he also discovered Tammy Wynette, for whom he co-wrote her career-launching “Your Good Girl’s Gonna Go Bad” and signature hit “Stand By Your Man.” He later provided Charlie Rich’s signature hit with “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World.”

Key songs in the Sherrill catalog include “Stand By Your Man,” “The Most Beautiful Girl In The World,” “Almost Persuaded,” “My Elusive Dreams,” “Every Time You Touch Me (I Get High),” “Your Good Girl’s Gonna Go Bad” and “’Til I Can Make It on My Own.”

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Chip Taylor

Chip Taylor has written a number of classic pop and rock songs, solo and in collaboration with others including Billy Vera, Ted Daryll, and Jerry Ragovoy. While he’ll always be famous for writing The Troggs 1966 hit “Wild Thing”—which was memorably covered live by Jimi Hendrix—his other big hits were Merrilee Rush’s “Angel InThe Morning” (also covered by Juice Newton), The Hollies “I Can’t Let Go” and Janis Joplin’s “Try (Just A Little Bit Harder).” More recently he discovered singer/violinist Carrie Rodriguez and has performed and recorded extensively with her since 2001.

Key songs in the Taylor catalog include “Wild Thing,” “Angel Of The Morning, “I Can’t Let Go,” “Storybook Children,” “I Can’t Wait Until I See My Baby’s Face,” “Papa Come Quick” and “Cry.”

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Desmond Child

Desmond Child has been one of the most successful, versatile songwriters in the music business for more than two decades. After starring in the 1970s group Desmond Child & Rouge, he focused on songwriting, his breakthrough coming in 1978 with Kiss’s hit “I Was Made For Loving You.” Continuing to work with rock bands like Bon Jovi and Aerosmith, Child also demonstrated a remarkable knack for writing in all pop genres, thanks to hits like Joan Jett’s “I Hate Myself For Lovin’ You,” Michael Bolton’s “How Can We Be Lovers” and Ricky Martin’s “Livin’ La Vida Loca.”

Key songs in the Child catalog include “Livin’ La Vida Loca,” “Dude Looks Like A Lady,” “Livin’ On A Prayer,” “You Give Love A Bad Name,” “I Hate Myself For Lovin’ You,” “How Can We Be Lovers” and “I Was Made For Lovin’ You.”

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Roger Cook / Roger Greenaway

Teaming for the first time in English harmony group The Kestrels, Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway began writing songs, scoring with “You’ve Got Your Troubles” for The Fortunes in 1965. They went on to become one of the top songwriting teams of the 1960s and ‘70s, thanks to hits like the Hollies “Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress,” White Plains’ “My Baby Loves Lovin’,” the New Seekers’ “I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing” and The Fortunes’ “Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again.” After their split in 1975, Cook wrote country hits like Crystal Gayle’s “Talking In Your Sleep” and Don Williams “I Believe In You” and became the first Englishman inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. Greenaway took on administrative roles including chairman of the Performing Right Society.

Key songs in the Cook/Greenaway catalog include “Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress,” “You’ve Got Your Troubles,” “I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing,” “Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling,” “Doctor’s Orders,” “I Was Kaiser Bill’s Batman” and “Something’s Gotten Hold of My Heart.”

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Graham Gouldman

Graham Gouldman is one of England’s most successful songwriters, penning such classic 1960s hits as “For Your Love” and “Heart Full of Soul” for The Yardbirds, “Bus Stop” and “Look Through Any Window” for The Hollies, and “No Milk Today” and “Listen People” for Herman’s Hermits, while also writing hits for Jeff Beck, Cher and the Shadows. A former member of the Mindbenders, he joined with that band’s Eric Stewart and Kevin Godley and Lol Crème in forming pop group 10cc. For that band he delivered such hits as “The Things We Do For Love.”

Key songs in the Gouldman catalog include “Bus Stop,” “I’m Not In Love,” “For Your Love,” “The Things We Do For Love,” “No Milk Today,” “Look Through Any Window” and “Heart Full Of Soul.”

