Scott,

It happens all the time. My most recent example was with a song called "My Wish." I wrote it in 2000 for songwriters that I closed out my workshops with. Kind of a touchy feely song with the main theme:

My Wish for you is Faith
My Wish for you is Hope
When Life can bring you down
There's a place for you to go
Always try to bring a smile
A laugh, a touch a rose,
There's somebody just like me, who loves you,
And I just wanted you to know.

I played it at the close of every show and workshop. Kind of my "Awww" moment. One of the guys I played a lot of shows with was a little known Nashville writer named Jeffery Steele. Jeff has written about half of the biggest hits in country over the past 10 years and is a pretty good friend of mine. We are both left handed and have hung out a bit.

About a year ago I started getting congratulatory e-mails and phone calls on my new Rascal Flatts hit, "My Wish." I wasn't aware I had a new Rascal Flatts cut. But Jeffery Steele did. now some people would start jumping up and down and screaming. I didn't because I know Jeff didn't any more steal my song than the man in the moon and neither of us were the first to use that title or idea. He wrote his for his daughter's wedding.

All it did was make mine inaffective. That is what the business is. You write more songs and move on.Happens every day.

MAB