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What songs did you enter in the American Idol Song Contest?

please provide titles and links where we can hear them

Ande

"Rotten Candy." It's on my MySpace page:

www.myspace.com/joewrabek

The Artist Formerly Known as Moonless Joe

"We Just Gotta Be Friends"
I know,,,,,just the title alone says it's not going to win. And, there's no chorus. Entered for the heck of it in case someone thinks how I did when writing it.
On the link below

"My Turn, This Time"

http://www.badbetsy.com/music-39.html

None

Hi! I entered a song I just wrote a week ago called "Dreams do come true". As soon as I get it onto my computor I will send you a link.

Tammy

www.TammyEdwards.com

I entered

Ain't Gonna Stop
http://www.songramp.com/mod/mps/viewtrack.php?trackid=31697

Vividly
Pop version
http://www.songramp.com/mod/mps/viewtrack.php?trackid=14748

Sow the Seeds of Love
that I cowrote with Elizaveta http://www.elizaveta.net
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=106769

and

a new song that I cowrote with Eric Copeland

I entered one song "CHASING RAINBOWS" it's a song about chasing my career for the love of music and leaving something behind after I am gone.
Written over a period of 20 years it took awhile to get it the way I wanted it to sound.

After reading the discription of what they were looking for
it seemed a match made in heaven. So I figured why not?

Song & Lyrics avaliable on my website www.LarryRead.com

Tammy,

I didn't see a link to that song on your site. Would like to hear it.

I figured why not?
So I tried a new one. I think I'm out of my element with this one though.
It's missing the lead guitar parts in the breaks and If I decide to do anything more with it I'll add them.

http://www.soundclick.com/pro/view/01/default.cfm?bandid=148114&songid=5250583&content=song

I submitted "We Are The One". As this is my first ever attempt at singing, playing guitar and recording, it may not end up being what they are looking for but I decided to take a shot and go for it!

Here's the link: http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/4/16/989269/We_Are_The_One_Rev.mp3

How many songs were you allowed to enter?

I only dared enter the one...

One rejection at a time, please.. LOL!!!

I'm not going to enter.

Does anyone know how long it is going to take them to get through thousands of songs? They sure haven't mentioned the songwriting this week. Gee... I guess we will just have to hang out awhile on that one.

Tammy

www.TammyEdwards.com

Hi Ande,

I just went to your Soundclick site. Why did you not send in "Eventually". I don't believe they are allowing songs that are published so perhaps that is your reason. If that is the reason then I understand. But if it isn't published, I certainly would've sent in that one without hesitation. It is beautiful and absolutely radio ready. I will be listening again and again to this song. Please tell me it's status, it's beautiful!

Best,
Lynn

What does it matter now that Sanjaya's gone?

I dreamed of hearing Sanjaya sing my song, and now those hopes are dashed to the rocks below.

Really, the tune was perfect for him

Just remember, out of the thousands of talented singers that tried out for this thing, this undeserving (but very telegenic) lad was chosen - by the judges and the producers - for his appeal as a "reality" show contestant, not for his singing.

I wanted him to make it to the final

Hello Friends!
I'm new to this message board...I found it very helpful so decided to join in. In reply to Ande's post, here is one of my songs that I entered in AI...you can listen at www.sonicbids.com/sandracarlucci It is the song "You Made Me Feel Again"

Hello again..
I should have given this as a link.. http://www.sonicbids.com/epk/epk.asp?epk_id=3254

Try this one if the other one doesn't work..

Sandra C

I entered "Where The Sidewalk Ends"

The link is on my Soundclick site: http://www.soundclick.com/karenmack

I think they will have the songs up by May 2nd, rumor has it...

Good luck everyone!

-Karen

Hi Sandra! Welcome!

Very nice voice. Real nice song. If yours is selected, I am sure they will treat it differently though.

For some next time on this song if you ever do one, I recommend a much different production to bring out the melody more, and have you sing it with more power in the chorus, to get that soaring effect. The special effects in my opinion takes away from the song. Sounds like all the keyboard's effects were used!

I would love to hear Substudio take charge in this one sometime.