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Albert Hammond

England’s Albert Hammond has achieved tremendous success on both sides of the Atlantic. With chief collaborator Mike Hazelwood, he wrote “Gimme Dat Ding”—a novelty hit for The Pipkins in 1970, and “It Never Rains In Southern California,” which established Hammond himself as a recording star two years later. Other major hits penned by Hammond include The Hollies’ “The Air That I Breathe,” Leo Sayer’s “When I Need You” and Starship’s “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now.” He also co-wrote with Hal David the huge Willie Nelson and Julio Iglesias duet “To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before.”

Key songs in the Hammond catalog include “It Never Rains In Southern California,” “To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before,” “The Air That I Breathe,” “Nothing’s Going To Stop Us Now,” “When I Need You,” “99 Miles from L.A.” and “Moonlight Lady.”

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Mark James

Memphis singer Mark James’ recording of his composition “Suspicious Minds” found its way to producer Chips Momans, who brought it to Elvis Presley. It topped the charts in 1969 for Presley, who hit big again in 1973 with James’ “(You Were) Always On My Mind.” James also wrote B.J. Thomas’s 1968 hit “Hooked on a Feeling” and songs for numerous films including “Kramer vs. Kramer,” “Honeymoon in Vegas” and “Reservoir Dogs.” He composed his first film score for the 2001 short film “Trade Day.”

Key songs in the James catalog include “Suspicious Minds,” “(You Were) Always On My Mind,” “Hooked On A Feeling,” “Eyes Of A New York Woman,” “Moody Blue,” “Sunday Sunrise” and “Everybody Loves A Rain Song.”

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Tommy Boyce (d) / Bobby Hart

The songwriting team of Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart were responsible for such classic hits by the Monkees as their TV theme song “Hey, Hey We’re the Monkees,” “Last Train to Clarksville” and “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone,” which was also a hit for Paul Revere and the Raiders. The duo’s first hit came in 1964 when Jay and the Americans reached No. 3 with “Come a Little Bit Closer.” Boyce & Hart eventually signed with A&M Records, where they recorded such hits as “I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonight” and “Alice Long (You’re Still My Favorite Girlfriend)” and toured with the Monkees.

Key songs in the Boyce & Hart catalog include “Last Train To Clarksville,” “Come A Little Bit Closer,” “Hey, Hey We’re The Monkees,” “I Wanna Be Free,” “I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonight,” “Valleri” and “I’m Not Your Stepping Stone.”

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Get Out The Vote! And the 2008 Nominees are:

The nominees in both the non-performing and performing songwriter categories for induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2008 follow. Note that the seven songs listed after the brief biographies of each nominee are merely a representative sample of their extensive catalogs. If you are an eligible member, please make sure to vote when your ballot arrives in the mail—and congratulations to all the nominees!

Click the nominees names for full bios

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Galt McDermot / James Rado / Gerome Ragni (d)

Galt McDermot, James Rado and the late Gerome Ragni wrote the groundbreaking rock musical “Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical,” which furnished such pop hits as “Hair” and “Good Morning Starshine.” Rado and Ragni, who were also actors, later collaborated on the Off-Broadway production “Jack Sound And His Dog Star Blowing His Final Trumpet On The Day Of Doom.” McDermot is also known for scoring productions including “Woman Is Sweeter” and “Rhinoceros” and compositions that have been sampled by hip-hop artists like Busta Rhymes.

Key songs in the McDermon/Rado/Ragni catalog include “Aquarius,” “Easy To Be Hard,” “Good Morning Starshine,” “Hair,” “Let The Sunshine In,” “Where Do I Go” and “Frank Mills .”

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2007 Official Ballot

The nominees in both the non-performing and performing songwriter categories for induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2007 follow. Note that the five songs listed after the brief biographies of each nominee are merely a representative sample of their extensive catalogs. Please make sure to vote—and congratulations to all the nominees!

Click the nominees names for full bios

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Cat Stevens

Born Steven Demetre Georgiou and now known as Yusuf Islam following his conversion to Islam, Cat Stevens was one of the most successful singer-songwriters of the 1970s. After securing a U.K. deal with his song “I Love My Dog” — which eventually charted there in 1966 — he wrote “Here Comes My Baby,” a hit for the Tremeloes in both the U.K. and U.S. P.P. Arnold’s 1967 British hit of Stevens’s ”The First Cut Is the Deepest” would later be a U.S. hit for both Rod Stewart and Sheryl Crow; meanwhile, Stevens became a major star on both sides of the Atlantic with his version of “Wild World,” which was a previous hit for Jimmy Cliff in England, and such follow-up hits as “Moon Shadow,” “Peace Train” and “Morning has Broken.”

