Greatest rock songwriter, John Lennon, tied with Paul Mccartney, and Bob Dylan.
Greatest r&b songwriter, Babyface.
Greatest pop/rock songwriter, Diane Warren

For greatest songwriters since the '60s, I'll go with...

Lennon&McCartney, Stevie Wonder and Elton John.
:)

Stevie Wonder, Dozier/Holland (wrote the Motown Sound), Smokey Robinson (also the writer of the Motown Sound), and Lennon/McCartney.

Tanya

Lennon/McCartney and Bernie Taupin  :)

perhaps it's john eddie???  ;D

Stevie Wonder, Dozier/Holland (wrote the Motown Sound), Smokey Robinson (also the writer of the Motown Sound), and Lennon/McCartney.

Tanya
Thanks for replying, and great choice, also Celine Dion is starting to write for other people, and even though he is a wacko, R. Kelly is a good songwriter.

In No particular order:

Glenn Frey/Don Henley
John Lennon/Paul McCartney
Carole King/Jerry Goffin
Carole Bayer-Sager/Burt Bacherach
Stephen Bishop
Rick Springfield
Elton John/Bernie Taupin
Holland/Dozier/Holland
Angus Young/Bon Scott/Malcolm Young
Robert Plant/Jimmie Page
John Bon Jovi
Lindsey Buckingham/Stevie Nicks
Jeff Lyn (ELO)
.....that's it...for now ;)

In No particular order:

Glenn Frey/Don Henley
John Lennon/Paul McCartney
Carole King/Jerry Goffin
Carole Bayer-Sager/Burt Bacherach
Stephen Bishop
Rick Springfield
Elton John/Bernie Taupin
Holland/Dozier/Holland
Angus Young/Bon Scott/Malcolm Young
Robert Plant/Jimmie Page
John Bon Jovi
Lindsey Buckingham/Stevie Nicks
Jeff Lyn (ELO)
.....that's it...for now ;)
Great choices, I also like Steve Perry

Great choices, I also like Steve Perry

Thanks son, consider yourself "Ungrounded"  ;)

i'm assuming you all forgot about nick drake, cause i mean he was a pretty awesome and talented person from what i hear..

syd barrett and cat stevens are good too.

What about Brian Wilson, Freddie Mercury, David Bowie, Janis Joplin, Chuck Berry and Kurt Cobain? Wilson was at least as good as McCartney (or at least pretty close).

Diane Warren
Elton John
Duran Duran
Hall and Oates

For greatest songwriters since the '60s, I'll go with...

Lennon&McCartney, Stevie Wonder and Elton John.
:)

Bernie Taupin i think wrote the Elton John lyrics

Bernie Taupin i think wrote the Elton John lyrics


I know. That wasn't really fair mentioning Elton John and not Bernie Taupin. I should have checked all the "Elton John" songs I like, and I'd be willing to bet Bernie Taupin cowrote them all, sooooo....

Let's make it:

McCartney&Lennon, Stevie Wonder and Elton John&Bernie Taupin

(notice the switch with L&M to M&L? Paul would prefer it that way  ::) )

(notice the switch with L&M to M&L? Paul would prefer it that way  ::) )



Yeah, I must admit that I didn't think that was very cool of Paul. Did you know that Pat Benatar did a cover of Helter Skelter and SHE put "McCartney-Lennon" on her record....with no protest :-\\

Roger Waters

Pink Floyd and there music were overrated. Many of their songs were actually very simple  and not the same standard as many other bands at the time.

Pink Floyd and there music were overrated. Many of their songs were actually very simple  and not the same standard as many other bands at the time.
I like Pink Floyd's lyrics and music, concept albums are cool, I also read they have never used the word Love in any of their songs

That's not true. In 'Eclipse' the closer to Dark Side Of The Moon the words 'All That You <b>Love</b>' can be clearly heard. It comes in the first section that goes 'All that you touch, all that you see, all that you feel, all that you love.etc'. Of course it wasn't a love song, but you know what I mean the word 'Love' is still in at least one of their songs.

Roger Waters is one of the greatest songwriters and lyricist's ever.

1. Lennon/McCartney
2. Pete Townshend
3. Roger Waters/David Gilmour/Nick Mason
4. Brian Wilson
5. Bob Dylan
6. Mick Jagger/Keith Richards
7. Jim Morrison/Ray Manzarek/Rob Kreiger

I vote for John/Paul cos I really think they are really good at creating so many catch tunes

Lennon & McCartney were totally outstand, another team that are great is:

Elton John (Music) & Bernie Taupin (Lyrics).

My alltime favorites are from the Motown era: Holland-Dozier-Holland

There is plenty of talent within these names!

