Month: March 2026

In Other Words – Women as Singer Songwriters – Introduction

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“So Far Away” (1970). Words and Music by Carole King.

In my post on Connie Converse I mentioned that I was working on women as singer songwriters. So I guess we could call this a spin-off of Herstory in Harmony. Or more like a companion that narrows in on a subset of music. In thinking about what a singer songwriter is by definition I took a broader look at things in this introduction. Approximately 60 plus percent of artists perform as a solo act. But not all of them write their own songs. Not that co-writing a song is a bad thing, but I wanted to try and look at the solo written songs only. I know there is a difference between solo written and solo song credits. There are many examples of names being added by the record companies that did not contribute to the writing of the song. While I can site many examples, trying to separate those is about as impossible as separating an egg with a strainer.

I apologize as once again I will throw a lot of numbers at you. But if I am going to give you a list, or give my perspective on a topic, know that it is well researched. Imperfect though I am. Today I what to make these major points. The traditional model of the singer songwriter is a thing of the past. The solo songwriter is also a thing of the past. As a total part of the recording industry the performer who writes the words and music to all or most of their songs has always been a rare thing. And today they are, well this song says it best.

“Endangered Species” by Esperanza Spalding. Song written by Esperanza Spalding based on the original music composed by Wayne Shorter and Joseph Vitarelli.

So to demonstrate, we have to realize that a solo written song, let alone a hit by a single recording artist is pretty much a thing of the past, but back in the 70s it was about 44%of songs. It’s becoming more rare as we only have 16 such songs reaching #1 since the year 2000. That said this solo writing situation was reserved in large part for men. Let’s just stick to the Hot 100 as a barometer for the Pop genre. Taking, again just solo written #1 hits in the charts history; Lionel Ritchie, Michael Jackson, George Michael, Stevie Wonder and Prince are the Top Five. Of those women solo acts that were credited alone, my local AI search said it is only about 1% of the #1 songs on the Billboard Hot 100’s history. That number is not that different on most all niche charts or for that matter any other Mainstream chart. Frankly never been a thing (male or female) at all on the Country charts.

One percent sounded a bit ridiculous I thought. Taking a look at women on the Hot 100, I could only find a few names. So Prince at number five (above) had six songs reach #1. The the only women I could find each had one song. Dolly Parton, Alicia Keys, Gloria Estefan, Taylor Swift, Carly Simon, Carole King and the youngest was Debbie Gibson in 1988. I may have missed one or two. But I thought about Madonna, no her highest solo credit went to #17. I thought about Mariah Carey and though by all accounts she wrote “Vision of Love” at age 17, it is credited to her and Ben Margulies. This raises a major issue. How many times was a solo written song by a woman co-credited to a male who did not write the song. I am guessing it’s happened more than just this one example. Again a bit of history in the business of doing this to men as well.

But the most influential singer songwriters in history, Bob Dylan for example, did not have many, if any #1 songs. Paul McCartney has a couple solo credits, George Harrison has two and John Lennon one. Covers of their songs yes, but the original reaching #1, no. Billy Joel had a couple but outside the names I have mentioned there’s just a list of one off examples. As for Joni Mitchell, like Dylan she never had a #1 Billboard hit.

But now, if you are a solo act you just don’t write songs alone. The Billy Joel’s and the Bruce Springsteen’s of music are becoming more rare than they already were. Getting back to women, I know some of you can name – names, and as the series moves along, we will get to some of them. But these days if you want to chart a song, it’s too competitive for any one person to manage, no matter how talented. Not even Taylor Swift could keep up. But more and more, statistically speaking, the vast majority of songs have more than two names credited as writers. I know they are listening, so I daren’t say this – but please let’s not let the writer with initials A.I. replace the real songwriters.

Look, I have no problem with co-writing, in fact I know it’s a great thing. We can list a lot of great women performers who are also great songwriters but as a percentage of the whole it’s still shockingly low. And by no means take this as an indorsement for the Hot 100 as having the best written and recorded songs. But it does provide a researchable empirical database. While taste is a subjective thing.

So this series is going to take us back to that window of time when the Singer Songwriter as a genre began to just past it’s peak years. So from 1960 to 1979. Based on the above numbers it’s fair to say, for women, it’s been a tough market. Despite what we have seen with the big hit makers like Rhianna or Adele and the dozens of others, across all genre the ratio of men to women solo artists is about 10:1. The ‘ideal image’ as it were, of the singer songwriter was the more intimate, personal approach to writing and performing a song. Largely found in Folk Music. Today these women are even more rare than they were (when we might have thought them) abundant in the 60s and 70s. I am flip flopping between women as songwriters and women as singer songwriters but the rarity and popularity issue is the constant.

