Girls have been on the songwriting frontlines for many years – longer, when you depend the various nameless ballads clearly written from a feminine perspective, beginning with “House Of The Rising Sun.” So, in placing collectively a listing of the perfect feminine songwriters of all time, we’re successfully selecting between half of the good songwriters who’ve ever been.
We’re not claiming that it’s complete, however this listing of the perfect feminine songwriters spans many genres and stretches again an excellent 100 years.
25: Kirsty MacColl
Like many progressive songwriters, Kirsty MacColl began out doing retro-styled pop. Her first success, “They Don’t Know” (a UK hit for Tracey Ullman), was one of many higher girl-group homages of its time; and her first album, Determined Character, ranks as one of many nice misplaced Rockpile-style albums. MacColl received way more adventurous afterward, in a profession that was sadly minimize off along with her unintended demise in 2000. Her masterpiece, Electrical Landlady, contains touches of hip-hop, Celtic, and Tropicália. And for conventional tastes, there’s a killer power-pop tune, the Marshall Crenshaw collaboration “All I Ever Wanted.”
24: Christine McVie
Stevie Nicks is usually considered the best feminine songwriter in Fleetwood Mac, because of the success of “Dreams” and “Rhiannon,” however one among her bandmates has a fair deeper catalogue. On the Naked Timber album alone Christine McVie will get in one among Fleetwood Mac’s nice misplaced blues-rockers, “Homeward Bound,” together with “Spare Me A Little Of Your Love,” which could be probably the most attractive ballad of their catalogue. And let’s not overlook that she additionally wrote “Over My Head,” the primary hit from the self-titled album that relaunched the Mac as a mega-band.
23: Abbey Lincoln
An interesting girl throughout, Abbey Lincoln had early success as a free-thinking jazz singer. Her 1956 debut, Abbey Lincoln’s Affair, was just the start of a trajectory that included an appearing profession and changing into a TV fixture in the course of the early 70s. Working along with her then-husband Max Roach within the 60s, she wrote a handful of civil-rights-inspired songs that apparently scared report labels away. Later, a tour of Africa within the early 70s resulted in her basic album, Folks In Me. She continued to put in writing adventurous music into the brand new millennium.
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22: Valerie Simpson
Their choice for ballads might clarify why Ashford & Simpson aren’t cited extra usually as one of many nice songwriting groups, however “Let’s Go Get Stoned” and “I Don’t Want No Physician” alone (each written for Ray Charles and coated by everyone) ought to have enshrined them for good. They didn’t undertake their trademark elegant fashion till they received to Motown, the place they had been entrusted with launching Diana Ross’ solo profession, recasting “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” (which they’d written for Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell) as an epic. Since A&S had been a workforce in each respect, you’ll be able to’t isolate both one’s enter; however it’s a secure wager that the lyric concept of Chaka Khan’s “I’m Each Lady” was hers.
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21: Judee Sill
Name her the feminine equal of Nick Drake: a late 60s/early 70s artist who received found lengthy after the very fact. In Judee Sill’s case, it wasn’t a TV industrial that did it; it was the viral video (initially a BBC broadcast) of her on the piano singing “The Kiss,” a chunk of otherworldly magnificence. All three of her albums have songs like that, amongst them “Lady-O,” a stunning Turtles single that featured solely Sill’s tune and one acoustic guitar. Apparently, Sill wasn’t embraced by the trade as a result of she was tough to get together with, to which all of us be a part of fingers and say, “Who cares?”
20: Taylor Swift
It’s straightforward to overlook Taylor Swift’s songwriting pedigree because it looks like she’s all the time been the-larger-than-life pop star she’s often known as at this time, however Swift is steeped within the Nashville songwriter custom. On the age of 16, she launched her self-titled debut with songwriting credit on each monitor and continued to hone her abilities over the subsequent decade. Whereas most pop songs are recognized for his or her universality, Swift very a lot follows within the confessional singer-songwriter custom of artists like James Taylor and Carole King, making every tune distinctly her personal. Together with writing albums like her breakthrough Communicate Now and her crossover album Pink, she’s additionally penned hits for different artists, together with Little Large City’s “Better Man,” “You’ll All the time Discover Your Approach Again Dwelling’ by Miley Cyrus, and “This Is What You Came For” by Calvin Harris.
