Greatest Rock / Pop Composers

The Top Ten
1 Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and composer. With John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, he gained worldwide fame with the rock band the Beatles, one of the most popular and influential groups in the history of pop and rock ...read more.

Paul McCartney to date has shown unequaled range and number in composing popular songs that are among the best of all time. He is alone at the top and well above all others. The fact that he started in collaboration with a truly great and charismatic songwriter in his own right in John Lennon may confuse the issue for some but none who come to learn the truth of McCartneys solo catalog that had been inaccurately ascribed to that duo as collaborative per there early naive business views as members of the most honored act of all time in the Beatles.

Paul McCartney is THE most successful composer of all time! Composing relevant music for 5 decades! Melody is paramount!
So many styles of composition, but somehow ALL Paul! Hey Jude, Let It Be, Yesterday, Blackbird, The Fool On The Hill, The Long and Winding Road, Penny Lane, For No One, Golden Slumbers, Here, There and Everywhere, Can't Buy Me Love, Eleanor Rigby, Fixing A Hole, Rocky Raccoon, She's Leaving Home, Got To Get You Into My Life, Two Of Us, Hello Goodbye, Lady Madonna, Getting Better, Mother Nature's Son, Helter Skelter, And I Love Her, Birthday, Back In The USSR, Martha My Dear, Things We Said Today, Get Back, I've Got A Feeling, Good Day Sunshine, You Never Give Me Your Money, You Won't See Me, I've Just Seen A Face, She Came In Through The Bathroom Window, Ob La Di Ob La the, I'll Follow The Sun, Maybe I'm Amazed, Junk, Teddy Boy, Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey, Too Many People, Dear Boy, Monkberry Moon Delight, Another Day, Backseat Of My Car, Wild Life, Dear Friend, ...more

Don't forget: Hi Hi Hi, You Gave Me The Answer, Freedom, All Together Now, No More Lonely Nights, That Would Be Something, Queenie Eye, I Saw Her Standing There, Maxwell's Silver Hammer, Picasso's Last Words, Give Ireland Back To The Irish, Honey Pie, Heart Of The Country, Magical Mystery Tour and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band!

Without a doubt-no one comes close per shear volume of good to great songs

2 John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon, MBE (9 October 1940 - 8 December 1980) was an English singer and songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as a co-founder of the Beatles, the most commercially successful band in the history of popular music. He was assassinated by Mark David Chapman on December 8, 1980 at age 40. Lennon was characterised by the rebellious nature and acerbic wit in his music, writing and drawings, on film, and in interviews. His songwriting partnership with Paul McCartney remains the most successful in history.

Unflinchingly honest and self reflective, intelligent, worldly, other worldly, compassionate, insightful, creative, poetic and decades before his time. the greatest there ever was. gone too soon; this amazing pioneer and human!

Unreal importance! ONLY McCartney comes close!

3 Paul Simon Paul Frederic Simon is an American musician, singer-songwriter and actor. Simon's fame, influence, and commercial success began as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, formed in 1964 with musical partner Art Garfunkel.

The greatest artist all times

4 Pete Townshend Peter Dennis Blandford "Pete" Townshend is an English musician, singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, best known as the lead guitarist and songwriter for the rock band The Who.

McCartney greatest pop composer, Townshend greatest rock composer. Quadrophenia is the towering masterpiece of rock writing ( and performance ).

Should be number 1! Name anybody who written and composed anything near as Tommy, Quad, and multiple albums that went platinum. Their aren't any...

5 Brian Wilson Brian Douglas Wilson is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer best known for being the multi-tasking leader and co-founder of the Beach Boys.

Responding to the person below me: Paul McCartney was the creative genius behind albums like Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and Abbey Road. Pet Sounds is indeed a fantastic album, as is SMiLE, but those are two albums. Nearly every album Paul made was fantastic.

As this is a list of greatest composers, Brian must be higher. Perhaps Macca and the others above have an edge as songwriters, but how many of them actually produced their own albums? And wrote their own orchestral scores? Paul has done things like the "Liverpool Oratorio", but none of them match the complexity of Pet Sounds or SMiLE.

Compare the music, song for song. Brian Wilson has no equal. More is not always better. I defer to Paul McCartney on Pet Sounds being the greatest album with the greatest song.

Brian WILSON is the best

6 Bob Dylan Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, author, and artist who has been an influential figure in popular music and culture for more than five decades.

Simple melodies, simple harmonies but so beutiful and haunting.

7 Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris, known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and multi-instrumentalist.
8 Freddie Mercury Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara, 5th September 1946 - 24th November 1991) was a Zanzibari-born British singer of Indian descent, songwriter and record producer, known as the lead vocalist and songwriter of the British rock band Queen. He also became known for his flamboyant stage persona and four-octave ...read more.

Freddie is underrated as a songwriter, because everybody take attention to his singing skills only (which are amazing! ), but he composed great, iconic and timeless songs. The best song of all time in TopTen is "Bohemian Rhapsody".

Bohemian Rhapsody
Don't stop me now
We are the champions
Love of my life
Somebody to love
You take my breath away
Crazy little thing called love
It's a hard life
...and a lot of hits he wrote.

What? Only 21st in this list? Is this serious? With Bohemian Rhapsody, Killer queen, Love of my life, Take my breath away, We are the champions...etc?

