The Richest Songs

The money in music is in song royalties - cover versions, radio airplays, film rights, adverts, youtube hits (60p per 1,000 plays), Karoke and so on. The Beatles were the first artists to blaze this path by writing their own songs. 
 

Young artists be warned though over the small print if signing a contract to a music publisher. Van Morrison has lost out on all the royalty revenues for his song Brown Eyed Girl (10m radio airplays) - because of the deal he signed in New York at 21 in which he was given a royalty rate that was virtually nil. 
  

The most successful bands spilt any royalties equally between them - U2, Coldplay etc.

Interestingly the woman create the hits, wheras men create the cult hits - as seen in this top ten list as most of the songs are about love, loss, longing, regret, heartbreak...  

Happy Birthday is the number one richest songs, written by school teachers the Hill sisters. Christmas songs are always big money earners and oddly many are written by Jewish songwriters.     

Top Ten Richest Songs

Happy Birthday, 30m

White Christmas, 24m 

You've Lost That Loving Feeling, 20.5m

Yesterday, 19.5m 

Unchained Melody, 18m

Stand By Me, 17m

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, 16m

Every Breath You Take,13.5m

Pretty Woman, 13m
The Christmas Song 12.5m  

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/The_Richest_Songs_in_the_World/

*Greatest Covers

John Lennon- Stand By Me

Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah

Willie Nelson - Always On My Mind

Dick Gaughan - Both Sides The Tweed

Rab Noakes - Moonlight and Gold

Adele -   Make You Feel My Love

Chrissie Hyde - Angel of the Morning

Rolling Stones - Like A Rolling Stone

Frank Sinatra - Send in the Clowns

Greatest Singers (for me)

Oddly the above! 

I might add Dylan - for his questioning voice. 

I enjoy voices that are real and have substance.

Listen to some of the greatest recorded singers – singers that use the magnetism, the tones, and the soft and harder edged subtleties of voice...Billie Holliday, Sinatra, Otis Redding, Johnny Cash, Joni Mitchell, Dylan, Buckley, Lennon – and one thing is clear, great art is about character.

The voice is one of the best instruments when used well, while beautiful songs matter too….
Mostly I love the voices of singer songwriters and the passion and edge in singers like Otis Redding or Dylan. It is not simply about perfect technique of voice. Some use inspired phrasing and subtle tones and interpretations of the song. A hypnotic voice means you can be lost in the moment. Some voices simply grab our attention with a magnetism of voice – they make it all seem effortless yet full of passions, moving edge and depth.

QUOTES Jeff Buckley -
‘Music comes from a primal place…

I’ve always felt that the quality of the voice is where the real content of a song lies. Words only suggest an experience, but the voice is that experience.’