Key songs in the Stevens catalog include “Moon Shadow,” “Morning Has Broken,” “Peace Train,” “The First Cut Is the Deepest” and “Wild World.”

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Robbie Robertson

With Levon Helm, Rick Danko, Garth Hudson and Richard Manuel, Toronto-born Robbie Robertson backed up rockabilly star Ronnie Hawkins in the Hawks, then served as Bob Dylan’s touring band in 1965 and 1966. They then became the Band, and thanks to such classic songs as “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” and “The Weight” they were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. As a solo artist, Robertson scored Martin Scorsese’s films Raging Bull and The King of Comedy and examined his Native American heritage on songs like “Broken Arrow.”

Key songs in the Robertson catalog include “Broken Arrow,” “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” “The Weight,” “The Shape I’m In” and “Up on Cripple Creek.”

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Leon Russell

A versatile musician whose session credits ranged from Herb Alpert to Phil Spector, Oklahoma native Leon Russell also had wide-ranging success as a songwriter. His stint as music director for Joe Cocker resulted in his initial songwriting success —Cocker’s 1969 hit “Delta Lady.” He scored his own hit in 1972 with “Tightrope,” and also wrote “Superstar,” which became a big hit for both the Carpenters and Luther Vandross.

Key songs in the Russell catalog include “A Song for You,” “Delta Lady,” “Superstar,” “Tightrope” and “This Masquerade.”

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Gordon Lightfoot

Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot came to fame first in the 1960s when his compositions became hits for other artists, among them Peter, Paul & Mary (“Early Morning Rain”) and Marty Robbins (“Ribbon of Darkness”). He came into his own as an artist during the following decade with such original folk-pop hits as “If You Could Read My Mind,” “Sundown” and the contemporary Great Lakes shipwreck narrative “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”

Key songs in the Lightfoot catalog include “Carefree Highway,” “Early Morning Rain,” “If You Could Read My Mind,” “Sundown” and “Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald.”

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Jimmy Page/Robert Plant/John Paul Jones/John Bonham (d)

As Led Zeppelin, guitarist Jimmy Page, vocalist Robert Plant, bassist John Paul Jones and drummer John Bonham embodied and defined the emerging rock genre of heavy metal. During their heyday in the 1970s they contributed such classic hit songs as “Stairway to Heaven” and “Whole Lotta Love” to the singles charts and history books. They were rewarded in 1995 with induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Key songs in the Page/Plant/Jones/Bonham catalog include “Communication Breakdown,” “Immigrant Song,” “Lemon Song,” “Stairway To Heaven” and “Whole Lotta Love.”

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Lou Reed

Lou Reed began the songwriting side of his influential music career as an in-house songwriter for Pickwick Records, delivering a hit in 1964 with the novelty dance hit “The Ostrich.” The Primitives were formed as a band to support it, and also included Welsh musician John Cale, with whom Reed would form the Velvet Underground in 1965 along with Sterling Morrison and Maureen Tucker. The historic group helped pave the way for the punk rock explosion of the 1970s, with songs like “Heroin” and “Sweet Jane.” They were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1996, long after Reed had established himself as a major solo singer-songwriter thanks to such titles as “Walk on the Wild Side” and “Dirty Boulevard.”

Key songs in the Reed catalog include “Dirty Boulevard,” “Heroin,” “Rock & Roll,” “Sweet Jane” and “Walk on the Wild Side.”

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Ray Davies

Ray Davies is the lead singer and chief songwriter for the Kinks, with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones one of the seminal bands of the 1960s British rock invasion. He authored widely-ranging rock song classics like “You Really Got Me” and “Lola” in a historic career commemorated in 1990 by the group’s induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Davies has also written and performed as a solo artist, mixing Kinks material with his own along with stories from his written works in a “Storyteller” format.

