Name any five songs that you'd like to take credit as being the songwriter

Subterranean Homesick Blues - Bob Dylan
Old Man - Neil Young
Born in the U.S.A. - Bruce Springsteen
Beds are Burning - Midnight Oil
The Stranger - Billy Joel
Private Investigation - Dire Straits

Wish I could come up with more meaningful answers, great question!
And nobody tell me that’s six answers!

 

God Only Knows
Penny Lane
Waterloo Sunset
Without You ( Badfinger)
Blowin' in the Wind

The last one because it's a classic that was covered thou$ands of times......

 

"A Day In The Life"
"Black Water"
"American Pie"
"I Know A Little Bit"
"Under My Thumb"

 

Hallelujah - Leonard Cohen
Nightswimming - R.E.M.
One - U2
Desolation Row - Bob Dylan
Pyramid Song - Radiohead

 

White Christmas
Candle in the wind 1997
Rock around the Clock
I will always love you
If I didn't care

TOP 20 best selling singles of all time | Pictures | Pics | Express.co.uk

 

Big Star - "Back Of A Car"
Jellyfish - "Joining A Fan Club"
Saigon Kick - "I Love You"
The Who - "Naked Eye"
Electric Light Orchestra - "Mr.Kingdom"

 

Pyramid Song is such an incredible tune. Nice list.

 

I know that I will kick myself later tonight when something I don't list here pops into my head, but:

The Killing Moon - Echo & the Bunnymen
There is a Light that Never Goes Out - The Smiths
In My Life - The Beatles
Hallelujah - Leonard Cohen
One - U2

6th place:
Romeo & Juliet - Dire Straits

 

The Tracks Of My Tears- Smokey Robinson
Astral Weeks- Van Morrison
What's Happenin' Brother- Marvin Gaye
Burma Shave- Tom Waits
Walk On By-Burt Bacharach/Hal David

 

Any Bacharach/David song.

 

I prefer to be original in my choices, but that one's too good to pass up! Skirting songs that I'd either have to be a North American - or a diffent gender - to pull off, here are four more:

'Levi Stubbs' Tears' (wrongly attributed to Billy Bragg)
'Here There & Everywhere' (written under my nom de plume, 'Paul McCartney')
'Selfless Cold & Composed' ('borrowed' by Ben Folds)
'God's Song (Why I Hate Mankind)' (for which Randy Newman has been fraudulently claiming my royalites)

 

any five songs that made the most money...because that's what I want..

 

Bruce - "Thunder Road"
U2 - "One"
Marvin Gaye - "What's Going On"
Debussy - "Clair de Lune"
Leonard Cohen - every song he ever wrote

 

5
Todd Rundgren/Donald Fagan, Tin Foil Hat
Lou Reed, Street Hassle
The Go-Betweens, Streets of Your Town
The Waterboys, The Whole of the Moon
Peter Tosh, Downpresser Man

 

The City Of New Orleans - Steve Goodman
The Last Resort - Don Henley/Glenn Frey
The Sound Of Silence - Paul Simon
Brothers In Arms - Mark Knopfler
Everybody Wants To Rule The World - Roland Orzabal/Ian Stanley/Chris Hughes

 

Big Love Remixes - Fleetwood Mac
Standing on the Corner of the Third World - Tears for Fears
Love Train - O'Jays
We Have Heaven - Yes ( I don't why i like this song, sue me)
Duchess - Genesis

 

Da Doo Ron Ron
Be Bop A lula
Louie Louie
Maybellene

and A Day in The Life

 

Free Man In Paris
Superstition
Golden Slumbers
Happy Birthday
Mr Tambourine Man

 

The Beatles - A Day in the Life
Queen - We Will Rock You
The Police - Every Breath You Take (I'd be set for life with those royalties)
Kansas - Dust in the Wind
Porcupine Tree - Trains

 

"Candle in the Wind" - whether in reference to Marilyn or to Princess Di, this is the perfect song with the most haunting and the most memorable lyrics, and a melody to die for. Elton John's finest hour. You would be set for life with the royalties from this one song.

"It's Now or Never" - Elvis was a gifted singer, but this song was a gift from Schroeder and Gold who adapted Tony Martin's song in 30 minutes to become a best seller. 3 minutes of pure joy.

"I'm a Believer" - who can forget the opening musical bars of this one? Neil Diamond at his most inspired. An ageless classic that touches us today. A sense of hope.

"Whiter Shade of Pale" - I have a soft spot for psychedelics and this is an anthem for an LSD trip. Gary Brooker with a touch of Bach. I could go back there today without (almost) any sense of loss, if that were possible.

"The House of the Rising Sun" - the top 5 needs a blues song. Whether The Animals, Hendrix, Woody Guthrie, Glen Yarbrough and so on. The writer is lost in the mists of time. A great song - easy to play, easy to sing, easy to get lost in.

 

CLASSIC SONGS:
"Yesterday" (The Beatles)
"Stairway To Heaven" (Led Zeppelin)
"Dancing Queen" (ABBA)
"Good Vibrations" (The Beach Boys)
"Happy Birthday To You" (Anyone & everyone)
-----------------------------------------------
HOLIDAY SONGS (THEY RETURN EVERY YEAR):
"White Christmas" (Bing Crosby)
"Rudolph, The Red Nose Reindeer" (Gene Autry)
"The Christmas Song" (Nat King Cole)
"The Monster Mash" (Bobby Boris Pickett)
"Auld Lang Syne" (Guy Lombardo)

 

Been checking out some really great music suggested here. The freakin' good is that every now and then there are brand new favourites that flourish from the top of our heads... and yeah, really forever and ever!

Cat Stevens (music by Rick Wakeman) - Morning Has Broken
Elton John - Skyline Pigeon
Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Vangelis - Pulstar
Bob Dylan - Blowing In The Wind

 

Ohio - Neil Young
Like A Rolling Stone - Dylan
Eyes To The Wind - Adam Granduciel - War On Drugs
For A Dancer - Jackson Browne
The Trader - The Beach Boys

 

We Built This City
Anyone can write a song, but not everybody can write a song that elicits such strong and extreme listener reactions as We Built This City. I'd love to be the writer of the song that often gets mentioned as "the worst song of all time".

Stairway to Heaven
I'd love to be one who is credited as the writer of Stairway to Heaven. That would make it possible for me to settle for once and for all whether it knocks off from Taurus or not. I would happily plead guilty and would in fact feel privileged to get to share a writing credit with the great Randy California.

'Long As You Know You're Living Yours
It would surely feel fantastic to have written a song that had been deemed good enough by Donald Fagen and Walter Becker to steal from. The sheer thought of it might have been quite enough for me. Of course, the chance of getting to share a writing credit with them might have turned out too tempting for me not to sue...

Freebird
I would like to take the writing credit for what must be one of the most requested songs ever.

Smoke on the Water
I would love to have written the guitar riff that drives the guitar shop proprietors mad all over the Western world. I never really learned to play the guitar myself, so that would have been my revenge to those who flog these wretched instruments to the unsuspecting public.