Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine songs by DIANE WARREN

with all this 80's music talk !!!

i made me remember how much i loved buying a new album and seeing a track written by DIANE WARREN !!!

i knew i would LOVE it straight away ....

she's pretty much written songs for everyone !!!

some of my favourites have been ones for:

HEART

BELINDA CARLISLE

CHER

WHITNEY

STARSHIP

and numerous other massive hits ......

Matthew.

I was just searching the web, trying to get a list of what she wrote (I'm terrible with songwriters). I didn't realize that she wrote Unbreak My Heart, by Toni Braxton. Plus Starship's Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now.

Who knew?

"If this world runs out of lovers, we'll still have each other... nothing's gonna stop us now..."

Starship's "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" is one of my favs, as are the guilty-pleasure Mannequin movies... how can one not love a movie about a man who falls in love with a beautiful mannequin who's really a peasant woman cursed by an enchanted necklace...? Only in the '80s!

I also kinda like Diane Warren's Enterprise theme song...

The woman is amazing.

Saw a feature on her on 60 minutes, or some show like that. Didn't realize how much she has written.

They had a Diane Warren night on American Idol 2.


CARMEN RASMUSSEN~ LOVE WILL LEAD YOU BACK


CLAY AIKEN~ I COULD NOT ASK FOR MORE


JOSH GRACIN ~ DON'T WANT TO MISS A THING


KIMBERLEY LOCKE ~IF YOU ASK ME TO


RUBEN STUDDARD ~ MUSIC OF MY HEART


TRENYCE ~ HAVE YOU EVER


Also, there's a great DW song on Kelly Clarkson's cd called Miracle. It's great!

Damn. Ms. Warren -MUST- be a super-zillionaire!

Here's just a list of a fraction of what she has written and who has performed it:

Aaliyah, "The One I Gave My Love To"

Aerosmith, "I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing"

Mary J. Blige, "Give Me You"

Toni Braxton, "Unbreak My Heart"

Mariah Carey, "Can't Take That Away" (with Carey), "After Tonight" (with Carey and David Foster)

Belinda Carlisle, "I Get Weak"

Chicago, "I Don't Want To Live Without Your Love," "Look Away"

Eric Clapton, "Blue Eyes Blue"

Joe Cocker, "What Are You Doing With A Fool Like Me"

The Commodores, "Lightin' Up The Night" (with Jeff Lorber)

En Vogue, "No Fool No More"

Roberta Flack, "Setting The Night To Music"

Aretha Franklin and Elton John, "Through The Storm"

For Real, "The Saddest Song I Ever Heard"

Ginuwine, "Superhuman"

Whitney Houston, "I Learned From The Best"

The Jacksons, "Private Affair"

Patti LaBelle, "If You Asked Me To"

Little Louie Vega & Marc Anthony, "Walk Away"

Stephanie Mills, "Just You"

Pointer Sisters, "Moonlight Dancing"

Diana Ross, Every Day Is A New Day (two songs)

Starship, "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now"

Rod Stewart, "Faith Of My Heart"

TLC, "Come On Down"

Shanice Wilson, "Saving Forever For You"

Unfortunately, probably not. It is the performers who make the killing with the songs instead of the composer. I'm not sure what kind, if any, royalties songwriters make on their songs over a lifetime.

A bio from the Songwriters Hall of Fame website:

Diane Warren is considered to be the most prolific and successful contemporary songwriter of our time. A quick glance at her list of Top Ten hits reveals a range of musical genres and styles so diverse it’s difficult to believe the songs could have come from the same person.

Growing up in the San Fernando Valley, Diane was exposed to Top 40 radio and her talent began to develop. She loved listening to her older sisters' records, people like Buddy Holly and the Beatles, but she was more fascinated by the songwriters: Carole King, Lieber and Stoller and Burt Bacharach.

Despite her parents divided thoughts on her career choice, Warren's talent and persistence finally paid off. In 1983 she had begun working as a staff writer for Jack White, a producer with singer Laura Branigan. White asked Warren to prepare English lyrics for a French song. 24 hours later, she turned in "Solitaire," which became a Top 10 hit for Branigan in 1983. Three years later, Warren penned "Rhythm of the Night" for DeBarge, which hit number three on the pop charts and number one on the Adult Contemporary chart. To date she has had over 80 songs charted in the top 10.

Diane Warren has written for such legends of song as Elton John, Tina Turner, Barbra Streisand, Aretha Franklin, Roberta Flack and Roy Orbison. Recently, artists such as Patti LaBelle, 'N Sync, Gloria Estefan, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Reba McEntire, Whitney Houston, Enrique Iglesias, Aerosmith, Ricky Martin, Faith Hill, Celine Dion, Mary J. Blige and LeAnn Rimes have graced the charts with her songs. Warren herself agrees that she has tapped this universality of message in her songwriting.

Indeed, Warren's songs have transcended genre. Her number one Adult Contemporary hit "If You Asked Me To" has been recorded not only by Celine Dion, but also by R&B diva Patti LaBelle. Her song "Don't Turn Around" has been recorded by eight different artists - from Tina Turner to Aswad to Ace of Base. Her number one pop hit "I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing" performed by Aerosmith for the movie Armageddon not only received an Oscar nomination, but simultaneously hit number one on the country charts with a version by Mark Chestnut. Additionally, Diane's song, “How Do I Live”, recorded by both Trisha Yearwood and Le Ann Rimes, was not only a number one hit that won Yearwood the Grammy for Best Country Vocal Performance, but also carries the disctinction of being the longest running song in the history of Billboard’s Hot 100 chart.