Key songs in the Davies catalog include “Lola,” “Tired of Waiting,” “Well-Respected Man,” “Waterloo Sunset” and “You Really Got Me”

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David Gates

Keyboardist/vocalist David Gates founded the hugely successful soft-rock group Bread in 1968 as a vehicle for singing his own songs. He wrote most of their trademark hits including “Make It With You,” “Baby I’m-a Want You” and “Everything I Own.” His songs have been covered extensively by others and also include the Murmaids’ 1963 Top 10 entry “Popsicles and Icicles.”

Key songs in the Gates catalog include “Baby I’m-a Want You,” “Everything I Own,” “If,” “Make It With You” and “The Goodbye Girl.”

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Merle Haggard

An architect of the Bakersfield Sound in country music, Merle Haggard has long been cited as the genre’s poet of the common working man — which he extolled in songs like “Workin’ Man Blues” and “White Line Fever.” His songwriting has been personal, as in such hits as “Mama Tried” and “Branded Man,” political (“Okie from Muskogee” and “The Fightin’ Side of Me”) and romantic (“Today I Started Loving You Again” and “If We Make It Through December”). His music also combined such major influences as western swing, jazz and blues, in addition to traditional country. His celebrated career was consecrated in 1994 with his induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Key songs in the Haggard catalog include “Mama Tried,” “Okie from Muskogee,” “Sing Me Back Home,” “Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down” and “Today I Started Lovin’ You Again.”

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Felix Cavaliere/Eddie Brigati

Felix Cavaliere and Eddie Brigati shared both lead vocal and songwriting duties for the 1960s hitmakers the Rascals. Because of the duo’s latter responsibilities, their group scored such classic chart entries as “How Can I Be Sure,” “Groovin’” and “People Got to Be Free.” These hits were marked by such a singular mix of r&b and rock, romance and social consciousness, that in 1997 the Rascals were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Key songs in the Cavaliere/Brigati catalog include “Beautiful Morning,” “Groovin’,” “How Can I Be Sure,” “I’ve Been Lonely Too Long” and “People Got To Be Free.”

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Leonard Cohen

Canadian singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen turned to songwriting after establishing himself as an acclaimed novelist and poet. His resultant songs have earned him an adoring following of music fans and fellow artists, including Judy Collins, who expanded his audience in 1966 when she recorded his song “Suzanne” (actor/singer Noel Harrison also had a hit with it) and Jennifer Warnes, who had been a backup singer for Cohen before releasing her own acclaimed album of his material, “Famous Blue Raincoat,” in 1987. His uniquely intelligent output was celebrated earlier this year with the documentary “Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man.”

Key songs in the Cohen catalog include “Bird on the Wire,” “Hallelujah,” “Hey That’s No Way to Say Goodbye,” “So Long Marianne” and “Suzanne.”

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Jackson Browne

Jackson Browne has come to epitomize the term singer-songwriter. His songs stand out as paragons of both personal and political songwriting and have been recorded by Linda Ronstadt and the Byrds, with “Take It Easy,” which he co-wrote with the Eagles’ Glenn Frey, giving that band its first big hit. But he remains best known for his own hits like “Running On Empty” and “Doctor My Eyes,” and was rewarded for his achievements in 2004 with his induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Key songs in the Brown catalog include “Doctor My Eyes,” “Rock Me on the Water,” “Running on Empty,” “Take It Easy” and “The Pretender.”

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Bobby Weinstein/Teddy Randazzo (d)

Foremost among the many songs that the team of Bobby Weinstein and Teddy Randazzo wrote was “Goin’ Out of My Head,” a hit for Little Anthony & the Imperials, which tallied over six million performances, and “Hurt So Bad,” also a hit for Little Anthony & the Imperials, that accounted for over four million performances. The duo also wrote such classics as “Gonna Take a Miracle,” “I’m on the Outside Looking In,” “Pretty Blue Eyes” and “Have You Looked into Your Heart,” and continued writing together until Randazzo’s death in 2003.

Key songs in the Weinstein/Randazzo catalog include “Goin’ Out Of My Head,” “Hurts So Bad,” “Gonna Take A Miracle,” “I’m On The Outside Looking In” and “Pretty Blue Eyes.”

