Pictured at the news conference announcing the NSHOF nominees are BMI songwriters Thom Schuyler, John Scott Sherrill, Nashville Songwriters Foundation Chairman Roger Murrah, BMI songwriter Tony Joe White, Nashville Mayor Bill Purcell and BMI songwriter Hugh Prestwood. Photo by Krista Lee for Krista Lee Photography

BMI affiliates nominated for induction in the songwriter category are Larry Henley ("The Wind Beneath My Wings," "Lizzie and the Rainman"), Mark James ("Always On My Mind," "Suspicious Minds"), Hugh Prestwood ("Hard Rock Bottom of Your Heart," "Ghost In This House"), Thom Schuyler ("Love Will Turn You Around," "I Fell In Love Again Last Night") and John Scott Sherrill ("Some Fools Never Learn," "How Long Gone.")

BMI writers constitute the entire list of the nominees in the songwriter/artist division. Arthur Alexander ("Anna [Go To Him]," "Every Day I Have to Cry"), Jimmy Buffett ("Come Monday," "Margaritaville"), J.J. Cale ("After Midnight," "Cocaine"), John Hiatt ("Have A Little Faith In Me," "She Don't Love Nobody"), and Tony Joe White ("Rainy Night In Georgia," "I've Got A Thing About You Baby") received recognition for their work.

The unveiling of inductees will take place at the 37th annual Nashville Songwriters Association International/Nashville Songwriters Foundation Awards ceremony on Sunday, Oct. 22 at the Renaissance Nashville Hotel.]]> 2006-08-17T18:00:00-05:00 http://www.bmi.com/news/entry/233124 Artists, Goldsmith, Jerry, James, Mark, Lee, Michele, Musical Styles, Film-TV The London Symphony Orchestra's performance (4/28) of "The Music Of Hollywood" was a special event for Nashville, marking the first time the world-famous LSO has appeared in Music City. Jeff Bown Productions presented the concert at the Gaylord Entertainment Center. BMI was a sponsor of the evening, which featured the music of composers Jerry Goldsmith ("Star Trek:The Motion Picture," "Mulan," "The Last Castle"), John Williams ("Star Wars," "E.T.", "Indiana Jones" theme), John Barry ("Out Of Africa," "James Bond" theme), Bernard Herrmann ("North By Northwest") and Maurice Jarre ("Lawrence of Arabia"), among others. A highlight of the program, conducted by Maestro Kenneth Schermerhorn of the Nashville Symphony, was Williams's music from "Schindler's List," featuring LSO concertmaster Gordon Nikolitch on the violin.

BMI's Patsy Bradley and Caroline Davis, Deborah Allen, LSO concertmaster Gordon Nikolitch, Kathy Dozier

Among the guests at the concert and its Evening in London reception were AFM Local 257 President Harold Bradley; Belmont University President Dr. Robert Fisher; Middle Tennessee State University President Sidney McPhee; songwriters Mark James, Deborah Allen, Claire Davidson, Kyle Fredericks, Sherrie Austin, Will Rambeaux; and composer Chuck Lee, winner of the 2001 BMI/Jerry Goldsmith Film Scoring Scholarship at UCLA Extension.

Kathy Dozier, Betty & Randy Smith, Judy & Dr. Robert Fisher of Belmont, Sidney McPhee of MTSU, BMI's Patsy Bradley, Chuck & Michele Lee

BMI's Michael Tortora, Kathy Dozier, Raymond Hicks & Deborah Allen, BMI's Caroline Davis and Patsy Bradley, event producer Jeff Bown, Mark & Karen James, Chuck & Michele Lee and Betty & Randy Smith

BMI's Paul Corbin, Merle Atkins Russell, the Recording Academy's Nancy Shapiro, Brenda Lee & Ronnie Shacklett

Among the guests were Ralph Emery, Delbert McClinton, producers Tony Brown and Ron Chancey, musicians Harold Bradley, Ray Edenton, John Johns and Eddie Bayers, Mark James, Bud & Janice Wendell, Katherine Bradley, and former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts Bill Ivey.

Click here to read letters from Frances Preston
to Brenda Lee and the Atkins Family

Several of Atkins' relatives were on hand, including daughter Merle Russell, grandchildren Mandy and Jonathan Russell, sister Billie Rose Shockley and niece Megan Taylor. Lee was accompanied by her husband, Ronnie Shacklett (celebrating their 39th anniversary this month), as well as daughters Jolie Shacklett and Julie Clay.

