The Songwriters Corridor of Fame hosted a preview of a brand new exhibit dedicated to songwriters on the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles on Wednesday April 26. No less than 9 SHOF inductees have been current, together with Charles Fox, Steve Dorff, Jimmy Jam, Holly Knight, Billy Steinberg, Rick Nowels, Mike Stoller, Jimmy Webb and Diane Warren.
The exhibit, which occupies a whole flooring of the Grammy Museum, has a treasure trove of artifacts and memorabilia on show. Linda Moran, president and CEO of the SHOF, personally twisted arms to get songwriters, or their households, to mortgage out prized objects.
One show case focuses on recipients of the Hal David Starlight Award, which fits to present writers on the peak of their sport, who haven’t but been inducted into the SHOF (however in lots of circumstances, most likely can be). This introduced in memorabilia by such youthful writers as John Legend, Taylor Swift, Benny Blanco, Ne-Yo and Dan Reynolds (Think about Dragons).
A mural on a facet wall captured historic music moments from 1828 to the current. The oldest entries included Stephen Foster writing “Oh! Susanna” (1847), Thomas Edison inventing the phonograph (1877), the primary challenge of Billboard (1894) and Scott Joplin publishing “Maple Leaf Rag” (1899). The most recent entries included the launch of YouTube (2005), the debut of the iPhone (2007), Jay-Z turning into the primary hip-hop artist within the SHOF (2017) and the spate of catalog gross sales by such prime songwriters as Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen (the 2020s).
Listed here are eight objects showcased within the exhibit that particularly caught our eye.
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Jimmy Webb’s Rhyming Dictionary
Picture Credit score: Jack Robinson/GI Jimmy Webb, the prodigy who wrote such ’60s classics as “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” “Up, Up and Away,” “MacArthur Park,” “Wichita Lineman” and “Galveston” (all earlier than turning 23) loaned his copy of The Full Rhyming Dictionary, revised and edited by Clement Wooden. Webb’s exhibit case additionally included his handwritten lyrics for “Wichita Lineman,” which incorporates among the best lyrics ever written, “And I would like you greater than need you/ And I would like you forever.” If a rhyming dictionary might help you write like that, each songwriter ought to have one.
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Irving Berlin’s “trick” piano
The exhibit’s most prized artifact — one so particular it had not one, however two, velvet rope limitations round it to maintain followers at a distance — was Irving Berlin’s console-spinet piano and piano bench (made by Sohmer & Co, New York). It’s a beaut, in attractive maple wooden and in pristine situation. Berlin gifted it to his pal, actor Sidney Miller in 1957.
A card within the exhibit explains that “Berlin was a self-taught pianist who didn’t learn music. He owned what he known as his trick piano, a rarity that includes a mechanism that allowed him to shift into completely different keys.”
One in every of Berlin’s most well-known hits was “I Love a Piano” (1916). Most of the attendees liked this piano.
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Lyrics written by Taylor Swift on paper that mirrored her altering circumstances
The exhibit included Taylor Swift’s handwritten lyrics to her first hit, 2006’s “Tim McGraw” — written, appropriately, on a sheet of lined pocket book paper. Swift and Liz Rose penned the tune throughout her freshman 12 months at Hendersonville Excessive Faculty. She conceived the thought for the tune throughout a math class, so pocket book paper was on the prepared.
The exhibit additionally included her handwritten lyrics to “Run (Taylor’s Model),” which she co-wrote with Aaron Dessner and which appeared on her 2021 album Purple (Taylor’s Model). This time the lyrics have been written on six pages of a be aware pad from The Ritz Carlton. You wouldn’t anticipate some of the profitable artists of all time to remain at a Motel 6, would you?
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A letter from Irving Berlin to Johnny Mercer
The Mercer show included a typed letter that Irving Berlin despatched to him on June 1, 1971. Berlin wrote that he was enclosing a replica of a menu for a songwriters’ dinner earlier than World Warfare I. “These have been the times earlier than the Oscar, the Emmy, the Grammy, the Toni [sic] and the Halls of Fame. The one award the songwriter of a success tune may get was a royalty assertion – with verify – and the reward or envy of his fellow songwriters. Generally the envy was valued greater than the reward. With my greatest to you, As all the time, Irving.”
Mercer was a four-time Oscar winner for greatest authentic tune — however even for somebody like him, a letter from Irving Berlin, one of many biggest songwriters who ever lived, was a keeper.
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A telegram from Pat Benatar to Holly Knight
Again within the dim and distant previous — earlier than texts, earlier than e-mail — when you actually wished to speak shortly with somebody, you despatched a Western Union telegram. On the night time of Feb. 28, 1984, upon successful a Grammy for greatest rock efficiency, feminine for her early MTV-era traditional “Love Is a Battlefield,” Pat Benatar despatched a telegram to Holly Knight (who co-wrote the tune with Mike Chapman), with this good message: “Congratulations and thanks for such a ravishing tune to work with.”
Benatar was proper, in fact — artists all the time want nice songs. However Benatar had a bit one thing to do with it, too: That was the fourth consecutive 12 months that she received in that class.
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A cassette demo of the 1986 Cyndi Lauper smash “True Colours”
Billy Steinberg was represented by a cassette demo for “True Colours,” which he co-wrote with Tom Kelly and recorded on a TDK SA 60 cassette. The exhibit additionally contains the sheet music for the tune, which grew to become Lauper’s second No. 1 hit on the Billboard Sizzling 100. (The value listed on the entrance of the sheet music: “$2.95 within the USA” – costs have gone up prior to now 37 years.) And it features a good be aware from Lauper to Steinberg: “Billy—Thanks for sending me and writing such a ravishing tune. (coronary heart) Cyndi.”
One other exhibit included typed lyrics with handwritten tweaks to “Like a Virgin” – one other tune written by Steinberg and Kelly. The lyrics have been dated September 1983, a full 12 months earlier than Madonna carried out the tune on the 1984 MTV Video Music Awards and have become the discuss of the music world in a single day.
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Allee Willis’ distinctive percussion devices
Willis, who co-wrote such hits as Earth, Wind & Fireplace’s “September” and The Rembrandts’ “I’ll Be There for You” (which can eternally be often known as the theme tune from Buddies), was represented by distinctive percussion devices that she used on her demos. They included a battered, empty soda pop can (Vernon’s ginger ale) on a stick and an old school washboard.
The washboard was used for the demo that Willis, Brenda Russell and Stephen Bray made for the theatrical adaptation of The Coloration Purple, which was workshopped in Atlanta in the summertime of 2004 earlier than opening on Broadway the next 12 months.
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Sammy Cahn’s “touring typewriter”
Cahn — who, like Mercer, received 4 Oscars for greatest authentic tune — was represented by his “touring typewriter,” in a classic metallic suitcase. (The set designer for Mad Males would have killed for it.) Cahn included a be aware saying the SHOF would most likely obtain many typewriters for a future exhibit (this exhibit had been within the works for years). Now, in fact, few songwriters write on typewriters. A future SHOF exhibit will presumably embrace a variety of iPhones.