Son writers & Publishers ARTISTS & MUSIC NO_ 7 SONG CRE'DO VT SO T I T L E WR I T E R P U B L I S H E R Budding Singer Blossoms As Writer THE HOT 100 IF YOU HAD MY LOVE Rodney Jerkins, LaShawn Daniels, Cory Rooney, Fred Jerkins III EMI Blackwood /BMI, Rodney Jerkins/BMI, EMI April /ASCAP, LaShawn Daniels /ASCAP, Cori Tiffani /BMI, Tamara Savage's EMI Deal Brings Chart - Topping Success Sony/ATV Songs /BMI, Fred Jerkins III /BMI, Ensign /8Ml HOT COUNTRY SINGLES & TRACKS BY DYLAN SIEGLER writes out loud by singing, and later ferent person. It's night and day - WRITE THIS DOWN Dana Hunt, Kent M. Robbins Neon Sky /ASCAP, Irving /BMI, Colter Bay /BMI NEW YORK- Tamara Savage was she sings her own demos. music is what makes her tick. She's HOT R &B SINGLES shopping her demo as a singer a year "I like to write things people can the most talented lyric and melody FORTUNATE R. Kelly Zomba /BMI, R. Kelly /BMI and a half ago when her career took learn from, or to help guys understand writer I've ever come across. She HOT RAP SINGLES an unexpected turn. where girls are coming from," says writes songs young NO PIGEONS K. Howell, S. Ford, M. Bryan, Kevin Briggs, Kandi Burgess, Tamika Cottle the that America Sporty/ASCAP Steal Burg /ASCAP, Commando Brabdo /ASCAP, Safe Cracker /ASCAP, Shek 'em Savage's youthful, savvy R &B Savage, who points to her song "I really feels, from the heart, with so Down /BMI, Hitco /BMI, Tam /ASCAP, Air Control /ASCAP songwriting caught the attention of Wanna Hear You much grit and power they're undeni- HOT LATIN TRACKS EMI Music Publishing senior VP of Say" on Shanice's able. As she gets older, she's only NO ME AMES Giancarlo Bigazzi, Aleandro Civai Baldi, Marco Falaglanl BMG Songs /ASCAP, creative "Big" Jon Platt, and in what self-titled album as going to get better, because she's Warner -Tamerlane/BM I Savage describes as an instant, she an example. `A lot of going to experience what she's writ- was collaborating with the genre's people want to write ing about." best producers, writing lyrics and about falling in love, Platt says he recommended that melodies for her singing idols and but not everybody Savage make a name as a writer Publisher Donates A Cool Million gaining status as one to watch in the can relate to that. before breaking into the artist realm songwriting game. SAVAGE Love is always going "so that regardless of what happens To Songwriters' Hall Of Fame "I thought I was going to be a sing- to be there, but you to her as an artist, she'll always be er, or maybe both a singer and a song- have to write around it." able to write for people." A MILLION -DOLLAR BABY: that Goddard Lieberson, the late writer, but everyone was interested in That the young writer hasn't expe- Savage describes Platt as her men- The Songwriters' Hall of Fame is $1 head of Columbia Records and leg- my writing," says 21-year -old Savage, rienced many of the situations she tor. "He really believed in me from the million richer, thanks to a gift by endary Broadway cast -album pro- who in the last 10 months has logged depicts in her songs doesn't faze her. first day we met. When he signed me, music publisher Howie Richmond, ducer, settled the matter when he writing credits on chart -toppers like "Being who I am, being myself, that's he said, `You do what you do, and I'm founder of indie publishing giant the told Sondheim that the label Monica's "The First Night," Whitney where all the respect comes from," going to work hard for you.' I made Richmond Organization 50 years wouldn't be able to send the album Houston's "Heartbreak Hotel," and says Savage, who says she "looks up that promise, so he has my back, and ago and a co- founder of the Hall in across state lines if the "f" word was BLACKstreet & Mya's "Take Me to the creative genius" of artists like I've got to have his." 1969. used on the album. There," from the "Rugrats" sound- Mary J. Blige and Jodeci and uses her "It's a team effort," says Platt. "I'm Richmond's donation was made Oh, those innocent days of yes- track. own creativity to make a song work. like a coach, and I've got great play- known June 9 at the Songwriters' teryear! Savage started writing songs in her She hopes to work with Blige or ers. I can hook her up with Jermaine Hall of Fame's 30th annual awards teens, playing her favorite albums