True. They had three albums (Headquarters, Head, Replay) where they wrote half the songs, and one album (Present) where they wrote more than half.
Well, Nesmith did. Far and away more than the other guys, and great ones at that. Dolenz wrote a small handful (And quite good, and interesting, quirky ones). Same for Peter, though several didn’t get released until decades later (His two songs on the Head sountrack were his best). Davy Jones co-wrote a few. Like Peter’s, several of them didn’t see release until much later.
Spacemen 3 were a fairly serious band of the rock era whose first album (Sound of Confusion, 1986) had just 2 original songs, and even those weren't really "original" as these things go. They were clearly inspired by MC5, whose first album consisted mostly of covers and a couple of "original songs" that were in fact borrowed riffs with improvised lyrics ("Come Together"). However, both MC5 and, to a lesser extent, Spacemen 3 focused more on writing as their careers progressed. Aside from that, I think of The Ventures. They actually did usually take credit for a couple of songs per album but the vast majority of their catalogue was always covers of other people's hits. Alex Chilton didn't write much after Big Star.
Lindsay actually wrote most of the Raiders material, starting with the third album. Other Raiders wrote quite a few songs too., especially Fang and Keith Allison.
They had a few album cuts by the band - "Dreaming Isn't Good For You" from Suitable For Framing (by Hutton), "Rock and Roll Widow" from It Ain't Easy (by the whole band) and three songs by guitarist Mike Allsup on the album Cyan. Maybe some others I'm forgetting.
Chuck Negron wrote one if their best albun tracks, Midnight Runaway, but apparently gave a mailroom guy the credit because the band told him not to bring songs in.
Mickey Dolenz had some significant credits in The Monkees I thought. To say except for him and Nesmith (and even Peter Tork had the cool tv end theme For Pete's Sake to his credit) is like saying any group if you don't count _____, or _____. So The Beatles if you don't count Paul, John or George? Vanilla Fudge seem the epitome and perfect answer to me too.
The Raiders didn’t write several of their biggest hits, but during their 1965-67 heyday they did write most of their album tracks… usually all but two or three songs were self-penned. And they did write Him or Me (What’s it Gonna Be) which was one of their four highest-charting hits.
Even with The Archies, Ron Dante had a few credits, and those tracks are definitely as good as the big hits in my opinion. The Ventures' few genuine hits mostly came from outside of the members, but they almost always had some excellent original material on their albums.
Vanilla Fudge did write a lot of their later albums, but the cover arrangements are pretty much what they’re known for,
I’d say that’s a huge overstatement. On their first two albums they only wrote 2 of the 12 songs. On Pisces they only wrote 3 of 13. On the post-Pisces albums they averaged about half the songs per album, with the exception of Changes where they only wrote 1 of 12. Even on Headquarters they only wrote half the actual songs (if we discard Zilch and Band 6). They wrote more songs than many people give them credit for, but they certainly didn’t write more songs than 90% of their peers. Maybe about 30% would be accurate.
Yeah, one of those groups I'm only familiar with the few 'hits' so 'seem' should be in bold letters really. Kind of like Blue Cheer who I know did have many originals too.
this is a tougher question than it looks. there are not too many group that have all covers. there also very few groups who did all originals. rubber soul was the first beatles album that had no covers.
Oh, okay. I was worried that I may have made mistake. I guess the point that I was trying to make is that they did a few covers early on.
