Songwriter Advisor Blog

Songwriters and performers all have musical influences that ultimately help them shape their own unique sound.

It’s important, while we have a few performers today who actually do have great singing talent and are worthy of emulation, to look back at history to remember and/or discover true talents that can help inspire us not only to write songs more effectively but to also sing and perform better.

Johnnie Wilder Jr. and his brother Keith Wilder founded Heatwave in the early 70’s upon finishing their tour of duty with the US army and set themselves on a path to relatively quick success.  They eventually relocated to the UK to team up with the extremely talented songwriter and keyboardist Rod Temperton, who eventually wrote their biggest hit songs, including the one you see in this youtube video.

The song “Always and Forever” is a classic pop standard worthy of being studied on many levels.  To say this song has inspired countless other artists is an understatement, for this song, at the time, became the song by which all other love songs/ballads were measured.

Watch and Listen To The Video

Here are some points to take and use from this song in your own music:

• The easy, singable melody with short phrases – that is…until Johnnie Wilder starts hitting those unbelievable notes at the end of the song.
• The power of simplicity in lyrics.  True – a song with these types of lyrics would probably be regarded on today’s charts as cheesy; just not hard-edged enough and too mushy.  But you can easily take the inspiration of the message of this song and write your own love masterpiece, right?

For you male R&B influenced singer/songwriters looking to get signed, take comfort knowing major players in the industry are looking for true talent all-around, but they definitely don’t expect you to sing like Johnnie Wilder!  However, use his talent as a barometer.  If you can even come close to how talented he was at singing, you’ve got a great chance.

Tragically, Johnnie Wilder Jr.  (July3, 1949 – May 13, 2006) was involved in a car crash in 1979, leaving him paralyzed from the neck down.  He was never able to sing the same after that; but like the warrior he was, he continued producing and songwriting, and at one time, was the most sought after acapella gospel music producers in the US.

Wilder died in his sleep on May 13, 2006 of unknown causes and left behind his wife, a daughter, and his three brothers, including Keith Wilder.

Rod Temperton went on to have an amazing career as a songwriter and wrote three songs on the best selling album of all time; Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.”  The most notable songs he wrote for Jackson were, Rock With You, Off The Wall, and Thriller.