Don Black, Jackson Browne inducted into Songwriters Hall of Fame

Quick, what's the best song ever written about a rat?

That's right, we're talking "Ben," the classic Michael Jackson  song from before he went a little off the rails and the title song to a 1972 horror flick.

Now the guy who wrote that song – Don Black, who also wrote "Born Free" for the movie of the same name and the James Bond theme "Diamonds Are Forever" – is being inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame today.

"When it came to writing about a rat, I said, 'You can't write about a rat,' " Black said. "I mean, I'm not going to use words like 'cheese.' I thought the best thing to do is write about friendship."

Because kids and rats are always, uh, friends. In any case, we can still sing along to the song all these years later, so it must have been good!

Among the other inductees are singer-songwriter Jackson Browne– who grew up in Orange County – and Caribbean songwriter Irving Burgie, best known for Harry Belafonte's "Day-O."

Relative newcomer and Grammy winner John Legend  will receive the Hal David Starlight Award, while previous inductee Dolly Parton  will receive the Johnny Mercer award for her career achievements.

Parton, who was inducted into the hall in 2001, said songwriting is the most important part of her career as an entertainer.

"I would always give up everything before I give up the writing, because it's really my way of expressing myself," she told The Associated Press.

Parton – whose credits include "9 to 5," "I Will Always Love You," and the autobiographical "Coat of Many Colors" – estimates that she has written over 3,000 songs. And in her colorful Dolly way, she acknowledged that her songwriting talent is sometimes overshadowed by her outsized persona.

"I've had people tell me ... 'People would take you so much more serious as a singer and writer if you didn't look like a whore,' " she says, laughing. "I say, it's looking like the whore that's the fun part, and I can't give that up, because it's all part of a package!"

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