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At the end of the first verse of the new Dan + Shay single, Shay Mooney’s voice cracks as he addresses a stunning woman in a bar, “I’m beggin’ you please.”
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Mooney is a singer with enormous control, and his request isn’t for her to accompany him home; overpowered by the expectation that she’ll break his heart, the protagonist instead asks her to leave him alone. Mooney’s small vocal imperfection speaks loudly in the context of a blistering performance.
“I thought that line was really important to set up that chorus,” says the group’s Dan Smyers, who co-produced “Save Me the Trouble” with Scott Hendricks (Blake Shelton, Brooks & Dunn). “‘I’m begging you, please’ — that’s kind of you putting your fist on the table and saying, ‘I’m vulnerable. I’m defenseless.’
“Shay is the greatest singer to ever do it, you know. He’s my favorite singer I’ve ever heard. I’ve never heard him hit a sour note, and I’ve recorded a lot of his notes. But man, that line is great.”
“Save Me the Trouble,” which Warner Music Nashville released to country radio via PlayMPE on July 13, is an important single for the duo, the first since it experienced some inner turmoil, debated the future of the act, then refocused its energy on moving forward. It was so important that the pair set aside an entire day at Nashville’s Ocean Way to record the one song, which begins as a spare country track, reestablishes the duo’s powerful harmonies, then transforms into a pop symphony with a momentary touch of prog-rock drama before a stark, a cappella close.
“It just felt very adult. It felt very professional, but at the same time, very grassroots and very natural and genuine,” Mooney says of that session. “After the first time through, I was like, ‘Oh, my God. Damn. This is another level.’”
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The foundation for that level was established Jan. 12 during a songwriting session at the East Nashville home studio of Jordan Reynolds (“Speechless,” “Tequila”), where they were joined by Ashley Gorley (“Last Night,” “Girl in Mine”) and Jordan Minton (“Best Thing Since Backroads,” “Good Time”). They set out to develop something that would provide a big concert moment, or a head-turning performance for an awards show.
“We definitely spent a lot of time that day figuring out what that kind of sonically would be for them,” says Minton. “Something that’s kind of big, anthemic, still feels like them — [with] fresh radio melodies that are really wide and big for Shay to sing.”
Smyers provided a title, “Save Me the Trouble,” that he had heard in a conversation, and they developed it as a barroom snapshot of a guy who recognizes the woman tempting him would only break his heart. They wrote the chorus first, in 6/8 time, using the title in the stanza’s opening line with drawn-out notes that allowed the duo to highlight its exacting harmonies. Halfway through the section, they changed pace with a rhythmic bounce, then reaffirmed the title twice more.
Mooney took the lead on the verse melody, pitching it in the bottom part of his range as they focused on the opening lines.“In that lower register, it gives you somewhere to go,” he says.
Gorley established key parts of the chord structure on piano and mapped out a general plot overview.“He’s just so smart at knowing what a song needs and going, ‘All right, so we’ve got this in the chorus and the first verse; this is what the second verse should be about,’” says Reynolds about the veteran songwriter. “Everybody’s like, ‘Yeah, that is exactly what it needs.’ He introduces a great vibe and a knowledge and wisdom of songs, whether he is contributing a lot or a little.”
In verse two, they revisited the bouncy rhythmic idea, with Mooney changing the melody from the first verse in a way that temporarily reflected a cheery “just a little kiss” fantasy, before the protagonist remembers that this woman is a heartbreaker. “We always love doing that in the second verse: changing it a little bit just to give it somewhere to go,” Mooney says. “It’s not anything insane. It gives it enough [difference] that it’s something intriguing that you’re listening for the second time around.”
The song remains open-ended — it’s not clear whether the character takes the woman at the bar home — though the writers have an idea about it. “I think he does not,” says Minton. “I think the whole night is kind of in his head.”
Reynolds and Smyers worked on a demo when the song was finished, with Reynolds building out the instrumentals in the studio and Smyers editing vocals in a bedroom closet. “It’s a leftover closet for guitar cases and awards that I don’t know what to do with,” Reynolds says. “There’s stuff everywhere, and it’s not big, maybe four by five [feet]. It’s got shelves, so he just sets his laptop on a shelf, stands there and works, closes the door. I think it’s the most dead room in the house, but he’s never recording anything, so it doesn’t matter.”
Smyers felt enormous pressure when they brought it to the recording studio because “Save Me the Trouble” had so much potential. “I knew what it needed to sound like,” he remembers. “I could almost see the ProTools session laid out. I could see the knobs and levers in the mix, and I was like, ‘We just can’t screw it up.’”
The crew developed a gradually building production: “Every line, there’s one more thing kind of going on than the previous line,” says Smyers. Steel guitarist Russ Pahl overdubbed a winding, neo-synth sound underneath the prechorus in the first verse, and Smyers thickened the vocals by adding one harmony voice at a time. The bridge featured a pair of dramatic stops with a single cymbal clang by drummer Nir Z, plus thick harmonies, enhanced by some reverb effects that hint at the sound of a Black gospel choir.
“When you listen to the track as a whole, it feels a bit dangerous,” Smyers says. “I thought that was an important sonic pivot for us after coming off a couple of super-positive, major-sounding love songs in a row as singles. I felt like a little bit of danger, a little bit of angst, was the right pivot.”
“Save Me the Trouble” debuted at No. 21 on the Country Airplay chart dated July 29. It checks in at No. 27 in its third week.
“I love where it landed,” Smyers says. “It feels dramatic, and it feels intense. It’s gotten stuck in my head since the day we finished it.”
Morgan Wallen has become a commercial supernova, thanks to hits like “Last Night,” which just logged its 14th week atop the Billboard Hot 100. His two most recent albums — 2021’s Dangerous: The Double Album and 2023’s One Thing at a Time — both entrenched themselves atop the Billboard 200. Dangerous: The Double Album landed […]
Singer-songwriter Lori McKenna is known for crafting heartstring-tuggers such as Tim McGraw’s “Humble and Kind,” as wellas sultry ballads like Little Big Town’s “Girl Crush.” But on her new album, 1988 (out today on CN Records/Thirty Tigers), McKenna punches up her folksy tendencies with a few layers of electric guitars, while retaining her ability to survey both past and present.
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She can succinctly distill wisdom into a single line, whether through clear-eyed nostalgia (“When the way it was/ wasn’t what it seemed,” on “Growing Up”), asking a partner to carry the emotional load (“Would it kill you to be happy?” on “Killing Me,” featuring Hillary Lindsey), or coming to terms with life choices (“She remembers what her body did carrying all those kids,” on “The Old Woman in Me”).
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A mother of five who lives in Massachusetts, McKenna decamped to producer Dave Cobb’s studio in Savannah, crafting the album with handful of musicians and with Cobb overdubbing all the electric parts. “He’s really into the vibe, the way things feel,” she explains. “One of the things is that he always makes me feel comfortable in the studio. He’s like, ‘Let’s just chat and then we’ll play the song, and then we’ll move some mics around.’ It’s kind of like this trickery of like, ‘Oh, we’re actually recording this for a record that will be around for a long time.’ It feels organic.”
