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Personal favourite and uniquely talented successful writer, cartoonist and story teller Shel Silverstein wrote "The Unicorn", "Sylvia's Mother", "Corner Of The Rolling Stone", "Marie Laveau" and some of the best country songs ever including "A Boy Named

Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn wrote "I Fall In Love Too Easily" for the 1945 Oscar winning Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson, Gene Kelly musical comedy movie "Anchors Away". The Chairman of the Board sang the song as heard in this clip from the soundtrack.

Jerry Butler and The Impressions (Curtis Mayfield, Sam Gooden, brothers Arthur and Richard Brooks) reached number eleven on the Billboard pop and number three R&B charts in 1958 with "For Your Precious Love" (Arthur Brooks - Richard Brooks - Jerry

Mark Weitz and Ed King of Thee Sixpence came up with an instrumental that eventually became the chart topping "Incense And Peppermints". Wikipedia "Thee Sixpence members expressed a dislike for the song lyrics (which John S. Carter wrote, relying on a

Loleatta Holloway recorded "Our Love" (Chuck Jackson - Marvin Yancy) on her 1973 debut album "Loleatta". This was produced by her husband, Floyd Smith. Natalie Cole goes through some vocal exercises on her cover of "Our Love" from the 1977 album

At the time of the home recording of "Misunderstanding" the title had not been assigned and the track was simply labelled "D Minor Swing" by Phil Collins. The lyrics were written by Phil later. The tune was meant for Phil's debut solo album but eventually

Here is the demo recording of the Phil Collins hit "In The Air Tonight". It's been revealed that Phil wrote this while grieving his 1980 divorce. The first solo single from Phil Collins was "In The Air Tonight". This was the lead single from the 1981 LP

The standard "Just Friends" (Sam M. Lewis - John Klenner) was introduced to the world by Red (William) McKenzie and His Orchestra in 1931. For some reason the single went virtually unrecognized. Red was a talent scout and an actual jazz comb player in the

Country singer and songwriter Merle Kilgore composed "More And More". "The Tall Texan" featured Sonny James on the fiddle on this 1954 Dallas made recording. Merle has co-written "Ring Of Fire", "The Folk Singer" and "Wolverton Mountain". About three

When she was just eighteen years old in 1961, attending her first year at university in Nashville, when Carla Thomas recorded "Gee Whiz (Look At His Eyes)" (Carla Thomas) in just one take. The single from her album of the same name hit number five R&B

"Never Tear Us Apart" (Andrew Farriss - Michael Hutchence) started out as a blues piece as witnessed in this demo. Kirk Pengilly is on saxophone. This is from the INXS twenty-fifth anniversary release of "Kicks". Australia's INXS (lead vocalist Michael

Johnny Marvin and his ukulele with a small orchestra conducted by Nat Shilkret were first to record the vaudeville classic "'Deed I Do" (Fred Rose - Walter Hirsch) in 1926. For a quarter of the century Johnny recorded under various monikers: Honey Duke,

Geoffrey Turton sang with Britain's Rockin' Berries and The Fortunes during the sixties. As a solo Geoff changed his name to "Jefferson" and was the first to issue "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)" (Tony Macaulay - Barry Mason). Geoff found success in

British actor, singer and songwriter Anthony Newley recorded several releases of "What Kind Of Fool Am I" (Anthony Newley - Leslie Bricusse). This is simply one of the many. Anthony sang the song in the musical "Stop The World, I Want To Get Off" and won

Scotty Emerick wrote "As Good As I Once Was" with Toby Keith. Scotty performs this with the appropriate audience yells at the 2012 Key West Songwriters Festival. Scotty has written dozens of songs with Toby Keith and has played with Toby overseas and on

Marion Cletus "Chuck" Cannon Jr. was born and raised in South Carolina and moved to Nashville to attend Belmont University. Within just a few years he was signed to a songwriting contract. As his career progressed he and Toby Keith starting working

Beale Avenue has been a tourist attraction for the city of Memphis for over a century. The area is now filled with great food, music and if you take the time, great characters. In 1916 William Christopher Handy wrote "Beale Street Blues" and that

Produced by Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman, this is the original "Fox on The Run" from the 1974 U.K./European RCA label edition of "Desolation Boulevard" by Sweet (Brian Connolly, Steve Priest, Andy Scott and Mick Tucker). Eventually this became the first

