Who is Listed First - Chicken or Egg?

[jabney]

Chester Chicken and Ron E. Egg have written a song together. They are both registered as the writers of the words and music in equal shares. How do they determine the name listed first in the credits? Coin toss? Alphabetical order (sweet deal for Chicken)? Market Research with a focus group?

 

Suppose Chicken thought of the idea of the song but is primarily a lyricist? In a traditional partnership composer Egg would be listed first. Both Chicken and Egg may want to work together in the future so they would like to establish a brand (in other words no alternating of names from song to song). What should they do?

[Lee Flier]

It doesn't matter in the slightest. Neither partner should get on any kind of ego trip about whose name goes first. Really it should be whichever rolls better off the tongue... Chicken and Egg sounds better than Egg and Chicken, so it should be Chicken and Egg, and it's no slight on Egg nor any glorification of Chicken if it's listed that way.

[robmix]

I always do alphabetical, makes it easy. Especially if you work with many different writers. The consistency can alleviate any ego trips or even the fear of an ego trip. Though I would deviate if I was writing with someone hugely famous.

[D. Gauss]

well if music history is any indicator, you need grease a palm or two along the way, so it should be "chicken and egg, and AND freed."

 

-d. gauss

[BillWelcome Home Studios]

who cares? ego gone wild? The ONLY people to whom that could possibly matter would be the idiots squabbling about it and their mothers or wives.

 

In terms of who contributed what, if it is important, you can always use "Lyrics by A, Music by A&B". But in most cases today, collaborators ususally work together and both contribute to the whole thing. Saying that one ot the other contributed "mostly..." to the music, or lyrics, by -definition- also recognises that they contibuted to both parts of the piece. If you take the triple sec out of a margertia, it ain't a margerita.

 

I'd be much more worried about the money than the order in which my name appeared on the product.

 

But there are always workable compromises. One example might be "writen by John Lennon and Paul McCartney" on "Maclenn Music"

 

Bill

[shikawkee]

Who started the song ? Who had the original idea ? If they started it together it doersn't matter. Otherwise whoever started it usually gets listed first. Suposedly Bruce Springsteen was miffed when Patty Smith got her name listed first for 'Because the Night" since the song was almost done when she first heard it.

YMMV.

[noneverstuck]

"Paul McCartney's Liverpool Oratorio"

 

Paul wrote the oratorio with Carl Davis, who is credited second (and doesn't get his name in the title of the piece). It is thematically Paul's work, but he felt he would be percieved as not contributing much more than his name to the work of Davis, a trained orchestral composer, if he didn't assert his contribution more blatantly. His insecurity comes from his best songs bearing John Lennon's name above his own (the whole "Yesterday" imbroglio).

 

So, my point is that all my collaborations include my name in the title.

 

Deef

[whitefang]

Leiber and Stoller, Lennon/McCartney, Chicken and Egg. Mostly I see these things listed alphabetically. It's the MUSIC getting top billing, actually. So why bicker? As for McCartney's "Oratorio", John McLaughlin's "Apocalypse" lists John as the composer of all songs, even though Michael Gibbs did the orchestration. Gibbs never bitched, probably assuming it's the nature of the beast. Anyway, if McLaughlin didn't come up with the "foundation", Gibbs would have had nothing to orchestrate.

 

Whitefang