American Idol 2016 - The end is nigh!

[john]

Article by songwriter Sam Hollander on his experiences writing for American Idol singers for finale and post tour albums. He wrote Thanks For The Songs, with Haley, Adam Pallin, and Aimee Proal in 2011.

...I quickly learned that the American Idol record-making process was madness — a panicked time crunch that kicked in the second the confetti was swept and the cameras went black. The victor and runner-up were immediately shuttled around Hollywood to collaborate with hitmakers from that specific chart year in a three week speed-dating round of musical mayhem. The immediate goal was a handful of songs that would set the template for the musical direction of the finalist’s forthcoming debut record. Then, the singers would begin intensive tour rehearsals, followed by a 50-date, summer-long, cross-country jaunt. At this point, with the artist’s exhaustion level nearing hospital status, they were jettisoned back west immediately after the tour wrapped, and were forced to track the rest of their entire albums within a solid six-week window. The records in question usually dropped around Black Friday while the cast was still fresh in the public’s appetite. In the early years, they shipped Gold. For the hungry writer, this was that next level mortgage s**t. This meant utter chaos. Every writer in the mix was whipped into a state of paranoid frenzy as we battled each other and the gruesome clock. What a competitive mindf**k.

I was first thrown into this raging fire with Season 6’s quirky runner-up Blake Lewis. Blake was awesome. Totally my kind of weird. He wanted to make a UK drum-n-bass record. The label wanted him to make a Justin Timberlake record. You know how this movie ends. We wrote three songs together, and to my surprise, two of them actually made the CD. I couldn't believe my luck! Even more exciting news followed. One was slated to be the second single! Damn, this dash seemed so easy. Nope. Sadly, I tore a hamstring before my victory lap when I learned that if the first single didn’t explode on Idol, there would be no sequel. Blake’s first single didn’t blow up. It didn’t deter me though. I was excited to toss more proverbial needles into these potentially fleeting haystacks. I had my head held high and a freshly gifted Sanjaya Malakar t-shirt. Dorothy was no longer in Kansas.

...Adam Lambert was strong-armed into recording one of my pitch songs that I was quite excited about. Yes! Unfortunately, upon listening to the final mix, everyone on Team Adam agreed that his vocal performance was the wrong fit for the song and that dream died as well.

Looking back, this was that broken moment that I was officially sucked out of Idolworld. That dark day my cell number was entered into the Idol do-not-disturb registry. I received zero winner calls for Seasons 9, 10 or 11. Sure, I shared three hours with the talented yet weary third placer, Haley Reinhart, which resulted in yet another tune for the scrap heap, but that was just a token. Can’t forget to mention Season 9’s Crystal Bowersox who sang a duet on a Blues Traveler record I produced. Why didn’t this mean anything to these damn people!? Season 12? The crickets continued. There would be no Lee DeWyze. No Scotty McCreery. No Candice Glover. No Phillip Phillips. As far as the Idol powers were concerned, I was officially Dead Man Writing....


Then it happened.

I wrote a Daughtry hit. The holy grail. Finally my one shining light in the Idol glory hole. Officially exiting pariah status, this success resulted in a hectic 11th-hour plea for me to write with Season 13 winner Caleb Johnson. I hopped in the car and raced over to the Venice Beach studio. I liked Caleb. He was a wide-eyed enthusiastic kid. I dug his soulful rock thing but I was even more thrilled to have another shot at reversing my dubious Idol legacy. But something inexplicable happened between the small talk that preceded the session and the song itself. I had nothing left. I spit some of my hackiest lyrics to date and we parted ways with a tune that was, of all things, depressingly, soulless. I beat myself up the entire weekend that followed, as I wondered if all these exercises in futility had finally taken their creative toll. A month later, the batphone rang: our song was chosen to be Caleb Johnson’s first single. This would be my only Idol champion first single. I couldn’t believe my s**tty luck, or Caleb’s for that matter. I was gutted. I knew nothing good would follow. I was correct. Sadly, if you Google it, you’ll probably find that it was the fastest disappearing single in the Idol era. In the early years, a song like this wouldn’t cut the mustard as a Taylor Hicks Japanese B-Side. By Season 13, it was the Hail Mary. Why, you ask? Because for all intents and purposes, the show was over. The Voice had stolen the proverbial thunder and the industry had moved on. And so had I....