Billboard spoke with McKenna about crafting the album, her upcoming fall tour with Brandy Clark and the next generation of country singer-songwriters.
“Happy Children” feels like a kindred spirit to “Humble and Kind” in some ways. You wrote it with your son Chris. What is the origin story there?
I heard someone say, “I wish you happy children,” and sort of just walk away, and it was like a beautiful goodbye. I wanna say that to everybody I know. I thought it was so beautifully said and I wanted it to be a song. I did kind of go down the humble and kind road as far as like, I hope you have these things, it’s gotta be a list, which is what “Humble and Kind” is. I tried to make it a progression of a life experience, but I couldn’t figure out how to do the chorus and get back to what I wanted it to originally say. Chris was home visiting, and I asked him to help me with it. We finished it together and it really was fitting that it’s a song about children and I wrote it with one of my own children.
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You wrote this album’s title track with your son Brian. How does it feel to see two of your children forging their own careers as songwriters?
It’s been such a joy watching them. They live in Nashville and are mainly writing songs every day. Brian’s a bartender and they’re still doing the things that help pay the bills. But I tell them all the time, “If you get to write songs every day or almost every day and you get to have music be this much a part of your life, you are successful in music.”
It’s been fun watching their journeys because I never moved to Nashville. I never did what they are doing. I was in a different part of my life and I was blessed to be part of this [Nashville] community without living here. But having two kids there now and watching their experience of it has been awesome.
This album centers family, love, life in small towns. But it’s not always picturesque. “Wonder Drug” addresses the opioid epidemic. What inspired this?
It’s not somebody’s story, but it’s somebody’s story, you know? I just drew from stories I know of people who have struggled with some kind of drug problem or alcohol problem. And also from the show [Dopesick] with Michael Keaton, about the opioid epidemic. The song is sort of seeing from that perspective of these two kids having this idea of what was going to happen with their lives and then, this addiction comes in and throws a wrench into it.
When I got to the line, “Why can’t love be the wonder drug?,” when that came out of my mouth, I didn’t know if it was terrible or if it was gonna work, but I kept thinking, “But that’s what I wish.” Why couldn’t this thing that feeds us all and saves us all, why can’t that be the best feeling in the whole world? For some people it isn’t. These other roads they go down. … So, as much as I sort of tormented myself about that line, I love it now, and I’m happy it came out the way it did, because I think Dave really brought it to life in the studio.
How do you balance staying in the moment in a writing session and the urge to self-edit?
When I said “I wanna write a song called ‘Girl Crush’” to Hillary Lindsey, she sang the first four lines of that song without thinking a second about it. I was like, “Oh my god, what was that?” It just flowed out of her. You have to trust the song and trust the flow, because otherwise that song would have ended up being thrown away. That’s one of the million things I’ve learned from co-writers is just trust the song. Don’t go back the next day and piece it apart. It won’t work, it lives and breathe in that moment, you’re creating it and you gotta follow it.
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What are your thoughts on songwriters using ChatGPT, and how do you feel AI will impact songwriting?
I do know I’ve listened to so many people being quite nervous about it. There’s parts of music that might go away as far as people making livings — doing music for videos, or maybe commercials. I don’t think it’s going to go away in my world as quickly because I’m still sitting in rooms with people with pens and papers and guitars, for the most part. But I’ve also heard brilliant writers say it can be helpful in the inspirational side of things.
When sampling started in music, it was a similar conversation: “We can’t do this. We can’t sample songs.” Now it happens all the time. But songwriters are more impacted by the fact that people don’t buy records, they stream music. I always try to remember what Tom Douglas told me a long time ago: “They’re always gonna need great songs.” And I don’t think AI can write great songs. I think you need that humanness.
In September, you hit the road with Brandy Clark. What you most excited for about the tour?
We’ve written a bunch together and I love her as a human. I’m so excited to tour with her. We’ve been literally texting just today about the way we’re going to put the show together and how we’ll travel. I think it’s gonna be so soul-filling for us to shine a light on some songs that you don’t get to play every night. She’s a person who can sort of hold magic in one hand and hard work in the other, and just put them together in such a beautiful way.
You have written with several rising artists recently. Who are some of the singers and songwriters you are excited about?
I’ve been friends with Hailey Whitters for years, but I just saw her open as show for Dierks Bentley and Jordan Davis, and you know, she just scoops everybody up in the palms of her hands and she just hugs everybody with her music. Megan Moroney is an outrageously talented artist. The way she sings and turns phrases is exciting to me. I just had Chase Rice over here, who I had not known. His last record has a song called “Bench Seat.” I think it’s like a masterclass in songwriting, and he wrote it by himself. I think he’s got this long, beautiful road ahead of him, but I would encourage people to write songs by themselves and see what happens.
The final album from Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot, who died May 1 at age 84, will be released on July 14.
At Royal Albert Hall is a double album that was recorded live in concert at the legendary London venue on May 24, 2016. It’s Lightfoot’s fourth live album, following a 1962 release, Two Tones at the Village Corner; Sunday Concert (which reached No. 143 on the Billboard 200 in 1969); and All Live, a 2012 release.
At Royal Albert Hall is described in a press statement as “an unembellished live mix of that night’s performance, without edits, overdubs, remixing, or re-sequencing. It captures every song performed in the order they were played, down to the encore by Gordon and his band – Rick Haynes on bass, Barry Keane on drums, Mike Heffernan on keys, and Carter Lancaster on guitar.”
It is being released via Linus Entertainment, the Canadian independent label that released Harmony, Lightfoot’s last studio album with his band, in 2004. (A subsequent studio album, Solo, did not feature his band.)
The upcoming, 26-track album features six of Lightfoot’s 11 Billboard Hot 100 hits, including all four of his top 10 hits: “If You Could Read My Mind,” “Sundown,” “Carefree Highway” and “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” It also has his Hot 100 hits “Rainy Day People” and the exquisite “Beautiful” and includes “Early Morning Rain,” a Hot 100 hit that Lightfoot wrote in 1965 for Peter, Paul & Mary.
The collection also features songs that have never previously appeared on a live album, including “The Watchman’s Gone,” “Sea of Tranquility,” “Now and Then,” “All the Lovely Ladies,” “Drifters,” “Beautiful,” “Did She Mention My Name,” “Sweet Guinevere,” “Never Too Close,” “Don Quixote,” “Minstrel of the Dawn,” “I’d Rather Press On” and “Waiting for You.”
In the weeks prior to his death, Lightfoot reportedly insisted that this live album be released as soon as possible. He approved the cover artwork and made it clear that no changes were to be made to the recording.
Lightfoot’s songs have been recorded by Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, Eric Clapton, Barbra Streisand and hundreds of other artists.
Lightfoot was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2012. He won 13 Juno Awards in his native Canada, capped by his induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1986. He won four Juno Awards for male vocalist of the year (1971-73 and 1975) and two for composer of the year (1973 and 1977). Lightfoot was nominated for four Grammys (but never won) — best folk performance for Did She Mention My Name (1968), best pop vocal performance, male for “If You Could Read My Mind” (1971) and song of the year and best pop vocal performance, male for “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” (1976).