Diane’s songs are featured in more than 60 films. She had a number one hit with “Can’t Fight the Moonlight”, performed by Le Ann Rimes and featured in the film Coyote Ugly. Diane contiues to diversify. She recently joined forces with rock band The Cult, who recorded “Painted On My Heart” for the film Gone In Sixty Seconds. Bounce, starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Ben Affleck, featured “Need To Be Next To You” performed by Leigh Nash of Sixpence None the Richer. The Family Man, showcased “I Don’t Know How I Got By”, performed by Edwin McCain. With an uncanny ability to create the perfect songs for any scene, it’s no wonder that Warren continues to receive accolades. As of 2002, Her songs have been nominated for 3 Golden Globes, 5 Academy Awards and 8 Grammys.

Warren’s massive success as a songwriter has offered her the opportunity to support a number of charitable causes. She is a Buddy For Life at AIDS Project Los Angeles and an honorary committee member of PETA. She has been a key donor to the Simon Wiesenthal Center Museum of Tolerance and has founded the David S. Warren Weekly Entertainment Series at the Jewish Home for the Aging, a program she established in memory of her father. Because of her success, SCAP and VH1 joined forces as part of VH1’s Save the Music campaign to launch the Diane Warren “Music of My Heart”/ASCAP Foundation Music Education Project in 2002. The project was implemented by the ASCAP Foundation and funded by The Diane Warren Foundation and provided folios, sheet music, band arrangements and “method books” to more than 1,000 middle schools across the country.

Warren has been named the ASCAP Songwriter of the Year six times and Billboard’s Songwriter of the Year 4 times. Her publishing company Realsongs, was named one of the top 5 music publishing corporations and is the most successful female-owned and operated business in the music industry. In 2001, Warren also received further recognition with a coveted star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

I'm not sure if this is always true.

Tennessee gal DOLLY PARTON loves to tell how Whitney Houston made repeated attempts to buy the rights to "I Will Always Love You". Dolly refused to sell. Whitney went ahead and recorded it anyway, and will be the first to tell you that she made a fortune for Dolly Parton.

I would hope Ms. Warren hasn't sold the rights to her songs.... not all of 'em, at least...

Cecil! Where are ya, Cecil Adams?

(I dunno if this answers the question, but it is interesting. It's also from the 80s, so it's possible things have changed since then.)

Dear Cecil:

I remember reading once that the group the Diodes recorded "Red Rubber Ball" to get back at its composer, Paul Simon, for saying that he hated punk rock. This brings to mind a question: must a group or singer get any sort of permission before recording somebody else's song? Or do you just have to pay royalties after the fact? Is asking permission beforehand just a professional courtesy? --Curly L., Fair Lawn, New Jersey

Dear Curly:

Surprisingly enough, if somebody is determined to do a cover version of your song, it is well-nigh impossible for you, Joe Composer, to stop them. In general, the right to record somebody else's song is called a "mechanical license," and usually it's negotiated in a routine manner between representatives of the copyright holder and the would-be cover artiste. (Outfits like The Harry Fox Agency in New York generally handle the publisher's side.) However, in the rare event that negotiations fail, the copyright laws contain provisions for a type of mechanical license called a "compulsory license," which, in effect, give anyone the right to record any song he or she wants to, as long as notice is given to the song's copyright owners within 30 days after the recording is made and before it is distributed. Compulsory licenses were written into the copyright laws in 1909 in an attempt to break up a monopoly in the piano-roll industry--an industry which has since been pretty well broken up, period. So why negotiate at all? Mainly because the law dictates higher royalty rates and stricter payment schedules for compulsory licenses than you can obtain with the negotiated kind.

But hey, you say, I've just written a couple of can't-miss tunes that I'm sure will rocket to the top of the charts as soon as I can get them recorded. Do I now have to worry that music industry vultures will steal them before I can make my pile? Don't fret, bucky. The composer's one inalienable right is to decide who will record his song first. Bob Dylan pulled this one in the notorious case of "Mr. Tambourine Man": the song was originally set to be issued in a version that Dylan had recorded live at a folk festival, but Dylan wasn't happy with the results. Unfortunately, his contract with Columbia didn't give him the right to decide on what material the company released, so Bob didn't seem to have much of a choice. But then, the Poet of Our Generation remembered his first issue rights and denied a mechanical license to his own record company. The album was killed.

Meanwhile, the Brothers Four, a once beloved folk group that had fallen on hard times, had recorded a highly commercial cover version of the song--a guaranteed comeback. But when Dylan's anticipated first version failed to appear, the group was caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place, unable to release their dynamite single. It sat in the vaults until Dylan issued his approved version some months later--but in the meantime, the Byrds had recorded their cover version, and that was the one that went to the Top of the Pops. Such are the vagaries of fortune.

For a more detailed discussion of licensing (and lots of other stuff besides), see This Business of Music, by Sidney Shemel and M. William Krasilovsky. Of this extraordinary volume even Cecil is in awe.

thanks for all the info SCOTT !!!

i think in recent years DIANE probably has been making alot of money ... i saw a docu a while back, and she has her own company "REALSONGS" that her songs are licensed to !!!

so i would think she is in the money, and with the massive amount of songs she written, i think it's a cert .....

Matthew.

i'm surprised she hasn't got a greatest hits album of her best songs !!!

i noticed on AMAZON she has books featuring her music/lyrics but no actual album ???

Matthew.