It’s easy to imagine our favorite musicians and bands penning their hits all alone, like singular visionary artists, but the reality of pop music is far more collaborative. Many pop singers have the voice and the image necessary for stardom but rely on carefully selected songs written by other writers to fill out their discography.

The flipside is that there are plenty of famous artists who are such prolific songwriters they have extra radio-ready material they can give away to other artists, whether out of kindness or financial necessity. These eight famous artists used their songwriting capabilities to create successful careers in music, both for themselves and by lending out their own would-be hits to other artists.

David Bowie

Early on in his legendary career, David Bowie struggled with finding an identity as a songwriter. This struggle would eventually spawn iconic characters like Ziggy Stardust and the Thin White Duke, but before Bowie achieved such success on his own, he found it easier to write songs for other bands whose identities were already established.

Most notably, he wrote and produced “All the Young Dudes” for Mott the Hoople and co-wrote the majority of his close friend Iggy Pop’s solo debut The Idiot and its follow-up Lust for Life.

Randy Newman

Randy Newman is probably best known today for providing the catchy piano tracks with dopey yet endearing vocals that seem to score every other Disney-animated feature, from Toy Story to The Princess and the Frog. Newman’s early career in the ‘60s and ‘70s was defined by his songwriting, penning numerous top 40 hits like “I’ve Been Wrong Before” by Cilla Black and “Nobody Needs Your Love” by Gene Pitney even while his solo albums, including many of those same songs, failed commercially despite positive critical response.

Before Newman ever had an unlikely hit in songs like “Short People” and “I Love LA,” many of his earlier material had already become famous sung by other prominent acts. Three Dog Night made hits of his songs “Mama Told Me Not to Come” and “You Can Leave Your Hat On,” while both Linda Ronstadt and Newman’s idol Ray Charles incorporated his track “Sail Away” into their repertoires.

Bruno Mars

Bruno Mars first found his way into the spotlight wailing hooks on songs by other artists, so it should come as no surprise that the Hawaiian singer-songwriter has maintained a dual career as a prominent pop songwriter while saving enough singles to release by himself.

His off-brand hits are just as impressive and catchy as his own singles, and his credits include Cee Lo Green’s “F*ck You,” B.o.B.’s “Nothin’ on You,” K’naan’s “Wavin’ Flag,” Flo Rida’s “Right Round,” and Justin Bieber’s “Love Me.”

Sia

Australian singer-songwriter Sia’s path towards pop music prominence has been anything but conventional. She began her career fronting a local acid jazz band in Adelaide before providing vocals for trip hop duo Zero 7, then eventually leaving to focus on her musically diverse solo career.

Her biggest hit came with the Top 40 single “Chandelier” from her sixth solo album, 2014’s 1000 Forms of Fear, but Sia has never been a stranger to the Billboard charts, thanks to her songwriting. In all, she’s written a whopping 73 songs for other artists, many of which will be familiar to anyone with a passing knowledge of the pop charts — “Diamonds” by Rihanna, “Invincible” by Kelly Clarkson, “Passenger” by Britney Spears” and “Pretty Hurts” by Beyoncé, just to name a few.

Prince

Prince’s prolific songwriting abilities only seem more impressive in the wake of the singer’s death, with the revelation that he left behind hundreds of unreleased songs. His funk-rock party anthems and sexualized lyrics seem inseparable from his larger-than-life public image, but many of his tracks became hits for other contemporary artists.

He wrote “Manic Monday” for The Bangles under the pseudonym Christopher, and Sinead O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U.” “Love Song” by Madonna, “Jungle Love” by The Time and “Stand Back” by Stevie Nicks are all Prince compositions as well.

Kesha

When you think of songwriters overflowing with inspiration, you probably don’t think of Kesha — the pop singer who before her tragic relationship and legal battle with producer Dr. Luke was most famous for brushing her teeth with a “bottle of Jack.”

Not only did Kesha get a near-perfect score on her SATs, she’s also written plenty of hits for other artists in between recording her own material, stating that she prefers to know who she’s writing the song for before she begins. Among her credits are Alice Cooper’s “What Baby Wants,” Britney Spears’ “Till the World Ends,” Taio Cruz’s “Dirty Picture” and The Veronicas’ “This Love.”

Neil Diamond

Neil Diamond spent the early days of his career working as a songwriter at the now famous Brill Building in New York, where one of his compositions first made the charts in Jay and the Americans’ top 20 hit “Sunday and Me.”

Diamond wrote and recorded a few potential hits for himself in the songs “I’m a Believer,” “A Little Bit Me, a Little Bit You,” and “Love to Love,” but cover versions by The Monkees were released and hit the charts before Diamond’s originals. Diamond’s songwriting career flourished, as prominent acts like Deep Purple, Elvis Presley and Cliff Richard rushed to record his material for themselves.

Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen toiled in obscurity in his early career before his breakthrough album Born to Run helped him make the leap from critical acclaim to commercial success, but his knack for penning radio rock staples was present from the very beginning.

His debut album featured “Blinded by the Light,” which later became a monster hit for Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, and he later co-wrote the hit “Because the Night” with his friend Patti Smith. His unreleased song “Fire” was a success for the Pointer Sisters, and Springsteen even wrote “Hungry Heart” for The Ramones. When they rejected the song, he recorded it himself and it became his first Top 40 single.