Good luck, and I'm looking forward to hearing more of your songs.
Your voice reminds of Dolly Parton's a bit. Very listenable! Just needs more passion in that chorus, to really hit it strong. Others may love this as is, of course. Just my musical gut speaking here.
John

(Response to Tammy) No idea how long it will take, but I bet that "BAW and the JP Folks revue crue" could get through more songs faster, and treat them all a bit more respectfully than what you'll find from the AI moneymakers.

Well, according to my bank statement, they got my $10 ok. So, that's a relief....

Sandra, nice lyrics, voice and song! Welcome to the group here!

Tammy

www.TammyEdwards.com

Thanks John & Tammy for your comments...
John...yes I thought of re-recording this for the contest, but had not time ...when I perform it live we have live drums & electric guitar playing power chords starting from the bridge outward. It makes a nice difference.
Also, the producer has an electronic background..thus, the eloectronic sounds...actually he envisioned this song as being produced in a similar manner as Britney Spears' "Everytime" (Hope I won't be banished from this forum for use of that name!!) I don't like her music very much except for that particular song. Listen to that song if you get a chance--I think the production is similar to mine, a minimal approach. But it should have been treated more like a power ballad, I think.
Thank you both for listening
The same producer did this song http://www.sonicbids.com/epk/epk.asp?epk_id=3254 "A Single Thing" I think he did this one better. Didn't enter this one into the contest because its not the kind of song they're looking for.
Sandra

If anyone is interested, here are the other ones I entered:
http://www.sonicbids.com/epk/epk.asp?epk_id=3254 "You'll Stay"
www.sandracarlucci.com "When It Rains" is the first song that plays when the homepage opens. You can advance to other songs, but I entered "When It Rains"
I also entered another song called "How Long I Can Lie", but it is not on the web anywhere. If anyone would like to hear it I can send it to you via e-mail, if you like.
Best,
Sandra

John...

I checked out your myspace page..nice sound, very retro. I loved the Beatles & JL as well.
Larry: I listened to "Chasing Rainbows"...very solid song, great job! I could really hear an idol singing this. Gives good opportunity for vocals to shine, with nice sustained notes that open up the voice.
I hate entering contests!! The suspense is torturous! I wish they'd just reject my song already so I can move forward with my life!!!!!!!
Best wishes to all

thank you, you have a good ear,
eventually is one of the most commercial songs in my catalog.
unfortunately in 2002 we signed a pub agreement with S o n y and another publisher. at the time we were thrilled to say we have a song signed with them. We had high hopes, the person who brought it in is no longer with them. there's no reversion clause
we're not sure they even know they still have it, nothing's being done with it, it's a frustrating situation. Reminds me of the final scene in raiders of the lost ark where the fork lift is placing the ark in a warehouse, and then the camera unzooms and you see how huge the warehouse is.

here's eventually POP
http://www.songramp.com/mod/mps/viewtrack.php?trackid=12740

here's eventually Piano vocal
http://www.songramp.com/mod/mps/viewtrack.php?trackid=12739

I asked this person what we could do to generate new interest in it, he suggested we make another demo with a particualr producer which would cost $1,500, then he would let them hear it again. Since we've already spent around that much we didn't want to sink more into it, but we remain hopeful that someone will hear it and want to cut it.

Ande

I entered two songs: one, sort of an anthem type and one more of an emo type. They can be heard at:
http://www.dancingfly.com/world.html

Good luck to all who entered. /Glen

Sandra,
I went to your site and heard a few of your songs. Nicely done! You have talent and well produced recordings.
a winning combo. Best fo Luck Lovely lady

Larry

Just want to say hello to everyone. I have been getting JPF emails for some years but never kept up with it. Now that this Idol songwriter's thing has happen, my Google searches brought me here and I am glad I found JPF again.

For the American Idol Songwriter's Contest, my friend Matt and I wrote a new song over the last week called "Until Now". We will try to get a link up soon; we love feedback!

We have been writing over the last year and a half and have written about 8 songs so far. One is completely finished, and the other 7 are in various states of demo work. Then, this Idol contest came around and we were in a creative streak so the timing was perfect to delay our album work yet once again (lol).

