I dunno, Alan: I'm thankful for all the people who wrote songs like Wooly Bully, Come Go With Me, Sh-Boom and a million other songs I've enjoyed in life. I have no idea whether someone said, "Hey, why don't we write a song called Wooly Bully? I bet we could make a fortune on it." Truth is (I think) when someone writes a song, there's a mix of wanting to entertain, wanting to say something, wanting recognition for our own ego, and yes, even to get some a that accursed money. Just because I never made much money on my music doesn't mean I'd turn it down (or that I wouldn't be delighted if I did.) There are certainly hacks who try to write for a particular market, and for someone who wants to go that route, there are plenty of books telling you how to get trite right.

As you know, writing songs is something we do, just like singing them. I don't know how most songwriters could stop writing. I suspect that a lot of songs that became smash hits were written for the same reason we write.

It's just a lot of fun.

Jerry