A good metric of influence is how many times songs have been covered by other artists. There are not a lot of other empirical data options truth be told. If I listed 100 women’s names (and yes I could) it would still be a fraction of the whole music industry. Last year (so the numbers are a bit outdated) I did a post on the Top 10 Most Recorded Women Songwriters. This includes co-writing credits. As writers we know women have had many #1 hits and also many Top 40/100. The first women to appear on the list (below) is Dorothy Fields. She is the 29th most covered songwriter according to Secondhandsongs.com. The second name, Carole King is 56th and by the time you get to #10 and Dolly Parton, she is down at #289. Katherine K. Davis composed “Carol of the Drums” (Little Drummer Boy) and sits at #293. So out of the top 300 most recorded songwriters, just 11 are women. Here is the list from that post.

  1. Dorothy Fields, 5464 covers of 89 songs by 4401 artists (The Way You Look Tonight)
  2. Carole King, 3820 covers of 192 songs by 3180 (You’ve Got a Friend)
  3. Marilyn Bergman, 3450 covers of 101 songs by 2677 artists (The Windmills of Your Mind)
  4. Joni Mitchell, 3120 covers of 137 songs by 2278 artists (Both Sides Now)
  5. Dorothy Heyward, 2728 covers of 7 songs by 3004 artists (Summertime)
  6. Taylor Swift, 1932 covers of 205 songs by 630 artists (Shake it Off)
  7. Cynthia Weil, 1818 covers of 147 songs by 1710 artists (You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’)
  8. Betty Comden, 1748 covers of 51 songs by 1681 artists (Just in Time)
  9. Carole Bayer Sager, 1332 covers of 107 songs by 1254 artists (The Prayer)
  10. Dolly Parton, 1298 covers of 146 songs by 1093 artists (I Will Always Love You)

I am just trying to put some context behind my look at women as a singer songwriter. We see only a few on this list. As we look back, something significant changed with women’s place in recorded music in 1960. It would set a course that has led to someone like Taylor Swift. To gain some perspective on how we get from A to B to JM and TS, we need some history. Not to harp on Joni Mitchell but she helps me anchor where I am heading with this. And realize just how unique she is. Let’s face it, Taylor has morphed into something well beyond her country singer songwriter roots. The key to following the lineage of the singer songwriter lies in two areas, the writing and the Folk music revival. There are lot’s of amazing performers, but as I said at the beginning, not everyone writes songs. And most all that do today, collaborate.

In Part 1 of this new series I will briefly cover a bit of the history of women in music. Then get into some of the women singer songwriters. Say what you will about any songwriter, but for me there is nothing that can replace the heart and soul the solitary performer gives when singing a song they wrote themselves. And I promise to go easy on the stats.

Bowie does Covers – Young Americans Album

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“Across the Universe” (1975) by David Bowie. Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

John Lennon joined Bowie on this song as most people are probably aware. His backing vocals might be a give away. What you may not know is that this was a spontaneous decision by Bowie to hook up with one of his idols. The Young Americans album was finished. But after an awkward meeting where he played the whole album for John, he later called him saying he was going to cover “Across the Universe”.

Lennon said he was only at the studio to play some rhythm guitar, but it ended up being a lot more. He liked this version and sort of hated The Beatles version. And it was the first and only time he sang backup or played guitar on a cover of a Beatles song. Which makes this recording all the more significant. Lennon practically never played a Beatles song after the breakup. A reminder of how intensely he seemed to hate his time with The Beatles.

This album also includes “Fame” that Lennon collaborated with Bowie and Carlos Alomar to write. That became Bowie’s first #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Added to the intrigue or should I say “Fascination” of the album was another collaboration. Luther Van Dross had been opening for Bowie and frequently sang an unrecorded song called “Funky Music (is a Part of Me)”. Bowie rewrote the song and called it “Fascination”. Luther Van Dross later recorded his song with the original title. So while listed as a cover, it’s a rather convoluted one to say the least.

Cover information from Secondhandsongs.com

Cover Culture Through the Decades – Roberta Flack (1972-74)

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It’s a rare feat to win back to back Grammys in the same category. But no one has done it with two cover songs, except Roberta Flack for Record of the Year in 1973 and 1974. The award also goes to the engineer and the Producer who for both songs was Joel Dorn. Since then U2, Billie Eilish and Kendrick Lamar have won back to back with original songs.

The two songs are so well known that I won’t spend a lot of time with them. But they are so incredible you probably won’t mind listening to them again. Still gives me chills when I listen.

“The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” by Roberta Flack, was released in June of 1969. The song was written by Ewan MacColl. I talked about this song in a prior post if you are interested.

Flack’s 1969 version was a sleeper, winning her Record of the Year, produced by Joel Dorn – but not until 1973. It would also win the songwriter Ewan MacColl his one and only Grammy for Song of the Year in 1973.

