John Bettis

John Bettis (born October 24, 1946) is an American lyricist. He was originally part of the band Spectrum, which also featured Richard and Karen Carpenter. He wrote the lyrics for "Top of the World", a hit for both Lynn Anderson and The Carpenters. He wrote several more hits for The Carpenters, including "Only Yesterday", "Goodbye to Love" and "Yesterday Once More". He later wrote hits for other artists such as Madonna ("Crazy for You"), Michael Jackson ("Human Nature"), The Pointer Sisters ("Slow Hand"), Diana Ross ("When You Tell Me That You Love Me"), Jennifer Warnes ("Nights Are Forever"), Peabo Bryson ("Can You Stop the Rain"), George Strait ("Heartland"), Ronnie Milsap ("Only One Love in My Life"), and Barbara Mandrell ("One of a Kind Pair of Fools"). Bettis also co-wrote, with Albert Hammond, "One Moment in Time", the 1988 Summer Olympics anthem performed by Whitney Houston and, with Steve Dorff, the theme song to the 1980s sitcom Growing Pains, "As Long as We Got Each Other." In theatre, Bettis has provided lyrics for the musicals Lunch (tour 1994); Svengali (1992); The Last Session (L.A. Drama critics Award, Best Musical Score 1998); Say Goodnight (1999); Pure Country (2008) and most recently Josephine (2011). Bettis has nearly 800 song credits in the ASCAP database. In 2011, Bettis was inducted into both the Songwriters Hall of Fame as well as the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.