It took back-to-back parties Monday (July 13) to properly celebrate the three songwriters behind Brad Paisley and Keith Urban's recent No. 1 single, "Start a Band."

ASCAP hosted the opening bash at its Nashville headquarters for writers Ashley Gorley and Kelley Lovelace. BMI followed an hour later to spotlight the song's third writer, Dallas Davidson. (ASCAP and BMI are performance rights organizations that represent different songwriters.)

"Start a Band" is Lovelace's 11th No. 1, Gorley's sixth and Davidson's first.

"There's this huge emotional difference between No. 2 and No. 1," Lovelace told the crowd of celebrants. He noted that a scheduling accident led to all three writers collaborating on the day they wrote "Start a Band."

Neither Paisley nor Urban were able to attend the parties. But Lovelace, who's been Paisley's friend since they were students at Nashville's Belmont University and who's co-written several of the singer's biggest hits, joked that he knew what Paisley would say if he were there.

"Brad would say what a gift it is to live so close to me [and] have access to these songs," Lovelace joked.

Recording artists Luke Bryan, Randy Houser and Rhett Akins dropped by the BMI fest to cheer Davidson on. His parents were in the audience, too.

BMI's Perry Howard pointed out that Davidson had twice come close to having No. 1's as the co-writer of Trace Adkins' "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk" and Brooks & Dunn's "Put a Girl in It."

As is BMI's custom, Howard presented Davidson a guitar for achieving his first chart topper.

"When I met Dallas," said his publisher, Brett Jones, "my office was in the Mojo Grill, and his home was a Tacoma [truck] with the window broken out."

"It's a cool day," Davidson responded. "We finally got a No. 1."