prince is such a prolific writer and i was wondering what other songwriters have over 500 or 1000 songs. whether good or bad it's still impressive. please share with me those artists

thats an impossible question to answer..


why? cause i personally believe that prince is arrogant for boasting about those figures..most of the stuff he has "in the vault" is crap..i could write that many songs and i have zero musical talent...

so lets compare quality...

id say that bjork, burt bacharach, bob dylan and stevie wonder have all displayed longevity, diversity and quality that is on par with princes...and im sure they have just as much music "in the vault"...

i recall an interview were wendy and lisa once mentioned that they recorded a vast number of music..but, when it comes to "waxing" the tunes, they refuse to release anything that sounds like a rehash of previous work...im sure all songwriters who write for a living keep up a disciplined regimen...but none have such much media attenion as prince...for better or worse...

iwishyouheaven said:

To TRULY get a REAL answer to this question, you would have to listen to names without saying "Who?"
There are tons of artists who have never had national hits who have thousands of songs. I guarentee, at least one or some live in whatever city you're in. Think of this for a moment. Suppose Prince DIDN'T get a record deal. Suppose he just sang and played guitar in different projects around town, BUT the whole time he was still writing songs. Suppose he only wrote 50 songs a year? He'd still have 1,000 songs by now but you just wouldn't have heard any of them. See how easy it is to get to that number? 50 songs a year. That's around 5 songs a month. Prince, unlike many other artists, had more creative freedom. He released/releases a LOT of what he wrote/writes. WB let him release a lot, too. He IS very prolific, but there are others. The answers may be at the U.S. Copyright Office. I suspect you'd see a LOT of names you don't know, though.

Paul McCartney... In fact I am quite positive Paul has written more than Prince.


BTW- Paul McCartney is schedualed to start recording his new album next week.

Dumbert Poultakin

The Bee Gees.

ZAPPA!!!

Gwen!

Ashford and Simpson

How can u beat ain't no mountain high enough ?

Bob Marley

Although his career has slowed down in recent years,Babyface has written tons of songs.

Just to widen the horizons a bit:

1. Johann Sebastian Bach
2. Duke Ellington
3. Leadbelly
4. George Gershwin

Sdldawn said:

yep. mccartney is up there with prince. he had a head start
on prince. the guy began writing back in his teen years
with and without the teenaged john lennon. some of those songs have been recorded. some of prince still haven't.
(they're on bootlegs of course) .

smokey done even more than mccartney. he began writing and recording in the year 1957-58.

both fo these guys are amazing.
they still doing something.

elvis costello,curtis mayfield (even with his death in 1999)
had a huge catalog. he was prolific!

youngca said:

yes ellington is there on this list,too.

I would have 2 say:

Stevie Wonder
Crutis Mayfield

After the unplugged, I gain alot of respect 2 L-Boogie as a poet

youngca said:

i was going to add costello to my list...the guy is awesome!!

Who cares how prolific they are? How many quality songs have they made is the question-- and that is largely a subjective thing. There are certainly people out there as capable as Prince-- just none as well known as Prince (Stevie and McCartney haven't released as many good songs as Prince in my opinion). After all, Michael Jordan isn't the best basketball player ever, nor was Shakespeare the greatest playwright. These are just the most famous of the greats.

Difford and Tilbrook (Squeeze)
Jagger and Richards
Daniel Johnston
My friend Gabriel

In the public eye, Elton John. He said him and Prince are the most prolific. I agree.

I like some of Elton's work.

There are tonnes of artists unknown that are prolific.

GOD is the most prolific though...

iwishyouheaven said:

Check Warren Haynes. He's very proliifc and writes for many others. Cool thing is he jams with others too! He's currently one of the guitarists with ALLMAN BROTHERS, but he has his own band GOVT MULE. If you like southern boogie funk rock, this is some ass-kicking stuff!

Personally I like WH more than Prince (less personality bullshit), but WH is a fan. His live shows feature a cover of "When Doves Cry", so he's a fan.


ok back to lurking...
[This message was edited Tue Sep 2 14:28:33 PDT 2003 by PFunkjazz]

whodknee said:

Just out of interest - if MJ isn't the greatest bball player ever, then who is?


Who was it released that "69 Love Songs" album ("Electric Fields" was it?) - he was pretty prolific! (over the course of a year or something).

How long is Stevie gonna wait to open his vault?

BlaqueKnight said:

deep answer b-knight and true. i know guys who do a lot of music who have palyed in local bands for their entire career
but nobody knows but their local fans they are prolific.

somebody made a point about stevie and mccartney not writing as mnay good songs as prince. that's a sujective answer.(smile as everything is on this thang)

i think the question dealt with somebody who wrote a lot of
material. a lot of the classical greats from 200 years ago
were prolific as were jazz composers like THE dUKE.

b-knight breakin' down the ratio of songs "50 etc etc was a
point i never thought of.

if you want to go by amount of material in the pop field
(r&b,rock,blues,reggae)
here's the ones who i know for sure have a trememdous body
of work:

willie dixon:chess records writer,producer bassist
smokey robinson: old smoke has credits out of this world
curtis mayfield: (my personal fave of all time)
frank zappa
elton john (most with bernie taupin)
john lennon & paul mccartney
james brown (although his name is on some he didn't write)
stevie wonder
prince
george clinton (usually collaborating with p-funk folk like
bootsy & bernie worrell)
bob marley (and he only lived 36 years!)
elvis costello
joni mitchell
carole king
leiber & stoller

i'm sure there's more ...just the ones who have at least
a few years of time...
youngca...

whodknee said:[quote](Stevie and McCartney haven't released as many good songs as Prince in my opinion).quote]

Easy...Stevie Wonder.

Ani is releasing music at a greater clip then P is these days and has already amassed a huge catalogue in a short period of time. Also, she is ALWAYS playing unreleased songs at her shows and I get the idea that she has written like a million.


.
[This message was edited Tue Sep 2 18:11:46 PDT 2003 by lovemachine]

SMokey Robinson

Raphael Saadiq & D' Angelo. They're a dynamic team!

Sdldawn said:

No. How can you be so sure? Do you know many songs Prince has written that weren't released? He writes hundreds of songs for each album to choose from.

iwishyouheaven said:

Quality is more important than Quantity.