Original Song Quotes

#1. I think it was when I was 12 when I entered a singing competition. I sang my own original song for an audience of 1,000 people.

Birdy

#2. [Best original song nomination in 2016] should be Wiz Khalifa for "See You Again," but this is an amazing song and it's easily the biggest song out of any of the songs nominated. It was a huge hit. And really, I'm just happy for Weeknd as a person.

Bun B.

#3. I do original songs in the style of other artists, where I try to learn all their musical idiosyncrasies and try to do something that sounds like them and yet is a bit more sick and twisted.

Al Yankovic

#4. I've only covered a few songs because I feel that if you're not going to go beyond the original artist in some way, then don't disrespect what they created.

Dawn Angelique

#5. Everybody wants to write a hit song, but in Nashville people want to write the best song, which was my original intention as a singer/songwriter.

Melissa Manchester

#6. My favorite song as a boy was definitely 'Downtown' recorded by Petula Clark. I still love it! And the original cast recording of 'Gypsy'; I played my mother's cast recordings until there was no vinyl left.

Bryan Batt

#7. Looking at the original lyrics [of "A Song For You" ] as I was preparing it, I thought, "Wow! I feel like it was written for me." That's what a great song does. You don't have to do a lot of homework. You can just say the words and it springs to life.

Cheyenne Jackson

#8. In classical music, love is based on bitin'
imitation. It's not based on interpretation. A jazz musician, if he plays someone else's song, has a responsibility to make a distinct and original statement.

Todd Boyd

#9. Our songs travel the earth. We sing to one another. Not a single note is ever lost and no song is original. They all come from the same place and go back to a time when only the stones howled.

Louise Erdrich

#10. In terms of covers, it's always nice to do ones that aren't actually getting played by the original artist anymore. I just love the song; I love that band, and it's nice to be able to play it.

Scott Hutchison

#11. I tend to work on a song, generate ideas, and re-arrange it like five times, and I'm glad I take the time to do that, because I think my original songs come out better.

Britta Phillips

#12. Women do not like CDs of live music. We only like the original recordings. If a song sounds different from the version we fell in love with, then it's awful.

Leslie Mann

#13. I am outraged that the Gorillaz have infringed the copyright of my song 'Time Warp,' claiming their song 'Stylo' to be an original composition.

Eddy Grant

#14. Give up on trying to be original. Every song has been sung, every picture has been painted, and every story has been told. The best one can do is sing, draw, or tell it again well.

Evan Mandery

#15. Whether you're a history buff or a fantasy fan, Druon's epic will keep you turning pages. This was the original game of thrones. If you like 'A Song of Ice and Fire', you will love 'The Accursed Kings'.

George R R Martin

#16. I've had the pleasure of working closely with Marc Von Em as a singer, but when I heard his original stuff, I asked him to open up a 10,000 seat gig. Just him, his guitar, and his songs. He killed it!

Rob Thomas

#17. With any cover, I like to choose songs that affected me strongly already. So it's tough sometimes to take a song that you love so much and put your own spin on it because you get such a strong feeling from the original.

Mayer Hawthorne

#18. By all means write new songs. Each generation must do that. But to neglect the church's original hymnbook is, to put it bluntly, crazy

N. T. Wright

#19. My goal is to put out an album with every song being an original composition of mine. I want the credits to read, 'All songs written by Gregory L. Allman' - that is something I really want to make happen.

Gregg Allman

#20. I wanted to be different and original but still have it be something my fans could get into. There also are some big, beautiful ballads. I told my producers that I wanted tracks that are going to blow up in the clubs, but I also wanted songs that were very melodic and with a lot of instrumentation.

Aaliyah

#21. I'm not an original composer. The tunes are not stolen from other tunes necessarily except in a few cases, but they're in the style of songs that I grew up with.

Tom Lehrer

#22. I never stopped writing music, I just stopped writing songs. I've been writing music continually ever since the last album of original tunes, "River Of Dreams" in '93.

Billy Joel

#23. I'm trying to separate myself from other people by having songs that would be considered - technically - original things. I don't seek out mashups. I'm associated with the whole mashup movement, and it's too bad because I'm not a huge fan of them.

Girl Talk

#24. While listening, to things like western swing, for instance, I'd work something out in my head, then play it on my National; not the same song, but one that captured the feeling of the original tune.

Mark Knopfler

#25. I like being in a recording studio. I like watching a song go from the simplicity of the original music.

Grace Slick

#26. Song-Mi Lee, ... her life wholly dedicated to protecting the great man against the importunities of the academic world and soothing his despair at no longer being able to achieve an erection or an original thought.

David Lodge

#27. There were so many different versions of him. It was countless versions of a song, and they were all original, and they were all true, and they were all right. It should have been impossible. Was I supposed to love them all?

Maggie Stiefvater

#28. Whenever I hear somebody cover a song, I don't like to hear it stray too far from the original. I like to hear some of the new energy that a band will put into it, but you kind of want to hear some of the basic parts of the song. I mean, that's what makes it the song that you like.

Joe Perry

#29. My idea of covers is that you should never cover a song and do it exactly like the artist because everyone's always going to compare it to the way the original artists did it, and they're just going to go, 'Oh I like the original better.'

Glenn Danzig

#30. The album is a definite departure. I haven't written original material before, except for one song on my first album, but Elvis and I did six songs together on this one.

Diana Krall

#31. Any musician with a slight level of self-awareness can be taught to write a 'good' song. A great song is completely original. It feels as if the performer is the only person who could bring it to life.

Greta Salpeter

#32. It's very important to have a good song - one where you can strip away all the production and just play it on guitar or at the piano. It has to hold its own. That's why I've put videos online with acoustic versions of my songs, so you can hear them in their original form.

Lights

#33. Once I grew up and realised 'What am I doing?' I started re-listening to the music I was playing and I realised there was so much finesse - it was dynamic and simple but I wanted to be authentic to the original songs.

Eric Hernandez

#34. I think it's kind of difficult to write a good Christmas song because you have a narrow framework of references that you have to work within, and at the same time you want to do something that's personally original and hopefully somewhat unique.

John Oates

#35. Most people in the U.K. discovered me playing a standard on Parkinson. In America, it was on VH1 singing an original called 'All At Sea,' which is a contemporary pop song. So the people that know me there tend to think of me in the singer/songwriter category.

Jamie Cullum