It was recorded with various titles by over 20 singers before Flack put it on her 1969 debut album. Up to this point, no version of the song had reached the charts. In 1971 after hearing it on his car radio, Clint Eastwood used the song in the movie Play Misty for Me. More people liked the song and began requesting it on the radio. They re-released a shorter version of the song late in 1971.

The big year for the song was 1972. It was #1 (for six weeks) on the Hot 100 and The Easy Listening chart, #4 on the R&B chart, #1 in Canada and Australia, #17 in New Zealand and #14 in the UK. It ended 1972 as the #1 song on the Hot 100.

“Killing Me Softy with His Song” was recorded by Roberta Flack and released in January of 1973. The song is credited to well known writers Norman Gimble and Charles Fox. I talked about how the original recording artist of the song, Lori Lieberman figures into a conflict over the writing credits in a prior post.

Roberta was on a plane and reading a brochure of the inflight song selection and was curious about the title “Killing Me Softy with His Song”. She was immediately struck with the lyrics of the song and listened to the recording by Lori Lieberman five times before the plane landed.

Roberta would repeat her 1973 win in 1974 with her version of “Killing Me Softy with His Song” and once again be awarded Record of the Year. She used the same producer Joel Dorn who had successes with other artists such as Bett Midler, The Allman Brothers Band, The Neville Brothers and several Jazz musicians. His two Grammys were with Roberta Flack. She also won Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

For “Killing Me Softy with His Song” Roberta had made several chord and other changes, along with that incredible voice. It came down to the creative reimagining of these two songs by Flack that made them so incredible and award worthy. There was superb work done with the arrangements as well. Flack’s renditions became the definitive version and remain so today.

It was solely based on the Robert Flack cover that the song would also win for Song of the Year for the writer Ewan MacColl. What an unexpected benefit for a song writer to have someone do such an amazing job to win you an award for a song first released 12 years earlier. At the time he and his wife Peggy Seeger were struggling with fading careers plus financial and health issues. The initial cheque for $75,000 was not only a shock but life changing. The substantial ongoing royalty payments would provide financial security for the couple for the rest of their lives. Despite this, MacColl was a folk music purists (aka snob) and he was quite critical of Flack’s treatment of the song. Still cashed the cheques though.

This is not the first time this kind of delayed benefit has happened. The key however is for the writer to maintain their portion of the copyright. Or in the case of Lori Lieberman (above link) receiving credit in the first place. Sometimes writers have been cheated out of this by being paid a lump sum, and unaware they gave up all future royalties. Other times writers knowingly sold the rights to the song (perhaps needing the money at the time) and years down the road something like this happens and the money goes to whoever bought the copyright. This has been litigated frequently and the vast majority of the time the new copyright holder wins. Contract law is very inflexible in this regard. However if breach of contract or trust can be established, unpaid and future royalties are sometimes restored to the songwriter or their heirs. Not dissimilar to cases of a new song using a portion of and older song and not giving proper credit. And the reversal can be so severe it can financially crush an artist /performer.

What happen to MacColl changed his life for the better, and for many this has been the case. A topic that is part of the impact of the cover song and the clash with the business part of music. For the series wrap up I plan on discussing this further. I will site examples of where the results were similar for the songwriter in terms of unexpected benefits. But the loss of royalties on a song for either future covers or the original version has also proved to be quite devastating for some. But thanks to Roberta Flack, the surly Ewan MacColl had much to be thankful for.

Herstory in Harmony – Connie Converse

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Connie Converse “Talkin’ Like You (Two Tall Mountains)”

This series officially picks back up at the end of the month and we’ve got another guest article. We will continue over the next few months with more writers lined up. So consider this post a bit of a host‑ile takeover. In doing research for some up coming posts focused on women as Singer Songwriter’s I came across a name I had never heard before. I don’t think you have either.

One listening that stopped me in my tracks was Connie Converse (as heard in the clip above). She was born Elizabeth Eaton Converse in 1924 in Laconia, New Hampshire, she quietly emerged in New York during the 1950s. She is a remarkably early example of the template of the ‘modern’ singer‑songwriter. So what do I mean by that? No one before Dylan had such a bold approach and confidence about their own original compositions. Dylan’s idol Woody Guthrie composed amazing and timeless songs but surrounded himself in Traditional music. As did Pete Seeger. They wanted to Dylan to follow that path and his first two albums had some of those Traditional songs. But that was not his idea. He had something to say, and he was going to say. And he did.

Now I know there are many women of note that sang and played guitar, from the Folk Blues of Elizabeth Cotten to the Greenwich Village scene with Odetta and Joan Baez. Could they compose songs, yes but they followed the more traditional approach of doing old songs, spirituals and covers. Mostly of Dylan songs.

