Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hi All,

a new list has been added to my page: WHO WROTE WHAT. Find a list of all songs written by the Searchers themselves AND find out the differences between the real writer(s) and the credits.

And the best of all: The source for the Real Writer(s) part is Frank Allen himself.

(And don't forget to find out how his name was written on a few RCA releases!!)

Michael

http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Bistro/7695

Very nice work Michael. What a wealth of information!

Wow! I am quite surprised to find out who really wrote some of those songs. It is fitting, however, that Chris wrote a song as emotional and tender as "Too Many Miles" by himself. But I was shocked to find that John wrote "Don't You Know Why"--I had seen it referred to as one of his songs, but I thought that was a mistake. My "Searchers No. 4" album says it was written by Mike and Chris, and in fact I thought its lyrics were very "Chris Curtis". Alas, both the LP and I were wrong. Anyway, it is, like many of John's songs, a great one. It should have been a single, and it was in the US, but I believe "You Can't Lie To A Liar" was the side that was plugged. What a waste of a great song that had all the earmarks of a hit.

What's more interesting is to find that Frank Allen wrote the rather bizarre lyrics to "Second Hand Dealer." He sure does have a way with words. I recall that "Good Way To Fall" had some interesting lyrics as well.

Thank you, Michael, for your continued work!

Perhaps one of the more interesting findings from this work for me is the substantial number of original Searchers' compositions that are works of John McNally. The following rough percentages from the list on Michael's site are as follows:
McNally 43% Curtis 27% Allen 18% Pender 14% James 2%Another most interesting finding is the substantial number of original compositions by Chris Curtis during the relatively short time he was with the group. With more than one in four original compositions written by Curtis it is clear that the impact of his loss to the group was considerable. Thanks for this fine research Michael.

Michael,

A great list!! One question. I can understand(to a degree), a member of a band sharing credit with his bandmates on a song (if only to share royalties, and reduce potential jealousy). I can understand writing partners, a la Lennon-McCartney sharing credit on songs they wrote individually, since they were a team. BUT why did individual Searchers share credit (in many cases with Mike) on songs they appear from your list to have written alone?

I found it interesting, and in line with his stated dislike for Tony, that Chris never shared credit with him, or the rest of the group while Tony was a member, but did so once Frank got in.Did Frank say anything or explain why/how the credit was determined?

Sharing credits (or not) is an interesting question Frank answered but not satisfactory (for me). He said that they usually share the credit for all in the group who are able to write. That's why Billly or John Blunt never got a writer's credit. But he didn't answer the question why - at one time - a song for example written by Chris is credited to the whole group and at another time it is credited only to himself. So this a question that has to be answered. But I think we won't ever get an answer.
The list Frank Allen contributed might also have some mistakes. He wrote that down out of his memory. But it's interesting anyway.
Michael

Frank's point that the credits would usually be shared by the writers in the group would also be impacted by timing and relationships and also whether or not the individual was a financial partner in the group. They wouldn't have had a strict policy, different times would mean different outcomes
Mike

Frank's list provides us with a piece of history that we did not have before you asked Michael. While it may not be perfect, few things in life are, it is welcomed. I suspect, as Mike has mentioned, that the sharing of song writing credits is related to the quality of the relationship that one has with band members at the time.