5 Songs You Didn’t Know Tom Waits Has Written For Other Artists

Thomas Alan Waits is credited with writing hundreds of songs throughout a career spanning over 50 years.

He primarily co-wrote songs with his wife Kathleen Brennan – the two married in 1980 – beginning with a song from Waits’ 1985 album, rain dog, and the rest of his 17 albums as lead co-writer. The pair also collaborated on Robert Wilson’s 1990 production of The Black Rider: The Launch of the Magic Bulletswhich was designed by Wilson, Waits and William S. Burroughs, then again for Waits’ 14th Alice in 2002, which was loosely based on Alice Liddell, the girl who inspired Lewis Carroll’s 1865 classic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Across his 17 albums, film and stage compositions, and various collaborations, Waits’ songwriting contributions have also reached everyone from Johnny Cash and Rickie Lee Jones, to Marianne Faithfull, and more.

Here are five songs Tom Waits has written for other artists.

1. “Is there a way out of this dream?” Crystal Gayle (1982)
Written by Tom Waits

Tom Waits composed the soundtrack for Francis Ford Coppola’s 1982 romantic drama one of the heartwith Teri Garr and the late Harry Dean Stanton, which included five songs performed by Crystal Gayle and Waits: “Old Boyfriends”, “Take Me Home”, “This One’s From the Heart”, “Picking Up After You” and “Ya Is there a way out of this dream?

I can clearly see that nothing is clear
I keep falling apart every year
Let’s take a hammer
There’s no glamor in it
Is there a way out of this dream

I’m as blue as can be
Is there someone else for me
Summer is dragging its feet
I feel so incomplete
Is there a way out of this dream

2. “Rainbow Sleeves”, Rickie Lee Jones (1983)
Written by Tom Waits

EP and third album by Rickie Lee Jones in 1983, girl at her volcanofeatured several live performances, a cover of The Drifters’ 1964 classic “Under the Boardwalk”, some leftover studio cuts, and a song written by her former boyfriend, Waits, titled “Rainbow Sleeves”.

You used to dream of yourself every night
In places you’ve never been
On wings made of wishes
that you whispered to yourselfourselves

When every night the moon and you
Would sweep to places
that you knew
where you would never have the blues

3. “Strange Time”, Marianne Faithfull (1987)
Written by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan

When Marianne Faithfull started working on her album strange time, it was the first time she recorded new music after quitting a 17-year addiction to heroin. The title track was written by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan after many conversations with Faithfull about the review of previous years. Prior to the taping, Faithfull entered rehab following a fall down the stairs, while under the influence, which broke her jaw. The songs of strange time document some of the most turbulent periods of his life.

Will you take me through the channel
London Bridge is collapsing
Strange, a woman tries to save
What will a man try to drown

And it’s the rain they predicted
It’s the forecast every time
The rose died because you picked it
I believe this brandy is mine

The word becomes flatter
The sky is falling all around
And nothing is the matter
‘Cause I never cry in town

And a love like ours, my dear
Is best measured when down
And I never buy umbrellas
‘Cause there’s always one around

4. “Over there by the train”, Johnny Cash (1994)
Written by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan

Under the guidance of producer Rick Rubin, Johnny Cash’s 81st album, american recordings, featured a collection of songs written by an eclectic mix of artists – everyone from Glen Danzig to Cash’s former stepson Nick Lowe, as well as a cover of Leonard’s song “Bird on a Wire.” Cohen’s 1969 and Kris Kristofferson’s gospel-country 1972 song “Why Me”. Tom Waits was also enlisted as a contributor and wrote a gospel-tinged song about redemption for Cash called “Down There by the Train”.

There’s a golden moon shining through the mist
And I know your name might be on this list
There is no eye for an eye, there is no tooth for a tooth
I saw Judas Iscariot wearing John Wilkes Booth
He was over there by the train

5. “It’s Raining on Me”, Chuck E. Weiss with Tom Waits (1999)
Written by Tom Waits and Chuck E. Weiss

Tom Waits and Chuck E. Weiss met in 1972 and have remained friends and collaborators ever since, beginning their musical collaboration on the track “Spare Parts”, recorded on Waits’ 1975 album. Nightjars at Diner. Although Waits later recorded “It Rains on Me” for Orphans: Brawlers, Brawlers & Bastards in 2006, he first sold it to Weiss for late blues, Americana, and beat the singer-poet’s second album, extremely coolreleased in 1999. A sequel to Weiss’ 1981 debut The other side of town, extremely cool was also co-produced by Waits, who also appears on two tracks, including “It Rains On Me”.

So will the world be
Everywhere I go it’s raining on me
Forty monkeys drown in a boiling sea
Everywhere I go it’s raining on me
I went down to the valley to pray
Everywhere I go it’s raining on me
I got drunk and stayed all day
Everywhere I go it’s raining on me
Everywhere I go, everywhere I go
Everywhere I go it’s raining on me
All God’s chilluns can’t you see
Everywhere I go it’s raining on me
Louie Lista and Marchese
Everywhere I go it’s raining on me

Waits also wrote songs inspired by his late friend, including “I Wish I Was In New Orleans Again” and “Jitterbug Boy.” Weiss died on July 20, 2021 of cancer at the age of 76.