“I’ve always been a massive fan
of Shelly’s writing and have
tried to have our artists cut as
many of her songs as possible.
So when I saw that ‘What a Girl’
was going to replace ‘Smooth’
at No. 1, I was thrilled to call her
and give her the news.”
—PETE GANBARG, PRESIDENT
OF A&R, ATLANTIC RECORDS;
PRESIDENT, ATCO RECORDSTHE LEGACY
Peiken also co-wrote Aguilera’s next
hit, “Come On Over Baby (All I Want
Is You),” which reigned at No. 1 on
the Hot 100 for four weeks in 2000.“Bitch” has logged 56.7 million
on-demand U.S. streams, according
to Nielsen Music/MRC Data.Peiken has two Grammy Award
nominations: best rock song
(“Bitch”) and best spoken word
album, for her 2015 memoir,
Confessions of a Serial Songwriter.My Billboard Moment
Peiken photographed by
Winnie Au on Feb. 14 at Big
Orange Sheep in Brooklyn.
Shelly Peiken
SONGWRITER(^)
In January 2000, Christina Aguilera’s
“What a Girl Wants,” co-written
by Shelly Peiken, dethroned Santana and
Rob Thomas’ “Smooth” to become the first
Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 of the millennium.
It was also the first No. 1 for Peiken, who
had previously gotten close as a co-writer
of Meredith Brooks’ “Bitch,” which hit No. 2
in 1997. Since then, she has written songs
for Bebe Rexha, Céline Dion, Mandy Moore
and Miley Cyrus, and she’s also a founding
member of the advocacy organization Song-
writers of North America. “ ‘Bitch’ changed
things for me, but ‘What a Girl Wants’ es-
tablished that I wasn’t a fluke,” says Peiken
on the song’s 20th anniversary. “If this was
happening again, it wasn’t an accident.”
My daughter was 2 at the time, so I wasn’t ob-
sessing about the charts every second, which
was a good thing. We were reading Winnie
the Pooh when I got a call from [Atlantic Re-
cords’] Pete Ganbarg, who said “What a Girl
Wants” was going to knock out “Smooth” next
week. He had A&R’d Santana and that record,
so he knew when he said, “You’re going to
have your first No. 1.”
I was so ready after “Bitch” had come so
close. Both songs were inspired by the same
relationship: my current husband. They’ve
got a common thread because they’re from
the same soul. Growing up, I didn’t know
songwriting could be a profession. But when
I decided that this was what I wanted to do
with my life, I read Billboard and the charts
constantly: “Diane Warren, Diane Warren,
Diane Warren.” Like, “Who is this chick?!”
(Laughs.) I imagined that one day my name
would be in the little parentheses that said
“writer.” —AS TOLD TO NICK WILLIAMS
HAIR AND MAKEUP BY LAURA COSTAAT EXCLUSIVE ARTISTS