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100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time

2015-0813-rs2Stevie Nicks is ranked Number 53 in Rolling Stone’s survey of “The 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time.”

Fleetwood Mac blew up in the Seventies thanks to three top-notch singer-songwriters — guitarist/producer/mastermind Lindsey Buckingham, bluesy songbird Christine McVie and the gypsy queen herself, Stevie Nicks. Her “Rhiannon,” “Sara” and “Gold Dust Woman” were full of post-hippie witchy imagery, but under the gossamer surface, they were deceptively tough-minded accounts of heartbreak and betrayal in the L.A. heyday of free love and hard drugs. She and Buckingham were a couple when they joined Fleetwood Mac, but some of her greatest songs came out of the wreckage of their relationship — including the Number One “Dreams.” “We write about each other, we have continually written about each other, and we’ll probably keep writing about each other until we’re dead,” she told Rolling Stone last year. She remains undiminished as a writer, as she proved on her 2011 gem In Your Dreams. But her most famous song is still “Landslide,” her acoustic lament for children growing older, written before she’d even turned 30. “I was only 27,” she said. “It was 1973 when I wrote it, about a year before I joined Fleetwood Mac. You can feel really old at 27.”

Complete List

  1. Bob Dylan
  2. Paul McCartney
  3. John Lennon
  4. Chuck Berry
  5. Smokey Robinson
  6. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards
  7. Carole King and Gerry Goffin
  8. Paul Simon
  9. Joni Mitchell
  10. Stevie Wonder
  11. Bob Marley
  12. Brian Wilson
  13. Hank Williams
  14. Bruce Springsteen
  15. Eddie Holland, Lamont Dozier and Brian Holland
  16. Leonard Cohen
  17. Neil Young
  18. Prince
  19. Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry
  20. Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller
  21. Lou Reed
  22. Van Morrison
  23. Robert Johnson
  24. Elvis Costello
  25. Randy Newman
  26. James Brown
  27. Ray Davies
  28. Woody Guthrie
  29. Pete Townshend
  30. Dolly Parton
  31. N/A
  32. Burt Bacharach and Hal David
  33. Merle Haggard
  34. Michael Jackson
  35. Bono and the Edge
  36. Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter
  37. Jackson Browne
  38. Al Green
  39. David Bowie
  40. John Fogerty
  41. Max Martin
  42. Sly Stone
  43. Johnny Cash
  44. Jimmy Webb
  45. Robbie Robertson
  46. Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong
  47. Neil Diamond
  48. Elton John and Bernie Taupin
  49. Don Henley and Glenn Frey
  50. Billy Joel
  51. Willie Dixon
  52. The Notorious B.I.G.
  53. Stevie Nicks
  54. Kurt Cobain
  55. Tom Waits
  56. Madonna
  57. Joe Strummer and Mick Jones
  58. George Clinton
  59. Tom Petty
  60. Willie Nelson
  61. Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman
  62. Harry Nilsson
  63. Chrissie Hynde
  64. Bert Berns
  65. George Harrison
  66. Kenny Gamble and Leon A. Huff
  67. Morrissey and Marr
  68. Jay Z
  69. James Taylor
  70. Dan Penn
  71. Walter Becker and Donald Fagen
  72. Fats Domino and Dave Barthomolew
  73. Radiohead
  74. Patti Smith
  75. Isaac Hayes and David Porter
  76. Loretta Lynn
  77. Allen Toussaint
  78. Curtis Mayfield
  79. Lucinda Williams
  80. R. Kelly
  81. Björk
  82. Marvin Gaye
  83. Nicholas Ashford and Valerie Simpson
  84. Kanye West
  85. R.E.M.
  86. Sam Cooke
  87. Kris Kristofferson
  88. Barry Mann and Cynthia Weill
  89. Felice and Boudleaux Bryant
  90. Babyface
  91. Eminem
  92. Paul Westerberg
  93. Billie Joe Armstrong
  94. John Prine
  95. The Bee Gees
  96. Timbaland and Missy Elliott
  97. Taylor Swift
  98. Otis Blackwell
  99. Tom T. Hall
  100. Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson

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