by Kayla YandoliBuzzFeedBuzzFeed Staff 1. Taylor Swift co-wrote "This Is What You Came For" with Calvin Harris, which he released as a single with Rihanna in 2016. The original songwriting credits were given to Harris and an unknown writer named Nils Sjöberg. Rolling Stone later confirmed that it was Swift's songwriting alias, as she wanted to keep her credit secret. Westbury Road / Sony / Anthony Harvey / Getty Images Harris eventually became frustrated that the spotlight was on Swift's songwriting credit rather than his own, and he vocalized this after they broke up in 2016. "I wrote the music, produced the song, arranged it, and cut the vocals, though. And, initially, she wanted it kept secret, hence the pseudonym," Harris tweeted. "Hurtful to me at this point that her and her team would go so far out of their way to try and make ME look bad at this stage, though." Kevin Mazur/BMA2015 / WireImage / Getty Images You can listen to "This Is What You Came For" here. Westbury Road / Sony 2. Missy Elliott is responsible for writing a plethora of major hits for singers in the 2000s, like "So Gone" for Monica, "Oops (Oh My)" for Tweet, and "My Love Is Like...
Wo" for Mýa. "Oops (Oh My)" by Tweet was always rumored to be about masturbation, but in 2021, Elliott cleared the air and let her fans know it's actually about Tweet's self-love for her Black skin. She tweeted: "This song was never 'bout masturbation, it was always about her appreciating her dark skin (self-love) when she looked in the mirror 🙂. It was listeners who thought it was about sex and just ran with it - we just let the consumer's mind create what they wanted." J Records In 2018, Elliott tweeted about her experience writing "My Love Is Like...
Wo" for Mýa: "I remember I had 10 shots of Patrón writing the lyrics. I played it for Mýa and we was dancing 'round the studio having a ball. In this music video, SHE DID DAT. The choreography was lit 🙌🏾🔥." Steve Granitz / WireImage / Getty Images You can listen to "So Gone" here, "My Love Is Like...
Wo" here, and "Oops (Oh My)" here. Interscope / The Goldmind / Elektra / J Records 3. Pharrell helped write "Hollaback Girl" with Gwen Stefani for her 2004 album, Love. Angel. Music. Baby. Stefani told Billboard in 2019, "I was being bullied by someone and was being called a cheerleader, which was a bad thing! Growing up, that was not cool. I told Pharrell we should write a song about that." Interscope The bully in question is Hole singer Courtney Love. Stefani continued, "He always had this little keyboard that he writes everything on, and he programs stuff into it. He goes, 'This beat?' and he played 'Hollaback Girl.' I was like, 'You had that in there all these hours, and you never played that until now? Why didn't you play that the first time I walked in here?!'" Kevin Winter / Getty Images You can listen to "Hollaback Girl" here. Interscope 4. Pharrell also co-wrote "Boys" for Britney Spears' 2001 album, Britney with Chad Hugo of The Neptunes. The hit also appeared on the Austin Powers in Goldmember movie soundtrack in 2002. Jive / Tim Roney / Getty Images Pharrell is responsible for writing major hits for artists like Beyoncé, Ariana Grande, Kendrick Lamar, Mariah Carey, and Frank Ocean (among others). He's a songwriting machine, and has continued to crank out hit after hit for over 25 years - check out his full songwriting credits here. Top Dawg / Aftermath / Interscope / Star Trak / Arista / Republic 5. Linda Perry (from 4 Non Blondes) wrote "Beautiful" for Christina Aguilera's 2002 album, Stripped, and "Get the Party Started" for Pink's 2001 album, Missundaztood. RCA / LaFace / Arista / Interscope Perry told Rolling Stone in 2019, "[Christina Aguilera] stood there in my studio with the lyrics in her hands and then said to this friend she brought along, 'Don't look at me,' in that little whispery voice. I knew I was going to keep that on the record, and I knew she was the right person for the song. I realized, 'Oh, she's insecure. She's one of those beautiful people who's got everything but is super insecure. Okay, this song is hers.'" RCA / MTV / Via youtube.com And when it came to writing "Get the Party Started" for Pink, Linda Perry recalled: "I sent it to Madonna and she passed, but a week later, Alecia [Pink] called. She left me this message how she would come find me if I didn't call her back. I said, 'I think you have the wrong Linda Perry.' She said, 'Is this the Linda Perry who sang 'Dear Mr. President' in 4 Non Blondes? Well, I have the right person.' I told her, 'Well, I've got something I wrote last week,' and sent it to her. I guess she sent it to L.A. Reid and they said, 'Okay we have our first single.'" Gregory Bojorquez / Getty Images You can listen to "Beautiful" here and "Get the Party Started" here. Vince Bucci / Getty Images 6. Prince wrote "Manic Monday" for the Bangles' 1986 album, Different Light. Discos CBS / Columbia / Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images Susanna Hoffs, lead singer