Back on the Case: The Voice and Songwriters

I’ve kept quiet for a few months now about how the coaches on The Voice – and their team members – sloppily and incorrectly attribute a song’s ‘ownership’ to the artists best known for performing it.  (You can take a look at the blog posts of May 10 and June 14 to read my earlier rants on this topic.) 

Once more, I have to say that Blake Shelton is the most shocking in this regard, being a Nashville artist.  Nashville has long been known for placing songwriters and good songwriting at the center of its music business, so his crediting only Kelly Clarkson and Jason Aldean, the artists who had the hit on the song Don’t You Wanna Stay, was a bit shocking to me.  Yes, Clarkson and Aldean performed it, and really well, but it was written by Andy Gibson, Paul Jenkins, and Jason Sellers.

But what got me off my duff to compile the lists below was the reference to I Wish It Would Rain as only ‘by The Temptations’ and a later reference to contestant Preston Pohl’s tone as being so close to David Ruffin.  The song was written by Roger Penzabene, a Motown staff writer, and Motown’s songwriting team of Barrett Strong and Norman Whitfield.  Lots of folks acknowledge Holland-Dozier-Holland as Motown songwriters, but there were others.

The earlier posts I referred to mention the problem that songwriters have today, given that downloaded music is the dominant sales point: there’s no consistent place for songwriters’ credits to appear.  Some talented folks aren’t getting the recognition they deserve.  My suggestion was for The Voice to add a “Written by” line to the Chiron of the song title that appears at the beginning of a contestant’s performance.  That would be a big step forward in acknowledging that these writers are where the music begins.  

So, here are the credits for the last two rounds of The Voice, the most recent first.  I’ve organized it by song title, then by the songwriters, and then indicated who performed it on The Voice.  Apologies in advance for any typos in the names.

Knockout Rounds

Song	Songwriters	Performed on The Voice by
Already Gone	Kelly Clarkson, Ryan Tedder	Grey
Cosmic Love	Florence Welch and Isabella Summers	Mathew Schuler
Don’t Know Why	Jesse Harris	Stephanie Ann Johnson
Genie in a Bottle	David Frank, Steve Kipner, Pamela Sheyne	Nic Hawke
Hard to Handle	Otis Redding, Al Bell, Allen Jones	Ray Boudreaux
I’ll Be	Edwin McCain	Austin Jenckes
Last Name	Luke Laird, Hillary Lindsey, Carrie Underwood	Shelbie Z
Let Her Go	Mike Rosenberg	Cole Vosbury
Living for the City	Stevie Wonder	Josh Logan
Mamma Knows Best	Jessica Cornish, Ashton Thomas	Amber Nicole
More Than a Feeling	Tom Scholz	James Wolpert
No One	Alicia Keys, Kerry Brothers, Jr., George M. Harry	Tamara Chaunice
No Woman, No Cry	Vincent Ford (credited to)	Preston Pohl
Stompa	Serena Ryder, Jerrod Bettis	Jacquie Lee
Stronger	Jörgen Elofsson,  David Gamson, Greg Kurstin, Ali Tamposi	Tessanne Chin
The Way I Am	Ingrid Michaelson	Caroline Pennell
We Can Work It Out	John Lennon, Paul McCartney	Jonny Gray
When I Was Your Man	Bruno Mars, Philip Lawrence, Moe Faisal, Ari Levine, Andrew Wyatt	Will Champlin
You Oughta Know	Alanis Morissette, Glen Ballard	Kat Robichaud
You’re No Good	lint Ballard, Jr.	Olivia Henken

Battle Rounds

Song	Songwriters	Performed on The Voice by
As Long as You Love Me	Sean Anderson, Justin Bieber	Caroline Pennell
Counting Stars	Ryan Tedder	James Irwin
Domino	Jessica Cornish, Lukasz Gottwalk, Claude Kelly, Max Martin, Henry Walter	Grey
Don’t You Wanna Stay	Andy Gibson, Paul Jenkins, Jason Sellers	Shelbie Z
Done	Neil Perry, Reid Perry, John Davidson, Jacob Bryant	Olivia Henken
Harder to Breathe	Adam Levine, Jesse Carmichael	Josh Logan
House of the Rising Sun	Traditional	Jacquie Lee
I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing	Diane Warren	Kat Robichaud
I Wish It Would Rain	Roger Penzabene, Barrett Strong, Norman Whitfield	Preston Pohl
Listen	Henry Krieger, Scott Cutler, Anne Preven, Beyoncé Knowles	Amber Nicole
My Song Know What You Did in the Dark	Patrick Stump, Pete Wentz, Joe Trohman, Andy Hurley, Butch Walker, and John Hill	Mathew Schuler
Next to Me	Emeli Sande, Hugo Chegwin, Harry Craze, Anup Paul	Tessanne Chin
Not Ready to Make Nice	Martie Maguire, Natalie Maines, Emily Robison, Dan Wilson	Destinee Quinn
Radioactive	Ben McKee, Dan Platzman, Dan Reynolds, Wayne Sermon, Alexander Grant, Josh Mosser	James Wolpert
Refugee	Mike Campbell and Tom Petty	Jonny Gray
Some Kind of Wonderful	Gerry Goffin and Carol King	Ray Boudreaux
The Best I’ve Ever Had	Gavin DeGraw and Martin Johnson	George Horga Jr.
To Love Somebody	Barry Gibb and Robin Gibb	Austin Jenckes