Originally Posted by
Delilah
From what I’ve read, this is not how songwriting credits are listed, at least not for the Eagles. It may be the case for other bands. Whoever comes up with the song idea or starts the song gets listed first. E.g. Timothy has said in interviews as well as on stage that he had bits and pieces of song ideas when he first joined the band. Glenn liked one of them and worked out the music while Henley completed the lyrics. The result is I Can’t Tell You Why which doesn’t sound like anything TBS wrote for Poco or his subsequent solo material. He is listed first in the credits b/c he had the initial song idea.
Another example is Saturday Night. Randy is listed first b/c he came up with the song idea (as documented in Rolling Stone). But those lyrics are very Henley-like. I suspect this is one of those times where whatever lyrics Randy had were replaced by Henley’s b/c Henley could “say it better” or whatever justification he and Frey gave for re-writing someone else’s lyrics.
ETA:
That’s interesting but I’m not sure that was always the case. It sounds like he was talking about songwriting in general.