The "Life passes so fast" is one that has been around pretty much since songs were written. "It was a very good year" by Frank Sinatra, and "Don't Blink" by Kenny Chesney are just a couple of the millions of examples. Phil, a few years back, I was working with a guy named "Ed Bentley, and Jim (somebody whose last name I don't even remember.) There was this commercial on television that had a bunch of different senarios in different commercials but it was all about "LIFE COMES AT YOU FAST" where the character would start out as a little kid, and then a giant puff of smoke and they turned into some old guy. A bunch of really funny ones, and Ed wanted to write that one. We did, and it was a TREMENDOUSLY funny song. But like everything, when there is a commercial out about something, you start to hear that same idea written a hundred different ways. As soon as you write one, you will hear it a million times.
The "My Wish" thing was pretty funny. I wrote it by myself as a closing song for my workshops:
"My Wish for you is Faith
My Wish for you is Hope
My Wish for you is Hope
When life can bring you down
There's a place that you can go
Always try to give a smile, a laugh, a touch, a rose
There's someone just like me, who loves you
And I just thought you ought to know."
Was a very sweet song, and I really liked it. Even recorded it with an acoustic guitar and got a friend of mine to do a "string section" comprised of him doing four cello parts. One of my favorite recorded tracks and the only one I had done like that. I closed with it on every show for 8 years. And yes, there were about three or four shows that myself, Jimbeau and Jeffery Steele played together on. Always ended with it. And was one of my most requested songs. Did it on my "NEXT BIG THING" Cd.
Then one day I started getting congratulations through emails, and phone calls on my "New Rascal Flatts cut." I wasn't aware that I HAD a new Rascal Flatts cut as I had not been with my publisher for years and had never pitched that particular song. Then, one day while driving I HEARD the latest Rascal Flatts cut, "MY WISH" which sounded suspiciously very similar. Had a descending scale melody like mine, was about the same tempo, and actually in the same key. But it was totally different aside from a few similarities. And it was written by Jeffery and Steve Robson, who I also knew.
There was NO WAY they had infringed on anything, any more than I was the first one to ever have the title "MY WISH."
We just all write similar things. Part of the business. But since it was a big hit and I didn't want to seem like I was following the leader, I had to find another song. I did.
That one was called TABLES AND CHAIRS. And THAT ONE is the MOST POPULAR SONG I HAVE NOW.
You just WRITE MORE SONGS. If you can be stopped because of one of your songs ending somewhere else and that is your only idea, you are not much of a writer. Get used to it. It'll happen a lot.
MAB
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