Source link : https://las-vegas-news.com/8-songwriters-who-wrote-hits-for-other-artists-before-going-solo/
Plenty of pop fans have sung along to a chorus without ever learning who wrote it. For many songwriters, the credit line on someone else’s single was the first sign of what they could do.
This list looks at eight writers who built their reputations by handing songs to other singers. Each one later stepped forward with a record of their own.
Carole King
King started as a staff writer in New York, working with her then husband Gerry Goffin. Together they wrote Will You Love Me Tomorrow for the Shirelles, which reached number one in the United States in 1961. They also wrote (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman for Aretha Franklin.
King released her debut solo album, Writer, in 1970. Her breakthrough came a year later with Tapestry, which won four Grammy Awards and spent fifteen weeks at number one on the Billboard 200. Many of its songs were ones she had already written for other singers.
Laura Nyro
Nyro was a New York singer and pianist whose songs were often more successful in other people’s hands. The 5th Dimension took her Wedding Bell Blues to number one in 1969. Blood, Sweat & Tears had a hit with And When I Die.
Barbra Streisand later recorded her Stoney End and sent it into the American top ten. Nyro’s own albums, starting with 1967’s More Than a New Discovery, built a devoted following more slowly. Her case shows how a…
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Author : Matthias Binder
Publish date : 2026-11-03 11:48:00
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