Best American Songwriter

OP, Dolly Parton's lyrics are NOT well written, even if you allow for them being so colloquial.

Hoagy Carmichael

Madonna

Britney

Springsteen would be my nominee.

I hope r3 is satire

Well, if you want someone who did both music and lyrics, I would choose Cole Porter or Irving Berlin.

It's hard if you don't specify genre--writing great songs for the Great American Songbook is so different for writing songs for country or for rock.

r6 Yeah, genre is necessary and I'd go further with time period, maybe even year or decade, and region/stage/general location. And they'd have to set some formal boundaries too.. like profit and prolific.

I can rattle off a long list of names of songwriters many never heard of (which tends to piss off a crowd)... unless they were reading the liner notes of popular albums.

Cole Porter

Carole King

Steven foster

Smokey Robinson

Julian Casablancas

For lyrics alone, Bob Dylan.

For everything together, Stevie Wonder.

Jimmy Webb

For lyrics and music, Cole Porter.

Prince

R14 Porter is the best American non-Jewish song writer. Unfortunately his rhymes are usually a bit too predictable and punny at times. He has some great ones, but he is outclassed by Sondheim, Hammerstein, Berlin, and Gershwin.

Deep Thoughts, by...

Chrissie Hynde.

Can people posting share maybe 10 songs they think are examples of why their songwriter is the best?

I said Prince so I'll top back up my case I'll offer

1. Nothing Compares 2 U

2. Kiss

3. Purple Rain

4. I Feel For You

5. Diamonds & Pearls

6. I Wanna Be Your Lover

7. I Wish You Heaven

8. Love Thy Will Be Done

9. Manic Monday

10. 1999

I like the Jimmy Webb and Carole King picks.

George Gershwin you stupid twats.

I picked Jimmy Webb:

Wichita Lineman

Galveston

Up Up and Away

MacArthur Park

By the Time I get to Phoenix

The Worst That Could Happen

Do What You Gotta Do

Highwayman

Cole Porter

Johnny Mercer

The Gershwins

R & H

Lorenz Hart

Brian Wilson

[quote]He has some great ones, but he is outclassed by Sondheim, Hammerstein, Berlin, and Gershwin.

Sondheim did not write melodies like Cole Porter though. This is why I think Porter is the better of the two.

Sondheim made better shows (mostly), but Cole Porter wrote more lasting songs.

Johnny Mercer

People actually went to see Cole Porter shows, unlike Sondheim's.

Sondheim admired Porter the most of the Great American Songbook composers, I think. (He also hugely admired Dorothy Fields as a lyricist.)

I remember watching an old Oprah episode with Maya Angelou. Oprah asked her who the greatest American poet was and without missing a beat she said Hank Williams.

Patti Smith

[quote]Oprah asked her who the greatest American poet was and without missing a beat she said Hank Williams.

No better judge of poetry than Maya Angelou!

Barry Gibb

Oh fuck, AMERICAN songwriter. Sorry Barry, I misread.

R28 What are you talking about. The ONLY Porter musical that is ever played, and usually by only high school theater, is Kiss Me Kate. That and Du Berry Was A Lady are the only works of his that have any significance.

Meanwhile Follies was JUST performed on the West End, and West Side Story is on Broadway AND in cinema. Gypsy is revived once a decade it seems. Sweeny Todd and Into The Woods are very popular.

No serious scholar of musical theater or even any amateur fan would argue that Cole Porter has anywhere near the impact on Musicals as Sondheim.

A. P. Carter basically invented both country music and most of rock and roll.

Jerome Kern

Jerry Garcia/Robert Hunter

In fairness, Cole Porter got his start when musicals were just random collections of catchy songs strung together with some dialogue.

Stephen Sondheim benefited from coming long after that was no longer the popular style. He also benefited from coming after Cole Porter, who showed how witty songs could be.

Stephin Merritt, if only for 69 Love Songs, but he has plenty more classic albums and songs.

R39 Points well taken!

Mariah Carey. Duh!!!!

Everyone knows the best song ever is 867-5309 by tommy tune

Janet Jackson! End of discussion

R44 did Janet sing 867 -5309?

Steven Foster was the first American songwriter, and still the best.

My picks would be Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder. Decent lyrics, great melodies. Usually, most songwriters are skewed disproportionately towards one or the other, rarely both.

OP, does all of your musical knowledge come from what you read on the DL when you're drunk, by any chance?

Sondheim is far superior to Porter (and everyone else mentioned in this thread), but Anything Goes is performed all the time, far more than Kiss Me, Kate. Sutton recently brought her production to London, where it is still running with replacements.

Porter had an enormous impact on popular music in his day.

Sondheim is in another league altogether. Follies, Night Music, Company, Passion, Sweeney, Into the Woods, Assassins, Pacific Overtures, Merrily, Anyone Can Whistle, Forum- no one else has written words and music like this before or since. This doesn’t even include WSS, Waltz and Gypsy.

