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STRATEGY FOR THE DAY: check in. check out.

An entry in my guest book - a question, actually - sparked some thoughts about a career in songwriting that I thought were worth posting. Herewith...

Katie: What songs have become major hits in your life?? I mean, have any of them been used for songs for like Britney Spears (ex.)?

I wish I could say I've had big radio hits you've heard of but I'm just a hard-working songwriter who has been earning my living at it for about 25 years. I have written a couple hundred songs for the Disney Channel. If you watched the Disney Channel from the mid-1980's through 1998 or so, then you heard my songs - I wrote TV theme songs and songs for series, songs for promotional spots and anything else they asked for. My songs have been sung by Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, Bugs Bunny, the Flintstones, the Little Mermaid, and Ronald McDonald. Oh yeah, McDonald's sold 12 million cassettes with my songs on them. Does that count as a hit? It wasn't Britney but I thought the Hamburgler did a pretty good job. I had found a niche market and became the pre-eminent songwriter for things with fur. I wrote in every style you can imagine and some you can't. I know many songwriters with big hits whose careers have not lasted as long as mine so, even though I've never had anything in Billboard's mainstream top ten, I feel like I've had a pretty successful go of it. Nick Drake, Graham Coxon, Placebo, John Martyn, and Allison Faith Levy have covered my songs - you may not have heard of some of them but they are fine artists every one. I've had an unusual and rewarding career, one I could never have imagined and certainly not one that anyone could set out to have. ('When I grow up I'm going to move to L.A. and write songs for Dumbo!' Not.) If you are a songwriter looking for a career, don't limit yourself in any way. Write every day if possible, take every opportunity to get your songs heard whether that means playing in small clubs, writing for a local theater, or creating free PSA's for local radio (Public Service Announcements). You never know who will hear your work and offer you an opportunity. There are many careers in songwriting, not just the obvious one of writing big hits, and you never know which one will give you years of joy, frustration, creativity, challenges, money, friends, and fulfillment! That answer your question? ;-)

Katie: Why did you choose Disney Channel? Did you have a vision to have your songs to be played on it? ( I am very nosy, I hope you don't mind. )

No one really plans for a career like mine and i wonder if you can really plan for any career. As I have said on many industry panels on this subject... You never go from A to B in a straight line. Along the way, you will probably go to R and L and Z and G and more. This may seem frustrating at first, but the truth is that by the time you finally get to B (and you will get there if you are determined), you will have experience and knowledge that will help you to do what you set out to do in a way that is unique; no one will be able to do B just the way you do. It is the thing that makes you valuable. (By the way, R, L, Z, G, and all the rest of those places on the path to B, are called Life.)

I set out to write hit songs for myself as an artist and for much more successful mainstream artists like Cher and Barbra Streisand. My songs were pitched to both but did not get picked up. To be honest, I can't say that I liked those songs very much, nor did I enjoy writing them. At the same time, I had become involved with South Coast Repertory Theater in Orange County, CA. (The real O.C.) They needed an original educational children's musical suitable for touring, so I wrote one... and then another the following year and the year after that. I had a blast!!! I wrote funny, creative, imaginative songs that I enjoy singing even now. (And grown ups who saw those shows as kids can still sing them, too!) But I didn't take those songs seriously at the time; after all, it was just for kids and it was so much fun it couldn't be real work, could it? After six musicals and a stint as a freelance writer for Mattel Toys, I got a call from the Disney Channel asking me to write a few songs for a new series. This job evolved into a long and productive relationship. I didn't set out to write for Mickey and Minnie Mouse or Winnie the Pooh and Dumbo but, when you think about it, writing for them is not all that much different from writing for any artist (including Cher and Barbra). The very talented producer, Don Was (Bonnie Raitt, The Rolling Stones, Was Not Was), once agreed with me that producing Mick Jagger (which he has done) and producing Bugs Bunny (which I have done) amounted to pretty much the same thing since both of them are essentially characters. The Mick Jagger you see on stage is a persona, a character that Mick Jagger the writer/singer has created. Ultimately, I realized that writing for Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse gave me enormous pleasure and satisfaction. It's where my heart truly was which was probably the reason I ended up being successful at it. Do what you love to do because that is what you will do best. And that is where your path will lead you if you let it. The rest, as they say, will follow.

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Read A Brief History Of Love Songs by Robin Frederick at the Sound Experience Music web site.

Copyright 2004 Robin Frederick. All rights reserved.