I may have posted something like this in the past about Jim changing the words and phrases of some of the songs he recorded. Different from how the author wrote them.
I was listening to "The Writings On The Wall" a few days ago and discovered a few changes that got my attention. I will give a few examples of the changes I found.
Alex Zanetis wrote the words.."Every time I call...Jim added "you" to the line. Further down Alex wrote "Thought I knew you least of all" but Jim recorded "So I know you're not alone". Further on Alex wrote "There's no need to sneak" Jim adding the word "pretending" to replace "sneak". Another line Alex wrote "But I made you promise" Jim changing it to "But I love you so much". The last change I noticed was the original "It is written on your face, changed to "Cause it's written on your face".
Again I assume the artistic talent Jim had would allow him to make some changes that to him fit better and I agree. But that begs the question...did Jim also do this in order to get writing credits. Not sure how all this applies but some artists would do this just to get a writing credit, and again, nothing wrong with that.
Can anyone add to this question...was it simply changes made to fit the singers style or an attempt to get a few more bucks from a recording...or a combination of both...Not sure !!
Thank you everyone...Hope to get some of your thoughts
Re: A Few Changes
Posted by Mike Slater on March 10, 2026, 8:45 pm, in reply to "A Few Changes"
Good to be back! Roy, your story on this great song is really interesting. Not sure why some recording artists make these changes though. Could be the different lyrics they choose sound better to them and are just their own way of expressing themselves. As far as I know, they can't just word a song to their liking and make any kind of profit from it...
Re: A Few Changes
Posted by Roy Zinck on March 12, 2026, 4:53 pm, in reply to "Re: A Few Changes"
I just checked the Bear book and found that only Alex Zanetis received a writing credit for this song. Obviously the changes Jim made were from the heart and he was right. Interesting to note that I could not find the date Jim originally recorded this song. Apparently it was recorded as a demo and only overdubbed for release in 1971. Another great song Jim never lived long enough to see what a treasure he left us.
Talking about writing credits, there is an interesting story how Bill Anderson got a 50% writing credit for adding a single line to the song "Saginaw Michigan". The story goes, that the author Don Wayne was struggling with a proper ending to this song and contacted Bill for help. Bill made some fast money that day. Lefty Frizzell made it into a hit in 1964, I believe the last hit of his career.
on March 9, 2026, 7:58 am