by another of her idols, R. Kelly, in the Dupri or Soulshock and Karlin. I tell dinner in New York. Hall president SETTING SIGHTS ON MIDI: In R. Kelly or Aaliyah and writing her future. her, `I can get you to the plate; you've Bobby Weinstein said that funds what is regarded as a first, music own lyrics to go along with the back- While some writers require soli- just got to swing the bat " from the donation would be used to print giant Hal Leonard Corp. has ing tracks. tude or silence to create, Savage says In the next year, Savage says, "I help organize a Hall Web site that teamed with Yamaha Corporation Savage and her three younger sib- she thrives on crowds for positive rein- want to lace the radio stations up with would offer detailed information on of America to create a new Web site lings attended a private Christian forcement. She describes the atmos- a lot of Tamara Savage songs. I want the more than 300 songwriters who that allows dealers and consumers school in Texas run by their mother. phere at Jermaine Dupri's home stu- you to hear something that's banging have been elected to the Hall since to purchase and/or download MIDI "She always had us do creative writ- dio as an ideal creative environment. every time you turn on the radio. A lot its formation in 1969. software for Yamaha Disklavier ing," which Savage says spurred her "It's a gang of guys there, all around, of people don't know that the same As previously reported, the new pianos, Clavinova digital pianos, imagination. For inspiration today, and everybody's playing the PlaySta- person was writing all those songs songwriter members of the Hall are Portatone portable keyboards, and Savage often imagines romantic situ- tion. Jermaine will turn the studio they heard last year -they don't know Peggy Lee, other devices. ations she'd like to avoid and then speakers all up until it's bangin,' and who I am or what I look like." Bobby Darin, Visitors to writes lyrics in the present tense. if someone says `Oh, that's hot,' then I But Savage is confident that will Bruce Spring - the site, Yama- Whitney Houston's No. 2 hit on The know we're onto something." change. "I hear that some of my steen, and Sir Words & Music haMusicSoft. Billboard Hot 100, "Heartbreak Ho- Says EMI's Platt, "When I put mu- favorite artists have been talking Tim Rice. Oth- corn, may pur- tel," was a song devised that way. She sic on, Tamara turns into a whole dif- about me," she says. er songwriter kiNT - Einilmmli0 chase pre- awards were packaged given to Ste- software on- phen Sond- by Iry Lichtman line -the same heim (Johnny products that Mercer Award) and Bart Howard are available through Yamaha `THEY'RE PLAY IN MY (Towering Song Award for his "Fly retailers. In addition, select titles W R T T E N Y O E B R E soNG: O A H V A N Me To The Moon "). will be available for purchase and "WHEN GOD RAN" is one of the most enduring hits in We canceled four to five months of Special awards also went to Bill download directly to a dealer or a Written by Benny Hester and contemporary Christian music. On touring. It stopped everything. Lowery (Abe Olman Publisher consumer's own computer. The John William Tarenti a personal level, it also proved to be "I had heard Benny Hester's Award), Natalie Cole (Hitmaker price of buying conventional soft- Published by Word Music cathartic for Roberts and his song when I was 12 years old. Award), Kenny Rogers (Sammy ware and downloading it are the (ASCAP) bandmates (brother One day I was in my apart- Cahn Lifetime Achievement same. For instance, a collection of Award), and Robert Mondavi songs from "The Phantom Jonathon on vocals and ment in Nashville and Of The picked up a guitar I had- (Patron of the Arts Award). Opera" would sell for $34.95 in Great songs are often more than keyboards, bassist Dave n't played for Sondheim, by the way, resolved either version. entertainment; they provide moti- three Villano, and drummer months. I picked it up and something of a 40-plus -year mys- There are more than 400 song vation and inspiration as well. Ben Miller) and provided didn't have anything in me tery with regard to his and the late titles available on the Web site. Hal "When God Ran" is one of those the motivation for them to to write a song myself. I was Leonard Bernstein's show-stop- Leonard Corp.