I think he mentioned in an interview that he got a million dollars for it. Not that much really in the music biz.
Guitarist G.E. Smith has done alright for himself, not many people may know him. G. E. Smith - Wikipedia Apparently he's worth 10 million bucks.
Jim Lea of Slade is probably considerably less well-known than frontman Noddy Holder, but they co-wrote most of the songs including "Merry Christmas Everybody", probably the most-played Xmas song in the U.K.
I guess it depends on who you have heard of or not. I believe Yanni was terribly successful before the Acropolis thing.... I still haven't heard any of his music... now people have heard of him, so obviously not in this context, but, you know what I mean
James Last - few people outside of Germany may have heard of him. Worth 100 million $ at the time of his death: James Last Net Worth | Celebrity Net Worth .
Not quite true , he was very popular in the UK,too , he played 90 times (!) in the Royal Albert Hall in London , in the 70's he alsoplayed in Australia and countries in Southern Asia
Interesting question. Maybe someone more known for being a songwriter than an artist. I could say Carole King but her tapestry album sold a whole lot so probably not her.
Apologies if this is mentioned earlier in the thread (I didn’t read it all), but what about Jim Steinman? - He wrote all of Bat Out of Hell And BOOH 2, and they sold an absolute shed load - It seems unlikely that anyone would ever have recognized him in the street, even at the height of Meat Loaf’s fame - He did actually release his own albums, so qualifies as an artist and not just a songwriter The main weakness of my submission is that he apparently ‘only’ has a net worth of $10. I thought he might have been worth more than that.
He passed away in 2013, but JJ Cale defined this category. Regular performer who toured and recorded for decades, but was most successful as a songwriter. Even his guitar playing style was understated.
Sia. Mostly she makes money 'fixing' terrible albums recorded by pop stars. If her name's anywhere on an album you know it's had a major overhaul.
For low profiles in the US: Baccara - they sold 18 million copies of a single I never heard of until I looked it up. Had another popular single, not sure about their total numbers.
Not sure if your comment is intended as a joke but Sade is a female vocalist and the band take her name. Quite big in the U.K. in the 80’s who performed at Wembley for Live Aid.
Songwriting credits are to Holder/Lea though, so I guess they both made most money out of it. I could be wrong.
Jimmy Webb is one of America’s most successful (and, presumably, richest) songwriters yet hardly anyone, even in America, has ever heard of him. They’ve heard his songs, but they have no knowledge of the author, or curiosity about him. They probably think Glen Campbell wrote Wichita Lineman!
I saw him at the Cambridge Corn Exchange in 1998. Booking that venue was somewhat over-optimistic, shall we say. I think there were two rows of punters and lots of vast empty space behind.