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19: Grace Slick
Throughout her tenure with Jefferson Airplane, Grace Slick was a very psychedelic songwriter. Whereas her bandmates had been documenting the psychedelic expertise, her songs had been mind-expanding in their very own proper, and she or he snuck probably the most lysergic of them, “White Rabbit,” onto AM radio for all of the impressionable youngsters to listen to. At her greatest (“Lather,” “Eskimo Blue Day”) she labored in a haunting cabaret vein that was distinctive for its time. These days she’d get pegged as goth. Then there’s her splendidly twisted humorousness: “Silver Spoon,” from 1970’s Sunfighter, needs to be the loveliest tune ever written about cannibalism, a feat solely pulled off by among the best feminine songwriters of her era.
18: Nina Simone
If Nina Simone had been a extra prolific author, she may be remembered as one of many all-time greatest feminine songwriters of all time. Because it was, she wrote solely when there was one thing she wanted to say, and she or he stated it forcefully and artfully. “Mississippi Goddam” and “To Be Young, Gifted And Black” stay remarkably sturdy wake-up calls, and her rewrite of “Revolution” upped the ante on The Beatles’ authentic model. However earlier than pegging her for strictly topical songs, we’d direct you to “Consummation,” from the Silk & Soul album, a love tune of mystical energy.
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17: Madonna
Madonna’s ever-changing persona hinges as a lot as something on the songs she’s recorded. You may say she writes nice character songs after which turns into the characters. After borrowing a pair of manifestos from different writers (“Material Girl” and “Like A Virgin”), she grew to become the co-writer of a lot of her materials and turned out melodic gems corresponding to “Live To Tell” and “True Blue” whereas the world was nonetheless speaking about her costumes. She’s no slouch as a lyricist both. When you think about how arduous it was to provide you with a very daring tune angle in 1986, “Papa Don’t Preach” is much more spectacular.
16: Billie Vacation
It’s true that Woman Day didn’t write (or a minimum of didn’t publish) many songs – solely a couple of dozen bear her credit score – however one among them was the profound “God Bless The Child,” whose refrain was apparently borrowed from her mom; her signature tune “Woman Sings The Blues” was additionally hers. Even on exterior materials, she had a delicate ear, selecting two of the hardest items (“Strange Fruit” and “Gloomy Sunday”) that any jazz singer tried. Curiously, she performs a feminine songwriter in one among her solely movies, the 1947 musical New Orleans. Her character, a singing maid, composes “Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans” and sings it to Louis Armstrong.
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15: Cynthia Weil
With Carole King and Ellie Greenwich, Cynthia Weil is the third within the mighty triumvirate of Brill Constructing greats who wrote as a part of a husband-and-wife workforce. And Weil’s partnership with Barry Mann is probably the most secure of the lot; they’ve been collectively 58 years and counting, and have virtually by no means written aside. They penned epic ballads for the easiest of them – witness “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” and Aaron Neville and Linda Ronstadt’s 90s hit, “Don’t Know Much.” The pair additionally gave the garage-band repertoire a number of of its cornerstones, like Paul Revere And The Raiders’ “Kicks” and the Wild In The Streets theme “Shape Of Things to Come.”
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14: Sandy Denny
Each with Fairport Conference and as a solo artist, Sandy Denny was such a positive vocalist that her songwriting tends to get neglected. However it’s value noting that her first tune to get discover got here by way of one other singer’s cowl, “Who Knows Where the Time Goes” by Judy Collins. It’s much more telling that this reflective, resonant tune was one among Denny’s first, written when she was 19. Probably the greatest feminine songwriters from the British people revival, she did many of the writing on her solo albums, and her greatest songs (together with “Late November’ and “Next Time Around”) are haunting and mysterious, as if the ladies in these English people ballads lastly advised their very own tales.
