JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Songwriter Message Forum 2008 American Idol SongWriter

deleted

Post deleted by Perry Smith

deleted

Okay, Bill. I just deleted my last few posts so we can let all that go into the past. Apology accepted in whole. Let's move on. Please feel free to delete any post that followed a post I deleted so that things make more sense.

(People who are wondering what the posts said, there were just some misunderstandings about intent and meaning as happens on message boards--nothing too fun )

I am going to take some time off the boards, as suggested by Kevin (and my wife), so if anyone wants to contact me, please do so through my website www.perrysmith.com.

Best,
Perry

Perry

It ISN"T about you...trust me...in my previous example of the car salesman, the guys that the NEW guy beat DO make it personal in their attacks on him...BUT...it isn't really about him...it's about THEM and THEIR feelings. IT IS DEEPER THAN THE WORDS. The words are the mask they hide behind.

I don't know how I ended up in this position...I was just trying to explain to you why you shouldn't be hurt, that it's about people's frustration with THEMSELVES. Personally, I like your song as well as any other, and I hope you win ! ! Seriously, an outsider winning, especially someone who shared the song with us before the contest, would be one of the most exciting things that I can remember ! The fact that you are a working person like most of us makes it even BETTER. I voted for your song.
You are like the Charlie Bucket of JPF buddy! ! You picked the golden ticket (well you created it)...and I really hope you are Mr Wonka's pick! !

Thank you Perry for accepting my apology. I truly did not mean you any harm. It was all just a bad idea.

And please don't let my indiscretions taint your opinion of JPFolks. This is still the best songwriting community on the web.

Please stick around. You can obviously write songs and your involvement would be a plus to the community.

ALRIGHT EVERYBODY!!

KUMBAYAH!!

Perpetual busybody,
Beth

Oh, just to be clear, I did not mean that in an "I'm taking my ball and going home" kind of way. Just going to take a breather. I will be around and back for sure. I cannot help myself. Just until the voting ends next week.

Perry I have stayed out of this but glad things are sorted out. I think you are wise to bow out until the competition is over. You have to keep a low profile. But look forward to seeing you back here when things get back to normal. I can back Bill up we have fallouts and the occasional tiff but nobody holds grudges especially Bill. We are all in this together. Best of luck in the comp.

We're about to find out on Tuesday night! Good luck Perry!

Brian

So what happened? Which song "won?" Did it end up being the artist's choice as to what the songwriter winner is, or do you think they will reveal the vote totals? I personally like the two songs they picked (but I might have had them switch songs). The 6/8 ballad Archuleta sang is originally very alt-rock in it's MySpace delivery. And the song cook chose has a "country" feel to the demo that worked better than his arrangement I think. Details, does anyone have details? If I'm Perry, or any of the other finalists, I'd sure want to know what was going on.

If you look at Perry's other post on the general message board, he names the winner.

Thanks. I just saw the answer to my question on CMT News:

In the article - "Nashville Songwriter Wins American Idol Songwriting Competition" - May 21, 2008, it said ...

"Regie Hamm, a Nashville-based singer-songwriter, has won the second annual American Idol songwriting competition. His song, "Time of My Life," will be performed live by the winner of the show -- either David Archuleta or David Cook -- on Wednesday (May 21). "This song is about living in the moment and embracing your blessings and letting go of bitterness and past pain," he said. The song was chosen by fans from among 20 finalists, narrowed down from thousands of submissions."

USA TODAY Article
'Time' is now for American Idol Songwriter winner
5/20/2008 11:45 PM
By Edna Gundersen, USA TODAY

(USA TODAY) -- Whether David Archuleta or David Cook prevails in Wednesday night's American Idol finale, Regie Hamm will be having the time of his life.

In the closing four minutes of the two-hour show (Fox, 8 ET/PT), the newly crowned David will sing Time of My Life, Hamm's winner in the second American Idol Songwriter contest.

Yep, it's inspirational, says the Nashville singer/songwriter, who calls Life "a midtempo anthem, no surprises. (Fans) can wave their arms and light their lighters, all that cool stuff. We've all heard those finale songs, so you know the parameters and almost by osmosis what the moment is all about."

The song was among "tens of thousands" submitted and combed through by 19 Entertainment's more than 60 Artists & Repertoire staffers, who winnowed the list to a manageable pile before Idol creator Simon Fuller and his team pruned to 20 semifinalists, says Jeff King, 19's U.S. head of digital entertainment.

The task is "daunting," he says. "Not unlike the show, you get a wide variety, from comical to genius."

More than 500,000 voters chose Time of My Life from the 20 audio clips posted online. What gave Hamm's tune the edge?

"Its feel, its groove, the message," King says. "The lyrics aren't too sappy, and it's contemporary."

In a departure from Idol custom, producers decided against using the coronation song in competition. The Davids each picked another tune from the 10 songs that received the most votes in the contest to sing Tuesday. Cook, 25, chose Dream Big by Emily Shackelton; Archuleta, 17, selected In This Moment by Ryan Gillmore. Both are on iTunes, which also will sell tonight's rendition of Life by the new Idol.

