Who's written the best songs?

Matt_McG

I like all of the classics: Lennon & McCartney, Bacharach & David, Joni Mitchell, the Brill Building writers, etc. Also Bowie, Prince and Tom Waits who are already mentioned above.

Smokey Robinson and the other Motown house writing teams (H-D-H, Whitfield and Strong, etc.)

H-D-H:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_songs_written_by_Holland,_Dozier_and_Holland ;  is just an absurd list. Dozens and dozens of all time classics that are basically standards these days.

Smokey Robinson: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_songs_written_by_Smokey_Robinson ;  ditto. 

Lots of other underrated soul and RnB writers. Dan Penn (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Penn#As_songwriter), David Porter with Isaac Hayes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Porter_(musician)#Songwriting_and_production_with_Isaac_Hayes ), etc. 

Blueingreen

TeleMaster said:

bacchanalian said:

Lots of my favourites already mentioned.
Have not seen the mighty Taylor Swift or James Taylor mentioned.

I don't know enough about rap to be able to judge but would like to hear what people think of Jay Z, NWA, Snoop Dogg etc.

Jay Z, Snoop aren't close to the likes of Kendrick, Killer Mike, MF Doom, Kool Keith, Nas. J5 etc. Eminem is good but he hasn't released anything exceptional in years although Music To MurderBy was okay. 

They write some decent pop songs but there's no way you can compare Jay Z as a rapper to someone like MF Doom. World's apart. 

Doctor Octagon's Dr. Octagonecologyst is in my opinion one of the greatest albums of all time

De gustibus non est disputandum and all that but I'd rate Snoop and Jay Z much more highly than you do, purely in terms of having their names on music I've really enjoyed.

Dominic

Billy Joel
fantastic lyrics,fantastic music

JezWynd

prowla said:

Tannin said:

Anyone who reckons Paul McCartney is "the greatest" has never listened to his most awful dross (such as Silly Love Songs, not to mention many others almost equally bad). 

Mind you, I said Dylan (unquestionably a far finer artist than McCartney could ever hope to be) and Dylan has turned out some shockers in his time. 

But the reality of McCartney is that he was never much on his own, and nor was Lennon. They turned out just a handful of top-class songs each. As a partnership, they were awesomely good: Lennon's acid taming McCartney's sickly sweet, McCartney's sugar making Lennon palatable. And all the time you had George in the background keeping them honest with with a pile of talent and Ringo keeping everything down to earth and never, ever getting the timing wrong. Just a great band. 

But the correct answer is still Bob Dylan. 

I would question that; Bob Dylan wrote decent prose for his time, but to call his warbling "songs" is a stretch.

His best song is Mr. Tabourine Man, which is hardly the height of the art.

Now, if the question was "Who thinks he's the greatest songwriter ever", then that correct answer might indeed be correct.

No it's not. It's a very good song but far from his best. Everybody will have their own personal faves but Dylan has written a huge catalog of great material and there is something there to suit every mood. Blood On The Tracks is arguably his best album - there isn't a duff song on it and the high points, Tangled Up In Blue, Idiot Wind and Shelter From The Storm are Dylan at the top of his game.

menamestom

Neil Diamond wrote a few good songs.

The Doors also.  

scrumhalf

Mark E Smith.

If only we had a clue what they were about.

thecolourbox

I think my favourites overall in the "songwriter" genre when thinking of their overall output - as opposed to songs I enjoy the whole production of, and the aesthetics and arrangements being part of what I like, and notwithstanding that they also published some absolute dross as well -  would be:

Carole King
Dylan
Paul Simon
Cat Stevens
Kurt Cobain

But then my favourite actual songs which I hold to be well written, well crafted, beautiful tunes and words, would include stuff like:

Yesterday (McCartney)
Black Hole Sun (Chris Cornell)
Grace (Jeff Buckley & Gary Lucas)
Imagine (Lennon)
Nessun Dorma (Puccini)

CavemanGrogg

Jedward

/Thread

elstoof

I don’t think Jedward have written any songs 

CavemanGrogg

elstoof said:

I don’t think Jedward have written any songs 

Do Jedward know that?

Mr_Claw

Brian Wilson
Burt Bacharach
Lennon/McCartney 
Antonio Carlos Jaobim
Irving Berlin
Paul Simon
Marvin Gaye
Curtis Mayfield 
Smokey Robinson
Gershwin
Jerome Kern
Jimmy Van Heusen
Jimmy Webb
Lee Hazelwood

Off the top of my head! 

Mr_Claw

If Ennio Morricone wrote more "songs", then him. Se Telefonando is still one of the greatest songs ever. 

Mr_Claw

Saccharine lyrics aside, Richard Carpenter is a genius. 

Also, with a strange studio cut-n-paste approach to songwriting, Mark Hollis. The last 2 Talk Talk albums (Spirit of Eden / Laughing Stock) are utterly godly. 

ICBM

Having just listened to Achtung Baby this morning I would have to say U2 - however they divide the writing - are up there too. 15 studio albums containing a handful of truly great songs, and not really that much filler.

guitarjack66

ICBM said:

Having just listened to Achtung Baby this morning I would have to say U2 - however they divide the writing - are up there too. 15 studio albums containing a handful of truly great songs, and not really that much filler.

ICBM said:

Having just listened to Achtung Baby this morning I would have to say U2 - however they divide the writing - are up there too. 15 studio albums containing a handful of truly great songs, and not really that much filler.

I haven't listened to any of their stuff since The Unforgettable Fire,which was ok but the album War is up there among my all time favourites.

lustycourtier

Lennon and McCartney. Morrissey and Boorer/Whyte/Marr (in that order). 

Strat54

Have we had Leiber &Stoller? Dan Penn? 
My own personal favourite especially for the lyrics is James McMurtry.

Haych

S Club 7

Seriously though, define "best"?

I have a similar conversation with my son about cars:

The Lad: "What do you think is best, your car or a Ferrari 458, dad?"

"Me: Best in what way, son?"

For me, the best songs are the ones you forget about until you revisit them after a year or so and you just have to admit, this is a bloody good song!

Usually, the simpler the song the better it is and the longer it stands the test of time.

So for me, people like Buddy Holly, Mike Stoller, Howlin' Wolf etc, but again, define best.

Kurtis

Shaun ryder. 

guitarjack66

To be among the best I'd guess you'd have to write a fair bit of crap first?