The esteem with which Lightfoot was held was reflected in tweets and other messages that were released following his death. Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wrote: “We have lost one of our greatest singer-songwriters,” he states. Lightfoot “captured our country’s spirit in his music – and in doing so, he helped shape Canada’s soundscape. May his music continue to inspire future generations, and may his legacy live on forever. To his family, friends, and many fans across the country and around the world: I’m keeping you in my thoughts at this difficult time.”
Neil Young, Billy Joel, Bryan Adams, Brian Wilson, Belinda Carlisle and more also weighed in with thoughtful messages.
“Gordon was a great Canadian artist,” wrote Young, a fellow Canadian. “A songwriter without parallel, His melodies and words were an inspiration to all writers who listened to his music, as they will continue to be through the ages. There is a unique and wonderful feeling to Gordon’s music. Lightfoot is a Canadian legend.”
Joel wrote: “Sad morning over here. Rest easy Gordon Lightfoot. So sad to hear of the death of Gordon Lightfoot. He was a lifelong musical hero of mine…”
“This one is really hard to write,” read a statement from Adams, another Canadian musician. “Once in a blue moon you get to work and hang out with one of the people you admired when you were growing up. I was lucky enough to say Gordon was my friend and I’m gutted to know he’s gone. The world is a lesser place without him. I know I speak for all Canadians when I say: thank you for the songs Gordon Lightfoot. Bless your sweet songwriting heart, RIP dear friend.”
Here’s the complete track listing for At Royal Albert Hall:
Disc One
“The Watchman’s Gone”“Sea of Tranquility”“Now and Then”“All the Lovely Ladies”“Drifters”“A Painter Passing Through”“Christian Island”“Rainy Day People”“Shadows”“Beautiful”“Carefree Highway”“Did She Mention My Name”“Ribbon of Darkness”“Sundown”
Disc Two
“Sweet Guinevere”“The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”“Never Too Close”“Don Quixote”“Minstrel of the Dawn”“I’d Rather Press On”“Let It Ride”“If You Could Read My Mind”“Restless”“Baby Step Back”“Early Morning Rain”“Waiting for You”
Taylor Swift has a reputation as one of the finest songwriters of her generation. Grammy voters seem to agree – she has received six song of the year nominations since 2009, which puts her in a tie with Lionel Richie and Paul McCartney for the most by any songwriter in Grammy history.
Richie wrote five of his six song of the year nominees by himself. He teamed with Michael Jackson to write his sixth, “We Are the World.”
By contrast, Swift and McCartney wrote just one of their song of the year nominees by themselves. Swift was the sole writer of “Lover.” McCartney was the sole writer of “Ebony and Ivory.”
Swift teamed with Liz Rose to write two of her nominated songs; with Max Martin and Shellback to write two others; and with Aaron Dessner to write one. McCartney and John Lennon were credited as co-writers of all five nominated songs that were recorded by The Beatles.
“Anti-Hero,” which Swift co-wrote with Jack Antonoff, seems very likely to be nominated for song of the year when the nods for the 66th annual Grammy Awards are announced later this year. That would give her a tiebreaking seventh nomination.
Unlike McCartney and Richie, Swift has yet to win in the category. McCartney won on his third nomination, for “Michelle,” a charming tune from The Beatles’ Rubber Soul that few would regard as one of his or their greatest songs. Richie won on his sixth nomination, for USA for Africa‘s “We Are the World.” That song raised millions to fight starvation in Africa and hunger here in the U.S., but it’s more admired for its purpose and intentions than its songcraft.
As Swift launches her 52-date The Eras Tour in Glendale, Ariz. on Friday (March 17), we have prepared this list showing you each of these songwriters’ six Grammy nominations – in a handy, side-by-side format.
First nominations
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Swift: “You Belong With Me” (2009, co-written with Liz Rose)
Richie: “Three Times a Lady” (1978)
McCartney: “A Hard Day’s Night” (1964, co-written with John Lennon)
Notes: All three of these songs were smash hits. “You Belong With Me,” the third single from Fearless, reached No. 2 on the Hot 100 – Swift’s highest ranking to that point. Commodores’ recording of “Three Times a Lady,” the lead single from Natural High, logged two weeks at No. 1. The Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night,” from the soundtrack to their film of the same name, topped the Hot 100 for two weeks – and was the first rock song to receive a song of the year nod.
Second nominations
Swift: “Shake It Off” (2014, co-written with Max Martin and Shellback)
Richie: “Lady” (1980)
McCartney: “Yesterday” (1965, co-written with John Lennon)
Notes: All three of these songs were No. 1 hits on the Hot 100 for four or more weeks. (Four weeks for the Swift and Beatles hits; six weeks for Kenny Rogers’ recording of “Lady.”) Rogers’ smash was the lead single from his perfectly-timed, Billboard 200-topping Kenny Rogers’ Greatest Hits. “Shake It Off” was the lead single from 1989. Though “Yesterday” didn’t win the Grammy, many regard it as one of the greatest songs ever written.
Third nominations
Swift: “Blank Space” (2015, co-written with Max Martin and Shellback)
Richie: “Endless Love” (1981)
McCartney: “Michelle” (1966, co-written with John Lennon)
Notes: “Blank Space,” the second single from 1989, topped the Hot 100 for seven weeks, making it Swift’s longest-running No. 1 to that point. “Endless Love,” which Richie wrote for the film of the same name and which he recorded with Diana Ross, logged nine weeks at No. 1, making it Richie’s longest-running No. 1 ever. The Beatles didn’t release any singles from Rubber Soul, but a cover version by David and Jonathan reached No. 18 on the Hot 100.
Fourth nominations
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Swift: “Lover” (2019)
Richie: “All Night Long (All Night)” (1983)
McCartney: “Hey Jude” (1968, co-written with John Lennon)
Notes: “Lover,” the third single from Swift’s album of the same name, reached No. 10 on the Hot 100. “All Night Long (All Night),” the lead single from Can’t Slow Down, logged four weeks at No. 1. “Hey Jude” led the chart for nine weeks, making it McCartney’s longest-running No. 1 hit – with The Beatles or post-Beatles. It was one of only two singles to top the Hot 100 for nine weeks in the 1960s, the other being Percy Faith’s shimmering instrumental “Theme from a Summer Place.” (That 1960 smash was nominated for song of the year despite being an instrumental, something that couldn’t happen today.) As noted above, “Lover” is Swift’s only song of the year nominee that she wrote by herself.
Fifth nominations
Swift: “Cardigan” (2020, co-written with Aaron Dessner)
Richie: “Hello” (1984)
McCartney: “Let It Be” (1970, co-written with John Lennon)
Notes: All three songs were No. 1 hits on the Hot 100. “Cardigan,” the lead single from Folklore, spent one week on top. “Hello,” the third single from Can’t Slow Down, spent two weeks on top. “Let It Be,” from the documentary film of the same name, spent two weeks on top.
