This list of
songwriters includes names of those who have written the lyrics or music, or both, for successful
songs. It is not limited to popular music.
Songwriters who perform their own work -- a relatively recent phenomenon -- are usually called singer-songwriters. (See List of singer-songwriters.) This list only includes those who remain in the background and rarely, if ever, perform(ed) their own songs in public.
- Tori Amos
- Trey Anastasio of Phish
- Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day
- Afrika Bambaataa
- Burt Bacharach, songwriter for Dionne Warwick among others
- Bert Berns
- Irving Berlin
- Leonard Bernstein
- Clint Black
- Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple and Rainbow
- Shelton Brooks
- Hoagy Carmichael
- Johnny Cash
- Tracy Chapman
- Bootsy Collins of Parliament, Funkadelic and Bootsy's Rubber Band[?]
- Dick Dale
- Glenn Danzig of Samhain, Danzig and The Misfits
- Hal David[?]
- Kim Deal of the Pixies and The Breeders
- John Denver
- Bob Dylan
- Steve Earle
- George Gershwin
- Ira Gershwin
- Dave Grohl of Nirvana and The Foo Fighters
- Merle Haggard
- Oscar Hammerstein II
- Ben Harper
- Lorenz Hart
- Eddie Hazel of Parliament and Funkadelic
- Richard Hell
- Gil-Scott Heron[?]
- Shannon Hoon[?] of Blind Melon
- Waylon Jennings
- William Jerome
- Tim Jones
- Gordon Kennedy[?], writer for Eric Clapton, others
- Jerome Kern
- Anthony Kiedis[?] of the Red Hot Chili Peppers
- Wayne Kirkpatrick, writer for Eric Clapton, Michael W. Smith, Amy Grant, others
- Tom Lehrer
- Alan Jay Lerner
- Frank Loesser
- Frederick Loewe
- Courtney Love of Hole
- Phil Madeira, writer for Julie Miller, Ashley Cleveland[?], Wynonna Judd[?] and others
- Dave Matthews
- Rod McKuen[?]
- Henry Mancini
- Johnny Mercer
- Jim Morrison of The Doors
- Mos Def
- Nas
- Willie Nelson
- Bradley Nowell of Sublime
- Cole Porter
- Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails
- Richard Rodgers
- Jean Schwartz
- John Sebastien[?]
- Neil Sedaka[?]
- Tupac Shakur
- Mort Shuman[?]
- Tommy Simms[?], writer for Eric Clapton, others
- Carly Simon
- Stephen Sondheim
- James Taylor
- Terry Scott Taylor, writer for Daniel Amos, The Lost Dogs and The Swirling Eddies
- Albert Von Tilzer
- Harry Von Tilzer
Some songwriting teams are listed below:
See also: Songwriters Hall of Fame