Songwriter Diane Warren: The Susan Lucci Of The Oscars
Will “Lucky” 13 Be Her Year?
Songwriters represent the bones behind our favorite songs. Many are members of the bands in which they perform. There are also the solo singer-songwriters whose work tugs at our hearts. Both have left an indelible impression on the world.
Then there are the songwriters like Diane Warren who write exclusively for others to perform on the actual record. Thus, in the Grammys, you have Record of the Year (the performing artist or band) and Song of the Year, which goes to the songwriter.
So what does Susan Lucci have to do with all this? Both ladies are masters at patience.
Lucci is best known for her role as Erica Kane on the ABC soap opera “All My Children” from 1970 to 2011. She is broadly acknowledged as “Daytime’s Leading Lady” by TV Guide and was reported to be daytime television’s highest-paid star with a salary of more than $1 million/year.
While Lucci starred in “All My Children,” she was nominated 21 times for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.
She did not win the prize until her 19th nomination! After that, the irony became a running joke in pop culture. But everybody loves an underdog!
Enter Diane Warren. Hers should be a household name, but it isn’t because songwriters usually aren’t in the limelight. Instead, she has stood behind the artists who received all the accolades for the songs she wrote. Warren is one of the most prolific songwriters of our time.
Warren is a tour de force. *She’s written nine number-one songs and 32 top-ten songs on Billboard’s hot 100. * She was the first songwriter in history to have seven hits, all by different artists, on the singles chart simultaneously. * She’s won a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, two Golden Globe awards, and three consecutive wins for Songwriter of the Year for the Billboard Music Awards. * She’s been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Now here’s where the parallel to Susan Lucci comes in.
Warren’s work has appeared on the soundtracks of more than 60 top-grossing films. In addition, she has been nominated 13 times for an Oscar for writing the Best Original Song for a Motion Picture.
She has not won once.
Rewinding to 1983, Warren scored her first hit with “Solitaire.” Performed by Laura Branigan, it reached #7 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Not bad for a debut.
There are so many big hits to her credit it’s dizzying. For example:
- DeBarge’s “Rhythm of the Night” in 1986
- “I Get Weak” by Belinda Carlisle in 1989
- Cher’s “If I Could Turn Back Time” in 1990
- “Blame it on The Rain” by pseudo-duo Milli Vanilli in 1991 and a string of other hits that year, including Taylor Dayne’s “Love Will Lead You Back.”
Just a few of the artists she has written for include:
- Whitney Houston
- Britney Spears
- Tina Turner
- Barbra Streisand
- Elton John
- Aretha Franklin
Warren actively courts the artists for each of her songs. She knows who she wants to sing them. For instance, with “If I Could Turn Back Time” by Cher, the conversation went like this:
“I thought that was a great song for her and she hated it. And so I went to the studio when she was recording another song of mine. And literally when she was in the lounge, I got on my hands and knees and held her leg down until she said she’d try it out. She goes, “I hate that fucking song. I hate it.” I go, “Well, I’m not letting your leg go!”
The song is one of Cher’s most iconic and peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100. And to think it almost didn’t happen.
Meanwhile, she’s been nominated 12 times at the Grammys and won just once with “Because You Loved Me” by Celine Dion.
But the most elusive of all of her nominations have been those for the Academy Awards.
Her first Oscar nomination came from 1987’s “Mannequin,” for which she wrote “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now,” performed by Starship and the great Grace Slick. She wouldn’t have another nomination until 1997’s “Because You Loved Me,” sung by Celine Dion for 1997’s “Up Close and Personal.” That was followed by “How Do I Live,” first performed by Trisha Yearwood, then by LeAnne Rimes for “Con Air.” Finally, in 1999 she composed the unforgettable “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” by Aerosmith for the movie “Armageddon.”
Will 2022 be the end of Warren’s losing streak at the Oscars?
She’s got a good shot with the haunting yet inspirational song, “Somehow You Do,” from the film “Four Good Days” sung by Reba McEntire.
If music is the soundtrack of our lives, Diane Warren wrote a lot of it!
Sources: Wikipedia (Diane Warren, Susan Lucci), The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits by Joel Whitburn, Rolling Stone-February 6, 2021.
Here are a couple more of my stories about music, published in The Riff:
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