Wyn Cooper, All I Wanna Do

All I Wanna Do  Poet Wyn Cooper, who teaches writing at Marlboro College in Vermont, is listed as one of the co-songwriters of Sheryl Crow's hit single "All I Wanna Do," but the collaboration came about in the most unlikely, serendipitous manner possible. For a year, Crow and a group of musicians met every Tuesday at a studio in Pasadena, with the idea of composing a new song by the end of each evening. One night, Crow brought some music she liked, but she hated the lyrics she'd written. Looking for inspiration, her producer went across the street to a bookstore. He randomly selected ten books of poetry and bought them for Crow, who holed up in the bathroom with the books. She was drawn to Wyn Cooper's poem "Fun" in his collection, The Country of Here Below, which was published by Ahsahta Press in 1987. Crow changed some phrases, deleted a few lines, and added a refrain, and a song was born. "All I Wanna Do" became a number-one single, Crow's album went platinum, and Cooper began receiving royalty checks -- unimaginable rewards for a poem he wrote ten years ago.