A year ago, the first song contest yielded melodramatic This Is My Now, a natural for pop singer Jordin Sparks and a handicap for beatboxer Blake Lewis, who was thrashed by the judges. That mismatch didn't trigger this year's shift, King says. The show simply wanted to offer the finalists flexibility.

At a cost of $600 and with help from friends, Hamm composed and recorded Life the week before the contest deadline.

"I tried to keep the show in mind, but it's autobiographical," he says. "It has to do with living in the now and letting the good times carry you through the bad times."

Hamm, 40, says his victory is a reversal of a career slump that began when he and his wife, Yolanda, adopted their daughter in China. Isabella, now 5, has the rare genetic disorder Angelman syndrome, which causes severe developmental delays. (They also have 19-month-old son Gabe.)

"I've been a housedad while my wife works at Starbucks, which provides insurance," Hamm says.

"When we find something (Isabella) responds to, we stick to it," he says. "The really bad singers on Idol make her laugh hysterically. We started watching because of her. When better singers come along in the top 10, Isabella loses interest, but then we're hooked."

Born in Nashville, Hamm traveled the country with his Pentecostal preacher father and played drums in the family band. He wrote his first song at age 9. Influenced by Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Don Henley, Merle Haggard, Randy Newman and the Gershwins, he switched to piano and enjoyed some success writing and recording. On Thursday, his gospel/country Starlight EP hits iTunes. He co-wrote Something About Us, which is on Clay Aiken's new CD. (Attention, conspiracy theorists: Hamm also co-wrote the ballad In the Name of God with Scott Krippayne, who co-wrote 2007's winning Idol song.)

"I've made records and rubbed shoulders with people in the music industry, but nothing like this," Hamm says of his Idol conquest. "The last five years have been the toughest of my life. This one song has turned my career and my life around. It's a shot in the arm."

But is it? The clout of the coronation song has waned since 2002 inaugural Idol Kelly Clarkson released A Moment Like This, which sold 987,000 copies in combined singles and downloads, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Sales of 2003 runner-up Aiken's This Is the Night exceeded 1 million copies.

Numbers have drooped since then, as has Idol enthusiasm for the typically schmaltzy launches. Taylor Hicks, 2006's Idol, didn't put coronation single Do I Make You Proud, which sold 654,000 copies, on his album. A year ago, Sparks left the Idol gate with This Is My Now, the first Idol debut single that failed to reach Billboard's top 2. It has sold 263,000 downloads.

this part of the article is eye opening


On Thursday, his gospel/country Starlight EP hits iTunes. He co-wrote Something About Us, which is on Clay Aiken's new CD. (Attention, conspiracy theorists: Hamm also co-wrote the ballad In the Name of God with Scott Krippayne, who co-wrote 2007's winning Idol song.)

Ande's Comment: the finalists and winner aren't amatuers
the song they submitted isn't likely to be one of the first they've ever written

What complete, total and utter disre-freakin-spect for the songwriters of the winning song.

AI launches this huge, nationwide contest to come up with the showcase song for the finals and all Seacrust doesn’t even say who wrote the damn song. They bring in Andrew Lloyd Webber, Clive Davis, Neil Diamond, Dolly Parton…all for their songwriting credits…and make a huge deal out of it all season.

Then when Cook sings the winner’s song (no, it wasn’t all that good), the songwriter gets zippo billing.

If it weren’t for the songwriters, these kids would be singing the phone book.

Disgusting.

Hey,

Those are my sentiments....exactly...I was appalled at that to say the very least, Tim.

Hopefully, I'll be at the next songwriter's meeting when my new demos get back....have missed all of you.

Jan Hopkins

Hey Janice!

Didn't know you posted here! ;-)

Songwriters are used to getting little or no credit. They don’t need or want anyone’s tears over that. Their names appear in teeny, tiny mouse type in the CD liner notes. Everyone assumes (in most cases anyway), that the singer wrote the songs. Hardly anyone outside the writing community even knows Garth Brooks didn’t write Friends In Low Places, arguably one of his biggest hits.

But with all the effort put into poring over 20,000 submissions to the contest and the spot of prominence the winning song was to get, it was like the Lotto people saying of the $40M jackpot, “And we have a winner!”…and then leaving it at that.

Yeah…the songwriters got their billing this year. The big names anyway.

I’m still disgusted.

Don’t forget about the GR Festival, Janice…. GRSA will be playing….round robin style, 2 groups of 4 performers.

I’ll be sending out a reminder to the members. ;-)

Yeah Tim,

I have over 100 songs on here, I believe....look at me go...I'm a top 100 poster even. I write with alot of them on here, too. Its been great. I'll be at the festival to hear all of the rest of you that have the talent...Ha....Jan

Cool!

I’ve been around for a long time here (2002), but mostly lurk. I chime in every once in a while.

Almost 1400 posts in 9 months?! Holy crow, woman….you need a hobby!

Oh, wait a minute. I guess this would be it. ;-)

(thass a joke….you’re not a hobbyist and I know it!)