While that is true, they also wrote a considerable ammount of material of their own - about a quarter of their PYE catalogue is original material: Don't Hide It Away - PYE originals MONAURAL It's All Been A Dream (Curtis) [B-side 6.63] I Pretend I'm With You (Curtis) [B-side 4.64] No One Else Could Love You (Curtis) [B-side 7.64] I'll Be Missing You (Allen, Curtis, McNally, Pender) [B-side 9.64] This Feeling Inside (McNally) [B-side 11.64] 'Til I Met You (Curtis, Pender, Allen, McNally) [B-side 2.65] Everything You Do (Curtis) [sounds like SEARCHERS 3.65] You Wanna Make Her Happy (Curtis) [sounds like SEARCHERS 3.65] If I Could Find Someone (Curtis) [sounds like SEARCHERS 3.65] He's Got No Love (Curtis, Pender) [A-side 7.65] So Far Away (Curtis, Pender) [B-side 7.65] I'm Never Coming Back (Curtis, Pender) [B-side 10.65] It's Time (McNally) [Take Me For What I'm Worth 11.65] I'm Your Loving Man (Curtis, Pender) [Take Me For What I'm Worth 11.65] Too Many Miles (Allen, Curtis, McNally, Pender) [Take Me For What I'm Worth 11.65] Don't You Know Why (McNally) [Take Me For What I'm Worth 11.65] Don't Hide It Away (McNally, Pender, Allen) [B-side 4.66] It's Just The Way (Love Will Come And Go) (McNally, Pender) [B-side 9.66] Lovers (McNally, Pender) [B-side 1.67] I'll Cry Tomorrow (Pender, McNally) [B-side 4.67] Secondhand Dealer (McNally, Pender) [A-side 11.67] Crazy Dreams (McNally, Pender) [B-side 11.67] Extras (BBC Radio recordings except for Darling Do You Miss Me) Darling Do You Miss Me [aka I’ll Be Missing You - Iron Door early 1963] This Feeling Inside [Saturday Club late 1964] Everything You Do [Top Gear 25.2.65] He's Got No Love [Saturday Club 9.7.65] I'm Never Coming Back [Saturday Club 9.10.65] It's Time [Saturday Club 4.12.65] I'll Be Loving You (McNally, Pender, Allen, Curtis) [Saturday Club 25.3.67] "Don't Hide It Away"
...and there's more original material beyond this: Changing - Post-PYE originals STEREO / MONAURAL* Tony Jackson Group {CBS} Let Me Know (Jackson, Leighton, Raymond) [B-side 2.66]* I'm The One She Really Thinks A Lot Of (Jackson, Raymond, Thompson) [B-side 5.66]* Chris Curtis {PYE} Have I Done Something Wrong (Curtis) [B-side 6.66]* The Searchers {Liberty} Over The Weekend (Allen) [B-side 11.68]* Suzanna (McNally) [B-side 7.69]* {RCA} The World Is Waiting For Tomorrow (Allen, McNally, Pender) [B-side 8.71] And A Button (Allen, Pender, McNally) [B-side 10.71] Sing Singer Sing (McNally, Pender, Allen) [A-side 4.72] Come On Back To Me (McNally, Pender, Allen) [B-side 4.72] Madman (Pender, McNally, Allen) [B-side 10.72] Bite It Deep † [RCA outtake] Indigo Spring † [RCA outtake] I Really Don't Have The Time † [RCA outtake] Think Of My Life † [RCA outtake] {SIRE} This Kind Of Love Affair (McNally, Pender, Allen) [THE SEARCHERS 11.79] Don't Hang On (McNally, Pender, Allen) [THE SEARCHERS 11.79] Changing (McNally, Pender, Allen) [B-side 7.80] Another Night (McNally, Pender, Allen) [PLAY FOR TODAY, 4.81] Little Bit Of Heaven (McNally, Pender, Allen) [PLAY FOR TODAY 4.81] {PRT} Hollywood (McNally, Pender, Allen) [B-side 11.82] Good Way to Fall (Allen) [PRT outtake 19.9.83] † authorship unknown - self-penned? "Sing Singer Sing" [reached #1 in Bangkok, apparently] Note: I've generally referred to the original release labels for writing credits although these won't always be correct - for example, Secondhand Dealer is credited to (Allen, Pender) on re-issues. Also, some dates may be incorrect.
The Lemonheads. I was shocked when I looked at the liner notes in my teens; the albums I had at the time seemed very “singer/songwriter”, and eventually, Evan just… stopped writing? In fact, I don’t think he’s released or shown any original material since 2007, and the last two albums are intentionally albums of cover songs… released a decade apart. I love Evan’s interpretations of songs, but he is a really good songwriter, and I wish he would use more of his own songwriting muscles for the project, as it has been a band in name only for over 20 years, but… why do that if you mostly do cover songs? I suppose if it made sense, it wouldn’t be Evan, right?
Steeleye often played around with the tradition, though, writing new tunes and playing about with the words. They are an excellent example of the tradition in motion,
