Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

There are songwriters who have in fact never written a song, probably the most famous being Elvis Presley. To be fair to Elvis it was Col. Parker’s doing. Songs like Love Me Tender and Heartbreak Hotel have Presley’s name on the label along with those of the real writers. Given that the Colonel got somewhere between 25-50% of everything that Elvis made it was yet another nice little earner for the man who was neither a Colonel nor born a Parker. If you stretch a point you can see where they are coming from, which there’s no need to do in the case of DJ Alan Freed who’s writing credits on Chuck Berry’s Maybellene and other songs was nothing more than a move to ensure the records got played on the radio.

Anyone know of others who have had a credit for writing nothing?

Richard: As fascinating a topic as this is, I cannot think of any other examples at this moment, that rise to the level of fame as in your examples.

At the opposite end of the spectrum there are those who hid their involvement for one reason or another. An equally fascinating story in my view. But I will leave that to another thread.

Time to put my thinking cap on, I guess.

Sure...Chuck Berry got credit for the music in "Surfin' USA", although the lion's share of the adaptation and all of the lyrical content belonged to Brian Wilson. Well, I suppose the guitar break and the chords were Chuck's...reminds me of "My Sweet Lord/He's So Fine". Doo lang Doo lang Doolang.

Uncredited was Judy Bowles' brother, ?, who wrote down the names of all the hot surfing spots at the time, as Brian was allergic to salt water.

Whitney Houston seems to be the only contemporary artist that comes to mind for being "known" for her songs but not having written anything. Not my type of music but I read something recently about that whole thing.

Welcome Alisha first post on this forum I think, wouldn't know to be honest, Whitney a bit too recent for Clough's Classics

Oh my bad Roy I'll put my "classic" thinking cap on.

Whitney who?..
How about Tom Jones?

I've heard that several country artists have given writing credits to family members and let them collect the royalties.

How about Paul McCartney putting Linda's name on the songs from RAM?