Songcraft: Spotlight on Songwriters
PART ONE:
It's mailbag time! What are you saying about us?
PART TWO:
Scott and Paul's in-depth interview with Nashville Songwriters Hall of Famer Bob Morrison
ABOUT BOB MORRISON:
After an artist career recording for the Columbia, Barnaby, Capitol, and Monument labels, Bob Morrison hit the #1 spot on the country charts as a songwriter with Kenny Rogers’ recording of “You Decorated My Life.” Also a Top 10 Billboard pop hit, the composition earned Morrison a Grammy for Best Country Song. Additionally, he co-wrote “Lookin’ for Love,” a #1 country single and a #5 pop hit popularized by Johnny Lee from the soundtrack of the film Urban Cowboy.
Other chart-topping selections from Morrison’s catalog include Debby Boone’s “Are You on the Road to Loving Me Again,” Conway Twitty’s “Don’t Call Him a Cowboy,” and Highway 101’s “Whiskey, If You Were a Woman.” Further highlights from his songbook include Olivia Newton-John’s cut of “The River’s Too Wide,” Reba McEntire’s Top 10 single “(You Lift Me) Up to Heaven,” Kenny Rogers’ Top 5 “Love the World Away,” Conway Twitty & Loretta Lynn’s “I Still Believe in Waltzes,” Gary Morris’s “The Love She Found in Me,” George Jones’s “Shine On,” and the Dixie Chicks’ “Tonight the Heartache’s on Me.”
Just a few of the many other artists who’ve recorded Bob’s songs are Ray Charles, Roy Orbison, Glen Campbell, Jerry Lee Lewis, Sammy Davis Jr., Ray Price, John Anderson, Barbara Mandrell, Dottie West, Mel Tillis, The Kendalls, and The Carpenters. He was named ASCAP Country Songwriter of the Year in 1978, 1980, 1981, and 1982, as well as NSAI Songwriter of the Year in 1981. In 2016 Bob was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.