Sixth nominations
Swift: “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (The Short Film)” (2022, co-written with Liz Rose)
Richie: “We Are the World” (1985, co-written with Michael Jackson)
McCartney: “Ebony and Ivory” (1982)
Notes: Again, all three songs were No. 1 hits on the Hot 100. The expanded version of “All Too Well,” the lead single from Red (Taylor’s Version), spent one week on top. It set a new record as the song with the longest playing time to reach No. 1. USA for Africa’s “We Are the World” topped the chart for four weeks. “Ebony and Ivory,” a glossy plea for brotherhood and understanding across racial lines, topped the Hot 100 for seven weeks. McCartney wrote the song by himself and recorded it with Stevie Wonder. While everyone admired the song’s good intensions, the song hasn’t aged especially well. A Saturday Night Live parody version by Eddie Murphy (as Wonder) and Joe Piscopo (as Frank Sinatra) skewered the song. Sample lines: Murphy as Wonder: “I am dark, and you are light.” Piscopo as Sinatra: “You are blind as a bat, and I have sight!”
In recent years, a trio of Big Loud-signed artists — ERNEST, HARDY, and Morgan Wallen — have become country music’s ultra-collaborative hitmaking machine, churning out an array of hits for themselves and other artists.
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Earlier this month, ERNEST, HARDY and Wallen were all honored during the Country Music Association’s Triple Play Awards, which honors songwriters who have written three No. 1 songs within a 12-month span. To date, Wallen has been a co-writer on several Jason Aldean-recorded songs, including “Make It Easy,” as well as Keith Urban’s “Brown Eyes Baby” and Corey Kent’s “Wild as Her.” HARDY has been a contributor to Wallen’s “Sand in My Boots,” Blake Shelton’s “God’s Country,” Michael Ray’s “Holy Water,” LOCASH’s “One Big Country Song” and Breland’s “Praise the Lord” (featuring Thomas Rhett). ERNEST’s Triple Play-earning contributions this year are Wallen’s “Wasted On You,” Sam Hunt’s “Breaking Up Was Easy in the ‘90s” and Kane Brown’s “One Mississippi.”
While Nashville is no stranger to hitmaking songwriter trios — such as the Peach Pickers (Ben Hayslip, Dallas Davidson and Rhett Akins) and the Love Junkies (Liz Rose, Lori McKenna and Hillary Lindsey) — it is additionally notable that over the past year, Wallen, HARDY and ERNEST have each issued albums representative of country music’s expansive soundscape. ERNEST’s March 2022 release Flower Shops (The Album) and subsequent deluxe album Flower Shops: Two Dozen Roses this February incorporated a throwback, traditional country sound, while this January saw HARDY issue his country/metal amalgam The Mockingbird & The Crow, reaching No. 4 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.
This month, of course, the two sets are followed by Wallen’s juggernaut, 36-track project One Thing at a Time (Big Loud/Republic/Mercury)– which has already earned 315 million official on-demand U.S. streams in its first four days of release (March 3-6). It’s not only the biggest week of any album so far this year (and larger than its predecessor, 2021’s Dangerous: The Double Album, which opened at 240 million in its first full week), it’s also already the biggest streaming week any country album has ever posted.
“Everybody just truly does such different things, and we all bring out the creativity in each other,” HARDY tells Billboard of the trio’s fruitful collaboration. “Ernest might say something that would sound like something I would never think of, and that would spark a lyrical direction maybe they wouldn’t think of. We do what we do, and bring out the best in the rest of the triangle.”
ERNEST notes a common thread that runs through each of their respective projects: the production work of Joey Moi (Florida Georgia Line, Nickelback).
“I think about how many country music acts Joey Moi has helped craft into a sound, and how different all of those sounds are,” ERNEST tells Billboard. ”My sound is a little more traditional, like [an] Opry band. HARDY’s got the rock stuff, and Morgan’s down to go the 808s route. But Joey is able to make it sound really f–king good every time.”
ERNEST first met Wallen in 2015 at a party thrown by Big Loud co-founder and hit songwriter Craig Wiseman. They followed each other on Instagram and discovered they had competed against each other on opposing high school baseball teams — Knoxville’s Gibbs High School (Wallen) against Nashville’s David Lipscomb High School (now Lipscomb Academy) (ERNEST).
“They beat us and went on to win State [in 2010] and then we beat them for State [in 2011],” ERNEST recalls. “So, technically we met in 2015, but we had been rivals before we were friends.”
HARDY and ERNEST met on a writers’ bus on a Florida Georgia Line tour around 2017, when ERNEST was a rapper still going by the name Snow. HARDY and Wallen also began writing together in 2017.
“He came to my little apartment in Green Hills [in Nashville] and we just started writing. Me, Morgan and Jameson Rodgers wrote a song and then ate Martin’s BBQ after,” HARDY recalls of his first writing session with Wallen.
The trio’s collaborative efforts were apparent even on Wallen’s 2018 debut Big Loud album If I Know Me. Wallen, HARDY and ERNEST co-wrote the title track, alongside co-writer Ryan Vojtesak. HARDY and Wallen each contributed to around half of the songs on that album. Wallen’s follow-up, 2021’s record-breaking Dangerous: The Double Album features more songs from the trio: they all contributed to “Somethin’ Country” and “This Bar,” as well as “More Than My Hometown,” which became a No. 1 hit on Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart before the album’s release in 2020.
“I remember being very difficult that day,” HARDY recalls with a laugh of writing “More Than My Hometown.” “I had a vision for the song, and so did Morgan. I was just being very picky because I could feel that the song was going somewhere and we really dug into that lyric. We always make the joke that Ern accidentally went to Midtown and got really drunk before that song, so he wasn’t really much help — but he contributed as good as he could. I just remember we really dug into the lyrics hard that day. The leadup to the hook changed so many times and we finally settled on those [lyrics].”
The trio have also traded features on each other’s albums, with Wallen appearing on the track “Red” from HARDY’s The Mockingbird & The Crow, as well as on two tracks from HARDY’s Hixtape, Vol. 1: “Turn You Down” and “He Went to Jared,” which has become a fan-favorite in concert. Meanwhile, Smith co-wrote another song from Hixtape, Vol. 1, “Redneck Tendencies.”
Wallen also teamed with ERNEST for “Flower Shops,” the traditional-minded top 20 Country Airplay hit. Meanwhile, Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album features seven tracks cowritten by HARDY and 11 contributions from Smith (including two tracks, “Dangerous” and “Wonderin’ About The Wind,” written by Wallen and Smith).
ERNEST contributes to 11 songs to Wallen’s sprawling One Thing at a Time, while HARDY contributed writing to three tracks. HARDY and ERNEST also lend their voices to respective features: HARDY on “In The Bible” and ERNEST on “Cowgirls,” a track he also wrote with Rocky Block, Ashley Gorley, James Maddocks and Ryan Vojtesak.
“A few months after we wrote it, I sent it to Morgan,” ERNEST says. “When I was singing and freestyling it, I thought, ‘Morgan’s gonna sound sick on this.’ Then, I think, with like eight hours left on the clock before they had to turn the album in, I was at the No. 1 party for Jelly Roll’s ‘Son of a Sinner’ [ERNEST is a co-writer on the Country Airplay chart-topper] and Morgan called me to sing a verse on ‘Cowgirls.’ I was like, ‘I thought you’d never ask’ — so I had to get my award and then run to the studio to put my vocal on ‘Cowgirls.’”
A similar situation led to HARDY’s vocal on “In The Bible.”
