The list of respected artists who have recorded her songs seems to lengthen by the day. R&B icons Aretha Franklin and Mary J. Blige (their duo performance of Denise's "Don't Waste Your Time" earned a Grammy nomination), Latin pop sensation Marc Anthony, international superstar Celine Dion, legendary headliners Johnny Mathis and Diana Ross, art song interpreters like Duncan Sheik, dance divas from Donna Summer to Amber, all find common ground in her music.

Denise’s songs resonate with the public in many different markets. Songs like "Quedate," by Lara Fabian appeared on Latin radio charts for more than 40 weeks; "Candy," provided Mandy Moore with a Top Ten hit; "Livin' For Love," peaked at the top of the dance charts for Natalie Cole; and "Aim Your Arrow High," helped earn a Grammy nomination in the Contemporary Soul/Gospel category for the Tremaine Hawkins album To a Higher Place. They all served to demonstrate her wide and varied scope as a songwriter.

Songwriters as varied as K. C. Porter, Kara Dioguardi, Burt Bacharach, Chucky Thompson, Neil Sedaka, Gen Rubin, Mike Mason, Soulshock & Karlin, and Walter Afanasieff have all lined up to work with her. Lately she's stretched her range even further, writing Spanish-language material in Miami with Latin giants Alejandro Lerner, Omar Alfanno, Rudy Perez, and Kike Santander, while working in New York with urban artists such as Lyric, Wildlife, and Shaliek Rivers, as well as collaborating with hitmakers John Bettis, Jim Daddario, and Holly Lamar in Nashville, or Brian Rawlings, Chris Braide, and Pam Sheyne in the U.K.

Denise’s story is in itself as intriguing as her music.

One of the first surprises, in getting to know Denise, is that writing songs wasn't her first musical passion. Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, she had already developed a love for folk music by the time she began her studies at Boston University. Like many of her friends, she played guitar and sang songs written or performed by Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Joan Baez and her other early inspirations.

Following her marriage, Denise moved with her family to Europe. While living in Spain and England, she began listening to a wider range of artists like the Beatles, Marvin Gaye and Julio Iglesias -- different types of performers who shared an appreciation for well-crafted songs. It was this common trait that attracted Denise's attention and stirred her own curiosity about writing.

"I started writing because I found I could communicate to my family and loved ones more easily through songs and music rather than through conversation" she says. It was an easier way for me to express my feelings, that's really why I became a songwriter."

After returning to the United States, Denise committed herself more deeply to writing -- though still for personal reasons. The idea of pursuing a professional career in music only occurred to her after thumbing through an issue of American Songwriter, where she came across an invitation for readers to enter the American Song Festival. On an impulse she submitted two songs, both of which quickly garnered awards for lyric writing from the Festival. Inspired, Denise wrote and taped more material, and sent a demo out to around a hundred publishers. One, Silver Blue Publishing, responded favorably, with a promise to place her next song if it sounded like hit material.

That song came to her shortly afterward, in the midst of a flight out of New York. "I went to sleep on the plane," Denise recalls, "and suddenly I woke up with a song called 'Frankie' in my head. I sang it into my tape recorder, and when I got to Switzerland I recorded it in a studio. After that I sent it to Paul Marshall, a music attorney I had heard about in the States. He gave it to Sister Sledge and the song, the first one I had published, became number one." "Frankie" locked onto the top of the European charts for six weeks and hit number one as well in Japan and Australia.

For two years she lived in Switzerland, where she welcomed high-profile American songwriters and began building a catalogue based on their collaborations, as well as many titles written on her own. Her work appeared on a growing list of albums and in more unusual settings too, such as the closing ceremony of the 1988 Olympics, in which Richie Havens sang her song "The Next American Hero." Denise also recorded her own CD on MCA, Sweet Pain of Love, which yielded a hit single, "We Walked Away From a Love Affair," and a video shot by famed film director Ken Russell and Jon Roseman, whose firm has done video work for Eurythmics, the Kinks and Bananarama.

However, Denise soon realized that writing, more than performing, was her calling. "So when I moved back to the States in the '90s," she explains, "I started writing like crazy." For several years she ran W&R Music in partnership with producer Ric Wake, a multifaceted company designed to promote young artists. In the late '90s, deciding to assume more control over her endeavors, she founded Denise Rich Songs, under whose auspices she now creates and administers her repertoire.

In her career as a songwriter Denise has accomplished many milestones. Her songs are in soundtracks for films such as Meteor Man (1993), Kiss Me Guido (1997) and The Hurricane (1999); Rich's "Free Yourself," is heard in the film To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything! Julie Newmar, (1995), and Runaway Bride (1999) featured her “You’re The Only One For Me.” Billy Porter's rendition of Denise's "Love Is On the Way" in The First Wives Club (1996) inspired Celine Dion to record her triple-platinum version of the song. Most recently, Patti LaBelle laid down a sizzling performance of "The Voice Inside My Heart" for the John Q soundtrack (2002). The film Chicago (2002) features "Love Is a Crime", co-written by Denise, Greg Lawson and Damon Sharpe, performed by dance-pop sensation Anastacia and slated for release as a single during the week of February 7.

Denise has contributed her talent as well as her earnings to a number of worthy causes. The National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis chose her song, "All I Wanna Be Is Understood," as its anthem; the Save The Children Foundation similarly embraced "Save the Children," which Denise co- wrote with Joe Raposo. More recently, Denise wrote “Love Will Set You Free”, recorded by pop diva Kelly Price for the movie “The Hurricane,” which made over $200,000 for the T.J. Martell Foundation and The G&P Foundation for Cancer Research.

In 1997, Denise, together with members of her family, created The G&P Foundation for Cancer Research in memory of her daughter Gabrielle, who passed away from AML leukemia, at the age of 27. The mission of the G&P Foundation for Cancer Research is to fund basic and clinical research in both conventional and integrative disciplines which focus on prevention, treatments and quality of life issues of leukemia, lymphoma and related cancers.

Denise is on the board of LIFEbeat (The Music Industry Fights AIDS), The Interfaith Center of New York and serves on the International Committee of the Guggenheim Museum. She has also raised and donated money for AmFar, the American Cancer Society, the Gay Men's Health Crisis, Citymeals-On-Wheels, The Elton John Aids Foundation and many other good causes. Firmly committed, as well to keeping the music industry strong, she is a member of the New York host committee for the Grammy Awards.

In the end, it's her instinctive love of music that drives Denise through a life filled with many diverse activities as a songwriter, philanthropist and mother. Always a global thinker, Denise is looking forward to expanding her talents further into international markets, where opportunities abound for songwriters who can adapt to a myriad of tastes. Yet even now her motivation is as personal as it was when she first tentatively tried her hand at putting words and music to tape.

"Songwriting has got to be intimate," she insists. "For me the success of songwriting is to open your heart and leave your ego behind. As wonderful as it is to have your name on a hit record or to win an award, the process of writing a song is just as important as the results it might bring.”