Surprising songwriters …

[Stumpy Pepys]

… or co-writers.

Georgy Girl – The Seekers (co-written by Jim Dale)
Kissing with Confidence – Will Powers (co-written by Steve Winwood)
Never Learn Not to Love – The Beach Boys (written by Charles Manson)

[wittoner]

In the 50s and 60s there were many dubious songwriting credits on some hit records. Usually a result of a manager or A & R person getting a credit as a reward for "services rendered".
Another scam was for a producer/arranger who had some musical talent to knock out a mediocre song and get his artist to record it as a B side (because the composer of the B side got the
same sales royalties as the composer of the A side). The late Norrie Paramour was notorious for doing this with Cliff Richard and Helen Shapiro.

An interesting one is "He's A Rebel" by The Crystals. Actually written by Gene Pitney (a bit surprising in itself) but credited to his mother so she'd have the tax bill on the royalties.
In a ruse straight out of Sergeant Bilko Pitney taught her how to play it on the piano in case she received a visit from sceptical IRS men.

[Various Artist]

The one that springs to mind, talking of Cliff, is his minor late-'60s hit Marianne. The song was originally the Spanish or Italian entry or something in the 1968 Eurovision Song Contest, where Cliff won with Congratulations, and subsequently given an English rewrite. The English lyric was written by Mike Sammes and Bill Owen, the latter set to become famous only a few years later as Compo in Last Of The Summer Wine.

[Jah Womble]

Good thread. Here're a few more:

I Write the Songs - Barry Manilow (1975 - written not by Manilow, but by Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys)
Only Women Bleed - Julie Covington (1977 - written by Alice Cooper, previously a US hit from his own Welcome to My Nightmare album)
Islands in the Stream - Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton (1983 - written by the Bee Gees)
A Good Heart - Feargal Sharkey (1985 - written by Maria McKee out of Lone Justice)
Bedtime Story - Madonna (1995 - written by Björk)
The Magic of Christmas Day - Celine Dion (1998 - written [I kid you not] by Dee Snider out of Twisted Sister)
What Baby Wants - Alice Cooper (2011 - written by Ke$ha)

One that didn't occur - but had it done would surely have trumped everything else - was the song A Child's Prayer, set to be recorded by Elvis in 1977, but scuppered by his untimely death.

The writer was one Alex Hughes - better known to the world as Judge Dread.

[Southport Zeb]

The one that springs to mind, talking of Cliff, is his minor late-'60s hit Marianne. The song was originally the Spanish or Italian entry or something in the 1968 Eurovision Song Contest, where Cliff won with Congratulations, and subsequently given an English rewrite. The English lyric was written by Mike Sammes and Bill Owen, the latter set to become famous only a few years later as Compo in Last Of The Summer Wine.

On a pedantic point, Cliff was second in the 1968 Eurovision. He lost out to Spain's Massiel singing "La, la, la"

[Satchmo Distel]

Your Cheatin' Heart - Cole Porter
Living Doll - Lionel Bart
Blinked By The Light - Bruce Springsteen
Do The Hucklebuck - Charlie Parker (uncredited I think)

[1974ddr]

'Blinked By The Light'? Was it a particularly bright light?

[3 Colours Red]

Madonna wrote a song for Nick Kamen from the Levi's ad.

[Jah Womble]

Each Time You Break My Heart - which was presumably catapulted into the Top Five by the Madge association, because it certainly wasn't down to his voice or performance.

Michael Jackson purportedly wrote the 1991 chart-topper Do the Bartman by The Simpsons - although, since his death, this has been contested.

Sticking with TV cartoons, apparently Mark Mothersbaugh out of Devo wrote the theme song for Rugrats.

'Blinked By The Light'? Was it a particularly bright light?

Although clearly not as bright as the one that 'blinded'.

[MsD]

Love, This Is My Song - Charlie Chaplin

[Various Artist]

On a pedantic point, Cliff was second in the 1968 Eurovision. He lost out to Spain's Massiel singing "La, la, la"

Oh no, good call SZ, my mistake there. I always forget he didn't actually finish first, possibly because I'm conflating that with Congratulations having been a #1 single.

