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ISA's 'Classic Broadway Musical' Each day, the ISA recommends a Broadway Musical which in our opinion offers outstanding songwriting content. To book tickets for this show, go to www.broadway.com

Bruce Springteen
Bruce Springsteen
I was always concerned with writing to my age at a particular moment. That was the way I would keep faith with the audience that supported me as I went along...I'm a synthesist. I'm always making music. And I make a lot of different kinds of music all the time. Some of it gets finished and some of it doesn't...The best music is essentially there to provide you something to face the world with

Paul McCartney Paul McCartney
The great thing about John and I in the old days was that we didn't have tapes - but that was great because it focused us. We used to say to each other, 'if we can't remember it tomorrow, it's no good.' How memorable is a song that you wrote last night and you can't remember this morning? It's not good

Joni Mitchell Joni Mitchell
You could write a song about some kind of emotional problem you are having, but it would not be a good song, in my eyes, until it went through a period of sensitivity to a moment of clarity. Without that moment of clarity to contribute to the song, it's just complaining

John Lennon John Lennon
"A Day In The Life ". Just as it sounds: I was reading the paper one day and I noticed two stories. One was the drinks heir who killed himself in a car - one of the Guinness family. Tara Brown. That was the main headline story. He died in London in a car crash. On the next page was a story about 4000 holes in Blackburn, Lancashire. In the streets, that is. They were going to fill them all. Paul's contribution was the beautiful little lick in the song ' I'd love to turn you on '. I had the bulk of the song and the words, but he contributed this little lick floating around in his head that he couldn't use for anything. I thought it was a damn good piece of work.
Paul provided a lightness, an optimism, while I would always go for the sadness, the discords, a certain bluesy edge. There was a period where I thought I didn't write melodies, that Paul wrote those. But when I think of some of my own songs, ... "In My Life", or "This Boy", I was writing melody with the best of them.
The Songwriter Hall Of Fame
The International Songwriters Association's "Hall Of Fame" has been chosen by the members of the ISA since 1981, and by visitors to this site since 1998. You too can vote for your favourite songwriter of all time by going to the "Hall Of Fame" link at the top of any page

Avril Lavigne Avril Lavigne
I wrote “Girlfriend” when I was drunk. The chorus was written in two minutes. It took nothing. And what's really cool about “I Can Do Better” is we wrote it, and then I just ran into the booth, and I sang. I laid down the verse, and ... we just used my demo [take]. It was totally different - so much fun!

Amy Winehouse
Amy Winehouse
Songwriting is an exorcism. I get all my stuff out there. If I didn’t have this medium to get my experiences across, I would be lost

Billy Joel
Billy Joel
I consider myself to be an inept pianist, a bad singer, and a merely competent songwriter. What I do, in my opinion, is by no means extraordinary

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan
My best songs were written very quickly. Just about as much time as it takes to write it down is about as long as it takes to write it...In writing songs I've learned as much from Cezanne as I have from Woody Guthrie.

John Lennon John Lennon
"Please Please Me" is my song completely. It was my attempt at writing a Roy Orbison song, would you believe it? I wrote it in the bedroom in my house at Menlove Avenue, which was my auntie's place. I heard Roy Orbison doing "Only The Lonely" or something. That's where that came from. And also I was always intrigued by the words of 'Please Lend Your Ears To My Pleas,' a Bing Crosby song. I was always intrigued by the double use of the word
'please.'
International Songwriters Association • The ISA

The Original Songwriting Centre • Founded 1967



 
 


ISA Album Of The Day

Liechtenstein To Enter Eurovision Song Contest?
The tiny principality of Liechtenstein, looks certain to become the newest
Eurovision cotender. The state's broadasting organisation 1FL TV, has put in
an application to join the European Broadcasting Union, as the first step
towards its possible participation in the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest

Abba
Lordi Alexander Rybak

The Premier Songwriting Contest - The Eurovision
From Lys Assia (Switzerland 1956), to Lena, who won for  Germany
in 2010, we examine the winners (and the losers) in what has become
the most famous (or infamous) song contest in the world - the Eurovision!

Selling Your Songs

Are You Selling Your Songs?
Songwriter Magazine is giving away absolutely free, the 60,0000 word International Songwriters Association Course "Selling Your Songs" to any songwriter who wants it. Click the pic for the full story!

Looking For A Hit Songwriter?
Singers, bands, and managers seeking hit songs, contact us daily.
If you are looking for unpublished songwriting product,
our songwriters will happily oblige.  Just click the pic!

Looking For A Songwriter?

John Lennon Songwriting Contest
The John Lennon Songwriting Contest is open to songwriters and lyric writers, and is one of the most successful songwriting contests of all, attracting songwriters and songwriting teams from all over he world.

John Lennon Songwriting Contest

Songwriter Interview - Gene Pitney
"Today's Teardrops by Roy Orbison was a big hit, but not my biggest
songwriting hit. That was Hello Mary Lou which I gave to Rick Nelson, and I've spent a lifetime analysing why it was as big as it was".

Gene Pitney - Songwriter
Sonny Curtis - Songwriter

Songwriter Interview - Sonny Curtis
"Leo Sayer, a songwriter himself, was in his hotel room, watching television, and on came More Than I Can Say in this K-Tel commercial and he said - 'Wow, I always wanted to do that song'. And he did!"

Hal Shaper - Songwriter

Songwriter Interview - Hal Shaper
"In the early days, I had no instinct towards fame or fortune, I just liked being a songwriter. I always used to wake up thinking, 'I can't imagine why everyone in the world doesn't write songs for a living!'"

Songwriter Interview - Lionel Bart
"I wrote songs for Cliff for the film. The Living Doll song itself -  one morning, I was looking at the Sunday Mirror, I think, and I saw
this ad for a doll that did everything. And I thought, "That'll do"

Lionel Bart - Songwriter
Barry Mason - Songwriter

Songwriter Interview - Barry Mason
"I wrote a song called Girl Of Mine for Elvis and there were two versions made of that.  One with just the rhythm section, for the fans, without The Jordanaires or violins -  and that's the version I've got"

Publisher Interview - Terry Noon
"The only thing I had was an E-type Jaguar, my pride and joy. I
absolutely doted on that car, and I sold it, to start Noon Music. It
was the hardest thing but it was the only way I could raise money."

Terry Noon - Music Publisher
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ISA Website  http://www.songwriter.co.uk • Editorial E-Mail  jliddane@songwriter.iol.ie

International Songwriters Association Limited
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