Key Songs In The Life Of… Mike O’Neill

MBW’s Key Songs In The Life Of… is a series in which we ask influential music industry figures about the tracks that have – so far – defined their journey and their existence. Taking his turn in the hotseat this time is Mike O’Neill, the President and CEO of BMI who celebrated three decades service at the PRO last year. The Key Songs In The Life Of… series is supported by Sony Music Publishing.

Mike O’Neill (half) jokes that he has 1.4 million-and-one favorite songwriters. 1.4 million are, of course, beloved members of BMI, the performance rights organization where he is President and CEO and where he has worked for over 30 years. The other is Bruce Springsteen.

And it’s not just the brilliance of the artistry and the depth of the catalog for which he frees up a 1,400,001st spot on the podium but outside the BMI-zone; it turns out he and The Boss have history.

First there was the encounter when O’Neill was working as a lifeguard. Much later on there was the one in the gym (more on both to come, don’t worry). And in between there was the one in a bar where he was working during, appropriately enough, Springsteen’s Glory Days.

“Bruce walks in one night, and I introduced myself as the lifeguard he’d met! He doesn’t remember me, of course, but he ends up dropping his wallet, and some kid found it. As Bruce is leaving, the kid hands me the wallet, and I run over to return it.

“He comes back to the bar where all my buddies are hanging out, and he buys us all drinks. We felt like part of the E Street Band at that point!”

As you’d expect, with three decades working and advocating for writers, O’Neill knows the power and value of a song (although, as per the famous Oscar Wilde quote, he is always careful not to confuse value with price). As you’d also expect, he both loved and hated the task of choosing just eight.

He says: “I listen to so much music, it was tough to find a starting point. In the end I went to my most-listened-to tracks of last year. That was great, and obviously I love them all. But it struck me that they weren’t really the most important songs of my life; I wanted to go a bit broader and deeper than what I’ve listened to in the last 12 months.

“So I started to think of songs that I associate with memories and stories. It was hard – and it took so much longer than I thought it would. But it was also great. I laughed, I cried, I remembered a whole lot of stories that I can’t tell!”

Maybe another time (maybe another place). But, for now, this selection of tracks and tales, from someone who truly loves music and clearly worships the songwriters behind it, will more than suffice…

1) Murray Head / Yvonne Elliman, Superstar / I Don’t Know How to Love Him (1970)

This takes me back to when I was 13 or 14 years old. I’m of Irish-Italian Catholic descent, and I was raised in a pretty strict Catholic household – I was even an altar boy growing up. There were five kids in our family, all within six years of each other.

When Jesus Christ Superstar first came out in the seventies, it was seen as controversial, almost sacrilegious at the time. So, growing up with two parents who were very devout Catholics, they wouldn’t let us listen to it.

Of course my older brother snuck out to the record store and bought it. My two older brothers and I shared a room together growing up, and we’d listen to the album without our parents knowing we had it. We knew every word – and we loved these two tracks in particular. It was kind of the first time we rebelled against my parents.

They eventually found out we had the album, and they were not happy with us boys. But, looking back, they were actually open-minded people. They taught us to consider different perspectives.

A few years later, my parents actually bought tickets to see Jesus Christ Superstar on Broadway. They realized the whole play was about different perspectives on whether you’re Judas or Christ and how the disciples interacted. It actually taught us a valuable lesson that has always stuck with me.

2) Bill Withers, Lean on Me (1972)

We’re jumping ahead now to the COVID years in terms of memories and stories.

It was a horrible time, and in New York, we were almost like the epicenter of the pandemic in the US. Everybody knew somebody who had come down with or passed away from COVID in that area. The lockdowns and isolation were awful.

But it was also the first time I actually got to have dinner with my family regularly. Working and commuting for over 30 years at BMI, I was never home at dinner time for my two daughters when they were growing up.

So, every Friday night during lockdown, we broke the rules a little bit. We would invite our best friends over to eat dinner. We would order take-out from local restaurants that couldn’t have people in anymore, because we wanted to keep supporting them as patrons.

We’d eat together and drink together, and then I would put on Lean On Me and we’d all sing along at the top of our lungs – all during probably the most horrific period that I can remember.

It was a song that kind of got us through – and it’s a memory that will always stick with me.

3) Bruce Springsteen, Born To Run (1975)

I’m a born and bred Jersey boy – grew up on the Jersey Shore with Springsteen right in the neighborhood.

When I was a freshman playing varsity basketball in high school, around 1980, this was our team’s anthem, and that’s when I first got introduced to his music.

Years later, I was lifeguarding on the beach with my brothers, and who walks up to us on the lifeguard stand but Bruce. He starts asking us questions about our job: How many people have you had to save? How do you stay focused? And we’re all just thinking, It’s Bruce freaking Springsteen!

A few years later, I’m working out at Gold’s Gym in Long Branch on a Saturday, and next to me is Bruce Springsteen. He’s not a BMI songwriter – he’s never been with BMI – but the next Saturday I come in wearing a BMI ball cap, hoping he’d be there again.

Sure enough, he’s working out next to me again, he looks at me, and he says, ‘I know BMI’. I told him, ‘If you ever want to see how the other half lives, Bruce, I’m very willing to show you’ – and I handed him a BMI cap from my bag. I’m still working on that one!

