![\"Raye](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/P1071CEV-e1781131945206.jpg\")
<\/p>\nWalter Afanasieff, Graham Lyle & Terry Britten and Christopher “Tricky” Stewart also tell the tales behind their Hot 100 smashes. <\/p>\n
\t6\/11\/2026\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tRaye at the Billboard Indie Power Players 2026 held at The Cutting Room NYC on June 09, 2026 in New York, New York.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAnna Downs\/Billboard<\/p>\n
\n\tBeyonc\u00e9<\/a>\u2019s four-week Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 \u201cSingle Ladies (Put A Ring On It)\u201d may have literally missed a beat if not for some singular studio magic. KISS<\/a>\u2019 iconic anthem \u201cRock and Roll All Nite\u201d came to life in a hotel room after a motivating mandate from the band\u2019s label. \u201cWhat\u2019s Love Got To Do With It,\u201d the song that revitalized Tina Turner\u2019s career, originated from its writers\u2019 love of Bob Marley.<\/p>\n \n\tJohn Fogerty\u2019<\/a>s mother introduced him to songwriting when he was just three years old, through the 19th century song \u201cCamptown Races.\u201d As the Songwriters Hall of Fame (SHOF) bestows on him the Johnny Mercer Award, its highest honor, he reflects on \u201cProud Mary,\u201d the song that set the bar for all Creedence Clearwater Revival and solo hits to come. Billboard cover star<\/a> RAYE<\/a>, recipient of this year\u2019s Hal David Starlight Award, which goes to a gifted young songwriter making a significant impact, attributes the juxtaposition of sincere and sassy vibes on her hit \u201cWhere Is My Husband!\u201d to her innate \u201cBritish-ness.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe Songwriters Hall of Fame will honor the class of 2026 on Thursday (June 11) at a gala celebration in New York City where Taylor Swift, Alanis Morissette, Kenny Loggins, and Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley of KISS will be honored alongside non-performing songwriters Walter Afanasieff, Terry Britten & Graham Lyle and Christopher \u201cTricky\u201d Stewart.<\/p>\n \n\tThe SHOF was established in 1969 by Johnny Mercer, Abe Olman and Howie Richmond. Linda Moran was elected president of the organization in 2001 and has served as president and CEO since 2011. Nile Rodgers, a SHOF honoree in 2016, serves as chairman of the board.<\/p>\n \n\tRead on for the stories behind some of the greatest hits of all time straight from the writers\u2019 mouths.<\/p>\n \tWalter Afanasieff, \u201cHero\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tCo-written and recorded by Mariah Carey \n\tGrammy-nominated \u201cHero\u201d wasn\u2019t a typical Afanasieff-Carey collaboration. As Afanasieff shares, then-Sony Music Entertainment CEO Tommy Mottola asked him to write a song for the film Hero, which Gloria Estefan was set to sing. Carey dropped by the studio when he was starting to work on it. \u201cI said, \u2018Let\u2019s you and I write this song together.\u2019 We got very deep into it and then Tommy came to the studio and said, \u2018Let me hear what you got.\u2019 We played what we had and he said, \u2018This song is incredible. Mariah, you should record the song, and not for the movie. I\u2019m telling you, it\u2019s going to be a No.1 song for you.\u2019 He just really felt strongly about the song being for her. And she fought him on it. She\u2019s like, \u2018It\u2019s not my style of a song; I don\u2019t want to do this schmaltzy ballad,\u2019 she called it. The funny part is she wanted to put the Mariah [big runs and energy] into it instead of just the simpler version of \u2018Hero\u2019 we ended up with. Tommy was at the helm going, \u2018This is perfect. I\u2019m telling you.\u2019 And sure enough, over the years it became a humongous song for her. It\u2019s now one of her signature pieces worldwide. We\u2019re all very lucky that she kept it for herself,\u201d he says. \u201cI think it helped Mariah not to be self-conscious about the fact that she\u2019s singing these big power ballads,\u201d Afanasieff opines. \u201cBecause then we went on to do a lot more ballads. And she was never really afraid to let that be a huge successful part of her repertoire and songwriting. This song gave her some very, very well-deserved security in that.\u201d As for Estefan and the Hero movie? \u201cOh, well, when you have Tommy Mottola as the CEO at the company, he just waves his magic wand and says, \u2018No, this is not something we\u2019re doing.\u2019 And that was it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \tTerry Britten and Graham Lyle, \u201cWhat\u2019s Love Got to Do With It\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tRecorded by Tina Turner \n\tThe song that reinvigorated Tina Turner\u2019s career originated when Stuart Hornell, who ran Ronder Music in London in the \u201880s, had the idea to connect songwriters Lyle and Britten. \u201cTerry lived on the other side of London, and I got in the car and halfway down the road I had this idea in my head, just that line\u2014\u2019What\u2019s love got to do with it.