Beonsay

r35, we were NOT asked about who wrote the most consistently performed musicals. We were asked specifically who is the best American [bold]songwriter.[/bold]

I would put the author of both the words and the music to "Night and Day," "Begin the Beguine," "Let's Misbehave," "You're the Top," "I Get a Kick out of You," "I Concentrate on You," "I've Got You Under My Skin," "Well, Did You Evah!", "You'd Be So Easy to Love," "Love for Sale," "Let's Do It," "I Happen to Like New York," "Just One of Those Things," "My Heart Belongs to Daddy," "Another Op'ning, Another Show," "So in Love," "Too Darn Hot," "From This Moment On," "I'm Always True to You, Darling, in My Fashion," and "All Through the Night" against Stephen Sondheim any day of the week.

R47 - I'd say Smokey Robinson was a far better songwriter than Gaye or Wonder.

R47 R52 Girls! Girls! You BOTH have had taste!

Girls, girls, you’re giving the artist credit for the songwriters’ work.

Holland-Dozier-Holland is on this list, for sure.

Not really 54 - Smokey wrote Tears Of A Clown, I Second That Emotion, The Tracks Of My Tears, Going To A Go-Go, Shop Around, What's So Good About Good-by, You Really Got A Hold On Me...

FFS - for Tears Of A Clown on its own he should be considered number 1.

Leonard Cohen you idiots!

The best American songwriting team is indisputably Holland-Dozier-Holland. They rival Lennon/McCartney for pop genius. How many of these songs can you sing?

"Heat Wave" Martha and the Vandellas

"Mickey's Monkey" Smokey Robinson and the Miracles

"Where Did Our Love Go" The Supremes

"Baby Love" The Supremes

"Come See About Me" The Supremes

"How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)" The Four Tops

"Stop! In the Name of Love" The Supremes

"Nowhere to Run" Martha and the Vandella

"Back in My Arms Again" The Supremes

"I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)" The Four Tops

"It's the Same Old Song" The Four Tops

"I Hear a Symphony" The Supremes

"My World Is Empty Without You" The Supremes

"Love Is Like an Itching in My Heart" The Supremes

"You Can't Hurry Love" The Supremes

"Reach Out I'll Be There" The Four Tops

"You Keep Me Hangin' On" The Supremes

"Standing in the Shadows of Love" Four Tops

"I'm Ready for Love" Martha and the Vandellas

"Love Is Here and Now You're Gone" The Supremes

"Baby I Need Your Loving" Johnny Rivers

"Jimmy Mack" Martha and the Vandellas

"Bernadette" Four Tops

"The Happening" The Supremes

"Reflections" The Supremes

"In and Out of Love" The Supremes

"You Keep Me Hangin' On" The Supremes

"Give Me Just a Little More Time" Chairmen of the Board

"Band of Gold" Freda Payne

"How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)" Marvin Gaye

"This Old Heart of Mine" The Isley Brothers

Take Me in Your Arms (Rock Me a Little While)"

Burt.

Leonard Cohen was Canadian you moron R56

Franz Schubert, little known American composer

John Prine

R59 So no Neil Young either?

Well no. Nor Joni Mitchell, Bryan Adams or that bloke from Men Without Hats.

It's Irving Berlin, by my calculations.

r52 I disagree. Gaye's songs are timeless, and Wonder's best work is often lesser-known album tracks rather than the hits.

Sondheim is the only one who can do it all. The ONLY one. Follies alone proved how many styles he is able to write in.

Burt & Hal

Jerome Kern is fine, if you want to be bored to death.

[quote]I'd say Smokey Robinson was a far better songwriter than Gaye or Wonder

Stevie Wonder would often dumb down for a popular hit, making saccharine crock like 'I Just Called to Say I Love You'. But when serious, very few songwriters could match him for introspection. 'They Won't Go When I Go' for example is, for me, peak Stevie. Fucking masterpiece.

Another example of how effortlessly beautiful melodies and great lyrics came to Stevie. The genius is how it all seemed so simple and uncomplicated.

Stephin Merritt is a fine songwriter.

Too bad he's a huge prisspot and cunt.

Without question, it is Ron Miller and Kenneth Hirsch, who wrote "I've Never Been to Me."

......

Joni Mitchell

Oscar Hammerstein.

Look on his works, ye doubters, and despair.

R74 Joni is among the all time greats but regardless of her current domicile, I think most people would think of her as Canadian.

Ron Mael

Anyone who doesn't think the correct answer is "Steven Foster" doesn't know anything about American music.

Foster wrote this song over 150 years ago. And even after all that time, it is still better than 99% of the stuff written since 2000.

What era? Gershwin was a genius. Sondheim too. Joni Mitchell and Dylan. Rodgers, Berlin, Arlen, - kind of a silly question.

I would say Bob Dylan for lyrics alone, Sondheim and Brian Wilson for the full package. Wilson is a bona fide genius.

Stephen Foster

I'm not a country fan but Willie Nelson was pretty prolific if I recall correctly.

in no particular order

Bacharach and David

Smokey Robinson

Lionel Richie

Dolly Parton

Holland Dozier Holland

Stevie Wonder

Stevie Nicks

Paul Simon

Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson

Sam Cooke

I gave Stevie Wonder the edge over Smokey Robinson because Stevie is a lot more experimental and always finding new ways to write incredible songs. If you combined the two of them, they’d be the American answer to the Beatles, with Smokey being the earlier period and Stevie representing Rubber Soul and beyond.

