Source link : https://las-vegas-news.com/5-songs-you-may-not-know-were-written-by-someone-other-than-the-singer/
Some songs feel so tied to one voice that it’s hard to picture anyone else behind them. The singer owns the performance, the delivery, the memory. Yet the pen often belonged to somebody else entirely.
Songwriting credits tend to hide in liner notes and streaming metadata, so these stories slip past most listeners. Here are five well documented examples of famous songs written by someone other than the artist who made them famous.
I Will Always Love You, Whitney Houston
Whitney Houston’s 1992 version, recorded for The Bodyguard soundtrack, became one of the best selling singles of all time. Dolly Parton wrote the song, though, and first recorded it in 1973. She wrote it as a farewell to her longtime mentor and duet partner Porter Wagoner when she left his show.
Parton’s original reached number one on the country chart in 1974, and she took it back to the top of that chart with a re-recording in 1982. Houston’s arrangement, with its unaccompanied opening, turned it into a global pop event. Parton has often been described as earning enormous royalties from the cover, since she kept her publishing rights.
Respect, Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin’s 1967 recording became an anthem of the civil rights and women’s movements. Otis Redding wrote it and released his own version in 1965, and it was a more straightforward plea from a working…
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Author : Matthias Binder
Publish date : 2026-10-27 11:59:00
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