\u2019 I scribbled it down on a little piece of paper and stuck it in my pocket,\u201d says Lyle. The writing session, he says, was \u201cawkward. We sat down with two acoustic guitars and tried to get something going, and it wasn\u2019t happening. In fact, I was ready to go home. We put the guitars down and started chatting and we realized we both loved Bob Marley and his music. And as a result, we plugged in two electric guitars and started playing a reggae groove. And then Terry had a melody idea. And I remembered the little note I had in my pocket. I pulled it out and said, \u2018Do you think this might fit on the chorus?\u2019 It was quite remarkable. When I got back home, the lyric came out of nowhere. It was written in half an hour. We both knew there was something special about it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \n\tSo did the publishers. \u201cThey came back within a week and said there\u2019s about five bands that want to record your song, and Tina Turner was one of the names. As it was a first recording we as the writers had the option of naming who we would like to record the song. We said, \u2018It\u2019s got to be Tina.\u2019 And there wasn\u2019t a lot of enthusiasm for that idea because Tina at that time didn\u2019t even have a recording deal, she was sort of out of focus. But we stuck to our guns, thank goodness. It was so different for Tina. Terry had to quiet her down, get her into the groove, that Marley feeling. I think she found it a bit difficult to get in terms with. And I know that she wasn\u2019t keen on the song when she first heard it, but Roger Davies, her manager, was very keen. He was the one. He was the glue between Terry and I and Tina.\u201d<\/p>\n \tJohn Fogerty (Johnny Mercer Award), \u201cProud Mary\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tRecorded by Creedence Clearwater Revival \n\tFogerty\u2019s mother introduced him to songwriting, through Stephen Foster\u2019s \u201cCamptown Races,\u201d when he was just three. As the SHOF bestows its highest honor on him \u2014 and he prepares to release Centerfield (Hall of Fame Edition), a newly remastered version of his iconic 1985 solo record, on Aug. 28 via Concord \u2014 he reflects on the song that gave him his confidence and set the bar for all to come. \u201cI had just gotten off active duty from the military in the summer of \u201867 and was back on my home turf. And I thought to myself, \u2018You\u2019ve been kind of bumbling around with this songwriting thing\u2014you need to get more organized.\u2019 So I went down to the local drugstore and bought a little notebook to put my ideas in. A few days went by and the phrase \u2018proud Mary\u2019 comes to me; I don\u2019t know what it is, but it\u2019s the very first thing I write down in my little notebook,\u201d Fogerty recalls. \u201cFast forward to the summer of 1968, and I get my honorable discharge from the Army. I\u2019m overjoyed about this because I\u2019d been hoping to figure out a way to be released honorably because it was certainly in competition with my budding musical career. I pick up my guitar and start strumming some chords and the first thing I said to myself was, \u2018Left a good job in the city, working for the man every night and day\u2026\u2019 Obviously I was referring to just being let free from the Army but then I also start saying \u2018rolling on the river,\u2019 and I liked the way it sounded. I go to my notebook, I had several pages full by then, but I see \u2018proud Mary\u2019 and I go, \u2018Oh my goodness. Proud Mary is the name of a riverboat.\u2019 It just resonated. And in an hour\u2019s time, the song was 90 percent, 95 percent done,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I had an epiphany; there were no doubts. I think the most important thing I can say is, if you are an artist or any endeavor that you\u2019re trying\u2026 you\u2019re growing and learning, but even though you love it you never really know if you\u2019re any good. You don\u2019t know how you\u2019re going to stack up in the world. When I wrote \u2018Proud Mary,\u2019 that was affirmation. I had already recorded one album, and that album had only been out for a couple of months. But suddenly with \u2018Proud Mary\u2019 I realized I really had it in me. It gives you conviction to fight for things and make yourself better. You\u2019re upping your game because you have the conviction of finally having something you can see is really up in the clouds, which is where you\u2019re aiming, of course.