Tom Snow.
The songwriter behind the songs you know. Five decades of American song — from a Billboard #1 to the Oscars, the Grammys, Broadway, and an Emmy on the shelf.
Drop the needle
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Recordings
Five decades of song
Awards & Nominations
The magic of a song
Tom Snow has spent a lifetime inside the architecture of the American song. Born in Princeton, New Jersey in 1947, he graduated second in his class from Berklee College of Music with a degree in composition, then drove west in 1969 to write songs in the folk clubs of Los Angeles.
The break came in 1978, when Rita Coolidge carried his song "You" into the Top 30. What followed was one of the quietest great runs in pop history: "He's So Shy" for the Pointer Sisters, "Let's Hear It for the Boy" — a #1 record and Oscar nominee from Footloose — "Don't Know Much" for Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville, and "Dreaming of You," the song forever entwined with Selena.
His melodies have crossed pop, country, R&B, and film — recorded by Streisand, Ray Charles, Dolly Parton, Bonnie Raitt, and Christina Aguilera — and carried Footloose all the way to Broadway.
"A great song doesn't shout. It leans in, and the whole world leans with it."
Berklee Distinguished Alumnus · TEDx Speaker · BMI Robert J. Burton Award