Top 10 Singers Who RARELY Wrote Their Own Songs

Top 10 Pop Singers Who Almost NEVER Write Their Own Songs

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the ten pop singers who almost exclusively relied on professional songwriters.

#10: Britney Spears

While she has received some songwriting credits over the years - especially later on, after she matured as an artist - most of Britney’s biggest hits were written by professional songwriters and producers. Her early career was heavily reliant on songwriters, with ...Baby One More Time and Oops!... I Did It Again being almost entirely written by the hit-making machines over at Cheiron Studios, including Max Martin. In fact, Spears didn’t have a single writing credit on either of those first two albums. And even as she became more involved later in her career, all of her big songs, including “Toxic”, “Gimme More,” and “Womanizer,” were written by other songwriters, including Pharrell Williams.

#9: Olivia Newton-John

Like many pop stars of her era, Olivia Newton-John often performed material selected or crafted by outside producers and songwriters. In fact, her sound was almost entirely molded by her longtime producer, John Farrar. He worked with Newton-John between 1971 and 1989 and is behind many of her big songs, including “Physical” and “Magic.” He also penned many of her songs in “Grease,” including “You’re the One That I Want” and “Hopelessly Devoted to You.” When it comes to Newton-John’s mainstream peak in the late ‘70s and ‘80s, chances are that you’re hearing the words, music, and production of John Farrar, not the singer herself. Still a heck of a voice though.

#8: Cher

Do you believe in Cher writing her own songs? Well, don’t, because she doesn’t. The Goddess of Pop has always been about style - her bold fashion, the constant reinvention of her public image, her deep, contralto voice. She does that. She leaves the writing up to the pros. Cher barely wrote any of the songs throughout her decades-spanning career, with the vast majority of her biggest hits being written by others. For example, “Believe” was written and produced by a team of pop songwriters (although Cher supposedly altered some lyrics), and “If I Can Turn Back Time” was personally given to the singer by Diane Warren. Even when she was in Sonny & Cher, she left the songwriting up to Sonny Bono.

#7: Dionne Warwick

There’s barely a music Hall of Fame that Dionne Warwick hasn’t been inducted into. National R&B, Rock and Roll, Grammy - you name it. That’s the power of a good singer and an unbelievable entertainer. Warwick’s strength lies in her distinctive voice and incredible ability to convey complex emotions through the songs she performed, although she almost never wrote these songs herself. Warwick played the public voice of songwriting duo Burt Bacharach and Hal David, who were responsible for many of her biggest hits in the ‘60s and ‘70s, including “Walk On By” and “I Say a Little Prayer.”

#6: Linda Ronstadt

The recipient of eleven Grammy awards, Linda Ronstadt has always been candid about her lack of interest in songwriting. During an interview with Route Magazine, she claimed, “It’s almost impossible to write a great song. And I had people who were writing great songs around me.” And, well, that pretty much sums it up. Instead, Ronstadt had a knack for choosing tunes that were written by incredibly talented songwriters, including Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly, Elvis Costello, and The Rolling Stones. You may have heard of some of them. Regardless, her versatility across genres helped redefine what it meant to be a female pop artist, with Ronstadt finding hits in rock, country, Latin, and even opera.

#5: Diana Ross

Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown, designed the label to function like a hit-making factory. Songwriters, producers, and performers were all specialists in their own areas, and Diana Ross - like many other Motown artists - was expected to focus solely on singing. As such, many of The Supremes’ most legendary hits were written by a team of songwriters, most notably the famous trio of Holland-Dozier-Holland. Ross didn’t have songwriting credits on any of The Supremes’ major hits, and even when she ventured on a solo career, all of her big songs - including the legendary “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” - were penned by others. But that didn’t stop Billboard from naming her the Female Entertainer of the Century in 1976!

#4: Whitney Houston

There’s a reason Whitney Houston is called The Voice and not The Songwriter. If you look through her albums, Houston has very few songwriting credits, with her most iconic albums - including her eponymous album and Whitney - containing zero songwriting credits at all. Her producer and mentor, Clive Davis, believed in surrounding her with the best songs possible, and as such, she collaborated with the likes of Diane Warren and Babyface. And what is probably her most famous song, “I Will Always Love You,” is actually a cover, being written and originally recorded by Dolly Parton. It’s about Parton leaving her business partner, Porter Wagoner, to pursue a solo career. Now that doesn’t come across in the Houston version…

#3: Celine Dion

A lot of singers on this list are Queens or Kings of something. Celine Dion is the Queen of Power Ballads. Funnily enough, Dion wrote some songs when she was a child, often accompanied by her brother and mother. But when she hit it big, Dion left the writing up to the pros. She’s collaborated with the biggest names in the game, including Diane Warren on “Because You Loved Me” and Max Martin on “That’s the Way It Is.” And “My Heart Will Go On” is the second best selling single ever released by a female artist, which is kinda funny considering it was written by a team of men.

#2: Frank Sinatra

There were few entertainers as big as Frank Sinatra in the ‘50s and ‘60s. This guy could do anything - sing, swing, act. But he couldn’t write songs. Sinatra had an exceptional ability to inhabit a song, with his phrasing, timing, and exceptional tone often elevating lyrics beyond what was written. And what was written came via a slew of different professionals, including Capitol Records’ Nelson Riddle, who arranged all the songs on his first couple of albums. Sinatra did co-write a few obscure tunes early in his career, including a credit on “This Love of Mine,” but even that is debated, with most people thinking that the true contributor was Sinatra’s manager and business partner, Hank Sanicola.

#1: Elvis Presley

The King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley transcended demographics and became the biggest star in the world throughout the 1950s. But out of the hundreds of songs that he recorded, Elvis received songwriting credit on only a select few - and even then, it was often for business or publishing reasons, not because he actually wrote the lyrics or music. Instead, Elvis worked with some of the best songwriters of the time, including Otis Blackwell and the team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who penned some of his most iconic songs, including “Hound Dog,” and “Jailhouse Rock.” Elvis’s genius lay in his voice and on-stage charisma, and while he wasn’t a writer, he redefined what it meant to interpret a song.

Are you surprised by this? Let us know in the comments below!