Once Bob Dylan blazed a trail for the solo singer-songwriter. Then Lennon and McCartney established the duo as the perfect hit-making team. But now the multitude of names who demand recognition for their contribution has led one of Britain’s most acclaimed songsmiths to call for limits to songwriting credits.
Graham Gouldman, the 10cc musician who penned classic 1970s chart-toppers including “I’m Not In Love”, said it was “ridiculous” that “Uptown Funk”, the Mark Ronson hit assembled from a variety of sources, now has 11 different writers attached to its credits.
Gouldman, who will be named a BMI Icon at an awards ceremony held by the performing rights body next week, said there should be a limit to the number of writers who can legitimately claim to be responsible for a hit.
The Manchester musician, a multiple Ivor Novello songwriting award winner, backed a move by the British Academy Of Songwriters Composers & Authors (Basca) to restrict the number of writers allowed on a song submitted for the competition to six.
“It’s got ridiculous now you’ve got 10 people receiving an award,” said Gouldman, who wrote hits for the Yardbirds in the mid-60s before finding success with 10cc, who sold more than 30 million albums.
“Historically, songwriting partnerships have been between two people. Sometimes within 10cc we would switch writing partners. I then had a wonderful writing partnership with the late Andrew Gold in the duo Wax.
“Now the drum programmer wants to get a credit for creating the drum part. There are bands I know who divide each song into bars and someone says, ‘I created five bars and they are repeated three times so that’s 15 bars’. Someone might say that their 10 per cent is the most hooky part of the song. It’s impossible to quantify these contributions.” A member of the Novello committee, Gouldman said a “credit limit” was inevitable. “It costs a lot of money to make those Novello awards,” he added.
“Uptown Funk” had four writers but seven more were eventually added, including The Gap Band after members spotted similarities in the song to their global 1979 hit “Oops Up Side Your Head”.
Paul Gambaccini, the Novello awards presenter, said: “If Uptown Funk is submitted then the publishers will have to decide which six writers are the most prominent. That may not include The Gap Band, who were added to the credits later. The rules had to change because someone got an award for a 1 per cent contribution, which was ridiculous.”
