Phoebe's character has many songs she performs throughout the series. Was there a single person dedicated to writing songs for the character to perform? Was Lisa Kudrow improvising?
Who wrote the songs Phoebe performs on Friends?
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1Do you want actual writer or the person acting as writer for songs? – Somnath Muluk Jan 27 '13 at 03:22
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3this has citations for 2 songs http://www.quora.com/Friends-TV-series/Who-wrote-Phoebes-songs – rosends Jan 27 '13 at 03:52
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1You can find Phoebes of her song here Phoebes Songs. Writer's name is not mention though. – DoctorAV Jan 27 '13 at 05:02
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It's not really a list question. The presence of the word 'list' did not bode well for it, sure, but what I'm asking is not specifically asking for a list. That was more to ensure a thorough answer in the event that different songs had different writers. – stevvve Jan 28 '13 at 03:32
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2There are at least 47 songs, which makes this a potential list question (in the sense that there might be multiple correct partial answers). A Community Wiki answer might be the solution. – Oliver_C Jan 28 '13 at 10:51
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The lyrics are most likely written by the team of screenwriters that were involved in the show, but that's just my guess. I don't think you'll be able to get a definite answer without actually asking someone on the show since there doesn't seem to be any information about this online, and I can't recall hearing, or seeing anything about it on the "behind the scenes" footage or in the interviews that comes with the DVD box set. Though, the fact that most songs are about or at least related to things that happens in the episodes in which they're performed strengthens this theory.
What is mentioned in the DVD extras, though, is that the melodies and the chords are all, or at least partly made up by Lisa Kudrow.
UPDATE
Having done some digging, I managed to find these two Friends CDs:
Album: Friends
Snowman/Ashes/Dead Mother medleyLyrics by Adam Chase (Friends Producer/Writer), Ira Ungerleider (Friends Producer/Writer)
Music by Lisa Kudrow
Album: Friends - Again
Smelly CatWritten by Adam Chase, Betsy Borns (Friends Writer), Chrissy Hynde, Lisa Kudrow
The song credits posted above proves that the producers/writers of Friends were the ones writing Phoebe Buffay's songs, with the exception of "Smelly Cat" which Lisa Kudrow and Chrissy Hynde (the frontwoman of The Pretenders) seems to have been at least partly responsible for.
Sure, these are only two songs, but I see no reason why the rest would be any different.
Tom
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It must have been the scriptwriter. The songs are witty & funny. It is less likely that some naive person would have written them. In my opinion, Pheobe's songs were very smartly written, so it is more likely that a professional i.e. the scriptwriter must have wrote them.
Ankit
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I am not sure, and may be wrong.... But I think it was Lisa Kudrow herself who wrote the songs she sang in FRIENDS.
The Reason I say so.... is because I read somewhere, a long time back, that the characters dressed in whatever they wanted to, and the director gave them a lot of space.
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If could then I wouldn't have written and I qoute "I am not Sure" But Regarding the second statement I think I saw it on OPRAH. – Nishant Feb 26 '13 at 09:53
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1Then its looks like
i thinkanswer, which doenot suits to this question. – Ankit Sharma Feb 26 '13 at 10:19 -
To the above answer posted by Ankit.... none of the songs were clever or witty . All the songs just proved one point that Phoebe's song didn't made any sense and she was a lousy singer and writer. – Nishant Feb 26 '13 at 10:50
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3But it doesn't prove the she write her own song. Some other actor or crew member can also write the songs. – Ankit Sharma Feb 26 '13 at 10:55