13: Kate Bush
For a number of moments there, it regarded like Kate Bush was going to have a reasonably typical profession doing piano-based songs about issues of the guts, however then all types of great issues occurred, immediately elevating her standing among the many greatest feminine songwriters. When you had been a fan within the late 70s, you heard her going additional out with every single, from the hazy cabaret really feel of “Babooshka” to the fantastically apocalyptic “Breathing,” till her creativeness was unleashed at full throttle on The Dreaming, cementing her standing of among the best feminine songwriters. At that time, her interval of best industrial success hadn’t even begun but.
12: Dolly Parton
Probably the greatest feminine songwriters lengthy earlier than she was a persona or a rustic icon, Dolly Parton truly had her first success as a non-performing songwriter – no small feat for a solo girl in 1964. Coronary heart-tugging songs had been all the time her specialty, and in case your coronary heart just isn’t tugged by “Jolene” or “Coat Of Many Colors,” it’s in all probability not beating. However we’d level to much less attribute gems corresponding to “Your Ole Handy Man,” a rockabilly minimize from her 1967 debut album, and “Baby I’m Burning,” a nifty Supremes-gone-disco homage from 1978.
11: Felice Bryant
Most individuals know Felice Bryant merely as an preliminary, because the “B & F Bryant” credit score seems on so many Everly Brothers classics. Felice and Boudleaux Bryant had been truly a novel workforce, one of many first husband-and-wife songwriting groups in Nashville, and one of many few to mix a Georgia-Cajun with an Italian-American from Wisconsin. They each shared within the phrases and music, however whenever you’re coping with songs corresponding to “Love Hurts” and “Wake Up Little Susie,” it’s arduous to resolve whether or not to reward the indelible lyrics or the tunes first. And when you thought “Rocky Top” was a standard bluegrass tune, you’re incorrect: it was one of many Bryants’ later hits from 1967.
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10: Ellie Greenwich
When you consider the Brill Constructing songwriters who crossed over to the singer-songwriter period, Carole King is the one which involves thoughts. However Ellie Greenwich’s catalogue stands practically as tall. Her 60s hits had been as romantic (“Chapel Of Love”), giddy (“Da Doo Ron Ron”) street-tough (“Leader of the Pack”), and superb (“River Deep – Mountain High”) as anything in that period, and, like King, she had an everyday co-writer, Jeff Barry. Greenwich didn’t report a game-changing songwriter album, however she ought to have. Her 1973 album, Let It Be Written, Let It Be Sung – which takes lots of her 60s hits to classy jazz territory – is a real misplaced treasure by among the best feminine songwriters that deserves extra recognition.
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9: Bobbie Gentry
A quintessential Southern storyteller, Bobbie Gentry was additionally one among the primary feminine hitmakers who wrote most of her personal materials. Everyone remembers the lyrical thriller on “Ode To Billie Joe,” however her creativeness actually blossomed on the follow-up album, The Delta Sweete (not too long ago coated in full by Mercury Rev, which incorporates some vivid character sketches alongside the frankly sensual “Mornin’ Glory.” She signed off (for good, sadly) with 1971’s Patchwork, a still-overlooked orchestral pop gem that was her Odessey And Oracle or Pet Sounds. And, save for one collaboration, she wrote each observe of it.
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8: Dorothy Fields
Whereas most of the greatest feminine songwriters on our listing wrote with collaborators, Fields is the one one who was strictly a lyricist. Not simply any lyricist, although: because the writer of “The Way You Look Tonight” and “On The Sunny Side Of The Street” (and about 398 different Broadway and movie songs, she turned phrases which have been within the vernacular for many years. Over 30 years, she put the phrases to hit music by Jerome Kern, Jimmy McHugh, Oscar Hammerstein III, and others. Keep in mind the final time you had a setback and advised your self to “pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start all over again?” She gave you these phrases as properly.
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7: Joni Mitchell
Some followers won’t ever recover from Blue and can all the time cherish Joni Mitchell as a confessional songwriter. However to our ears, the true treasures got here afterward, when she embraced jazz and have become an impressionist: the dense and dreamlike Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter stays a largely undiscovered profession peak, and she or he was just about the one pop songwriter who might have interaction Charles Mingus. And her 80s swing into digital textures? Had its moments.
