About Bill Anthony
Artist Biography
A tale is told in Nashville of a songwriter who was driving a bit too fast on the way to a session where a demo was finally going to be cut of one of his songs. He got a speeding ticket, but formed a songwriting partnership with the cop that pulled him over. "It's not really true that everyone in Nashville is a songwriter," one of the city's busiest sessionmen commented. "But it is for damn sure true that everyone is a co-writer." If the suggestion is that a co-writer wouldn't be able to come up with anything all by themselves, very little research is being done to prove otherwise. Nashville's recording scene has been dominated by songwriting teams for decades, sometimes numbering up to five co-writers on one song.
Bill Anthony formed a songwriting partnership with Bob Morrison in the mid-'70s, one of many that the latter country writer was involved in. Anthony's main claim to fame seems to be his involvement -- and whatever it was, it was considered credit worthy -- with the song "Midnight Angel." It was the title tune of a Barbara Mandrell album in 1977 and a hit for her the same year. The song is an example of the chrome-polish sound that developed in that decade as the folks that scribbled ink on the bottom lines of contracts tried to figure out how to get the disco or '70s rock audience interested. It is also an example of the lack of originality rampant in Nashville during that period, as some half-dozen songs exist called "Midnight Angel," none of them worth staying up 'til 10 O'clock for, let alone midnight. With other writers, Morrison was quite prolific for the Nashville Combine publishing firm, but "Midnight Angel" was his and Anthony's sole success selling the company a song. Morrison's song catalog with various other writers is known for titles that can be combined with each other to create even longer-sounding country songs. Examples: "Whiskey, If You Were a Woman" plus "You'd Make an Angel Wanna Cheat" or "Stuck Right in the Middle of Your Love" plus "Shoulder to Shoulder (Arm to Arm)" plus "You Decorated my Life." ~ Eugene Chadbourne
Hometown
US
Genre
Jazz
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