Top 50 Greatest Songwriters Of All Time

Top 50 greatest songwriters of all time based on their compositional and lyrical work. Keeping to popular music of the 20th century.

This video was originally going to be greatest rock songwriters, however it proved too much of a headache to try and determine what really constitutes a “rock” songwriter (with plenty of songwriters blurring the genre lines). So, this list includes songwriters across all popular genres, however there is probably a bit of bias towards rock music. (Rock as a genre generally has musicians who write their own music, so this isn’t too outrageous either way in my opinion).

Also, I decided to not go past the early nineties. Perhaps a bit controversial, but I’ll be honest, including some modern acts would just make this video more controversial. The musical landscape has changed a lot, and it’s always hard to compare some of the modern stuff to the classics. No disrespect, just a decision I made. No disrespect to hip-hop either, that fell outside the timeframe mostly, and comparing the songwriting process of that genre to these felt a bit difficult. Feel free to leave any comments on new artists you think should’ve been included though. I don’t usually explain this much in the description, but… idk I just decided to today for whatever reason. Anyways, thank for watching.

[tunanorth]

Buddy Holly deserves extra points because he is the artist who forced the music industry to allow songwriters to perform their own material. Everybody from Paul McCartney to Taylor Swift owes him a debt of gratitude.

[randewue]

Kurt Cobain over Roger Waters is absolutely crazy

[ra]

With George Harrison's limited input in the Beatles, he wrote some of their greatest songs. He is top 10 for me

[infiniteermoon]

Bill Withers, Nick Cave, Curtis Mayfield, Patti Smith, Thom Yorke, Jeff Buckley, Tim Buckley, Amy Winehouse... 👀

[highagzeppeli]

Put kurt cobain over roger waters, jeff lynne and george harisson is actualy a crime

[zackzallie]

Ray Davies should be higher. Bowie once told that Davies never wrote a bad song and I agree. Lot of his songs are fun, interesting, relatable, and influential m.

[Jolnjolnjoln]

#50 Noel Gallagher
#49 Tracy Chapman
#48 James Brown
#47 Buddy Holly
#46 Dolly Parton
#45 Al Green
#44 James Taylor
#43 Townes Van Zandt
#42 Marvin Gaye
#41 Ray Davies
#40 Jim Morrison
#39 Donald Fagen / Walt Becker
#38 Phil Collins
#37 Michael Jackson
#36 Merle Haggard
#35 Jimmy Page / Robert Plant
#34 Tom Petty
#33 Sly Stone
#32 Van Morrison
#31 Stevie Nicks
#30 Freddie Mercury
#29 Sting
#28 George Harrison
#27 Jeff Lynne
#26 Pete Townshend
#25 Johnny Cash
#24 Neil Young
#23 Roger Waters
#22 Carole King
#21 Hank Williams
#20 Leonard Cohen
#19 Bob Marley
#18 Bruce Springsteen
#17 John Fogerty
#16 Elton John / Bernie Taupin
#15 Kurt Cobain
#14 Lou Reed
#13 Mick Jagger / Keith Richards
#12 Smokey Robinson
#11 Joni Mitchell
#10 Prince
#9 David Bowie
#8 Billy Joel
#7 Paul Simon
#6 Stevie Wonder
#5 Brian Wilson
#4 Chuck Berry
#3 John Lennon
#2 Bob Dylan
#1 Paul McCartney

[GabrielLovesRock]

Roger Waters is top 10 at least! One of the best songwriters at pulling in political events and feelings into songs. He wrote most of the songs on 4 masterpieces (Dark Side, Wish You Were Here, Animals, The Wall).

[misterb]

I thought Dylan would snag the top spot. Good list.

[Sandra]

No Bee Gees ( or at least Barry Gibb?) They wrote all their hits as well as hits for other artists! Same for Babyface!

[nickkaltz]

Ian Anderson- Jethro Tull
Phil Lynott- Thin Lizzy
Justin Hayward- Moody blues
Peter Hamill- Van der Graaf generator
Gary Brooker- Procol Harum
Bryan Ferry
Godley and Creme - 10 cc
Glen Fray/Don Henley- Eagles
Holland-Dozier- Holland
Little Richard

[CalamariMoon]

Nah I agree with a lot of these but Thom Yorke, Black Francis, Jeff Buckley, Michael Stipe and Morrisey shouldve gotten spots imo.

[TedBonkers]

everyones saying this is a mid list, but i think this is the most accurate and best list ive ever seen. Thank you for putting this out

[jonathondunbar]

you combined Plant and Page and Jagger and Richards but not Gilmour and Waters or Mercury and May?

[j_chaloupka]

Chuck Berry over Brian Wilson is actually insane

[ryanschnizer]

The fact that Mark Knopfler and Jimmy Webb aren’t on this list just makes it obsolete.

[freedraccoon]

Not having Elliot Smith on here is crazy

[kennet]

No. 1 should be Lennon-McCartney, since you already included other songwriting duos. I would also have put Freddie Mercury and John Fogerty in the top 10. I don't know if Chuck Berry belongs in the top 10. I get that he was important to foundation of rock and roll, but just looking at his songwriting, I'm not impressed. Most of his songs sound very similar to each other. Also, where is Bob Seger? Jackson Browne? Jim Croce?

[DuckAndAHalf]

Harrison at 28 is crazy, top 20 at least

[veggie]

Man, if XTC were more popular and mainstream, Andy Partridge would 100% be on this list.