No one appreciates great songwriting like other songwriters
Just as an architect has intimate, lifelong knowledge of how buildings are designed, or how a master chef knows exactly the talent and skill necessary to create a certain dish, so do songwriters appreciate great songwriting more fully because they know what it takes.
Through these years have come many powerful and poignant versions of songs by other great songwriters, rendered with real-time reverence. Seven favorites are here.
- Tom Waits, “Somewhere,” Music by Leonard Bernstein, Words by Stephen Sondheim.
Videos by American Songwriter
2. Prince, “A Case of You” by Joni Mitchell
3. John Prine, “You Never Can Tell” by Chuck Berry
4. Fiona Apple, “I Want You” by Elvis Costello
5. John Lennon, “Stand By Me” by Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller & Ben. E King
6. Nirvana, “The Man Who Sold The World” by David Bowie
7. Bob Dylan, “Learning To Fly” by Tom Petty
Most Viewed
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COLOGNE, GERMANY – OCTOBER 17: Phil Collins of Genesis performing on October 17, 1981 in Cologne, Germany. (Photo by David Corio/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images) -
British singer and musician Mick Jagger (Michael Phillip Jagger) sitting beside British guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Brian Jones wearing woman clothes. The two are founding members of British band The Rolling Stones. 1967 (Photo by Mondadori via Getty Images) -
Photo by Jeff Spicer/Getty Images for ABA -
Singer Patti LaBelle and musician Michael McDonald attend B'nai B'rth Honors Gala on June 25, 1986 at the Sheraton Center in New York City. (Photo by Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images) -
LONDON – 1966: (L-R) Sonny Bono (1935-1998), an American singer-songwriter, producer, actor, and politician who with his then-wife Cher was one half of an American rock duo in the 1960s and 1970s. The couple started their career in the mid-1960s as R&B backing singers for record producer Phil Spector, in London, England, 1966. (Photo by Jeff Hochberg/Getty Images) -
UNSPECIFIED – CIRCA 1970: Photo of Waylon Jennings Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images -
Portrait of Japanese-born artist and musician Yoko Ono and British musican and artist John Lennon (1940 – 1980), December 1968. (Photo by Susan Wood/Getty Images) -
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images