“The day the record was supposed to be done, Morgan texted me to ask me to sing on it,” he explains. “[Wallen] said the record had to be done by midnight that night. I listened and it fit me perfectly. If it was something stupid, I wouldn’t have done it — and I won’t ever send him a song that doesn’t sound like him.”
The trio’s camaraderie extends far beyond the writing rooms and recording studios. HARDY and ERNEST will open on Wallen’s international One Night at a Time tour, kicking off later this month. In 2022, HARDY opened shows on Wallen’s The Dangerous Tour, while ERNEST filled in the opening slot for a few shows after a tour bus carrying HARDY was involved in an accident.
“If any of us are going through anything on a personal level, any of the other ones would be there for them in a heartbeat in real life — and you’d never even know about it on Instagram,” adds ERNEST. “We are blessed to have these careers with our friends and get to cheer each other on.”
“I talk to either Morgan, ERNEST or both almost every day,” HARDY says. “We’re buddies, even outside of music. We’re always sending memes. I Facetimed Morgan on the way to this [Country Music] Hall of Fame event I did yesterday and I just worked out with Ernest this morning.”
Given their ultra-prolific songwriting and solid camaraderie, HARDY says it’s not out of the question that he, Wallen and ERNEST could at some point add to country music’s storied canon of collaborative albums — such as Wanted! The Outlaws, the Trio albums from Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt, the Parton/Tammy Wynette/Loretta Lynn album Honky Tonk Angels, or projects from The Highwaymen, Pistol Annies, The Notorious Cherry Bombs, Chicks With Hits and more.
“We’ve definitely talked about it,” HARDY confirms. “I think it would be awesome. I think it would do really well, and would set up a tour perfectly. I don’t think anybody in our little trio would be opposed to that. It would be fun.”
The conference room on the 22nd floor of EMPIRE’s San Francisco office is brightly lit, with plaques covering the walls: a gold single for King Von’s “Crazy Story,” a gold album for Kendrick Lamar’s Section.80, a seven-times platinum certification for D.R.A.M. and Lil Yachty’s “Broccoli.” Every chair around the big central table is full of EMPIRE staff members, each charged with different aspects of bringing to life the next project from Dinner Party, the collective comprised of Terrace Martin, Robert Glasper, Kamasi Washington and 9th Wonder, among others; their first EP was released by EMPIRE in 2020 and subsequently nominated for a Grammy for best progressive R&B album.
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Standing by the table near the door is Martin — the multi-talented producer, saxophonist and vocalist — who introduces the project to the staff and lays out his vision for how he wants to see it rolled out.
“I look at Dinner Party as like the hip-hop version of Steely Dan,” Martin says, referencing the classic rock group’s famous aversion to touring. “Let’s keep this one thing as like an expensive art piece.”
It’s late afternoon, and the EMPIRE crew is hosting another day of its Africa writing camp at its San Francisco studio for Nigerian stars Fireboy DML, Asake and Olamide. But first, there’s other business to attend to, and the Dinner Party project is high on the agenda. Martin holds court for nearly two hours, discussing plans for the physical release, for spot-date performances and for possible brand tie-ins and content plans when the project is rolled out. But he’s also playing near-final mixes of the album, which he hopes to complete within the week, and telling stories about how it came together (“We’re all in our 40s now,” he jokes about he and his Dinner Party cohorts. “You get us all together and it’s just story time, story after story.”)
One song, for instance, originally sampled Mtume’s “Juicy Fruit,” more famous these days as the basis for The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Juicy.” When Martin heard it, he called Mtume’s son to ask about clearing the sample, who replied not with permission but with the stems to his father’s original track; that allowed Martin to bypass clearing the master recording and left him needing only to clear the publishing side. For another song, Martin eschewed drums altogether — something he picked up from his 19-year-old daughter, who is now a producer herself. “I come from the era where a beat with no drums was an interlude,” he says. “I’m following her now.”
YBNL & EMPIRE teams meet in Studio A to listen over Olamide, Asake and Fireboy DML’s newly recorded records
Daniel Aziz
The meeting wraps before 6 p.m., and now it’s time to head over to the studio. The vibe is a little different tonight. Asake and Olamide have stayed at their hotel — where Olamide has been recording vocals in his room — the kitchen is playing Tupac instead of Kevin Gates, and Nigerian vegetable soup, fried catfish, smothered turkey wings and mac and cheese are the main events at dinner. (Though all anyone is talking about is how hot the pepper sauce is.)
Fireboy and Asake stayed in the studio until after midnight the night before cooking up another collaboration, and while Asake isn’t there now, Fireboy is, meeting Martin and adding in vocals and guitar to another song he’s working on. (The guitarist, Tone, sports a black triple-humbucker Fender Telecaster Deluxe, for those curious.) The vocals constitute an anthemic plea that Fireboy pores over with his engineer in Studio C, looping the vocals on the hook again and again to get them right then hopping back into the vocal booth to add harmonies and ad-libs while reading lyrics off his phone. Steadily, over the course of 45 minutes, the two add layer after layer to the track, reinforcing melodies and bringing forth different textures until Fireboy sits back in his chair, looking up at the ceiling and taking it all in.
It’s been more than a week since the camp began, and the conversations around the studio are diverse. Topics include the benefits of vocal coaching for an artist going on tour; the Nigerian presidential election; who is leaving from and coming to camp (songwriter Ivory Scott left this morning, Rexx Life Raj is set to arrive tomorrow, and Nigerian producer Magicsticks is on the way); and the studio’s many renovations. EMPIRE is planning to open a space in Los Angeles, too, and recently did the same in New York, though San Francisco will always be home.
Daniel Aziz
Shortly after 8 p.m., EMPIRE regional head of West Africa, Mobolaji Kareem, pulls us into Studio A to listen to a final mix of a new Kizz Daniel track that engineer Jaycen Joshua completed that morning. Right on cue, Daniel calls on FaceTime, dictating the custom lighting to tell us which color the room needs to be to listen to the track and promising to get out to the new studio when he can. But it’s an early night for just about everyone involved. The exception is Fireboy, who stays in the studio after many have left even though his voice is tired from the constant grind of recording. Tomorrow is another day, and more work is expected before things wrap in another week.
If “Lift Me Up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever wins the Oscar for best original song on Sunday March 12, Ryan Coogler will become just the second person in Oscar history, and the first in 45 years, to win an Oscar for writing or co-writing a song from a film he directed. The first was Joe Brooks, who wrote “You Light Up My Life,” the 1977 winner.
Just by being nominated in this category, Coogler has joined an exclusive (and rather eclectic) club. Fourteen people have received Oscar nominations for writing or co-writing songs for films that they directed. Coogler is the first person of color to achieve the feat. Other club members include Barbra Streisand, Mel Brooks, Spike Jonze, Seth MacFarlane and Trey Parker.
Most of these people wrote the lyrics, not the melody. This suggests that the directors know what their film is trying to say, and can help put that message across in a song. Only four of the 14 – Coogler, Parker, Streisand and Brooks – contributed both music and lyrics. None solely wrote the music.