Congratulations were read from Recording Academy President & CEO Michael Greene and from BMI President & CEO Frances Preston before Academy Vice President Nancy Shapiro and BMI Vice President Paul Corbin presented gifts to the Atkins Family and to Lee.

Lee's autobiography, Little Miss Dynamite: The Life and Times of Brenda Lee (co-authored with Robert K. Oermann and Julie Clay) was recently published by Hyperion Books.

Lee and Atkins are also members of the Country Music Hall of Fame; Lee is the only woman enshrined in the two Halls of Fame.

Gathered outside the screening room at BMI Nashville are BMI's Thomas Cain and Patsy Bradley, Mark and Karen James, and BMI's Paul Corbin

Among James's biggest hits are "Suspicious Minds," "Hooked On A Feeling," "Moody Blue" and "You Were Always On My Mind." His songs have appeared in such movies as Kramer vs. Kramer, Honeymoon in Vegas, Twisted Down, Breathless, Someone to Watch Over Me, That’s the Way It Is, Practical Magic, Jerry and Tom, Frequency, and Reservoir Dogs. James attended the UCLA Extension Film Scoring Program and the Dick Grove Composing and Arranging Program, with private film studies at the American Film Institute.

BMI today announced the Top 100 Songs of the Century, listing the most played songs on American radio and television. Leading the list is the anthemic "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'," written by Barry Mann, Phil Spector and Cynthia Weil, which recently passed the historic 8 million performance plateau. It was originally recorded by The Righteous Brothers and produced by Spector.

The second, third and fourth place songs have all attained more than 7 million airplays. They are: "Never My Love," written by Donald and Richard Addrisi; "Yesterday" by John Lennon and Sir Paul McCartney; and "Stand By Me" by Ben E. King, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Rounding out the Top 10 are the six-million-plateau performers: "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You" by Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio; "Sitting On the Dock Of the Bay" by Otis Redding and Steve Cropper; Paul Simon's "Mrs. Robinson"; "Baby I Need Your Loving" by the legendary Motown writers Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland; John Gummoe's "Rhythm Of The Rain"; and the evergreen "Georgia On My Mind" written by Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell.

John Lennon and Paul Simon each have four songs in the Top 100. Lennon's contributions are his Beatles's classics "Yesterday," "Michelle" (#42), and "Let It Be" (#89), all co-written by McCartney, as well as his solo outing "Imagine" (#96). In addition to "Mrs. Robinson," Simon is represented on the list with "The Sound of Silence" (# 18), "Bridge Over Troubled Water" (#19), and "Scarborough Fair" (#31), co-written by his long-time partner Art Garfunkel. Other songwriters with multiple listings include, with three songs each, Norman Gimbel, Mark James, Barry Mann, McCartney and Roy Orbison, as well as the teams of Holland-Dozier-Holland and Sir Elton John-Bernie Taupin (PRS). Mann, co-writer of the #1 song, is also co-writer (with Dan Hill-SOCAN) of the #100 song, "Sometimes When We Touch." With two songs each, Sam Cooke, Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Kris Kristofferson, Joe Melson, J.D. Souther, Jimmy Webb and Cynthia Weil made the list, along with the teams of Leiber-Stoller and Bert Kaempfert (GEMA)-Eddie Snyder-Charles Singleton.

Most of the songs became hits several times over when they were "covered" by various artists. However, as performers of the Top 100, The Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel scored the most spots with four original versions of the songs. The Association was responsible for three ("Never My Love," "Cherish" #22 and "Windy" #61), as were The Drifters ("On Broadway" #45, "Save the Last Dance for Me" #49 and "Up On the Roof" #92), Elton John ("Your Song" #37, "Daniel" #66 and "Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me" #76), and Roy Orbison ("Oh Pretty Woman" #26, "Crying" #74 and "Blue Bayou" #85).

BMI is a performing rights organization that represents more than 250,000 songwriters, composers and publishers with a repertoire of more than 3 million songs and compositions from around the world and in all genres of music. The company annually monitors approximately 450,000 hours of commercial and non-commercial radio airplay and more than 6,000,000 hours of television programming. BMI collects license fees from the commercial users of music and, after deducting operating costs, distributes those fees to its affiliates as royalties.

One million continuous performances of a song of the average length of 3 minutes represents 5.7 years of continuos airplay. The 8 million performances of "You've Lost that Lovin' Feeling' " equals more than 45 years of back-to-back play.

Letters appearing in parentheses connote original membership in a foreign performing rights organization.