\u201d<\/p>\n \tKenny Loggins, \u201cFootloose\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tCo-written with Dean Pitchford \n\tUnbeknownst to Dean Pitchford, who penned the film Footloose, Loggins was already all in to cowrite and perform the Oscar- and Golden Globe-nominated song when Pitchford showed up at his hotel room on tour to convince him. \u201cHe\u2019d given me the screenplay and I didn\u2019t know he thought that was a make-or-break meeting. I thought we were in. I had an up-tempo melody that was sort of based on the intro to \u2018Devil With A Blue Dress On,\u2019 and that\u2019s where I went with it. I felt really good about what we had right from the beginning. It was based specifically on the scene we wrote the song for\u2014the barroom scene where they leave town and they go dancing in the next town over. So I knew that we had to have something danceable. When we gave them a demo, I think they changed the tempo a little bit\u2026 but one of the advantages we had was they actually danced to the song itself and that [sense of freedom] is conveyed emotionally in the film,\u201d Loggins says. \u201cThe most shocking moment to me was when the movie started with the drum intro and all of a sudden they\u2019re playing \u2018Footloose\u2019 with those dancing feet. I had no idea it was going to be in the opening of the movie so that felt like a slam dunk. And the same thing happened to me when I went to see Top Gun and they put \u2018Danger Zone\u2019 in the opening scene. The moment where you know you\u2019ve just dropped a three-point shot in from the line. You think about these films and how much the music was woven into the story, which in the best of cases, that is what film music does. I had never met Tom Cruise during the first Top Gun and years later when he decided to make Maverick, I was on, I think it was Fallon with him, and asked him, \u2018So I hear you\u2019re making the new Top Gun, do you think \u201cDanger Zone\u201d is going to be a part of it?\u2019 He said, \u2018It wouldn\u2019t be Top Gun without \u201cDanger Zone\u201d.\u2019 That was my seal of approval.\u201d<\/p>\n \tRAYE (Hal David Starlight Award), \u201cWhere Is My Husband!\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tCo-written with Mike Sabath \n\tThe bones and chorus for RAYE\u2019s retro-pop hit that packs a humorous, heartfelt plea for a partner came together on a writing trip with Sabath, her frequent collaborator, writer and producer. \u201cMost times when we write, we throw paint and things come together quickly to form the skeleton. Mike and I usually both flow with ideas and melodies, and we bounce off each other beautifully to find the meat and the flesh of the songs. However, I like to take my time and thoroughly comb through using trial and error. I want the lyrics to be able to be read aloud with no melody and still move me, and be able to stand on their own,\u201d says RAYE, who accepted Billboard\u2019s Indie Spirit Award<\/a> just days ahead of the SHOF. \u201cThe moment that perhaps was the most important was a separate day a few months later when I had decided to dedicate an entire seven-hour recording session to the bridge. I put myself in a little bubble with my engineer, Alex. We played with the stems, a cappella drums and recorded line by line, only writing the next line once I had recorded and fully stacked the line before. It was such a fun method to create the \u2018I would like a ring\u2019 section, and I am so glad I did.\u201d RAYE attributes the song\u2019s interplay of a serious post-breakup mindset with humorous lyrics to her \u201cBritish-ness. We love to poke fun at our pain. I love sarcasm, wittiness and breaking the fourth wall. I hate the rules we feel constrained by sometimes. The most important thing to me is that it feels true and honest, and in my honest voice. I guess this is my personality coming through.\u201d And that spoken-word cameo from her grandmother, Agatha? \u201cMy grandma is my best friend; we speak on the phone every day. She is my rock and it\u2019s so funny how many times I\u2019d be like, \u2018Grandma, when do you think I\u2019ll get married?\u2019 and she would just reply, \u2018Your husband is coming.\u2019 (Laughs.) So it felt only right to have her in the song.\u201d<\/p>\n \tGene Simmons and Paul Stanley, \u201cRock and Roll All Nite\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tRecorded by KISS \n\tThe year was 1975 and while KISS was killing it on tour, their first two albums weren\u2019t keeping pace. Neil Bogart, the Casablanca Records founder who signed the band, called Stanley and Simmons into his Los Angeles office with a mandate: they needed an anthem. \u201cHe said, \u2018You should have a song that embodies what you believe or what your fans believe,\u2019\u201d Stanley says. \u201cSo this one was done under a time crunch. I went back to the hotel and sat in my room with my guitar and very quickly came up with \u2018I want to rock and roll all night and party every day.\u2019 It came to me emphatically. I knocked on Gene\u2019s door and played it for him.\u201d Meanwhile, says Simmons, \u201cI had started writing a song called \u2018Drive Me Wild\u2019\u2014which was inspired by Stephen King\u2019s book Christine, about a car\u2014with the double entendre of \u2018You drive me wild, I\u2019ll drive you crazy.