The SongWriter's Studio
P.O.Box 210902
Nashville, Tennessee 37221
Phone:(615) 952-2138
REAL STORIES ABOUT SONGS AND SONGWRITERS
These are true stories about songs and songwriting. Enjoy...
A MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR FLUKE:
It’s the early 1980’s, and Michael Jackson is ready to record a new album. Quincy Jones put out the word that Michael was seeking songs for this album. One person he contacted was David Paich, the keyboard player in the rock band Toto. David was a long term veteran of the LA session scene, and had written the huge hit "Lowdown". David responded to Quincy’s request by preparing a cassette of three songs. Looking around the studio for a cassette to put them on, he found one and copied over the songs. Several weeks went by. Quincy Jones called and said Michael really liked one of the songs, but it wasn’t included on the label. David asked what song it was, and they said the "fourth" song on the tape. David said he had only copied three songs. He asked them to play him the song, and discovered it was not one of his. It seems he co-owned his studio with the synthesizer player in Toto, Steve Porcaro. A few weeks before Steve’s daughter had a problem with some of her friends at school and when confiding to her father about it, he responded "It’s just human nature". Like many songwriters, he thought his statement might make a good hook for a song, so he sat down at the piano and wrote a tune, bringing in the hook here and there. He played it on cassette over and over, and then forgot about it. Luckily for him, the cassette his studio buddy picked up was that tape, and enough of the song remained at the end to catch attention. When David called Steve up and said, they’re interested in your song, Steve was amazed. Surely they couldn’t be, it was just a rough version, and there were NO words beyond the hook. Quincy said they really liked the song, but needed to get into the studio with it immediately. He told Steve it was no problem finishing up the lyrics, and phoned up a lyricist friend of his, John Bettis. John had many hits to his credit including "Slow Hand" and "Top of the World" . Bettis first turned Quincy down, telling him he didn’t have the time. But Quincy was persistent, and John agreed to give it a try. Two days later, he presented his efforts. Quincy, Steve and above all, Michael all loved it. Soon it was recorded and became part of THRILLER. Who would know that this was to become the biggest selling record of all time. HUMAN NATURE also became a single, charting at number seven. With sales in excess of forty-five million, this song made Steve and John both multi-millions. A song that was never originally finished - never actually pitched - and recorded on a rough piano/vocal demo. This proves it can happen!
THE LITTLE RESTAURANT
When I first moved to Nashville in 1987, I moved into a townhouse next to Westside Athletic Club. I commented to my wife that it would probably be nice to be a member.
She wanted a part time job, and soon applied to work in the restaurant. This gave her a membership, and soon we were working out and having a great time. The manager of the restaurant was Larry Willoughby and the cook was Jackson Leap. We found out that Larry had a record deal once, quite a few cuts and was related to Rodney Crowell. Jackson had written a number one song for Reba - "I’ve Got a Deal For You", and had other cuts besides. Times had changed a bit, and here they both were working in a small restaurant. Jackson said that his draw at the Publishing Company had eaten up most of the money from his hit, and by cooking the money from the next big one would be all his.
Of course, seen as a cook, thought of as a cook, and Jackson wasn’t exactly at the top of the music world. Larry left, and enter another manager, John Hansel. He too leaves, and Jackson has now spent several years cooking. But all the time he is still writing. One day John phones him up, and tells Jackson that he is sitting with Harlon Howard. Jackson doesn’t believe him and says "put him on the phone". Next thing Jackson is speaking with Harlon. In a sort of joking way, Jackson states he is as good a writer as Harlon. Quite a statement to the king of country songwriting. Harlon tells Jackson to come on over and prove it. Jackson came, and the rest is history. Harlon felt so strongly about Jackson’s writing, that he convinced Jackson he needed to be the first writer at his new publishing company. Just the week before, Jackson was considering applying to work at the new Home Depot. Now he had Harlon handing him a $25,000 advance. Harlon proved to be right about Jackson’s talent. The second year at Harlon’s company, Jackson had nearly twenty major cuts and several hit singles. I remember attending a party years later to celebrate the publishing of Jackson’s book ( Rhyme and Reason - available at amazon.com ). A mutual friend turned to me and said " Can you believe Jackson just got, not one, but two cuts on the new George Strait album !". Jackson told me once that he rises up very early in the morning, around four AM, and writes until 6 AM. No family, no phones, no TV - just the music. He finds that the perfect creative time. That way he can spend his day with his family and doing business, and still continue to be creative.
By the way, Larry Willoughby, the original restaurant manager went on to be the A&R director at MCA Nashville for nearly all of the mega successful 1990’s. The little restaurant that could.
THUNDER AND LIGHTNING STRIKES
A neighbor of mine who has had quite a successful songwriting career, Richard Ross, stopped by one day with some good news. It was a done deal that Tanya Tucker was going to record a song of his on her next album. This was in the mid 1990’s when she still sold Platinum. He said this cut would be good s money in the bank. He could pay off his credit cards, pay off his house, buy a new car and more. He was so excited. Several weeks passed and I saw him at a session. I asked about the Tanya cut. He turned and said "Don’t ask" in sort of a downtrodden way. He then went on to explain that Tanya had indeed took the song into the studio. In fact, she loved it. It was the fourth song in a four song session. Just as the band started to play it a powerful storm sent out a bolt of lightning. Off went the power. Everyone sat around and waited. Soon it was evident that the session wouldn’t continue. They packed it up. A few days later another session for the album was scheduled. The producer picked up where they had left off, with Richard’s song. Tanya immediately spoke up, telling everyone that she didn’t want to do the song anymore, calling it "jinxed". She couldn’t be talked out of it, and the song that was supposed to be the answer to Richard’s dreams was never recorded. Talk about bad luck !