“Lift Me Up” is viewed as one of three front-runners in this year’s Oscar race for best original song, along with “Hold My Hand” from Top Gun: Maverick (music and lyric by Lady Gaga and BloodPop) and “Naatu Naatu” from RRR (music by M.M. Keeravaani; lyric by Chandrabose). The other nominees are “Applause” from Tell It like a Woman (music and lyric by Diane Warren) and “This Is a Life” from Everything Everywhere All at Once (music by Ryan Lott, David Byrne and Mitski; lyric by Ryan Lott and David Byrne).
Here’s a complete list of everyone who has been nominated for best original song for writing or co-writing a song from a film they directed. The list is in reverse chronological order.
Ryan Coogler
Film: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)
Nominated Song: “Lift Me Up”
Notes: Coogler directed and co-wrote the film, which stars Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong’o and Oscar nominee Angela Bassett, among others. He co-wrote the melody with Rihanna, Tems and Ludwig Göransson; he co-wrote the lyrics with Tems. Rihanna’s single debuted and peaked at No. 2. The superstar, fresh off her halftime performance at the Super Bowl, is set to perform the song on the Oscar telecast.
Spike Jonze
Film: Her (2013)
Nominated Song: “The Moon Song”
Notes: Jonze directed, wrote and co-produced the film, which starred Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, Rooney Mara, Olivia Wilde and Scarlett Johansson. In addition to best original song, Jonze was nominated for best picture (as a producer of the film) and won for writing. He co-wrote the lyric with Karen O, who also composed the melody. She and Ezra Koenig performed the song on the telecast.
Seth MacFarlane
Image Credit: Mark Davis/WireImage
Film: Ted (2012)
Nominated Song: “Everybody Needs a Best Friend”
Notes: MacFarlane directed and co-wrote the comedy, in which he starred alongside Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis. He wrote the “Best Friend” lyric, while Walter Murphy composed the melody. Murphy topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 1976 as an artist with the disco instrumental “A Fifth of Beethoven.” Norah Jones performed “Best Friend” on the telecast, which MacFarlane hosted.
Christophe Barratier
Film: The Chorus (2004)
Nominated song: “Look to Your Path” (“Vois Sur Ton Chemin”)
Notes: The Frenchman directed the musical drama, known as Les Choristes in French. He wrote the lyric. The composer was Bruno Coulais. Beyoncé performed the song on the telecast, in tandem with American Boychoir. Beyoncé performed three of the five nominated songs that year. She also did the honors on “Learn to Be Lonely” from The Phantom of the Opera and “Believe” from The Polar Express – the latter in tandem with Josh Groban.
Sylvain Chomet
Film: The Triplets of Belleville (2003)
Nominated Song: “Belleville Rendez-vous”
Notes: The multi-platform French artist wrote and produced the animated comedy film. In addition to best original song, he was nominated for animated feature film. He wrote the lyric. Benoît Charest composed the melody. Charest also performed the song on the telecast, in tandem with Béatrice Bonifassi.
Julie Taymor
Film: Frida (2002)
Nominated Song: “Burn It Blue”
Notes: Taymor directed the film, which starred Salma Hayak. Taymor wrote the lyric. Elliot Goldenthal composed the melody. Lila Downs and Caetano Veloso performed the song on the telecast.
Lars von Trier
Film: Dancer in the Dark (2000)
Nominated Song: “I’ve Seen It All”
Notes: The Danish multi-hyphenate directed and wrote the film, which starred Björk, Catherine Deneuve and Joel Grey, among others. He co-wrote the lyric with Sjon Sigurdsson. Björk composed the melody and performed the song on the telecast.
Trey Parker
Film: South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)
Nominated Song: “Blame Canada”
Notes: Parker directed, co-wrote and co-produced this film and was one of the voice actors. He co-wrote the music and lyric with Marc Shaiman. Robin Williams, who had won an Oscar two years previously for his role in Good Will Hunting, performed the song the telecast.
Barbra Streisand
Image Credit: TriStar/courtesy Everett Collection
Film: The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996)
Nominated Song: “I Finally Found Someone”
Notes: Streisand directed, co-produced and starred in the film alongside Jeff Bridges and Oscar nominee Lauren Bacall. She co-wrote the music and lyrics to this song with Bryan Adams, Marvin Hamlisch and Robert John “Mutt” Lange. She was the first female director to receive an Oscar nomination for a song she wrote or co-wrote for her film. The single by Streisand and Adams reached No. 8 on the Hot 100, but Streisand declined to perform the song on the telecast. Her future duet partner Celine Dion filled in for her, joined by Arturo Sandoval.
Arne Glimcher
Film: The Mambo Kings (1992)
Nominated Song: “Beautiful Maria of My Soul”
Notes: Glimcher directed and co-produced the film, which starred Armand Assante, Antonio Banderas and Cathy Moriaty. Glimcher wrote the lyrics. Robert Kraft was the composer. Plácido Domingo and Sheila E performed the song on the telecast.
Joe Brooks
Image Credit: Frank Edwards/Fotos International/Hulton Archive/GI
Film: You Light Up My Life (1977)
Nominated Song: “You Light Up My Life”
Notes: Brooks single-handedly wrote, directed and produced You Light Up My Life, which starred Didi Conn. He also wrote both music and lyrics for its title song, which Debby Boone turned into a megahit. Her recording was the first to log 10 weeks at No. 1 in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 (which dates to 1958). Kacey Cisyk, who sang the song on the soundtrack, reached No. 80 with her original version. Boone was chosen to sing the song on the telecast — a rare instance of the Oscars booking an artist who performed a cover version over the artist who performed the film version. The song won a Grammy for song of the year. In 1997, LeAnn Rimes cracked the top 40 with her interpretation. While Brooks’ song has brought hope and inspiration to millions, his own life was troubled. He took his own life in 2011.
Mel Brooks
Film: Blazing Saddles (1974)
Nominated Song: “Blazing Saddles”
Notes: The EGOT recipient directed, co-wrote and appeared in the film, which also starred Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Slim Pickens, Alex Karras, Harvey Korman and Madeline Kahn. In addition to best original song, Brooks was nominated for best adapted screenplay that year – but for another picture, Young Frankenstein, on which he collaborated with Gene Wilder. Brooks wrote the lyrics to “Blazing Saddles.” John Morris was the composer. To sing the song, Brooks advertised in the trade papers for a “Frankie Laine–type” singer; to his surprise, Laine himself offered his services. Laine, who had a series of hits in the 1940s and ’50s including “High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me” and “I Believe,” got the job — and also sang the song on the Oscar telecast.
Jacques Demy
Film: The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1965)
Nominated Song: “I Will Wait for You”
Notes: The Frenchman directed and wrote the film, which starred Catherine Deneuve. In addition to best original song, Demy was nominated for best original screenplay and best music score – substantially original, for collaborating with Legrand. Demy wrote the original French lyrics. Norman Gimbel wrote the English lyrics. Legrand composed the song, which also received a Grammy nod for song of the year. Steve Lawrence’s version “bubbled under” the Hot 100 in 1965. Legrand and Jane Morgan (the wife of Jerry Weintraub, a top manager and producer) performed the song on the Oscar telecast.