Matt sings and writes lyrics and melodies, and I am the jack of all trades, lyrics, melodies, music, recording, producing, mastering, etc...

The basic process happened like this...Matt had to go visit family south of Dallas, and he wrote the basic verse/chorus melody and lyrics in the car while he was listening to the hum of the car engine. He tends to work well with some kind of droning noise, not sure what that is about LOL but it works...

Then when he got back that evening, we got together and I helped him flush out and fine tune the melody and verse/chorus lyrics, but we were missing a middle bridge for the song. He is not good at that (really, he can't ever come up with bridges for some strange reason) so I came up with it (melody and lyrics) and he loved it right away. Then the next day we decided to figure out what tempo we wanted. We also figured out a key change for the end of the song. The next evening, he came over to the studio and we recorded him just singing it without any beats or anything to just get a feel for it. Then we nailed down our tempo with what he felt was comfortable to sing, and what would sound best for the song. I used a basic drum beat from a ProTools plugin called Xpand! that had a sort of loose slow rock feel (I tried other beats but Matt did not like any of them). Then we recorded him singing to that beat. We took about 10 vocal takes and threw out all but the best one. We did this for the next 5 nights up to the weekend till we had about 6 decent takes to work with. Unfortunately, Matt has been having major throat issues with sinus and allergies, so the whole week was him cringing after every take. Then on the weekend on Saturday/Sunday, I started working on the chords. It took some time to work them out because the way the chorus melody Matt sings was slightly using different notes that changed the chord, so I was unable to simply repeat the same chord progression for every chorus. I also had to work out the middle bridge and end chorus key change chords. Then we had to decide on what instrumentation to use. I don't really have any good piano sounds on my keyboards, so we opted for a light rhodesey kid of sound and double tracked with a warm synth string sound. We had wanted to add a simple bass line, but that evening my computer was having issues and would not open my ProTools session. It was really all my fault because I have needed to build a clean install of the OS for many months but being the lazy guy I am, I put it off and it bit us in the keester. The next day, I came home early from work (thank god it was a slow day) and I got the computer working again with a fresh install of the OS. So now it is Monday night and Matt came over to the studio and we started cherry picking the best phrases from the vocal takes. Then I put the most unobtrusive amount of reverb on the vocal track. I did a quick leveling for each track, leaving the vocal track slightly louder (as a demo should be). I threw a nice mastering plugin on the master track, bounced it down and took a listen to make sure it was ok. Then we fired up Wavelab and made our mp3. Then we entered out song on the AI website. Fini....

I am really proud of what we did in such a short time. We always work much slower than this so it was a fun challenge, one I think we conquered if I am not being too bold to say so. Our production of it is very minimal; I would have liked it to be much more produced sounding if I had had my way (and more time). But sometimes an over-produced song can pigeonhole your song when someone else listens to it. So it is probly better for the A&R staff to have something raw to hear so they can hear what they want out of it, let their imaginations hear other possibilities etc...I am only worried about the production of it because of course the public are voting on it and all they will know how to do is pick the best singer, so that is a worry. I think they should have had like 2 or 3 professional singers and the guy who always plays piano on the show play the Top 20 songs and record them so it would be more of an even playing field vocally. But this contest was severely rushed and not very well executed, so all I can think of is the awesome opportunity to get our song heard by the A&R team....

So anyway, long rant, I know...but Matt and I will talk about putting up a link here to our lyrics and mp3 so you can all hear it. We aren't sure it is the best course of action to take yet. We are worried that even though there is probly nothing to worry about in posting the song online, that there could be unforseen issues with doing so before the Top 20 is picked. Putting a song online can make it really hard to properly market the song, not to mention it could have a backfire effect when the voting for the songs takes effect on May 2nd (only if you made the Top 20 of course).

Ande, I listened to your song EVENTUALLY just now. Wow! What a great song! Just the type that I love to listen to. I love the pop version. Great lyrics and vocal on the song. You should keep plugging that one and cranking some more of those out. You are in the right genre. Just wanted to leave you a warm fuzzy this evening.

Tammy

www.TammyEdwards.com

Hi everyone... here's our entry
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=133438218

Should play when ther page loads.

