I was in a conversation with a friend who was telling me about an A & E television special he saw. It was about a singer/composer who actually wrote more hit songs than he made as hits as a singer. The composer's era was 50s 60s. It could have been Paula Anka, maybe Gene Pitney or another singer from that era of music. We did a google search to try to come up with an answer, we did not!!! Anyone have any suggestions who it could have been?

[This message has been edited by Stephenm52 (edited 06-02-2008).]

Steve, there may have been more than one, but Paul Anka certainly qualifies. On the female side, Carole King is the gal. Lots of people came out of the Brill Building in NYC who wrote tons of mega hits. Even Neil Diamond was part of that crew.


Russ

Also try Bob Dylan

Russ and Fran, all good suggestions I would have bet it was Paul Anka, but my buddy said no. Fran I did the Dylan search for songs, it wasn't him but his list goes on and on.

At this point I'm thinking it could have been Neil Sedaka. I e-mailed my buddy but he han'st replied as to whether it was Sedaka. I'll keep you posted.

A&E featured a special tribute to Otis Blackwell

Blackwell is credited with writing or co-writing over 1000 songs that sold more than 185 million records throughout his career. His compositions were recorded by a wide range of artists, including Billy Joel, Otis Redding, The Who, and James Taylor, but he is best known as the songwriter who helped put Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis on the musical map with "Don't Be Cruel" and "Great Balls of Fire" (a collaboration with Jack Hammer), which were #1 and #2 hits, respectively, on the pop charts in 1956 and 1957.
http://www.stereophile.com/news/11337/
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1142964

Jerry




[This message has been edited by Jerryghr (edited 06-04-2008).]

Thanks guys as it turns out my buddy said Neil Diamond is who he saw the special on. But, in looking at your suggestions on who it was it's amazing the number of tunes Dylan, Anka, King and Blackwell wrote.