Word is the manager Loog Oldham locked them in a room and wouldn’t let them out until they’d written a song. Pivotal moment.
Fair enough then, it's not an interesting thread in that case. It's easy to list bands from the early to mid 60s who mostly didn't write their own material.
Oooo controversy is arisen In all seriousness it’s just a fun thread. No need to get that uptight or upset. Time to move on
Who's upset? I thought the thread was quite interesting to begin with, because it seemed to be about a rare phenomenon, but it turns out it wasn't. No big deal.
Not sure if this falls under a technicality, but do we count Elton John & the Elton John Band as bands that rarely wrote their own songs? Bernie's never officially been considered a part of the band, but he's essentially Elton's dedicated songwriter.
Bernie was usually pictured in the album jackets. Seems like a member to me. Rare Earth rarely wrote their own material.
Starship, if 1) it's considered a rock band and 2) if we agree it's separate from Jefferson Starship.
Whatever, the title of the thread mentions "rock bands" and The Monkees, The Carpenters, Hermans Hermits and Dave Dee, D,M& T simply weren't. Maybe the OP should get a Gort to change the thread title?
Fairport Convention spent many years using a mixture of traditional songs and outside writers, with the occasional one written in-house. Bit more balanced since Chris Leslie joined but they are still happy to bring in material from without the band.
I remember Dave Pegg saying in the 90's that no one in the Fairport lineup at that time could write lyrics - of course it was different in the early albums with Richard Thompson and Sandy Denny.
Three Dog Night, although they did write 14 of their songs in one combination or another. No hits, though. The Grass Roots are also in this category although they wrote 37 of their songs. Again, no hits.
Though Steeleye did wind up writing a bunch of original songs that sounded like trad numbers. I believe every song on Sails of Silver was group written. Fairport didn't have a songwriter between 1986-97 when Chris Leslie joined, so they made a bunch of albums where the only originals were the instrumentals. When Chris joined they seemed so glad to have him that they let him write entire albums!
Most of Three Dog Night's songs,indeed, their biggies, were covers, but they did write some very popular B sides (JAM, other side of OLD FASHIONED LOVE SONG,1971, and, of course, OUR B SIDE, other side of SHAMBALA,1973) The Monkees at first (which was why they almost quite their show!) The Partridge Family The Carpenters (well, Karen didn't write,Richard did) The Chipmunks-Ross Bagdasarian wrote them. Note all of the above are more pop/rock, yet similiar ones, Tommy James and the Shondells, did have two songwriters in their members, leader Tommy James and Peter Lucia ("Santa Lucia",now plays in my brain) Oh, back to another that didn't write their own,until later Paul Revere and the Raiders. hwever, in 1969, almost a year before his own 1969/70 solo breakout ARIZONA, Mark Lindsay did write MR SUN, MR MOON, and a few others that I can't recall..