One that didn't occur - but had it done would surely have trumped everything else - was the song A Child's Prayer, set to be recorded by Elvis in 1977, but scuppered by his untimely death.
The writer was one Alex Hughes - better known to the world as Judge Dread.

Whoa. That...takes some getting one's head around.

A Good Heart - Feargal Sharkey (1985 - written by Maria McKee out of Lone Justice)

I always just love the extraordinary sequencing of Feargal Sharkey's two major solo hits. He had a Number One in the UK with A Good Heart, written by the young McKee about the breakup of her relationship with fellow musician Benmont Tench (keyboardist with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers); then followed it up with the #2 hit You Little Thief – written by Tench about McKee as a pretty vitriolic direct response.

It's akin to some fucked-up scenario where Bjorn or Benny hand someone else one of their songs, instead of recording it with Abba, about the breakdown of their marriages to Agnetha or Frida like The Winner Takes It All – then the woman in question writes a scabrous answer song and mails it to the same third party to sing. Except in the case of the Sharkey hits, it actually happened. Feargal, presumably amused by having become a sort of proxy third wheel in this dysfunctional relationship, even placed the two tracks side by side on his debut solo album.

Just to add to the whirl surrounding Maria McKee, two or three years later Deacon Blue also wrote Real Gone Kid about her after seeing her perform while they were opening for Lone Justice. I occasionally wonder if anyone in Britain was aware at that stage (1988) of this mad soap opera around that basically unknown singer, seeing as her own breakout smash hit success with Show Me Heaven was still a couple more years in the future.

[Satchmo Distel]

Chaplin also wrote Smile

[Stumpy Pepys]

Your Cheatin' Heart - Cole Porter

[Scratches head]

[Stumpy Pepys]

I occasionally wonder if anyone in Britain was aware at that stage (1988) of this mad soap opera around that basically unknown singer, seeing as her own breakout smash hit success with Show Me Heaven was still a couple more years in the future.

Well, big things were expected of Lone Justice at the time. Shame they never broke into the mainstream; both their LPs were pretty good.

[wittoner]

One that didn't occur - but had it done would surely have trumped everything else - was the song A Child's Prayer, set to be recorded by Elvis in 1977, but scuppered by his untimely death.

The writer was one Alex Hughes - better known to the world as Judge Dread.

Another one that Elvis was due to record was "Feels Like I'm in Love" written by Ray Dorset of Mungo Jerry. Although in this case, Dorset did at least have the consolation of seeing Kelly Marie take it to No. 1 in 1980.

[Jah Womble]

I guess the cracking Groovejet (If This Ain't Love) by Spiller would've counted here had this thread existed in 2000, it having been co-written by former dangly-earring-wearing Rob Davis out of Mud. His reputation was obviously then cemented by the co-writing of another massive number one the following year with Kylie's Can't Get You Out of My Head.

Lone Justice never really cracked it, despite, as SP says, strong material. As an individual talent, McKee was pretty much unknown when A Good Heart went to number one, the unexpected nature of which would've swamped most questions about the songwriter anyway.

I didn't know that Real Gone Kid was written about her. Good fact.

(NB You Little Thief only peaked at #5 here [#4 in Australia]. Neither of Sharkey's biggest hits made much impact on the US charts.)

[Satchmo Distel]

[Scratches head]

Sorry, wrong song: "Hey, Good Lookin'" was written by Cole Porter, adapted by Hank Williams. Your Cheatin' Heart is all Hank.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hey,_G...okin%27_(song)

[Jah Womble]

To my great shame, I only discovered yesterday that not only was ver Quo's Rockin' All Over the World written by John Fogerty, but said CCR front man also had a US hit with it in 1975. Not sure how I made it to 2017 not knowing that, but everything about the song says 'Rossi and Parfitt' to me.

I should also like to add that Chris Martin singing a portion of it during Coldplay's set at Live-8 might just have been the most cringeworthy event in music history.