Peter Rafelson
Peter Rafelson is an American musician, songwriter, producer and publisher. He is the eldest son of acclaimed film and TV director-producer Bob Rafelson and Rafelson's first wife, the production designer and art director Toby Carr Rafelson.
Rafelson has written over 30 hit songs, recorded by artists including Stevie Wonder, The Bangles, Rufus, Jackson Browne, Stevie Nicks, Britney Spears and Madonna.
"Open Your Heart"
As a composer, Rafelson is probably best known as the co-writer (with Gardner Cole) of Madonna's 1987 hit single "Open Your Heart". In a 2019 interview, Rafelson recalled that he had originally written the song in 1985 with Cyndi Lauper in mind. He demoed the song at a Los Angeles studio and then surreptitiously copied it onto the end of a tape of song demos that he found out was being sent to Madonna for possible inclusion on what became her True Blue album.
Rafelson subsequently learned that Madonna had recorded the song, and that it was scheduled for release as the fourth single from the album, which was also just about to be released. Only at this point did Rafelson make his authorship of the song known to Madonna's legal team, and although they initially disbelieved his claim, he was able to prove it by playing them his original demo. Madonna's label then demanded that he relinquish all the rights to the song, but he called their bluff and refused, knowing that Warner Bros. Records had already pressed some 600,000 copies of the LP. His ploy worked, and although he willingly surrendered one-third of the publishing rights to Madonna (who had re-written some of the lyrics) he and Cole retained the majority share in the song, which went on to reach #1 in the USA and was a Top Ten hit in many other countries.
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