The nominees for next year’s Songwriters Hall Of Fame have been announced and as usual they include a wildly diverse bunch representing every genre you can think of.
The list is divided into two halves: performing and non-performing songwriters, with three selected from each. On the performing side for 2027 there is a fairly glittering line up that includes: Jack White, Sia, Chris Stein and Debbie Harry of Blondie, Lady Gaga, Pink, Shakira, Melle Mel (of White Lines fame), Billy Gibbons, Frank Beard and Dusty Hill of ZZ Top, Ne-Yo, Boy George, Gerry Beckley and Dewey Bunnell of America (the early 1970s group best known for Horse With No Name), Vince Gill and the collective members of LA 70s funk band War.
In the non-performing category, the selectors face an equally difficult task. Among the names up for consideration are Pete Beloitte, Georgio Moroder’s co-writer on a slew of Donna Summer classics including I Feel Love and Love To Love You Baby and Kandi Burruss, who co-wrote Bills Bills Bills for Destiny’s Child and No Scrubs for TLC.
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If entry into the Hall Of Fame was a matter of the sheer number of hits on a songwriter’s CV then Stock Aitken and Waterman would be shoe-ins. But somewhat belatedly, they are on the list. Even more belatedly are Bob Feldman, Jerry Goldstein and Richard Gotteher, the team behind 1960s classics such as My Boyfriend’s Back (The Angels), I Want Candy, which the trio recorded themselves as The Strangeloves, and Sorrow (The McCoys, The Merseys and later David Bowie). Goldstein and Gotteher are both 86 now and Feldman died in 2023.
Other possibles include Maurice Starr, the impresario behind both New Edition and New Kids On The Block, who nevertheless did write the bubblegum classic Candy Girl and a number of the New Kids’ hits. Then there’s Stargate aka Tor Hermansen and Mikkel Eriksen, the Norwegian writing and production team responsible for so much late 90s and Noughties pop – Irreplaceable (Beyonce), Diamonds (Rhianna), S Club Party (S Club 7) were all their work. Or their Swedish contemporary, Andreas Carlsson who crafted I Want It That Way for the Backstreet Boys and Bye Bye Bye for N-Sync?
Then there’s George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam, who wrote two of Whitney Houston’s biggest hits, How Will I Know and I Wanna Dance With Somebody, as well as their own Waiting For A Star To Fall, which they recorded as Boy Meets Girl. Or if the panel wanted to go for an outside choice, how about Dan Wilson? The Semisonic man not only wrote their breakthrough hit, the Grammy-nominated Closing Time, but also co-wrote Not Ready To Make Nice for the (Dixie) Chicks but also Adele’s Someone Like You. Didn’t know that? Well, now you do.
Anyway, the eligible voting members of the Hall Of Fame have until 14 December to pick just six from the two lists of outstanding songwriting talent. A tough task, you have to say.