6: Memphis Minnie
Lots of the songs Memphis Minnie wrote within the early 1900s grew to become blues-rock cornerstones, most notably “When The Levee Breaks,” which Led Zeppelin borrowed for his or her tune of the identical title. She additionally wrote “Chauffer Blues,” which Jefferson Airplane coated, amongst many others, and even “Bumble Bee,” which grew to become a terrific power-pop tune for The Searchers. However Minnie nonetheless has an excellent 150 gems which have by no means been coated. You’d assume powerful younger bands could be lining as much as report “I Don’t Want That Junk Outta You.”
5: Loretta Lynn
Certainly one of nation music’s nice storytellers and among the best feminine songwriters, Loretta Lynn stretched the boundaries of what a girl might say in successful tune – starting along with her first indie-label hit, “I’m A Honky Tonk Girl,” about downfall after heartbreak. Through the 60s she was commonly banned by nation radio for sturdy songs corresponding to “Rated X” (concerning the social trials of a divorcée), “Fist City” (the place she plans to ship a romantic rival), and the self-explanatory “Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’ (With Loving On Your Mind).” But the songs had been hits anyway, as had been her two very totally different, early-70s takes on motherhood: “One’s On The Way” and “The Pill.” Even throughout her later comeback with Jack White, she was nonetheless the primary songwriter.
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4: Carole King
Even when Tapestry had by no means occurred, Carole King would deserve immortality for her 60s catalogue, and everyone’s going to call a unique favourite tune. On one hand, she and collaborator Gerry Goffin did romantic elation in addition to anyone on The Chiffons’ “One Fine Day” (on which she performed the piano hook); on the opposite, she wrote one of many nice suburban protest songs, “Pleasant Valley Sunday.” And talking of The Monkees, depend your self fortunate when you’ve ever heard her never-released, however broadly circulated demo of “Porpoise Song.” However Tapestry, in fact, did occur, and the time period “singer-songwriter” would by no means be the identical.
3: Laura Nyro
Historical past has largely forgotten how visionary Laura Nyro’s first stretch of albums was, however their mixture of pop, soul, and jazz continues to be forward of its time. The story goes that Miles Davis was within the studio at one level and determined there was nothing he might add. As a lyricist, Laura Nyro blurred sensual and religious issues many years earlier than Prince received the thought. Even on her underappreciated final album, Stroll The Canine And Mild The Mild, you’ll discover the perfect tune (“The Descent Of Luna Rose”) ever written about PMS. A handful of AM-radio artists made hit singles out of her songs; the true thriller is why a singer this good by no means had one on her personal.
2: Patti Smith
Let’s face it, the thought of a poet, playwright, and occasional music critic embracing rock’n’roll doesn’t sound that nice on paper. However what Smith did on 1976’s Horses was just about unprecedented, discovering the frequent floor between punk, transcendental poetry, post-bop jazz, and 50s sock-hop rock. And you might nonetheless dance to it, particularly when she received round to writing precise hit singles. Lately she’s recast herself as a voice of social-political inspiration, taking her late 80s tune “People Have The Power” as her personal marching orders.
1: Lucinda Williams
There are a number of good causes to place Lucinda Williams atop this listing of the perfect feminine songwriters. Not solely is she one of many sharpest melodists in fashionable music (nation or in any other case), she writes lyrics which might be equally at residence being sung off a jukebox or contemplated as poetry. However the perfect motive is that this: after a 30-year profession, she’s nonetheless evolving. Prior to now 5 years, she’s made two double-albums that take her writing to deeper existential territory whereas sustaining these very good melodies. She’s collaborated with jazz nice Charles Lloyd (on the 2018 album Vanished Gardens) and she or he’s accomplished a transformative cowl model of one among her personal albums, This Candy Previous World. Throw in some politically charged songs she’s unveiled in latest exhibits, and also you’ve received an American treasure.
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