Prince co-write on Stand Back?

[bombaysaffires]

Originally Posted by Jondalar

Stevie already discussed this a long time ago. She didn't steal anything. He did not want credit.

doesn't change the fact-- he wrote the music to the song, not her. If she had not offered, and had he not been so generous, he could certainly have sued. It is theft. He just chose to be gracious about it.

And just because you write a bass line for a song, as in the example someone gave above, does NOT make you entitled to a songwriting credit. If that were the case Waddy would be cowriter of all Stevie's songs for his original guitar parts. You have to have contributed substantially to the song basics-- chord progression, lyrics, melody to be a writer. Of course if someone wants to be generous and give writing credits to everyone they could.. but then in Stevie's case every song would have a million co-writers.

When you are hired as a musician that's what you are hired to do-- to add an original part to the arrangement i.e. taking the chord progression of the writer and putting your twist to it.