News Archive
BMI is proud to announce that our legendary songwriters, Hank Williams Jr., Marty Stuart and Dean Dillon, make up this year’s class of inductees into the Country Music Hall of Fame, bringing the total number of honorees to 142. Dean Dillon, who was named a BMI Icon in 2013, earns…
BMI Congratulates its Class of 2019 National Recording Registry Inductees
This morning, the Library of Congress announced the newest works to be listed in the prestigious National Recording Registry, with several BMI songwriters and composers receiving the honors. The inductions will become part of an elite group of recordings destined for special preservation and scholarship attention due to their “cultural,…
Heavy-Hitting BMI Writers ‘Remember Hank Cochran’ During Frank Brown Int’l Songwriters Festival
On November 14, 2015, where the white sand beaches meet the blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico, the Flora-Bama Lounge, Package & Oyster Bar on the state line will be buzzing with festival goers waiting to hear BMI songwriters Jamey Johnson, Dean Dillon and Scotty Emerick during the Frank…
From the Archives
BMI’s songwriting history, in pictures. Merle Haggard, Marijohn Wilkin and Eddy Arnold huddle for a photo at the 1970 BMI Country Awards in Nashville. “During the course of his legendary career, Haggard has racked up 40 No. 1 songs, multiple wins as the Academy of Country Music’s Top…
Doug Johnson: Changing Somebody’s World
Walk the narrow sidewalks along Nashville’s famed Music Row on just about any day of the week and you’ll see them, wide-eyed and star struck. Young writers, with little or no experience under their belts arrive with dreams of making it big. While their hopes are high, many of them…
Bobby Hebb Dies
Influential R&B songwriter and vocalist Bobby Hebb has died. He was 72. The Nashville native wrote and recorded “Sunny,” a soaring groove that remains perennially hummable, even by generations born decades after its original release. The tune was covered by James Brown, Frank Sinatra, Eddy Arnold, Dusty Springfield, Stevie Wonder,…
Hank Cochran Dies
Iconic songwriter Hank Cochran died Thursday morning at his home in Hendersonville, Tennessee. The writer behind country standards including “Make the World Go Away,” “She’s Got You,” “I Fall to Pieces,” “The Chair,” “Ocean Front Property,” “Don’t You Ever Get Tired of Hurting Me,” “Is It Raining at Your House,”…
BMI Greats Dominate American Songwriter Top 50 List, Icon Merle Haggard Featured
Nashville music writer and singer/songwriter Peter Cooper recently compiled “50 Country Songs Every Songwriter Should Know,” and the majority of ranking honky-tonk prototypes are BMI classics. Featured in the current issue of American Songwriter, the list kicks off with “Lost Highway,” penned by BMI songwriter Leon Payne and inimitably recorded…
Musicians Hall of Fame Inducts BMI Pioneers
Industry admirers, peers, and contemporary stars gathered to salute the 2009 class of virtuosos inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame on Monday, October 12 at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville. BMI legends Chet Atkins, Fred Foster, Charlie Daniels, Billy Cox, and band Toto all became members of the…
2009 Inductees Announced for Musicians Hall of Fame
The 2009 inductees into the Musicians Hall of Fame include a slew of BMI legends: Chet Atkins, Fred Foster, Charlie Daniels, Billy Cox, and band TOTO will all become members of the prestigious club that already includes Booker T. & The MGs, The Crickets, Duane Eddy, Al Kooper, The Memphis…