"It's the kind of job where the best thing you can be is invisible." These are the words of songwriter Eg White from an interview back in 2011. It illustrates how in an industry where image holds so much weight, the role of the songwriter is to lurk in the shadows. It also shows that as someone who has written for the likes of Adele, Florence & Machine & Sam Smith, he is fully aware of where he stands.

This isn't a modern phenomenon however, the separation of singer and songwriter and indeed writer and performer is as old as the arts themselves. Charles Harris 1891 penned ditty After The Ball became the first million selling sheet music song written specifically as a vehicle for another voice.

As the science behind recording sound developed so did the emphasis upon the separation of church and state between the singer and songwriter. And just as with the Hollywood studio system which developed stars record companies created song-writing factories such as the Brill Building in New York to ensure a steady flow of material for their ever more beautiful and handsome stars. The Brill Building, home to amongst others Leiber and Stoller, Burt Bacharach, Neil Diamond, Carole King would produce 100s of hits in a system that would be replicated across the world.

In the post-World War II world, the stars of stage and screen were more often than not stars of the gramophone too. Big bands were the order of the day, songwriters were in high demand, and competition to write for the biggest stars was fierce.

There was no bigger star than Frank Sinatra but Sinatra relied heavily on Nelson Riddle to arrange the majority of his songs, and songwriters to supply him with hits to sustain his career.

One of the more famous songwriters who worked with Sinatra was Canadian singer Paul Anka. He wrote Sinatra's career defining song My Way. The melody is based on a French song Comme D'Habitude translated into English meaning "as usual". Anka met Sinatra near the end of his career and was inspired to write his swan song.

“I’m sat at a typewriter at 1am, a storm outside and wondered what Frank would say if he was writing this. I thought: ‘And now, the end is near…’ and it wrote itself." explains Anka on writing the lyric.

It was common practice at the time to take a European melody and recast it with an original English lyric at the time and Anka beat off stiff competition from numerous writers to have his lyric chosen including a submission from a young David Bowie.

While numerous songwriters were employed by Sinatra there was one duo in particular that who excelled writing for him. Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen were according to The New York times "almost considered to be his personal songwriters." They were behind songs such as Come Fly With Me, Love and Marriage and All The Way and many of the other songs, which define Sinatra’s career.

The Brill Building also had a major impact on the career of another modern icon Elvis Presley, Jerry Lieber & Mike Stroller wrote two of Elvis' biggest hits during the '50s, Hound Dog and Jailhouse Rock. Those songs would help launch his career and in time come to define the genre of rock & roll.

Another frequent contributor to Presley's repertoire was Brooklyn songwriter Otis Blackwell. He penned some of Presley's most recognisable songs including Fever, All Shook Up and Don't Be Cruel. Blackwell famously gave up 50% of the royalties on Don’t Be Cruel so that the "hottest new singer around" (Elvis) sang it.

The earthquake in youth culture created by Elvis Presley inspired a generation to wanna rock and a new wave of musicians and groups would quickly envelope the market but with a seismic shift. These new artists, wanted to write their own material this gave rise to acts such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones. Bob Dylan and the protest folk movement and eventually the avant-garde would emerge. But for every Lennon and McCartney there would still be a Cilla Black who relied on the men in the shadows to provide her with material.

As the music industry grew during the '60s & '70s, record labels become more powerful and some labels become synonymous with certain sounds or genres. An institution is the perfect way to describe one of the most influential labels of the '60s, Motown.

Not only was it highly influential, it was also hugely successful and the Motown label was rightly christened the hit machine. Their success was largely down to a songwriting/production trio of Holland–Dozier–Holland. Brothers Brian and Eddie Holland and Lamont Doizer would become Motown's biggest hitmakers. They were behind the label's most successful act The Supremes. Writing a string of number one singles, which had them going toe to toe with The Beatles.