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Billy Sherrill

An architect of the “countrypolitan” Nashville sound of the 1960s and ’70s, producer Billy Sherrill also helped shaped the music with some of biggest country hits of the period. His 1966 collaboration with Glenn Sutton, David Houston’s hit “Almost Persuaded,” topped the charts for nine weeks and won the Grammy for Best Country & Western Song. That year he also discovered Tammy Wynette, for whom he co-wrote her career-launching “Your Good Girl’s Gonna Go Bad” and signature hit “Stand By Your Man.” He later provided Charlie Rich’s signature hit with “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World.”

Key songs in the Sherrill catalog include “Almost Persuaded,” “Every Time You Touch Me,” “My Elusive Dreams,” “Stand By Your Man” and “The Most Beautiful Girl In The World.”

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Artie Resnick/Kenny Young

Artie Resnick and Kenny Young came out of the Brill Building songwriting scene. Together they co-wrote the Drifters’ “Under the Boardwalk” and Ronnie Dove’s “One Kiss for Old Times Sake.” Resnick went on to co-write the Rascals’ “Good Lovin’” and was also a member of the bubblegum rock trio the Third Rail of “Run, Run, Run” fame. Young had his own songwriting and performing success as well, penning hits for Herman’s Hermits and Quincy Jones and recording solo and in bands including Fox and Yellow Dog.

Key songs in the Resnick/Young catalog include “Good Lovin’” (Artie Resnick/Rudy Clark), “I’ve Got Sand In My Shoes,” “Little Bit Of Heaven,” “One Kiss For Old Times Sake” and “Under the Boardwalk.”

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Clyde Otis

From his a&r perch at Mercury Records in the late 1950s, Clyde Otis wrote and produced numerous hits for Brook Benton, most notably “It’s Just a Matter of Time,” “Endlessly,” “So Many Ways,” “Kiddio” and “The Boll Weevil Song.” Other artists who recorded his songs included Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, Johnny Mathis and Patti Page. He also produced Benton’s duets with Dinah Washington as well as solo hits for Washington, Sarah Vaughan, Timi Yuro and the Diamonds. He later produced in Nashville for country stars including Charlie Rich and Sonny James.

Key songs in the Otis catalog include “Endlessly,” “Come Back My Love,” “It’s Just A Matter of Time,” “Kiddio” and “What’sa Matter Baby (Is It Hurting You)?”

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Stephen Schwartz

Composer Stephen Schwartz made his indelible musical mark in the theater and in film. After writing the title song for the play Butterflies Are Free while still an a&r executive at RCA Records, he won two Grammy Awards for his contributions to the 1971 hit musical Godspell, then wrote lyrics for Leonard Bernstein’s “Mass.” Other theater successes included the Bob Fosse-directed Pippin and the music for Doug Henning’s The Magic Show. Favoring lyric-writing in the 1990s, he co-wrote the Oscar-winning score for the animated feature Pocahontas and the theme for Colors of the Wind, which earned another Grammy and Oscar. Another Oscar came for the song “When You Believe” from the animated feature The Prince of Egypt. He also scored the award-winning 2003 Broadway musical Wicked.

Key songs in the Schwartz catalog include “Colors Of The Wind,” “Corner Of The Sky,” “Day By Day,” “Popular” and “When You Believe.”

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Michael Masser

Songwriter/producer Michael Masser first came to fame with “Touch Me in the Morning,” the hit power ballad that he wrote and produced for Diana Ross in 1973. With Gerry Goffin he then wrote the Oscar-nominated Ross movie “Theme from ‘Mahogany’ (Do You Know Where You’re Going To?).” He later wrote for George Benson (the original version of “The Greatest Love of All”) and Neil Diamond (“First You Have to Say You Love Me”) and also wrote the Roberta Flack/Peabo Bryson hit “Tonight, I Celebrate My Love.” After Teddy Pendergrass scored in the Masser-penned “Hold Me” duet with newcomer Whitney Houston, he co-wrote three Houston chart-toppers, “Saving All My Love for You,” “The Greatest Love of All,” and “Didn’t We Almost Have It All.”

Key songs in the Masser catalog include “Didn’t We Almost Have It All?,” “Do You Know Where You’re Going To? (Theme From ‘Mahogany’),” “The Greatest Love Of All,” “Saving All My Love For You” and “Touch Me In The Morning.”