Dylan
mitchell
simon
Lennon/Mccartney
Jagger/Richards
wilson
hendrix
cohen
mclean
marley
waters/barrett/gilmour
mercury/may
plant/page
davies
townsend
wonder
costello
bacharach/david
holland/dozier/holland
sonheim
porter
williams
young
finn's
v/j morrison
henley/frey
waits
morrisey/marr
vand zandt
bonno/edge
stipe/buck/mills/berry
yorke/greenwood
keithreid
hunter/garcia
prine
louris
tweedy
emenem
c berry
clapton
gaye
martin
cahn
parsons
r/l wainright
rice
r adams
gilmour
bellamyguthree
l reed
king
spector
taylor
webb
phillips
martyn
ian
baez
franklin

Dylan
mitchell
simon
Lennon/Mccartney
Jagger/Richards
wilson
hendrix
robinson
achcroft
cohen
mclean
marley
waters/barrett/gilmour
mercury/may
plant/page
davies
townsend
wonder
newman
costello
bacharach/david
holland/dozier/holland
sonheim
porter
williams
young
finn's
v/j morrison
henley/frey
waits
morrisey/marr
vand zandt
bonno/edge
stipe/buck/mills/berry
yorke/greenwood
keithreid
hunter/garcia
prine
leiber/stoller
berlin
louris
tweedy
emenem
c berry
clapton
gaye
martin
cahn
parsons
r/l wainright
rice
r adams
gilmour
bellamy
music
volta
guthree
l reed
king
spector
taylor
webb
phillips
martyn
ian
clegg
redding
baez
franklin

Kurt Cobain(Nirvana) and Billy Corgan (smashing pumpkins) are 2 very highly underrated Lyricists and deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence as the others previously mentioned.

I retract my statement about Janis Joplin. While an incomparable singer, she admittantly wasn't of the same standard as the songwriting greats.
I think many people confuse people in well-known bands with being good songwriters. Of the names you mentioned, I would only consider half geniunely
among the 'best' songwriters. For instance, Lennon/McCartney, Freddie Mercury, Burt Bacharach, Dennis Wilson maybe Pete Townshend, Van Morrison and Robert Plant/Jimmy Page. Kurt Cobain would probably straddle that gap. Those artists who were great at other things but not exceptional at actual songwriting including Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison.etc.  Morrison, like Dylan, is remembered more for his lyrics than the actual music. In actual fact, he rarely had the complete melody in mind when he wrote a song.

this is unfathomable. im confused as to how JONI MITCHELL has not been mentioned up until NOW!! IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT IS HOLY!!! JONIII fudgeING MITCHELLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!! yeah, probably the greatest most talented and versatile song write, uh.... EVER!!!.....good god...JONI....MITHCELL!

After watching the documentary "some kind of monster" tonight...............I'd like to vote for Metallica's James Hetfield.

he has some inspirational and uniquely brilliant lyrics !

A lot of great songwriters were listed but I haven't seen anyone mention Billy Joel yet.





Cat

These are the few that really stick out in my mind.

Neil Diamond
McCartney and Lennon
EJ and Taupin
Kris Kristofferson
Willie Nelson
Billy Joel
Carole King
Marvin Gaye
Elvis Costello
David Byrne
Webber and Rice


Too many others to list

You forgot - may be the greatest singer and songwriter - Freddie Mercury!!!
Don't forget him!!!

How about the Brothers Gibb... don't forget their songs, plus Andy's, Dionne Warwicks "Heart Breaker" and Diana Ross' "Chain Reaction" to name a few.

Since I like LIVE's stuff  a lot..I nominated ED KOWALCZYK..

Paul Simon..the Simon and Garfunkel stuff mostly...'The Sounds of Silence" still sounds great after 40-some years..

Are there NO Iron Maiden fans here? STEVE HARRIS!!

Also no Rush fans..Let's not forget Neil Peart.

I forgot to mention Todd Rundgren...

I don't have time to read thru all of these but Harry Chapin and James Taylor were my faves along with John&Paul, Carole King and Carly Simon. :-*

Donovan
David Crosby

Brian Wilson is the best composer of the 20th century...PERIOD.

Greg Lake
Pete Sinfield (King Crimson & ELP)
Michael Nesmith

My favourite songwriter is Holly Knight.

She wrote (and co-wrote) many great hits of the 80's for other artists.  Here is a few ...

The Warrior - Scandal
Love is A Battlefield - Pat Benatar
Ragdoll - Aerosmith
Wrap Your Arms Around Me - Agnetha Faltskog
Obsession - Animotion
The Best - Tina Turner
Better Be Good to Me - Tina Turner
Pleasure and Pain - Divinyls
One of the Living - Tina Turner
Love Touch - Rod Stewart
Never - Heart
There's the Girl - Heart
Change - John Waite

She was also the songwriter and singer in the band Spider, who had three hits in the very early 80's, one of which called "New Romance" reached the Top 40.  She also sang and wrote in the band Device, to which they had two hits, one of which was the popular 1986 song "Hanging on A Heart Attack"

As a solo artist, she was also a one hit wonder with a 1988 hit called "Heart Don't Fail Me Now"

Cole Porter?

I'm going to throw a shout out to two of rock and roll's founding fathers of the 50's:

Neil Sedaka and Paul Anka

Another of my favourite song-writers is Canadian singer Eddie Schwartz.  He had a few minor hits of his own, but he also wrote (and co-wrote) alot of awesome hits for other artists ...

Hit Me With Your Best Shot - Pat Benatar
Does A Fool Ever Learn? - Helix
Don't Shed A Tear - Paul Carrack
I Live By the Groove - Paul Carrack
The Doctor - The Doobie Brothers