Stevie is also a child prodigy and genius.

Also, for someone who's been blind since birth, Stevie has incredibly vivid descriptions in his lyrics.

One of my favourite Stevie Wonder songs is 'Stay Gold' from 'The Outsiders'. Absolutely beautiful.

“Stay Straight” by Stevie Wonder

Don Van Vliet. A song like "Moonlight on Vermont" or "Ella Guru" really says it all, IMO.

Fats Waller The anonymous sleeve notes on the 1960 RCA Victor album Handful of Keys state that Waller copyrighted over 400 songs, many of them co-written with his closest collaborator, Andy Razaf. Razaf described his partner as "the soul of melody...a man who made the piano sing...both big in body and in mind... known for his generosity... a bubbling bundle of joy".

Waller is believed to have composed many novelty tunes in the 1920s and 1930s and sold them for small sums,[3] attributed to another composer and lyricist.[15]

And I agree with his own hype. As I listen to him more & more, this dude invented Jazz.

Stevie really is a genius, r84. Some of my favourite lyrics are from "Pastime Paradise":

[italic]They've been spending most their lives Living in a pastime paradise They've been spending most their lives Living in a pastime paradise They've been wasting most of their time Glorifying days long gone behind They've been wasting most their days In remembrance of ignorance oldest praise [/italic]

...

[italic]They've been spending most their lives Living in a future paradise They've been spending most their lives Living in a future paradise They've been looking in their minds For the day that sorrow's lost from time They keep telling of the day When the savior of love will come to stay[/italic]

Take that MAGAts.

A top-rate musician, a poet and a goddamn prophet. For me, the clear winner.

^ To be clear, the first quoted verse could be applied to MAGAts today, and the second to the victims of racism and discrimination.

Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds was very prolific in the 90s.

Rickie Lee Jones

Somebody mentioned this to me and I found it to be mostly true: you can’t be an atheist and be a good songwriter, or any kind of artist, for that matter. Great art requires some kind of belief in the supernatural. Something to think about.

Deep Thoughts, by...

^ Still true.

Randy Newman.

Bob Dylan isn't very musical, but clever lyrics.

Cole Porter and Bob Dylan

Diane Warren? Yes, a little cringey.

However, definitely. Carole King!…and James Taylor.

Eric Clapton, except his British.

Babyface (Kenneth Edmunds).

Smokey Washington.

Brian Wilson.

Harry Nilsson.

Bruce Springsteen.

Bob Dylan.

Shit, I forgot Joni Mitchell.

Hall & Oates.

Prince.

Crosby, Stills & Nash.

Laura Nyro.

Steely Dan.

Three Dog Night.

Chrissie Hynde/The Pretenders.

Joan Jett & The Blackhearts.

R100 in what world are James Taylor, Babyface and Dianne Warren considered great songwriters? It’s not a matter of taste to insist that a bar of some talent be dictated. One had one famous song about rehab, another has never had a great singer lower themselves to sing their shit, and one you just find attractive. Talent isn’t defined by fame, hit songs, or the ability to distract with non-related issues.

I agree. It depends on longevity and what songs that are consistently played on broadcast radio and Spotify over decades, as opposed to self-centered preferences.

Are you referring to Amy Whitehouse and “Rehab”? I don’t see her mentioned on this list. A good song at least.

I don’t find any of them attractive, as you suggest…good grief.

Yes, we're not asking who wrote the most hit singles, but who consistently wrote the best songs.

Marvin Gaye is very underrated on this thread.

Please stop submitting Canadians and British people.

Joni Mitchell just earned our respect.

Neither Amy Winehouse nor Joni Mitchell are American.

*That should read, "Neither Amy Winehouse nor Joni Mitchell is American."

"Oh, [italic]dear[/italic]..." to myself.

Tommy James and the Shondells (60s).

The Carpenters?

Heart (Ann & Nancy Wilson).

The Mamas and Pappas.

Dolly Parton

Willie Nelson

Cole Porter

Ira Gershwin

Hank Williams

Bob Dylan

R113 We’ve looked at the border from both sides now

Blondie (Debbie Harry/Chris Stein).

RIP Lamont Dozier.

Bob Dylan

Johnny Cash

Sondheim, of course.

Many more. Don’t have enough free time to list them all.

Paul Simon. IMO, he should have received a Nobel before Dylan

Cole Porter

It's Lamont Dozier Day:

the Holland-Dozier-Holland original, by the Supremes:

Holland-Dozier-Holland equal and possibly surpass Lennon and McCartney in terms of Pop genius. The number of beautiful, enduring songs they wrote is astounding.

He doesn't have a ton of songs, but Cobain has to be up there.

Dumb

Drain You

About a Girl

Aneurysm

Sliver

Dive

In Bloom

Come As You Are

Fantastic songs focusing pain, anguish, anger, apathy, love, loss.

Me, bitches!!!