\u2019 That was the hook I had. And we kind of looked at each other and said, \u2018Hey, wait a minute. You put those two together and you got a pretty good song.\u2019 And as soon as we started playing it, everybody started singing along.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI think \u2018Rock and Roll All Night\u2019 is a testament to two people coming together and being stronger than the individual,\u201d says Stanley. But ironically, both writers agree the repetition of the word \u201cI\u201d in the chorus is the song\u2019s crowning touch. \u201c\u2019\u2018I\u2019 is the most powerful word and while it showed up more after, it was unheard of in rock n\u2019 roll then,\u201d Simmons says. \u201cNothing is as personal as \u2018I.\u2019 We went on to \u2018I Was Made For Loving You\u2019 and \u2018I Love It Loud.\u2019 But this was first.\u201d Stanley grew up on Philly soul and Motown and cites Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller as influences. Simmons tips his hat to Paul McCartney and George Gershwin. Both are keenly aware there is no KISS without the hooks and choruses. \u201cYou can\u2019t package a smoke bomb,\u201d Stanley says. \u201cEven if the curiosity started with someone seeing a photo of us, it had to be backed up by music. I\u2019ve never considered us or my writing to be jam band material. I\u2019m far more Brill Building; that\u2019s really my roots. Songwriting for me has never been about saying to somebody, \u2018Well, you hear it on an electric guitar.\u2019 If it doesn\u2019t sound good on an acoustic guitar, it\u2019s not good. And that was from day one for us.\u201d<\/p>\n \tChristopher \u201cTricky\u201d Stewart, \u201cSingle Ladies (Put A Ring On It)\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tCo-written with Beyonc\u00e9, The-Dream and Kuk Harrell; recorded by Beyonc\u00e9 \n\tThe magic behind the hit that garnered Beyonc\u00e9 three Grammys, including song of the year, is a testament to Stewart staying cool under pressure when his flight from L.A. to New York got diverted, leaving him hours late for a studio session.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cBeyonc\u00e9, Dream, Matthew Knowles\u2026 they\u2019re all waiting, the tension is high, and I\u2019m going through my process to get in the groove and shake off the nerves and just [came out with] what we know now is the \u2018Single Ladies\u2019 beat. I\u2019m about to move on and Dream stops me and says, \u2018That\u2019s incredible, I have a whole song\u2026 open the mic and let me show you.\u2019 And then he starts saying, \u2018All the single ladies, all the single ladies, all the single ladies.\u2019 So we\u2019ve got him in the vocal booth and me with a sight line to him, and we\u2019re writing the musical parts together live in tandem. Which is why the song has so many special nuances\u2014like a six-bar bridge\u2014because it was more based upon the type of chemistry Dream and I have,\u201d Stewart says. Lyrically, Dream was inspired observing Beyonc\u00e9 and Jay-Z\u2019s relationship during the 2008 Heart of the City Tour co-headlined by Jay-Z and Mary J. Blige. \u201cWe\u2019re watching them on tour, a couple that was crazy about each other, and Dream is such a wordsmith,\u201d Stewart adds. Back in the studio, \u201cBeyonc\u00e9 walks in and immediately goes into the vocal booth and sings the performance we know and love today. It all happened very quickly and it was one of my best moments to not crack under that pressure. There was a lot of power and expectation there.\u201d The kicker? Just before Stewart left L.A. he asked one of his producers to make a few new discs for his drum machine. \u201cIt\u2019s not like there was an infinite amount of sounds like we have today on a laptop. I was getting stale on my sounds and needed some new creative. I got those drum discs that same day. And the moment I got done and we laid the song into Pro Tools, the drum machine cuts off and erases all the sounds I had made the song with. I\u2019ve never been able to use those sounds again, they\u2019re gone forever\u2014so it\u2019s truly a one-of-one song.\u201d<\/p>\n \t<\/p>\n \t<\/a><\/p>\n Get weekly rundowns straight to your inbox<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tThe Daily\t\t<\/p>\n A daily briefing on what matters in the music industry<\/p>\n \t\tBy providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use<\/a> and our Privacy Policy<\/a>.
No. 1 on the Hot 100 for four weeks in 1993-94<\/p>\n
No. 1 on the Hot 100 for three weeks in 1984<\/p>\n
No. 2 on the Hot 100 in 1969<\/p>\n
No. 1 on the Hot 100 for three weeks in 1984<\/p>\n
No. 11 on the Hot 100 (still on the Hot 100)<\/p>\n
Live version reached No. 12 on the Hot 100 in 1976<\/p>\n
No. 1 on the Hot 100 for four weeks in 2008-2009<\/p>\n
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