Does Idina Menzel write her own songs?

[TheGingerBreadMan]

I'm doing a school project on Idina Menzel, and was wondering if she writes her own songs. Thanks!

[gravity87]

yes

[Patronus]

Fact: You are doing a school project on Idina Menzel.
Fact: I am not doing a school project on Idina Menzel.

Do your own research. Your teacher likely isn't going to accept, "Strangers from Broadway World" as a viable source.

It's not hard to look up liner note credits from her albums to see who gets writing credits.

[GavestonPS]

I also fail to understand the degree of righteous indignation that greets posts deemed unnecessary or overly long. Doesn't everybody have a scroll bar? Isn't everyone free to skip threads entirely?

Note to original poster: as you will no doubt discover, it has become an unfortunate convention of the internet to attribute songs to the recording artist rather than the songwriters. So you have to be careful with your on-line research, because you will find "'Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy' by Bette Midler" at many sites, even though the song was written several years before she was born.

So simply checking on-line song lists for Menzel's CDs isn't always immediately helpful. Idina Menzel did NOT write "Love for Sale", "Roxanne" or the score to FUNNY GIRL, even though Amazon.com gives the impression she did.

On the other hand, it appears she did write original songs for her album, I STAND. At least the commenters SAY she did, but I can't vouch for their reliability.

So listen to samples, try googling titles and even lyrics, look at the liner notes from hard copies of CDs, if you can get them, find reviews where the reviewer appears reliable, and proceed with caution.

I used to write the theater program for a musical revue and preparing the song-list page often took quite a bit of investigation.

[TheGingerBreadMan]

Thank you to the very few useful responses I got...... To all those who said I should just Google it, my teacher said to try to find sources OTHER than Google.

[dramamama611]

Yes, but WE aren't sources. (Why would you ever trust a bunch of strangers on an anonymous board?)

[TheGingerBreadMan]

It was a simple question. I was just looking for an answer, because she has to write her own songs for me to be able to do the project on her. If not, I choose someone else.

[dramamama611]

Ah, maybe you should have started with that -- the way you started the post, it certainly made it sound like you just wanted us to provide you with info for your project. Lots of us here think students should actually do their own work. Still, it's not really all that hard to find out for yourself.

[GavestonPS]

Perfectly fair, GBM. Nobody has to answer if s/he doesn't want to do so.

Google is just a pathway to other sources. Sometimes posters here are, too.

After a cursory search on my part, it APPEARS to me that Menzel has recorded her own compositions, but she is most famous for singing the work of others.

Good luck with your project!

[TheGingerBreadMan]

Thank you, Gaveston! Dramamama, next time I will try to be more clear on my posts.

[GavestonPS]

In fairness, dmama, and for reasons I outlined above, I do think this is a tough area for young researchers. When I went to work for the Palm Springs Follies, their program was full of attributions like "'Young at Heart' by Frank Sinatra".

It wasn't that their PAs were sloppy or lazy; it was just that names like Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein had no meaning for them. So when they saw ""It Might As Well Be Spring' by Ann-Margret", they took it literally.

[veronicamae]

Can't people just answer a question? lol

Yes, Idina writes the majority of her original music. She is a co-writer on every song on the Still I Can't Be Still album, Here EP, and 9 of 10 songs on I Stand (she did not write 'Don't Let Me Down'.) You can get information on every single one of her original songs at the below link if you can't access the liner notes to her albums to verify. Click the song title and it'll show you who wrote each song.


Idina's Music Info

[GavestonPS]

Thanks, veronica. And, no, I wasn't being coy: I really don't know that much about Menzel's original work. I need to buy a CD...

[ljay889]

Select an album of hers, and the songwriter credits are below the song title.


http://www.allmusic.com/album/i-stand-mw0000781018

[GavestonPS]

Great source! Amazon doesn't do that. Even when you click on the individual song title, you still get the song attributed to the performer.

[SporkGoddess]

GavestonPS: That always drives me nuts when musical theatre songs are attributed to the singer and not the composer. Like when I see "And I Am Telling You" attributed to Jennifer Holliday.

[yankeefan7]

The GingerBreadMan - Don't apologize for asking a simple question. You did not ask this board to do all your research for you. A simple reply of "yes" is not too much to ask for IMO and why some people had to "rant" is beyond me.

[anmiller07]

To all those who said I should just Google it, my teacher said to try to find sources OTHER than Google.

Just an FYI, Google isn't a source, it's a search engine that leads to many other sources. Wikipedia is a source, albeit a totally unreliable one. Most teachers will tell you to find a source other than Wikipedia.

Also you can use ASCAP to get all the information for any song. Try it out.
ASCAP Title Search

[GavestonPS]

GavestonPS: That always drives me nuts when musical theatre songs are attributed to the singer and not the composer. Like when I see "And I Am Telling You" attributed to Jennifer Holliday.

You can imagine how I -- a lyricist -- feel about it! LOL.

[GavestonPS]

Thank you, annmiller, for the ASCAP link. Here is the equivalent site for BMI, the other major music-licensing service:

http://www.bmi.com/search/