I, myself, have only not used an original melody of mine once. I've been called a great songwriter, ranging from sad to a forty-era style. I've written some that are catchy, some that are dark, and some that are just...A regular song. I wouldn't call myself a great songwriter, though. Decent, at best (to me). But melodies are VERY hard to come up with for me. But it seems that I only can come up with good ones when I don't want to, they have to come with me. And that's how it should be, I think.

I think that you sit and think about it, you just end up with someone boring and plain. But when it comes to you out of nowhere, it usually ends up being pretty damn decent at least.

The tune I stole was from Tramps and Hawkers. But, hey, who HASN'T written a song to that tune?