As we assess the songs of our best songwriters, what is more important, the lyrics or the melody?
We’ll start with the man and the woman often mentioned as our greatest songwriters…Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell.
Bob Dylan has been a masterful songwriter for decades, but his most iconic and popular songs are from the 1960s (as you’ll see below). Those songs include “Blowin’ In The Wind”, “The Times They Are A -Changin’”, “Mr. Tambourine Man”, “Like A Rolling Stone”. and “Positively 4th Street”. Of course Dylan writes excellent melodies, but he’s mostly recognized for his lyrics. He’s influenced generations of artists as he expanded topics and styles of songwriting.
So how have his songs fared on the “Top 10” singles chart on Billboard? (As shown on Google)
Of all the songs written by Bob Dylan, only one ever made #1…”Mr. Tambourine Man” as recorded by The Byrds. His Top 10 writing total is actually 8 songs, because Google missed “It Ain’t Me Babe” #8 by The Turtles in 1965.
In our family, Dylan spans generations. I started collecting Dylan albums in the 60s, our son (who was born in the 70s) is a big Dylan fan, and on a recent day trip to the coast with our grandkids, Eddie (18) and Samantha (15), Eddie was free to choose any music from my collection, and we all enjoyed listening to Bob Dylan for much of the drive.
Joni Mitchell is extremely well thought of as a writer, singer, and innovative guitarist. Her albums Blue, For The Roses, and Court & Spark are treasures. Her songs include “Both Sides Now”, “The Circle Game”, “Big Yellow Taxi”, “River”, and “Help Me”. She’s influenced female and male songwriters with her very personal style of lyrics, and her blending of musical genres.
Like Bob Dylan, her brilliance didn’t significantly translate to the Billboard chart (according to Google information).
Music critics rightfully love the lyrical prowess of Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell, and it seems almost crazy that more of their songs we love didn’t translate into more commercial success. By the way, I looked up two more artists I love, CSN&Y and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. I own nearly everything they recorded (group & solo), but neither artist had much impact on the Billboard Top 10.
Now we move on to a couple songwriters who are known to be two of our greatest melody writers…Paul McCartney and Carole King.
Paul McCartney has written some of the best known and most recorded songs in the history of popular music. They include “Let It Be”, “Yesterday”, “Hey Jude”, “Blackbird”, “Michelle”, and “Here There and Everywhere”. Those particular songs are ones McCartney basically wrote himself while he was in The Beatles. We’re now over sixty years since Beatlemania, and McCartney is universally recognized as an amazing melody writer. His lyrics can be impressive too.
So, how have McCartney’s songs performed on the Billboard chart?
That’s a record 32 #1 songs, and a total of 57 Top 10 hits…too numerous to include all the titles here. McCartney’s greatest chart success was in the 60s, 70s (he was the top artist that decade on the singles chart) and 80s, and his run of writing or co-writing hits that made the Top 10 in the U.S. spans seven decades, 1964 through 2023.
Carole King was actually known for her very impressive songwriting before she became a performer. It’s important to give credit to her main lyricist, Gerry Goffin, but it was Carole King who wrote the melodies. Check out the list of hits she wrote.
That’s a total of seven #1 songs (two of them were #1 twice for separate artists), and two of them were her own recordings. A total of 19 recordings of Carole King’s songs made the Top 10.
Music critics naturally focus on lyrics, because they’re much easier to write about than trying to describe a melody. The statistics seem to show the melodies are more important with the public, as long as the lyrics satisfyingly work for the composition.
Overall, the songwriters in this article are skilled at writing both the words and music, so let’s pose the question another way. When we attempt to rank the best songwriters, should we give more weight to their ability to write the lyrics, or the melodies?
it looks like the person who can write the melodies and perform the songs is the one who becomes famous.
Bonus: Looked up more songwriters, so you don’t have to.
Paul Simon is known for both his lyrics and melodies.
Additionally, Paul Simon won the Grammy Award for Album Of The Year three times, second only to Taylor Swift’s record four times.
Brian Wilson was like Carole King, he wrote the melodies and almost always used a lyricist. Of course he was also known for his arranging and production.
And we conclude with the top hits written by Don Henley, who is well known for the quality of his lyrics (among other musical talents).