Hi Tammy,

Thank you so much

Eventually was the first really good song I cowrote. I wrote many before it, but it's one of the best ones in my catalog.

My cowriters were Donna Aylor and Mark Oates.
Mark wrote the melody.
Alex Anders from created the pop demo. Alex's brother Adam Anders was a cowriter on More Than That for the BackStreet Boys.

I put it in the JPF MP3 board a few years ago
http://www.jpfolks.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=231855

Ande

I enjoyed listening to most of the songs and I wish everyone the best of luck. I entered two songs. The first titled "Beyond The Harbors was a melody that I had already written and I wrote the lyrics after hearing about the contest. The second song probably will not have as good a chance titled "Punch The Air" It probably would have worked better for the Idols who are eliminated each week. Anyway, Good Luck to everyone

"Beyond The Harbors" http://zebox.com/cgi-bin/artists/dl.cgi?daydreamproject_-_Beyond_The_Harbors_.m3u+qp+m1

"Punch The Air" http://zebox.com/cgi-bin/artists/dl.cgi?daydreamproject_-_Punch_The_Air.m3u+qp+m1

I sent this song, "Before You" in along with another one called "How to Fly". Before you isn't really an "inspirational song", but I thought, "what the heck?" Forgive me, I'm not a great singer. But, I tried to relay it the best I could.

http://www.songramp.com/mod/mps/viewtrack.php?trackid=55950

I heard Tammy's song and I was very impressed. It has a few rough spots melodically because she wasn't yet comfortable with the song and was very rushed for time to get it together in time to enter, but it's exactly the type of stuff they've done in the past, only better. It may not be to the level of Kelly Clarkson's song the first year, but I think it's as good or better than any of the winning songs since then. The fact that she threw it together for this so fast shows what a consumate pro she really is. A pro can write to spec and she achieved that here I believe. I am looking forward to her own studio recording of it and I think it has a real world chance of making the Top 20.

For those who don't know, Tammy won for Album of the Year in 2002 and Songwriter of the Year as well. Check out her songs Just A Little Time and Seasons of Love and Through the Night and.. hell.. any of them really.. and you'll see how good she is. She even has a smooth jazz style instrumental called Ocean Dreams that I've always loved. In fact, it's been a while since I really listened to her music and I nearly forgot how amazingly talented she really is. If this contest got her back into the saddle to write a new batch of great songs, then that alone makes it a good thing.

Brian

Hi Sandra,

that's a lovely song
very strong
great voice and production

ande

Awwwwwww shucks Brian,,,now I am all red and blushing here. Ya gave me warm fuzzies. I am going to have to print off this page and frame it. Thanks for the encouragement. Ya never know how it all is going to play out. I am just glad I challenged myself and wrote a song in one day and threw it out there. I hear that is what you have to do sometimes when you have a writing deal. Not sure if I could live up to that.

Thanks a zillion!
Tammy

www.TammyEdwards.com

Tammy,
I could not find the song you submitted on your site but I did get a listen to your other material. Great stuff.. well produced.

If your song which I read the lyrics on another thread has music as good as the lyrics it has a chance. Should you get a moment go to my site and listen to " Chasing Rainbows " my submission.. I would be interested in your opinion.

here are the Lyrics
CHASING RAINBOWS copyright 1978 & 2006
BMI Larry Read

I have spent most of my life
In search of an elusive star
Roaming around from town to town
Never getting very far
All the Dreams I've had
And all the plans I've made
Somehow just beyond my reach

(CHORUS)
People tell me I'm crazy
Chasing Rainbows
Looking for a light
When it's so very dark
Looking for an answer
To a question
That was long ago planted in my heart
I know
Someday
That dream will come my way

( second verse )

I have spent most of my dreams
In search of one that's real
One that was not like it seemed
One that I could truly feel
All the dreams I've had
All the plans I've made
Somehow just beyond my reach

( BRIDGE )
And as I look into the future now
I know that I will find a way somehow
To leave behind a little part of me
For all the future generations to see

(Big Build musically Chorus & Out )

That I wasn't crazy
Chasing rainbows
Looking for a light when it's so very dark
Looking for an answer to a question
That was long ago planted in my heart
I know
Someday
That dream will come my way.

Hi- I'm a newbie to this board but I just wanted to let you all know I enjoy your talents... here are some of my older songs- i tend to not post my new stuff which probably isn't very good business practice but nevertheless here are the links:

www.myspace.com/daproduction

www.myspace.com/daproduction2

the stuff i did for the ai contest is quite different from the music I've already done. Very inspirational and wide genres could record the two songs I submitted. Ande- I really loved the pop version of your song- the guy singing it has a great demo voice. I sing also, on many but not all of my songs- I don't usually co-write but I definately don't mind it!

Thanks Ande...you made my day. Lots of sulking going on for me until this contest is over...argh!! I am such a sore loser...but glad yo liked the song.
SAndra

Randy: excellent song. Great chorus. A winner in my book /Glen

Hi Larry, Thank you for sharing your song with me. Very nice. I like the meaningful lyrics. They are sincere and from the heart. It has a real good message. I wanted to let you know I like your homepage with the keyboard. How cool! I have never seem anything like that before. Way cool! I keep playing with it and sliding the mouse around on it. haha! I like to look up your site.

Thanks for sharing!
Tammy

Thanks Tammy,
I was very impressed with your site as well.
I still cannot find a link to the song you submitted To A.I on your site.
I would enjoy hearing it.

Larry

Hello folks!

My first post here. What a great forum this is. If you want to hear a bunch of AI contest entries, there is a woman who has collected links to about 50 songs on her blog. Here is her URL: http://www.rpsd.com/moblog/ Scroll about two thirds down her blog and you should see it.

Good luck to all who entered... esp me ;-)

i entered just before the deadline with a song I wrote specifically for Jordan. I only had time to do a guitar and vocal so if there are a lot of entries I think it may not get listened to. I have heard some great productions here but so far (I haven't listened to all of them) as good as they are, the theme is not quite what you can imagine the winner singing. After I wrote, recorded and submitted my song, I had to leave for a convention in Las Vegas. While there, I thought of changes to make it better but I cannot edit a submission so I have to let the cards fall where they will. If you are interested, you can listen to and read the lyrics on my soundclick site. Just click here, select music and pick the first song with the American Idol icon next to it. The song is called "You believed in me"

www.soundclick.com/austinstageline

Brian, I wanted to hear Tammy's song after your comments but where is it?

Here's the song Tammy entered. I threw it up on the site. In the context of this contest, I think it hits the target. It's a little rough and there's some glitches melodically, but I think it's so on target for what the AI songs usually tries to say, that it has a real shot. Of course Tammy could do a studio version of this and sound as good as any of the AI folks. The lyrics are what you expect, and the main theme about dreams isn't anything original, but yet it still works. It has a Disney-esque quality to it which they typically look for in the winners song so that it appeals to all family members from little girls to little old Grandmas. We played it here for some folks and after it was over they were singing the chorus melody which is a good sign. There's 2 lines that need melodic changes, (which Tammy knows about) but the fact that she conceived of this and wrote it in a day and recorded it while still trying to finish writing it on a deadline is pretty impressive. It's a smooth and polished early song demo that's right on target for the opportunity. Not too complicated.. not unpredictable but it still works anyway.

Dream's Do Come True by Tammy Edwards

http://www.jpfolks.com/DreamsDoComeTrue.mp3

Brian

Brian, I agree- This is the best example I have heard so far of writing on target for the AI challenge. Unless, somewhere in the flood of submissions, there are 20 songs better than this one, I would expect it to be in the top twenty. Lets say there are 20,000 songs submitted. A week before the deadline, there were only 5000.
Of the 20,000, 15,000 will be amature attempts. Of the remaining 5000, 4000 will be off target good or bad. Of the 1000 remaining, 300 will be pretty good. Of the 300 pretty goods, 100 will be contenders. I give this song a 1 in 5 shot of making it to the top 20. Can you tell, I just returned from Vegas? I would have to agree that the kelly Clarkson song "Once in a lifetime" is the best AI specific song so far.