Hi, you seem to have a lot of music knowledge - I am looking for a band where a male singer sings songs written by a female songwriter. I've seen it a lot the other way around, there's also a billion examples of guys writing songs for other guys to sing such as our beloved Oasis... but I can't think of even one song written by a woman sung by a man (while they are part of the same group, so not a cover). Do you maybe know some?
Okay, this ask has been torturing me. First of all: thank you. This is a GREAT question. Unfortunately, that's why it's been torturing me. I didn't reply sooner because I've been desperately trying to think of any artist configurations that fit exactly what you describe: a band in which the vocalist is male and the songwriter is female.
I COULDN'T THINK OF A SINGLE ONE. And now I'm losing my mind about it. Is this really so rare?
The thing is, I'm sure this situation must exist. It's simply got to. But the fact that I've been racking my brain over it for days and haven't come up with a single example is... well, frankly it's just sad. A sad commentary on my own bad memory or a sad commentary on the music business in general? Not sure. Maybe both.
You've got me obsessed with this question now. I'm probably going to be pursuing it for the rest of my days. This question will become my white whale.
All I can give you is this: you mentioned specifically songs sung by a male vocalist but written by a female writer who is part of the same group, hence "not a cover", but there is an alternative here: throughout the history of popular music, there have been many songwriters who partially or primarily wrote songs for other artists to sing, without the songwriter ever performing their own song first. And I am aware of a few (very few) female songwriters who fall into this category.
First and foremost of course is the incredible Carole King. Despite the fact that she was also a performer and vocalist and did release several albums of her own material, she is also widely known for writing songs for other artists to perform. For instance, her classic song "Up on the Roof" was first performed by the Drifters, and she wrote "Sometime in the Morning" for the Monkees.
In addition to Queen King, there's Cynthia Weil, who authored the Animals' hit "We Gotta Get Out of This Place", and Dorothy Fields, the mind behind the classic song "On the Sunny Side of the Street" – first performed by Harry Richman. Also, there's Felice Bryant, who wrote the Everly Brothers' classic ballad "All I Have to Do Is Dream"* and was the sole composer and lyricist of "We Could", sung by Little Jimmy Dickens.
Each of the aforementioned songwriters wrote tons of stuff, by the way – not just the songs I mentioned. Their catalogues are truly impressive.
But here's the catch: the vast majority of their songs (not "We Could", but everything else I mentioned, plus lots more of each writer's material) were co-authored with men. Often this was in the context of a husband-and-wife songwriting team: Carole King wrote with her husband Gerry Goffin, Felice Bryant with her husband Boudleaux Bryant, and Cynthia Weil with her husband Barry Mann. Dorothy Fields' husband was not a songwriter, but she co-wrote with various men.
Thus, we have plenty of examples of male singers being the first performer of a song co-written by a woman, but almost zero cases where this was true for a song 100% written by a woman.
So now I'm losing my mind. Thanks for that. Why the FUCK is this particular thing so hard to find?! Or maybe it's just that my (admittedly rather old-school) taste in music hasn't led me to encounter many of the more recent bands in which I'm sure, I pray, I BEG, this situation must occur. So I'm opening this one up to comments, and I hope people will share their thoughts and even reblog so it reaches a wider audience, because I would love to hear more input on this.
To anyone reading: Do you know any bands that include both a female songwriter and a male vocalist who sings her songs? PLEASE COMMENT AND TELL US.
*P.S. @monsterpflanze since I know you're a fan of sibling dynamics in bands: if you don't already know the poignant story of the Everly Brothers, you may enjoy checking out my tag for them.
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