For you, who wrote this: "I ADORE Freddie/Queen but they're a ROCK band not a pop band..." - did you read the title? Greatest rock/pop composers!

9 Desmond Child

He is the real deal on this list. Nobody wrote so many hits performed by different rock and pop artists (several Grammy winners). I’m talking about more than 50 great hits of this calibre:

Bon Jovi - Livin' on a Prayer, You Give Love a Bad Name, Bad Medicine, This ain't A Love Song, Keep the Faith, Diamond Ring, and many more.

Aerosmith - Crazy, Dude (Looks Like a Lady), Angel, What it Takes, Hole in My Soul, etc.

KISS - I Was Made for Lovin' You, Heaven's on Fire

Joan Jett - I Hate Myself for Loving You

Alice Cooper - Poison

Cher - Just Like Jesse James, Does Anybody Really Fall In Love Anymore?

Ricky Martin - Livin' la Vida Loca, She Bangs, Nobody Wants to Be Lonely, Shake Your Bon-Bon

… and so on.

10 Ritchie Blackmore Richard Hugh "Ritchie" Blackmore is an English guitarist and songwriter, best known for his work in the hard rock/metal bands Deep Purple and Rainbow. He was ranked number 16 on Guitar World's "100 Greatest Metal Guitarists of All Time" in 2004, and number 50 in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" in 2011. In 2016 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of original members of Deep Purple.

Remembering all those live concerts mid to late '70s gave you goose bumps and tears from beginning to end. The hair literally would stand on end. I saw many concerts around the planet, you couldn't compare Purple or Rainbow European crowds to anybody else. Blackmore's Night is another incredible show not to miss. Ritchie has been awarded as #1 musician in eastern Europe many times the past 2 decades. Sorry there is virtually no great music here in the states. Looks like Beethove and Mozart are making a comeback!, imagine that. (wishful thinking)

The most versatile songwriter on this list: metal, hard rock, classic rock, soft rock, Renaissance/folk music. Also divine instrumentals like Anybody There, Snowman, Maybe Next Time.
His riff to Smoke On The Water is the most recognizable riff in rock history.
His songs are written with passion and real inspiration.

The Contenders
11 Steve Harris (Iron Maiden) Stephen Percy "Steve" Harris is an English musician and songwriter, known as the bassist, occasional keyboardist, backing vocalist, primary songwriter and founder of the British heavy metal band Iron Maiden.

The best metal composer without any doubt.

12 Roger Waters George Roger Waters is an English singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and composer. He is mostly known for being the secondary lead vocalist and bassist of Pink Floyd.
13 Billy Joel William Martin Joel is an American singer-songwriter, composer and pianist. Commonly nicknamed the "Piano Man", he has been making music since the 1960s, releasing popular albums throughout the '70s, '80s and '90s.
14 George Harrison George Harrison (1943 - 2001) was an English guitarist, singer, songwriter, and music and film producer who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles.

Underrated as a composer, but who else could compose Love You To, Within You Without You, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, My Sweet Lord, and so on? Maybe Paul McCartney and John Lennon. George should at least be in the top ten.

15 Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is an English singer, pianist and composer. Collaborating with lyricist Bernie Taupin since 1967 on more than 30 albums, John has sold over 300 million records, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time. He has ...read more.
16 James Hetfield (Metallica) James Alan Hetfield was born on August 3, 1963. He is an American musician, singer and songwriter known for being the co-founder, lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist and main songwriter for the American heavy metal band Metallica.
17 Bruce Springsteen Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and humanitarian. He is known for his work with the E Street Band. Nicknamed "The Boss", Springsteen is widely known for his brand of poetic lyrics, Americana, working class and sometimes political ...read more.
18 Björn Ulvaeus (ABBA)
19 Jon Schaffer (Iced Earth) Jon Ryan Schaffer is an American heavy metal musician. He is best known as the guitarist and last remaining original member of the Florida-based heavy metal band Iced Earth, which he formed in 1985 under the name "Purgatory".
20 Jimmy Page James Patrick Page is an English musician, songwriter, and record producer who achieved international success as the guitarist and founder of the rock band Led Zeppelin.
21 Mick Jagger Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger is an English singer, songwriter, and actor, best known as the lead vocalist and a co-founder of the Rolling Stones.
22 Ian Anderson Ian Scott Anderson is a Scottish-born musician, singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist whom is best known for his work as the lead vocalist, flautist, and acoustic guitarist of British rock band Jethro Tull.
23 Carole King Carole King is an American composer and singer-songwriter. She is the most successful female songwriter of the latter half of the 20th century in the USA, having written or co-written 118 pop hits on the Billboard Hot 100 between 1955 and 1999. King also wrote 61 hits that charted in the UK, making ...read more.
24 Prince Prince Rogers Nelson (June 7, 1958 - April 21st, 2016) was an American musician, best known for being one of the most popular and influential artists from the 80s, with songs such as "Purple Rain", "Little Red Corvette", "1999", and "When Doves Cry" .
25 Michael Jackson Michael Jackson (Michael Joseph Jackson; August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, dancer, and songwriter. He passed away from cardiac arrest caused by a propofol and benzodiazepine overdose on June 25, 2009. He donated (at least) a remarkable 500,000,000 dollars to charity. Michael is also known as The King of Pop (a title given to him by Elizabeth Taylor) or under the initials MJ. Dubbed the King of Pop, he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. ...read more.
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