All we have from her are home recordings. So they are quite rudimentary in that sense. But the sound quality is very good. Listening to them now, it’s hard not to be struck by how fully formed her songwriting already was lyrically, emotionally, and musically. This at a time when that kind of independence was almost unheard of. And in the mindset of the time “especially for a woman”.

In the 1950s, Converse worked in the printing industry and lived in several New York neighbourhoods, including Greenwich Village. She went by “Connie” and shared her songs mostly in informal settings at friends’ apartments, small gatherings or living rooms. Her lifestyle which included smoking and drinking, caused tension with her very traditional family But there’s a recording from 1952 that shows her performing for her parents in her own apartment. A few years later, a friend invited her to do a taped salon performance, and she even appeared briefly on national television. In 1956, she recorded the only known collection of her songs with a recording engineer by the name of Gene Deitch.

The songs themselves are many things; stunning, intimate, thoughtful, and quietly devastating. Adjectives we would use for Joni Mitchell and Janis Ian. And yet, at the time, the songs went nowhere. No label interest, and she gained no real momentum. Eventually Converse left New York, moved on, and settled into work as a writer and editor in Ann Arbor. By the mid‑1970s, she had disappeared from public life altogether. Her music wasn’t rediscovered until decades later, and today there’s a documentary available online that helps piece together her story. Looking back, it’s hard not to wonder about timing. Converse’s songwriting feels perfectly aligned with what would soon become celebrated, and yet she missed that moment entirely. The contrast between the quality of her work and the indifference it received remains one of the mysteries of the Greenwich Village Folk scene. In my opinion – she is perhaps not an uncommon and tragic causality, but at least this time we have some of her music.

This link above is an ‘album’ of her work (1956) but it was not released until 2009, titled How Sad, How Lovely. Forgotten to time but Connie is an early template of what we think is a Singer Songwriter. I have a very short clip about her below. Her work resurfaced after an old friend talked about her on Public Radio in 2004. Since then her music has started to make an impact on many women. To name just one, Karen O – of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, has very high praise for the compilation album How Sad, How Lovely. .

Past posts in the series so far are from Lisa and Max.

Cover Culture Through the Decades – “Mama Told Me Not to Come”

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Well, cover songs did not wait too long to make a mark on the new decade. Three Dog Night was a hot band coming off three top ten hits in 1969. Their cover of “Mama Told Me Not to Come” was their first of three Hot 100 #1 songs. The song was from their album It Ain’t Easy released in March of 1970. The song was written by Randy Newman and first recorded by Eric Burdon and The Animals and released in 1966 as an album cut only.

The key to the Three Dog Night improvement on the song was a lack of emphasis on the word “told”. Also for the chorus they have the advantage of three lead singers bringing a more full and rich sound. I do think Cory Wells’ voice was perfectly suited for the song and it’s little wonder as to why he pushed the band to record it. Apparently he sang it with his previous band. The Three Dog Night version was the #1 song on the first broadcast of Kasey Kasem’s American Top 40 program. They would countdown the Billboard Top 40 for the week ending of the shows broadcast. So the first song aired was “The End of Our Road” by Marvin Gaye.

Newman released a version in 1970 as well on an album called 12 Songs. But it is, and always will be known as a Three Dog Night song. I think even with Odetta‘s version, the best covers (Wilson Pickett, Tom Jones with Stereophonics) were using the Three Dog Night arrangement in full or in part. It would be replaced at #1 by another cover song. The Carpenters version of “(They Long to Be) Close to You” that would spend four weeks at #1 starting July 25, 1970. There were two other covers that reached #1 in 1970, Diana Ross with “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” and Edwin Starr’s version of “War”.

Though in 1976 George Harrison was deemed to have copied the melody of “He’s So Fine” for his #1 hit “My Sweet Lord” (1970) it is a cover by technicality only. It was however the first #1 song by a former Beatles member. So if we count it there were five cover songs that reached the top of the charts that year.

So what roll did these cover songs play? Well I guess I gave away most of the answer already. The first #1 on AT40 and the first #1 hit for Three Dog Night and it was The Carpenters first #1. But also it was the first solo #1’s for both Diana Ross and George Harrison (again I say’ technically’). All are the most memorable versions of the songs and many people understandably they think of these as the original. No argument they are the and/or definitive version. Cover songs would continue to chart #1 each year throughout the decade. The top performing Hot 100 song of the 70s was “You Light Up My Life” as first covered by Debby Boone. While I may just skip getting into that song for the next installment, cover songs played a huge part including winning back to back Grammys for Roberta Flack. Those two songs are etched in all of our memories and I will talk about them in the next Cover Culture Through the Decades.