Five amazing songs that were written, recorded, and produced by the same person
While it isn’t always healthy to give musicians complete creative control over their work, due to the fact that they can either run amok with ideas or not have enough to finish something off sufficiently without the helping hand of a producer or backing band, there are some out there who have more than the required amount of talent to be able to produce music without any sort of safety net in place.
As sickening as it might be to see someone show off to this degree, where they’re flexing their ability to not only compose a song themselves, but perform every element of it and handle the production as well, you can’t help but applaud them for the sheer amount of ability on display. Some acts would be comparatively nothing without the aid of their session players, or wouldn’t have the know-how when it comes to ensuring that a song is equipped with all of the right elements that are going to make it stand out; these are the sorts who have the whole works locked away.
The Beatles, argued by many to be the greatest group of songwriters of all time, were, of course, a band, and even between the four of them, they had to rely on others to perform on other instruments, not to mention how they needed the expertise of George Martin in order to embellish their songs in order for them to reach their full potential. Brian Wilson, although able to add the role of producer as an additional string to his bow, still needed extra musicians to help make his most extravagant masterpieces.
Some people simply don’t need the hassle of having to corral others who might go on to disappoint them or find some way of challenging their authority. These are the sort of people who know best, and there’s no way you’re ever going to be able to stand in their way. That doesn’t make them all impossible to work with, but working with them ought to be something you feel absolutely privileged to be invited to do.
There are so many exceptional songs that have been written, performed and produced all by one person, but below are five of the most extraordinary examples.
Five incredible songs where one person does everything:
The Magnetic Fields – ‘Strange Powers’
Perhaps one of the most criminally underrated living songwriters, yet also one who is constantly praised by those who are aware of his effortless brilliance, Stephin Merritt is a man of many contradictions. Even the name, The Magnetic Fields, gives the impression of a band being there to back up his every move, and yet, the vast majority of the project’s output has been created by the deft hands of Merritt alone, with a handful of trusty collaborators entering as additional personnel from time to time.
However, some of The Magnetic Fields’ finest work is the material that Merritt has crafted singlehandedly, and on the first recorded album where he assumes lead vocal duties as opposed to Susan Anway, 1994’s Holiday, is perhaps the strongest example of how he’s a thoroughly skilled multi-instrumentalist, producer and arranger. That’s not to mention his instantly recognisable bass register that has adorned every album since, and if you want a delightful introduction to how all of this coalesces, look no further than ‘Strange Powers’.
of Montreal – ‘The Past is a Grotesque Animal’
Another example of a misleading project name masquerading as a band, there are more moments in of Montreal’s discography that were solely stitched together by founder Kevin Barnes than there are collective efforts. They’re not even from Montreal, either, should you want an extra layer of confusion. However, what’s more confounding is what Barnes was able to create at the peak of their powers, with a near-perfect trilogy of albums in Satanic Panic in the Attic, The Sunlandic Twins and Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? all being fascinating snippets of one person’s singular vision.
The centrepiece of Hissing Fauna, ‘The Past is a Grotesque Animal’, is a sprawling art-rock epic that spares no detail in sharing Barnes’ struggle with substance abuse and how they allowed it to completely dismantle their psyche. Not only is it perhaps one of their most confrontational and confessional songs, but it marks a significant transition into a new era for the project, with Barnes subsequently using future albums to explore a greater variety of sounds as opposed to the psychedelic and baroque pop that they’d been known for on their earlier work.
Ty Segall – ‘You’re The Doctor’
Purists will likely say that garage rock and punk need to be created with zero regard for perfectionism, and that relying on a single live take where everything is delivered with raw instinct is the only way to truly capture the essence of the genre. But what if you’re one person and can’t possibly record everything all at once, and have to rely on tracking everything separately? Does that take away from the spontaneity of how things ought to sound, or can it be constructed in a way that feels faithful?
If you’re Ty Segall, then there’s absolutely no reason why you can’t do it all yourself and still seize everything that garage rock stands for, and on his 2012 album, Twins, there are plenty of moments where his one-man band comes across with the same level of impact and ferocity that most ensembles are able to muster up, while still keeping hold of that organic feel of a record made in a spur of the moment. On ‘You’re The Doctor’, the scuzzy guitars immediately take hold of the listener, and the looseness with which it arrives in the ears makes the fact that only one person made this glorious racket a marvel.
Todd Rundgren – ‘It Wouldn’t Have Made Any Difference’
It takes a certain amount of eccentricity to be able to continually produce work on your own without any form of input or interference from outsiders, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the music made by those individuals who choose to operate in this fashion is going to share the same oddball traits as the person behind it. Todd Rundgren, on the other hand, has always seemingly been unafraid when it comes to letting his freakishness seep out from behind the studio desk and into his work, and his 1972 masterpiece, Something / Anything?, is full to the brim with his versatile yet charmingly weird songwriting.
The entirety of the double album veers from art pop to glam rock via psychedelia, all of which is peppered with his unique flair for carving out melodies and embellishing them with delightful quirks, but the standout song that defines this amalgamation of elements comes early on in the form of ‘It Wouldn’t Have Made Any Difference’. Perhaps one of the most overlooked breakup songs of the ‘70s, made with the touch of a master craftsman, Rundgren exorcises his emotions with a sprinkling of his razor-sharp wit on this gem of a track, and it’s the sort of track that could only have been made by him.
Prince – ‘I Feel For You’
Much has been made of the fact that Prince not only did everything on his albums, but that he played well over 20 instruments on some of his earlier records. His 1979 self-titled record, which served as his commercial breakthrough, was made when he was only 21 years old, showcased far more diversity in his songwriting than his debut the year before, and it was evident from it that he was going to be a superstar in the not-too-distant future.
However, you could reasonably argue that this ascent had already begun, and the fact that the standout song from Prince would go on to become a global hit with two Grammy Awards when covered five years later makes it all the more impressive that it was originally created by a man barely out of his teens and with no external input. ‘I Feel For You’ may have been the song that changed everything in the solo career of Chaka Khan when she recorded her interpretation in 1984, but it could be argued that it was the start of everything for Prince: the world just wasn’t ready for him yet.
