How many writers does it take to create a hit song?
It could be one or even eight, depending on contributions by producers, engineers and others
NEW YORK — Writing a hit song takes how many people? If you’re Pharrell, one. If you’re Pitbull or Jason Derulo, probably eight — or more.
Billboard’s recent Hot 100 chart reflects a group of hits mainly showcasing songs written solely by an act and an additional songwriter or those with seven or eight songwriters, such as Pitbull’s Timber or Jason Derulo’s Wiggle.
What does it take to craft a hit? Who gets the credit? Is a song written by nearly a dozen people less special than a song with only two or three co- writers?
Pharrell, who has the longestrunning No. 1 song so far this year with Happy, wrote the tune alone.
“You got six, you got 18 people in the room, you don’t need me,” said Pharrell, who has written hits for Britney Spears and Usher. “Who am I to judge? Just because I do it my way doesn’t mean it’s going to be the stat( us) quo. ( It’s) more than likely not going to be the stat( us) quo, as we see.”
The songwriters on Katy Perry’s No. 1 hits range from four ( E. T.) to six ( Dark Horse). Beyoncé and Jay Z’s latest smash, Drunk in Love, lists eight collaborators, and Eminem and Rihanna’s The Monster was crafted by seven people.
That’s in contrast to Lorde’s Royals and One-Republic’s Counting Stars — solely written by Ryan Tedder — to any of the successes from Imagine Dragons’ debut album, which credits the four members and occasionally producer Alex da Kid.
“I don’t think that there’ll probably ever be a time, to be honest with you, that we would sit down with like six songwriters and be like, ‘ Write an Imagine Dragons song.’ It just wouldn’t feel right for us,” said bandleader Dan Reynolds, who was honoured Thursday night at the Songwriters Hall of Fame ceremony in New York. “I’ve heard about artists who have a song written for them and they embrace it ... but for us, it’s not real to what Imagine Dragons is.”
Some of today’s hits with a list of songwriters that scroll on and on include others who don’t physically write lyrics: Writing credit can also be earned by producers who design the beats, artists who sing the song and add their own flavour, engineers who mix the track and others who work specifically on the melody. The publishing percentage for each person listed on the song varies, though.
Other times, sampling older songs adds to the lengthy list of credited songwriters. Pitbull and Kesha’s Timber lists eight songwriters, but the total would be 11 because it borrows from Lee Oskar’s San Francisco Bay.
The largest group of writers to win the coveted Grammy for song of the year — a songwriter’s award — is four, including Beyoncé’s Single Ladies ( Put a Ring on It).