It seems like every time the topic of \u201cKing\u201d George Strait comes up in conversation, someone feels the need to pipe up how he\u2019s a fraud of a country star because he never wrote any of his own songs. <\/p>
First off, to make this accusation is to completely misunderstand the legacy of songwriting in country music, and how even some of the genre\u2019s greatest performing songwriters like Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, George Jones, and so many others still relied on the songs of others to fill out their albums and even compose some of their biggest hits. <\/p>
Yes, it\u2019s always a bonus when a performer also writes many of their own songs. Alan Jackson and Toby Keith who wrote nearly all of their own material are the exceptions in the superstar realm. Taylor Swift is another one. Aside from that, most all other artists have relied on outside songwriter. <\/p>
These days in the \u201csongwriting by committee\u201d era, it\u2019s uncommon, if not impossible for a performer to not<\/em> walk away with a songwriting credit under the \u201cthird for a word\u201d rule, meaning if they change one word in a song, they get a third of the songwriting royalties (if there\u2019s two other writers). This is nearly required for a song to be cut by a performer. <\/p> But there is an art form to selecting great songs, knowing what a great song is, and then singing the hell out of it like it\u2019s your own once you\u2019re in the studio. George Strait might have been the greatest to ever do this in country history, and made lots of money for songwriters like Dean Dillon and Jim Lauderdale over the years through it. <\/p> But George Strait actually did write songs himself throughout his career. Sure, they were rare, and nobody would mark George Strait as a preeminent songwriter in country music. But George Strait-written songs weren\u2019t non-existent. At the start of his career, he actually wrote more. And now in the twilight of his career, he\u2019s been writing more as well. He just found Dean Dillon and others early on, and decided he couldn\u2019t match their level of songwriting. That\u2019s how George Strait minted more #1s than anyone else in country history. <\/p> George Strait\u2019s second album Strait From The Heart<\/a><\/strong><\/em> actually included a song he wrote by himself, the Western swing-inspired tune \u201cI Can\u2019t See Texas From Here.\u201d Another solo write was released in 1995 via Strait\u2019s box set Strait Out of the Box<\/em>.