4) John Williams, Star Wars Theme (1977) / Mike Post, Law & Order Theme (1994)

This goes back about 18 years. I was given the responsibility, along with revenue, to take over creative at BMI. The Board of Directors asked me to present ‘Mike O’Neill’s view on creative’ at the next board meeting.

So I get up there in front of our 18 board members, and I show a highlight reel focusing on two of the most prolific television and film composers: Mike Post and John Williams. At the end of the reel, I ask everyone to stand up, which they do with some confusion, because I hadn’t told anybody what I was planning.

They’re all looking at me kind of strangely as we go into the adjoining room, and there are Mike Post and John Williams. I said, ‘Rather than me waxing poetically on what I believe the creative process is, let’s find out from the masters themselves.’ We proceeded to have a two-hour interview with Mike and John.

During that session, I asked John Williams if he’d ever created a piece of music for a film that just wasn’t working. He said, ‘Absolutely – it was E.T.’ Remember the scene where the bicycles take off? He spent two days working on that piece, until eventually Steven Spielberg called him up asking, ‘John, where’s the music? I need the music. Come on over and tell me what the problem is.’

So John goes over to the studio and explains, ‘I just can’t fit this music into the scene. It’s just not working.’ Spielberg asks to hear the music, and then looks at John and says, ‘The problem isn’t your music. The problem is my scene.’ And he recut the scene to fit the music.

With Mike, he worked a lot with Dick Wolf, who one day wanted a theme song for a new cop series. He really wanted something unique, not a variation on the Hill Street Blues theme or whatever.

Mike, being the creative genius he is, goes to New York City, brings a recording device down into the subways, and starts recording the trains going over the rails. That’s how he came up with the theme to NYPD Blue – just by listening to the sound of the train tracks.

Sitting back and listening to the genius of creativity from these two people just solidified them as icons in my mind. It opened my eyes to how people like them do things differently.

5) Pure Prairie League, Let Me Love You Tonight  (1980)

I was a sophomore in college, a dutiful student, but at the same time trying to meet young women.

There was one young woman in particular I was trying to date who was into country music. Being from Jersey, my playlist was Springsteen, Bon Jovi, maybe Sinatra – that was it in those days. I didn’t know country music at all.

She was listening to Pure Prairie League, and I went out and bought their CD, thinking it would give me a leg up in the negotiation of dating. In the end, I never did get a date with this girl, but more importantly, she introduced me to Vince Gill [lead vocalist of PPL at the time] – hey, he’s essentially a Vinny, he could be from Jersey…

From there, I discovered Alabama, The Marshall Tucker Band, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, and Toby Keith. That was my introduction to country music.

When I became President and CEO of BMI, at the first country dinner we had, my first Icon honoree was Vince Gill. Officially, of course, it was for his phenomenal songwriting, but on my behalf it was also for introducing me to country music.

6) Taylor Swift, Our Song / Love Story (2006/2008)

When Taylor first came out with her self-titled debut album, my daughters were seven and nine years old.

I remember driving to Boston to visit their grandparents, and we played Taylor Swift for five hours straight in the car. I could recite Our Song by heart because my girls would sing it over and over again.

When her next album [Fearless] came out, Love Story became another song that’s ingrained in my head. I know the words by heart to this day.

I’ve had the pleasure of working with Taylor for 19 years now, but that’s the business side. From the personal side, the evolution that I’ve seen in her songwriting has been intertwined with my daughters growing up with her music.

At every stage, the experiences they went through in life – they could always relate them to a song that Taylor had written

The Eras Tour actually brought back all those memories of my daughters dressing up as Taylor, meeting her, getting to talk to her. It has been such a privilege.

We’ve known Taylor since she was 13 or 14 years old. I think her family is a big part of who she is – her mother Andrea and father Scott are integral to her identity, and I love that about her. She’s just a wonderful human being.

We gave her an award once, and her mother pulled up a video from when Taylor was 14, when they had just moved from Philadelphia to Nashville. Our building is in the background and Taylor says, ‘I’m gonna sign with BMI today! This is exciting!’

We got to play it at the ceremony, and it was just a cool moment.

7) Bob Marley, Three Little Birds (1977)

People who know me would say I see the glass as always half full – not just because I’m Irish, but probably because I look at things optimistically. For me, there’s always a solution; we can always get through to the other side.

When you listen to Three Little Birds, with that refrain – Don’t worry about a thing, ’cause every little thing is gonna be all right’ – to me, that’s my life philosophy. I’ve always loved that song.

It puts you in a mood or a vibe where you know it’s all going to work out. You think about the good times. You think about being on a beach with a beer, or maybe something a little stronger. It’s just a relaxing, reinforcing song.

In fact, I was listening to it this morning – just to calm my nerves before doing this!

At Sony Music Publishing (SMP), we believe every voice matters. We are the #1 global music publisher, advancing the artistry of the world’s greatest songwriters and composers for over 25 years. We keep songwriters at the forefront of everything we do, and design our suite of services to amplify opportunities, build connections, and defend their rights. Our roster benefits from an international team committed to providing support at every career stage. From classic catalogues to contemporary hitmakers, history is always being written. We are a part of the Sony family of global companies. Learn more about SMP here.Music Business Worldwide