Tom Shapiro is an American songwriter

Songwriter

A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...

 and occasional record producer

Record producer

A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...

, known primarily for his work in country music. To date, he holds four Country Songwriter of the Year awards from Broadcast Music Incorporated

Broadcast Music Incorporated

Broadcast Music, Inc. is one of three United States performing rights organizations, along with ASCAP and SESAC. It collects license fees on behalf of songwriters, composers, and music publishers and distributes them as royalties to those members whose works have been performed...

, as well as the Songwriter of the Decade award from the Nashville Songwriters Association International. He has also written more than fifty Top Ten hits, including twenty-three Number Ones.

Musical career

Since the 1970s, Shapiro has been a prominent songwriter, doing most of his work in country music. Signed to a publishing contract with Tree International in the 1980s, with Eddy Raven

Eddy Raven

Edward Garvin Futch is an American country music artist known professionally as Eddy Raven. Known for his Cajun-influenced country music, Raven has been a recording artist since 1962...

, Crystal Gayle

Crystal Gayle

Crystal Gayle is an American country music singer best known for her 1977 country-pop hit, "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue". An award-winning singer, she accumulated 18 number one country hits during the 1970s and 1980s...

, Marie Osmond

Marie Osmond

Olive Marie Osmond is an American singer, actress, doll designer, and a member of the show business family The Osmonds. Although she was never part of her family's singing group, she gained success as a solo country music artist in the 1970s and 1980s...

 and Lee Greenwood

Lee Greenwood

Melvin Lee Greenwood is an American country music artist. Active since the early 1980s, he has released more than twenty major-label albums and has charted more than 35 singles on the Billboard country music charts....

 being among the first country acts to cut his material. In 1978 The Shadows

The Shadows

The Shadows are a British pop group with a total of 69 UK hit-charted singles: 35 as 'The Shadows' and 34 as 'Cliff Richard and the Shadows', from the 1950s to the 2000s. Cliff Richard in casual conversation with the British rock press frequently refers to the Shadows by their nickname: 'The Shads'...

 released their cover of his song "Love Deluxe." His career continued throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s, with several of his cuts having topped the Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales...

 charts. Among these Number One hits are "Wink

Wink (song)

"Wink" is the title of a song written by Bob DiPiero and Tom Shapiro, and recorded by American country music singer Neal McCoy. It was released in 1994 as the second single from his 1994 album No Doubt About It. Also the second consecutive Number One from that album, "Wink" spent four weeks at the...

" by Neal McCoy

Neal McCoy

Hubert Neal McGaughey, Jr. is an American country music singer of mixed Irish and Filipino descent. Known professionally as Neal McCoy, he has released ten studio albums on various labels, and has released 34 singles to country radio...

, which received BMI's Robert J. Burton award for being the most performed country song of 1993; "No Place That Far

No Place That Far (song)

"No Place That Far" is a song on the No Place That Far album by American country music singer Sara Evans. It was her first Top 40 song on the Hot Country Songs chart, as well as her first #1 country single...

" by Sara Evans

Sara Evans

Sara Lynn Evans is an American country singer and songwriter.Evans was one of the few traditional-styled singers to emerge from Nashville in the late 1990s, according to Allmusic. Since emerging in the late 1990s, Evans has made five No. 1 Country hits and Gold and Platinum-certified albums by...

; "I Miss My Friend

I Miss My Friend (song)

"I Miss My Friend" is a country music song written by Tom Shapiro, Mark Nesler, and Tony Martin, and recorded by American country music singer Darryl Worley. The first single from his album of the same name, it also became his first number one single on the Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart...

" by Darryl Worley

Darryl Worley

Darryl Wade Worley is an American country music artist. Signed to DreamWorks Records Nashville in 2000, Worley released four albums for the label: Hard Rain Don't Last , I Miss My Friend , Have You Forgotten? , and Darryl Worley in 2004...

 (both of which were their respective artists' first Number Ones); and "Ain't Nothing 'Bout You

Ain't Nothing 'bout You

"Ain't Nothing 'bout You" is a song recorded by country music duo Brooks & Dunn and released as a single on February 12, 2001. It was the first single from their 2001 album Steers & Stripes, and was nominated by the Country Music Association for Single of the Year...

" by Brooks & Dunn

Brooks & Dunn

Brooks & Dunn was an American country music duo consisting of Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn, who were both vocalists and songwriters. They were paired by record producer Tim DuBois in 1990. Before the duo's foundation, both members of the duo were solo recording artists...

, which was named by Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

as the Number one country song of 2001.

In addition, Shapiro has produced albums for Billy Dean

Billy Dean

William Harold "Billy" Dean, Jr. is an American country music singer and songwriter. Billy Dean first gained national attention after appearing on the television talent competition Star Search...

 and Dusty Springfield

Dusty Springfield

Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'BrienSources use both Isabel and Isobel as the spelling of her second name. OBE , known professionally as Dusty Springfield and dubbed The White Queen of Soul, was a British pop singer whose career extended from the late 1950s to the 1990s...

, as well as writing several singles for the former.