"It's A Man's World" (James Brown - Betty Jean Newsome) was recorded in Chicago in 1964. Lead vocalist Betty Jean Newsome was a backing singer and dancer for James Brown. Recorded in just two takes at the NYC studio in 1966 "It's A Man's, Man's World"

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band perform "Light Of Day'" (Bruce Springsteen) during a May, 1988 concert at New York City's Madison Square Garden. Bruce wrote the song specifically for the movie. "Light Of Day" was introduced by Michael J. Fox

Former lead singer for Boy Howdy, Jeffrey Steele (LeVasseur) and former lead guitarist for NRBQ, Al Anderson wrote "Unbelievable". Jeffrey sings his version of the Country hit. Wikipedia "Jeffrey Steele wrote a song, 'When Johnny Comes Marching Home'

Composer, son of a cantor, actor, pianist and Academy Award winner Sammy Fain (Feinberg) sings "You Brought A New Kind Of Love To Me" (Sammy Fain - Irving Kahal - Pierre Norman) written for the 1930 film "The Big Pond". Maurice Chevalier sang "You

Robert Tepper performed at the Chinese food/music room Genghis Cohen in Los Angeles in 2012. Robert co-authored "Into The Night". Robert wrote and sang "No Easy Way Out" that hit the top forty after it was used in the 1985 movie "Rocky lV". Mr. Tepper

OBE songwriter extraordinaire, pianist, guitarist and Emmy winner Albert Hammond contributed to "I Need To Be In Love" (Richard Carpenter - Albert Hammond - John Bettis). This track is from the 2012 LP "Legend ll". There is a tonnage of Albert Hammond

The songwriting dream team of Diane Warren and Albert Hammond wrote "I Don't Wanna Live Without Your Love". Diane has won a ton of ASCAP Awards, a Golden Globe, Grammy, Billboard Music Award and an Emmy. Albert is in The Songwriter's Hall Of Fame,

In 1912 Charles "Luckey" Roberts composed the ragtime "Ripples Of The Night". The tune was extremely fast and needed a master to play it, Luckey did that with very large and wide hands. James Price Johnson was considered such a master but even he couldn't

Extraordinary musician, producer, songwriter, guitarist for Sam Cooke and lead singer of The Valentinos, Bobby Womack included "If You Think You're Lonely Now" on the 1981 LP "The Poet". As a 1982 single the song peaked at number three on the Soul chart,

The Van Passel Brothers (Eddy and Danny) recorded an unreleased demo of "If We Can Start All Over" in 1993. Following in excess a decade regarding plagiarism the Brussels Supreme Court ruled that at least three quarters of "If We Can Start All Over" can

The tunes "Thrills That I Can't Forget", "I'm Thinking Tonight Of My Blue Eyes" and "The Great Speckled Bird" provide the basis for "Wild Side Of Life". Jimmie Heap and His Melody Masters (vocalist Houston "Perk" Williams, Horace Barnett, Arlie Carter,

Martin Gore was the principal songwriter and founding member for England's Depeche Mode. He went into the studio with this first take of "Enjoy The Silence" recorded at his home studio in 1989. Fellow Depeche Mode member Alan Wilder insisted on recording

The 1930 Fred and Adele Astaire musical "Smiles" included "You’re Driving Me Crazy!" (Walter Donaldson). The song was issued before the musical came into being. Rudy Vallee and His Connecticut Yankees were first to release the song to the public. This is

"Sweet Love" (Gary Bias - Louis A. Johnson - Anita Baker) is performed by co-composer Gary Bias and The Jackson Garrett Band on April 17, 2011 at The Annenberg Theater in Palm Springs, California. Gary is the long time saxophonist for Earth Wind and Fire.

In 1966 The Beatles released "Eleanor Rigby" from the LP "Revolver". According to Paul McCartney ""I was sitting at the piano when I thought of it. The first few bars just came to me, and I got this name in my head ... "Daisy Hawkins picks up the rice in

Singer, songwriter and guitarist Bob King wrote "It Must be Jesus" and sang lead with his group The Southern Tones on this 1954 release. When the group broke up Bob joined The Soul Stirrers as their first guitarist. Bob passed of kidney failure a year