Leo McCarey
Film: An Affair to Remember (1957)
Nominated song: “An Affair to Remember”
Notes: McCarey directed, co-wrote and co-produced the film, which starred Cary Grantand Deborah Kerr. (The film is referenced in 1993’s Sleepless in Seattle.) McCarey teamed with Harold Adamson to write the lyrics. Harry Warren composed the melody. Vic Damone had a big hit with the song in 1957, the year before the introduction of the Hot 100. The crooner also sang the song on the Oscar telecast. McCarey won three Oscars over the course of his career – for directing The Awful Truth (1937) and writing and directing Going My Way (1944).
Dustin Lynch’s new single, “Stars Like Confetti,” could have long-term consequences for his bottom line.
On one hand, if it succeeds, it could keep fans buying tickets to see Lynch sing it live for years. On the other hand, if “Confetti” becomes a signature song, it pretty much requires he blast celebratory bits of paper and mylar into his concert audiences nightly. And that comes with a cost.
“If this song becomes a hit, I guarantee you we’re going to need more trucks [to get] confetti blowers behind the stage every night,” he says.
That’s just one of the extra expenses. “Not only do you have to get it there, you’ve got to have people to operate it,” he adds. “And then with something like confetti, you have to have a cleanup crew. All those things go into the equation.”
“Stars Like Confetti” actually has its roots in Thomas Rhett’s concert productions — and in a family vacation. He and his wife, Lauren Akins, took their kids to Montana, and the state lived up to its Big Sky Country nickname, impressing one of his daughters. “In Montana, you see stars for years,” Rhett notes. “The light pollution in Montana is like zero, and so we were looking up at the stars, and Willa Gray said something like ‘Hey, that looks like the confetti from your show.’ ”
The comment became a teachable moment. “We just started to have a conversation about how God made the stars and how some of those stars are really old,” he says. “And sometimes those stars aren’t there anymore, but we’re just now seeing the light from the star. I’m not a scientist, but I was trying to tell her the scientific facts about stars, as well as I knew.”
Naturally, Rhett logged “Stars Like Confetti” as a possible song title, and he popped it out early in the pandemic during a Zoom songwriting session with Zach Crowell (“Body Like a Back Road,” “Sunrise, Sunburn, Sunset”) and Josh Thompson (“I’ll Name the Dogs,” “Ain’t Always the Cowboy”) on April 17, 2020. It was Crowell’s first experience writing via the video hookup, and he remembers it being awkward. But the nuts and bolts of the process — attempting to match words and music in a way that sticks with listeners — was pretty much the same.
“What in the world do we rhyme ‘confetti’ with?” asks Crowell rhetorically. “Do we say ‘Yeti’ in there? I’m surprised we didn’t.”
“Stars Like Confetti” suggests a cheery topic, though the narrative needed to fit the sound of the words and the down-to-earth mentality of the typical country plotline. “‘Confetti’,” Crowell says, “is a softer word, so we needed to kind of probably tell the story of a guy and a girl kind of thing.”
So they embraced a narrative about a young couple enjoying the same sky Rhett’s family saw in Montana. “I love that picture of looking at the star-filled skies and feeling like God was literally just taking a handful of confetti, just throwing it out over the universe,” says Rhett. “It turned into this love song about an epic night on a back road.”
They stuffed a bundle of images into the verses, providing enough background to get a sense of the couple and the setting: drinking beers in a rusty, cherry-red pickup on a dirt road, with perfume and physical connection encouraging passion. The pre-chorus used an ascendant melody to provide a sense that the mood and images were leading the listener somewhere. “It’s kind of a tension creator,” Crowell says. “Get ready for the chorus.”
In classic form, that chorus has a singalong quality, rolling optimistically toward its hooky payoff: “Stars like confetti — ah, ah.” The tag cinches the commercial effect, the two “ahs” giving it a punchy finality, with a scooped note in the middle providing an ideal “ah” separation. It was a T-Rhett move.
“During 2020, I was on a big kick of trying to find songs that what you thought was the hook actually wasn’t the hook,” he recalls. “When I listen to ‘Uptown Funk,’ Bruno Mars, ‘Uptown Funk’ is not the hook. The hook is [the horn riff]. That’s the part that you remember. And like, ‘Barefoot Blue Jean Night’ — ‘Whoa-oh-oh, we were livin’ it up’ — you remember the ‘whoas’ way more than you remember ‘on a barefoot blue jean night.’ ”
When they finished writing, Rhett recorded a vocal over acoustic guitar. Crowell started layering instrumental parts over that work tape to build the demo, calling on multi-instrumentalist Devin Malone for an assist. They created most of the final production in the process, and they fully expected Rhett to record it. But he never did.
“I don’t know why I didn’t cut it, to be honest,” says Rhett. “I don’t even recall why that wasn’t in the running. Sometimes I do think that God will just kind of put you off something because it wasn’t for you, because it was for somebody else.”
Once it was clear that Rhett was passing on “Confetti,” Crowell sent a copy of it to Lynch, who was partying with friends on his boat when it arrived on his phone. The group gave him immediate feedback.
“Thomas Rhett was actually singing the demo whenever we heard it for the first time, and everybody loved it,” Lynch remembers. “The best gauge you can have is whenever people that hear a song want to hear it again later in the day, and that was the case with ‘Stars Like Confetti.’ It was a great sign and a great starting point.”
Crowell and Malone used the demo as a foundation for the master recording, keeping an estimated 95% of it in place. Crowell brought in live drums and a handful of other instrumental parts, and the end product included appropriate spare touches — short bursts of guitars and steel that darted in and out of the verses behind the melody, creating a sonic stars-like-confetti effect. Lynch delivered his lead vocal with relative ease.
Broken Bow was bullish on “Stars Like Confetti” from first listen and finally released it to country radio via PlayMPE on Dec. 16, 2022. It rises to No. 45 in its fifth week on Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart. As it moves upward, it seems likely that “Confetti” — bolstered by real-life production and airborne paper bits — could be suitable for American holiday celebrations and parades as 2023 unfolds.
“I’m sure those opportunities are going to present themselves,” says Lynch. “It does sit very well for wonderful TV moments, you know. With all it lends itself to, we can really spice things up with the performance. I’m hoping it connects and we’re offered those opportunities.”
The trend in songwriting is toward ever-larger collectives of writers collaborating. But some writers do very well – and maybe even better – on their own. Diane Warren has been the sole scribe on 10 of her 14 Oscar-nominated songs – including “Applause” from Tell It Like a Woman, which is vying for the award at the 95th Oscars on March 12. Only one songwriter in Oscar history has been the sole writer of more than 10 Oscar-nominated songs.
Warren worked with a collaborator, Albert Hammond, on her first Oscar-nominated song, the propulsive “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” from Mannequin (1987). She later collaborated with Lady Gaga, Common and Laura Pausini on Oscar-nominated songs.
Warren’s roster of solo-written songs includes three of her signature hits – “Because You Loved Me” from Up Close and Personal (1996), “How Do I Live” from Con Air (1997) and “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” from Armageddon (1998), all of which also received Grammy nominations for song of the year.
