Singer-songwriter Bonnie McKee, who penned Katy Perry's hit song 'Teenage Dream', admits she was tempted to keep the track for herself.
Singer-songwriter Bonnie McKee - who penned several of the pop star's biggest hits including 'California Gurls', 'Wide Awake', 'Part of Me' and 'Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.) - admits she found it difficult to part with the titular song on Katy's second album after writing it and almost kept it for herself.
Speaking to US radio station 92.3 Now, Bonnie said: ''I loved 'Teenage Dream'. I think that was my favourite one and that was a hard one for me to give up because I've had that teenage theme kind of throughout my music.''
However, the 29-year-old musician admits the track may not ''have been a hit'' if it weren't for Katy singing it.
However, Katy isn't the only top singer Bonnie has worked with; she's also penned songs for Britney Spears and Leona Lewis.
The songwriter also boasts a celebrity friend in 'Thrift Shop' hitmaker Macklemore, who she grew up with.
She said ''When 'Thrift Shop' blew up and I heard it on the radio I was like, 'This is so good!' Then I looked at the video and I was like, 'No way, that's Ben. That's my high school buddy!' ''
according to wikipedia this mckee person is the last writer meaning she has the least contribution, yet she is talking about "giving away" songs? sounds delusional
according to wikipedia this mckee person is the last writer meaning she has the least contribution, yet she is talking about "giving away" songs? sounds delusional
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according to wikipedia
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according to wikipedia
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according to wikipedia
Ok.
That's not unusual though. Ke$ha is the main writer of "Till the World Ends" yet she's the last one credited.
Are yall sure she was talking about the lyrics? I mean why would she keep only the lyrics? They can always write new one to fit a song. I'm thinking she wrote the whole song while Katy came in and changed part of the lyrics and melodies.
The track, however, wasn't all that easy to get right. "I'm in the studio fighting with them to change the melody, or I'm fighting for the best lyric at all times," she told Billboard earlier this year. "I think we rewrote 'Teenage Dream' five times for 10 days straight. On the last day, I was so happy to finally get somewhere that we all agreed on."
Perry said that there is a bottom line to the euphoria of the track. "That song is kind of like feeling that way when you were a teenager: really emotional, really invested. ... It's intense being in love and being a teenager. That's what 'Teenage Dream' is about."
They're all co-written. Note how the article ignores Dr Luke, Benny Blanco, and Max Martin as co-writers as well -- it's dumbing the story down. Bonnie is talking about giving up the "teenage dream" theme in her quote, not giving up the full formed song itself.
Bonnie has explained the writing process of TD (the song) in great detail:
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Katy and I wrote and rewrote this song 4 times. It started off being kind of a “forever young” idea. That was always the spirit of it. Katy started with a lyric about Peter Pan that was cool, but it just kept feeling too young, and we wanted it to have more edge, more sex. There was a version that included a line that said “and the next thing you know, you’re a mom in a minivan” that kept us laughing uncontrollably for an hour. We literally wrote it front to back three times and were rolling around on the studio floor delirious.
Finally, we thought we had cracked the code, we wrote something that was based on the metaphor of “trying me on”, comparing the feeling of wearing new clothes to sex, kind of a “Dress You Up in My Love” deal, and we thought we had it, but then Benny Blanco came in and was like “no.” Luke always makes us “Benny Proof” everything. He says that if Benny doesn’t get it, America won’t get it.
Katy and I looked at each other with dread, knowing we had to start all over again. He said, “something more like this” and played us The Teenagers “Homecoming”, but at that point we were both so over it we just called it a night. Katy had invited me to write with her in Santa Barbara with Doctor Luke and Max Martin the next week, and I really wanted to bring my best, so I took it home and sat with it for a while. I thought about my own adolescent years, my own first love. I thought about watching Baz Luhrmann’s “Romeo and Juliet” and putting on a little mini disco ball light and just dreaming of Leo. I thought about me and my friends sitting around at slumber parties in the 90’s, giddy even just THINKING about boys. Back when love and sex were still mysterious and magical. I thought about what Benny said and I listened to the song again, and I was like The Teenagers… that’s such a great word, Teenager. It is a very descriptive word; it packs a lot of emotion and imagery into three syllables.
That’s what songwriters are always looking for- powerful, familiar themes in simple packages, and there it was. I couldn’t believe after all of our agonizing over “youth” themes, that we had overlooked such an obvious one- the teenage condition. That night I had to leave for Santa Barbara, and with this word under my belt I was confident I could piece it together from there. I was texting myself rhyme schemes all the way up PCH, trying to unscramble the puzzle before I walked into that studio. When I got there, I was all excited to tell Doctor Luke about how I’d finally cracked the code, but he was pissed off that we had spent all this time just on the chorus and banned us from spending another second on it. So I bit my tongue, and we went in and started on the verses. Katy already had some beautiful images mapped out- building forts out of tents, running away and never looking back, etc, and we wove a beautiful story together. I am really excited about the video because it is just exactly everything we talked about when we wrote it. So finally she went in to put down vocals and I was freaking out that i wasn’t able to reveal my “Teenage Dream” version yet, and it wasn’t until she had recorded the whole thing that I pulled Luke and Max aside and told them about my idea. When I sang it to them they said “Well why didn’t you say that in the first place?!” Ha ha. I tried! Anyway we recut the chorus and Katy was much happier with it, which was the most important thing to me. The “Skin tight jeans” line in the bridge was a scrap that came from our “Try me on” version, and it happened to rhyme with Teenage Dream, so I guess it wasn’t a complete waste of time!
When we listened back we were all so pumped that it had paid off. I remember Max sitting back and saying “I wish we could bottle this feeling”. It was really magical.
The title of this is incorrect. The song was always meant for Katy. Bonnie is just talking about giving up the lyrical ideas that were close to her heart. (The "eternal youth" theme, and giving up the word "teenager" for any titles in the future. Since the term "teenage dream" was her idea that came at the very end of the song's conception. Then that became the name of Katy's entire era...)
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Also, Bonnie and Katy wrote the song lyrics together. (Yes, there are most credited writers for the production, but Bonnie/Katy wrote the lyrics themselves.)