Hi Tim:

I've posted my opinion previously about the folks at "Idol" and their apparent low regard for songwriters. (What else is new... that seems to be the current trend thoughout the industry!)

I listened to both "Davids" sing their selected songs from "unknown" (LOL!) songwriters and was surprised at how little credit they (AI) gave the writers. I can't say that I was very impressed with either song but you would think they would flash the name of the song and the name of the writer across the screen for a few microseconds.

I sure hope you are able to "snatch victory from the possible Jaws of Defeat" in your particular case. "Shyeesha's" performance on the closing show was pretty impressive to me. Hopefully, she would be a great ticket builder for your song. Good luck and best wishes in your writing career.

Dave

I think you’re confusing me with the “other” Perry. ;-)

I entered, but didn’t make the Top 20.

Dave,

Don't confuse Tim Perry with Perry Smith. Easy to do, but they are different people.

And Tim, you should stop in more often. We'd love to have you more involved! I had a great time with you guys up in Grand Rapids last summer.

Brian

Our gang is still talking about that event, Brian! Make sure you let us know if you want to do GR again.

Truth be told, I’ve been kinda preoccupied with the Stanley Cup playoffs of late. Red Wings are in the big show and it’s got me rather tunnel-visioned. ;-)

That and practicing for 2 gigs at GR’s Festival in 10 days.

I will try to stop by more often, tho.

;-)

here's the announcement of the winner

David Cook

5 minutes & 20 seconds into the video
he performs the winning song
"Time of My Life"

http://youtube.com/watch?v=P_K3pxNLtmw

Maybe this is an indication of why so little importance is given to the songwriter process.
The voting went on for, what?, a month or so. And the winner only got 500,000 votes. Even if all of them got 500,000 votes that would only be 10,000,000
They get 50...60....MILLION votes in a couple hours on the show. Idol gets 200...300...MILLION votes in a month.

I am not sure why they don't mention the songwriting contest every week on the show. It seems they don't put much importance to it.

What I am surprised at is everyone seems to think the final group of songs were not that good. I though Perry's song was pretty good. A little cliche, IMHO, but that is what they want. It was a great fit for the contest. Production was top notch and I think that is the biggest determining factor.

Don't forget that with the Songwriter voting, you get one vote per login/screen name. The weekly voting has people voting many times, some of them voting more than 1000 times.

I thought that at least 10 of the top 20 songs were pretty good, but only about 5 of them had hit potential. I thought Perry's was one of the top 5.

They have STUDIO versions of David Cook singing both of the "original" songs on iTunes if you want to support the songwriter by downloading. They were "Dream Big" (on Tuesday), and of course, the winner, "The Time Of My Life" for the finale.

I actually thought Dream Big was a better fit for DC than "The Time..". It was the kind of song he'd put on his CD - a really rocker.

Also with the voting, you rate the songs on a scale of 1 to 10.

You do NOT pick "your favorite" out of the bunch, You vote for EVERY song.

(Unless you rate all of them a "1" and only one of them a "10".)

Makes me wonder if 500,000 was the TOTAL number of votes.

Also, how did they tabulate? Did they add up the numbers or did they count how many "10"'s each song got? Did they add all the numbers and then devide by # of votes to get an average?

I don't see why they would use this system for voting. It makes it too goofy to tabulate, in my opinion.

But, in no way am I saying it is unfair, I am just saying it seems like an odd choice.

The negative press on the winning song has started
Yahoo music writes...
"But with a lackluster first single like "The Time Of My Life," we're not so sure...maybe Cook was really crying because 19 Management stuck him with such a lousy song."

I think the song he did the night before was a better choice as a single than the winning song.

Oh.. and how about how lousy nearly every single new song that the big name artists peformed during the season? It's hard to love ANY song the first time the masses hear it. And that winning song was WAY better than most of the new songs by most of the famous artists performing all season.

Brian

That does not surprise me a bit. It seems like people will find any excuse to crap on someone else's success.
I'm surprised they aren't screaming foul because the guy had a cut with Clay Aikin and wrote with last years winner. I think successful writers write with lots of people and get cuts. It is how the business works.

I don't think Perry had any connections and his song made the cut. Good for him.

Time of My Life
Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt4aTMTGZPM
Story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxwbeL4i0zo

I believe johnnyvn is right. It likely has everything to do with the laws in the State you live in.

the funny thing is
now with some perspective
I feel like this song was well embraced by radio
I still hear it being played

xxxxxx

I quite liked "Time of My Life" the first time I heard the demo. I haven't had the pleasure of hearing the single recently, but I can still hum back the melody almost start to finish. I'm pleased the song was embraced by mainstream radio.

Mitch
www.myspace.com/splitpeasongs

x

As far as I was aware there was always a co-writer on that song. I don't think that's anything new.

Brian

x

x

I expect those states are protecting their residents......

time of my life is registered with SESAC
looks like Regie is a lone writer

TIME OF MY LIFE
Publishers: (ii) 19 Music Publishing
Writers: Reginald Glenn Hamm
SESAC Work Number: 64814400

don't see Daniel coursey any where on ASCAP SESAC or BMI

x