Twelve songwriters in Oscar history have received two or more nominations for best original song for songs they wrote all by themselves. Six of these writers have only been nominated for solo-written songs. These include two of the foremost writers of the Great American Songbook, Irving Berlin and Cole Porter, and four top contemporary writers – Dolly Parton, Bruce Springsteen, Randy Newman and Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Here are all songwriters who have received two or more Oscar nods for best original song for pieces they wrote entirely by themselves.
Lin-Manuel Miranda, 2
Image Credit: Steve Granitz/WireImage
Miranda is the sole writer of both of his nominated songs to date – “How Far I’ll Go” from Moana (2016) and “Dos Oruguitas” from Encanto (2021). In the photo above, Miranda is joined by his mother, Dr. Luz Towns-Miranda, at the Oscars the first time he was nominated. Listen to Miranda talk about the songs from Encanto on the Pop Shop Podcast in early 2022.
Bruce Springsteen, 2
The Boss is the sole writer of both of his nominated songs to date – “Streets of Philadelphia” from Jonathan Demme’s Philadelphia (which won, 1993) and “Dead Man Walkin’” from Tim Robbins’ Dead Man Walking (1995).
Dolly Parton, 2
Parton is the sole writer of both of her nominated songs to date – “Nine to Five” from the hit comedy of the same name in which she co-starred with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin (1980) and “Travelin’ Through” from Transamerica (2005).
Phil Collins, 2
Collins is the sole writer of two of his three nominated songs to date – the striking torch ballad “Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)” from Against All Odds (1984) and “You’ll Be in My Heart” from Tarzan (which won, 1999). Collins had a co-writer – Motown legend Lamont Dozier – on his other nominated song, “Two Hearts” from Buster (1988).
Lionel Richie, 2
Richie is the sole writer of two of his three nominated songs to date – “Endless Love” from the movie of the same name (1981) and “Say You, Say Me” from White Nights (which won, 1985). Richie collaborated with Quincy Jones and Rod Temperton on his other nominated song – “Miss Celie’s Blues (Sister)” from The Color Purple, which lost to “Say You, Say Me.”
Leslie Bricusse, 2
Bricusse was the sole writer of his first two nominated songs – “Talk to the Animals” from Doctor Dolittle (which won, 1967) and “Thank You Very Much” from Scrooge (1970). He worked with collaborators on his last three nominated songs. He teamed with Henry Mancini on “Life in a Looking Glass” from That’s Life (1986) and with John Williams on both “Somewhere in My Memory” from Home Alone (1990) and “When You’re Alone” from Hook (1991). Bricusse died in 2021 at age 90.
Johnny Mercer, 2
Mercer was the sole writer of two of his near-record 18 nominated songs. (Only Sammy Cahn amassed more nominations in the category – 26). Mercer was the sole writer of “Something’s Gotta Give” from the Fred Astaire/Leslie Caron film Daddy Long Legs (1955) and “The Facts of Life” from the Bob Hope/Lucille Ball movie of the same name (1960). He collaborated on his other nominated songs with Henry Mancini (five songs), Harold Arlen (four), Harry Warren (two) and Jimmy McHugh, Artie Shaw, Jerome Kern, Hoagy Carmichael and Marvin Hamlisch (one each). Mercer died in 1976 at age 66. Here’s more about the songwriter for whom the Songwriters Hall of Fame named their top award.
Frank Loesser, 3
Loesser teamed with composers Lou Alter and Arthur Schwartz for his first two nominated songs, but was the sole writer of his last three – “I Wish I Didn’t Love You So” from The Perils of Pauline (1947), “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” from Neptune’s Daughter (1949) and “Thumbelina” from Hans Christian Andersen (1952). “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” is one of the most enduring songs from the 1940s, though the storyline of seduction, once viewed as charming, is now seen as problematic by some. Loesser died in 1969 at age 59.
Cole Porter, 4
Image Credit: Underwood Archives/GI
Porter was the sole writer of all four of his nominated songs – “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” from Born to Dance (1936), “Since I Kissed My Baby Goodbye” from You’ll Never Get Rich (1941), “You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To” from Something to Shout About (1943) and “True Love” from High Society (1956). “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” is one of Frank Sinatra’s signature hits. “True Love” was a smash collab in 1956 for Bing Crosby & Grace Kelly. Porter, pictured here at the piano in 1956 with his dog beside him, died in 1964 at age 73.
Irving Berlin, 7
Berlin was the sole writer of all seven of his nominated songs – “Cheek to Cheek” from Top Hat (1935), “Change Partners” from Carefree (1938), “Now It Can Be Told” from Alexander’s Ragtime Band (also 1938), “I Poured My Heart Into a Song” from Second Fiddle (1939), “White Christmas” from Holiday Inn (which won, 1942), “You Keep Coming Back Like a Song” from Blue Skies (1946) and “Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep” from White Christmas (1954). “Cheek to Cheek” came in second in the Oscar voting for 1935. The winner that year was “Lullaby of Broadway.” Both songs are famous to this day. And wouldn’t it be great if the Academy revealed the runner-up nowadays, as they did that year? Berlin died in 1989 at age 101.
Diane Warren, 10
Warren is the sole writer of 10 of her 14 nominated songs to date. Warren teamed with Albert Hammond, best known for his 1972 smash “It Never Rains in Southern California,” to write her first Oscar-nominated song, “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” from Mannequin (1987). She later teamed with Lady Gaga on “Til It Happens to You” from The Hunting Ground (2015), Common on “Stand Up for Something” from Marshall (2017) and Laura Pausini for “Io Sì (Seen)” from The Life Ahead (La Vita Davanti a Se).
She has been the sole writer of her other 10 nominated songs – “Because You Loved Me” from Up Close and Personal (1996), “How Do I Live” from Con Air (1997), “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing “ from Armageddon (1998), “Music of My Heart” from Music of the Heart (1999), “There You’ll Be” from Pearl Harbor (2001), “Grateful” from Beyond the Lights (2014), “I’ll Fight” from RBG (2018), “I’m Standing With You” from Breakthrough (2019), “Somehow You Do” from Four Good Days (2021) and “Applause” from Tell It Like a Woman (2022).
Here’s a closer look at Warren’s 14 Oscar-nominated songs.
Randy Newman, 13
Image Credit: Arturo Holmes/ABC/GI
Newman is the sole writer of all 13 of his nominated songs to date, including a song from each of the four Toy Story movies. He was nominated for “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” from Toy Story (1995) and “When She Loved Me” from Toy Story 2 (1999), won for “We Belong Together” from Toy Story 3 (2010) and was nominated for “I Can’t Let You Throw Yourself Away” from Toy Story 4 (2019). In the photo above, Newman is performing the latter song on the Oscar telecast.
Newman’s first Oscar winner was “If I Didn’t Have You” from Monsters, Inc. (2001). Newman is the only writer in Oscar history to win twice for solo-written songs.
His other nominees are “One More Hour” from Ragtime (1981), “I Love to See You Smile” from Parenthood (1989), “Make Up Your Mind” from The Paper (1994), “That’ll Do” from Babe: Pig in the City (1998), “A Fool in Love” from Meet the Parents (2000), “Our Town” from Cars (2006), and “Almost There” and “Down in New Orleans” from The Princess and the Frog (2009).