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Sandy Linzer & Denny Randell

As a team, Sandy Linzer and Denny Randell wrote and produced the Toys classic “A Lover’s Concerto” and “Attack!,” and wrote many other pop-rock hits of the 1960s. For Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons they provided “Working My Way Back To You,” “Opus 17 (Don’t You Worry ‘Bout Me),” and (with Bob Crewe) “Let’s Hang On (To What We’ve Got).” The duo also wrote songs for the Monkees and had numerous credits with other writers outside their own partnership.

Key songs in the Linzer & Randell catalog include “A Lover’s Concerto,” “Let’s Hang On To What We’ve Got,” “Native New Yorker,” “Opus 17 (Don’t Worry ‘bout Me)” and “Workin’ My Way Back to You.”

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Mark James

Memphis singer Mark James’s recording of his composition “Suspicious Minds” found its way to producer Chips Momans, who brought it to Elvis Presley. It topped the charts in 1969 for Presley, who hit big again in 1973 with James’s “(You Were) Always on My Mind.” James also wrote B.J. Thomas’s 1968 hit “Hooked on a Feeling” and songs for numerous films including Kramer vs. Kramer, Honeymoon in Vegas and Reservoir Dogs. He composed his first film score for the 2001 short film Trade Day.

Key songs in James’s catalog include “(You Were) Always on My Mind,” “Eyes of a New York Woman,” “Hooked on a Feeling,” “Moody Blue” and “Suspicious Minds.”

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Albert Hammond

England’s Albert Hammond has achieved tremendous success on both sides of the Atlantic. With chief collaborator Mike Hazelwood, he wrote “Gimme Dat Ding” — a novelty hit for the Pipkins in 1970, and “It Never Rains in Southern California,” which established Hammond himself as a recording star two years later. Other major hits penned by Hammond include the Hollies’ “The Air That I Breathe,” Leo Sayer’s “When I Need You” and Starship’s “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now.” He also co-wrote with Hal David the huge Willie Nelson and Julio Iglesias duet “To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before.”

Key songs in Hammond’s catalog include “It Never Rains in Southern California,” “Moonlight Lady,” “Nothing’s Going To Stop Us Now,” “To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before” and “The Air That I Breathe.”

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Robert Hunter

Robert Hunter is a hero to legions of Grateful Dead fans. He played in a bluegrass band with Jerry Garcia before being enlisted to supply lyrics for such classic Dead songs as “China Cat Sunflower,” “Dark Star” and “Truckin’” — from which came the immortal line “What a long, strange trip it’s been.” While most of his songs were collaborations with Garcia, he also co-wrote with the band’s Bob Weir, Phil Lesh and Ron “Pigpen” McKernan. He has recorded several solo albums as well for the Dead’s label.

Key songs in Hunter’s catalog include “Friend of the Devil,” “Ripple,” “Touch of Grey,” “Truckin’” and “Uncle John’s Band.”

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Tommy Boyce (d)/Bobby Hart

The songwriting team of Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart were responsible for such classic hits by the Monkees as their TV theme song “Hey, Hey We’re the Monkees,” “Last Train to Clarksville” and “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone,” which was also a hit for Paul Revere and the Raiders. The duo’s first hit came in 1964 when Jay and the Americans reached No. 3 with “Come a Little Bit Closer.” Boyce & Hart eventually signed with A&M Records, where they recorded such hits as “I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonight” and “Alice Long (You’re Still My Favorite Girlfriend)” and toured with the Monkees.

Key songs in the Boyce & Hart catalog include “Come A Little Bit Closer,” “Hey, Hey We’re The Monkees,” “I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonight?,” “Last Train To Clarksville” and “Valleri.”

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Don Black

Lyricist/lbrettist Don Black collaborated with Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber on such hit musicals as Tell Me on a Sunday, Sunset Boulevard and Aspects of Love. He also teamed with composer John Barry on the theme songs for the James Bond movies Thunderball, Diamonds Are Forever, and Man with the Golden Gun. Other pairings include Quincy Jones on the movie soundtrack for The Italian Job. Additionally, Black has penned such major pop hits as Michael Jackson’s “Ben,” Hot Chocolate’s “I’ll Put You Together Again,” and the enduring movie theme “To Sir With Love.”

Key songs in Black’s catalog include “Born Free,” “Come September,” “Diamonds Are Forever,” “For Mama” and “To Sir With Love.”

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