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
- Bob Dylan
- Paul McCartney
- John Lennon
- Chuck Berry
- Smokey Robinson
- Mick Jagger and Keith Richards
- Carole King and Gerry Goffin
- Paul Simon
- Joni Mitchell
- Stevie Wonder
- Bob Marley
- Brian Wilson
- Hank Williams
- Bruce Springsteen
- Eddie Holland, Lamont Dozier and Brian Holland
- Leonard Cohen
- Neil Young
- Prince
- Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry
- Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller
- Lou Reed
- Van Morrison
- Robert Johnson
- Elvis Costello
- Randy Newman
- James Brown
- Ray Davies
- Woody Guthrie
- Pete Townshend
- Dolly Parton
- N/A
- Burt Bacharach and Hal David
- Merle Haggard
- Michael Jackson
- Bono and the Edge
- Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter
- Jackson Browne
- Al Green
- David Bowie
- John Fogerty
- Max Martin
- Sly Stone
- Johnny Cash
- Jimmy Webb
- Robbie Robertson
- Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong
- Neil Diamond
- Elton John and Bernie Taupin
- Don Henley and Glenn Frey
- Billy Joel
- Willie Dixon
- The Notorious B.I.G.
- Stevie Nicks
- Kurt Cobain
- Tom Waits
- Madonna
- Joe Strummer and Mick Jones
- George Clinton
- Tom Petty
- Willie Nelson
- Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman
- Harry Nilsson
- Chrissie Hynde
- Bert Berns
- George Harrison
- Kenny Gamble and Leon A. Huff
- Morrissey and Marr
- Jay Z
- James Taylor
- Dan Penn
- Walter Becker and Donald Fagen
- Fats Domino and Dave Barthomolew
- Radiohead
- Patti Smith
- Isaac Hayes and David Porter
- Loretta Lynn
- Allen Toussaint
- Curtis Mayfield
- Lucinda Williams
- R. Kelly
- Björk
- Marvin Gaye
- Nicholas Ashford and Valerie Simpson
- Kanye West
- R.E.M.
- Sam Cooke
- Kris Kristofferson
- Barry Mann and Cynthia Weill
- Felice and Boudleaux Bryant
- Babyface
- Eminem
- Paul Westerberg
- Billie Joe Armstrong
- John Prine
- The Bee Gees
- Timbaland and Missy Elliott
- Taylor Swift
- Otis Blackwell
- Tom T. Hall
- Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson
