100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time

Stevie 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