Greatest songwriting duo ever ?
 

Hi all you MBers!

I was reading an article (a review of the new Johnny Marr album) that talked about Morrissey & Marr being the 3rd greatest songwriting partnership behind L&M and J&R.

FYI the article is here...

Johnny Marr - The Messenger Review

This got me thinking- WHO are the greatest writing duos ever!?

My top 5:

Jagger & Richards
Lennon & McCartney
Morrissey & Marr
Strummer & Jones
Page & Plant

!

Do you agree? Who else would you have?

I don't really have favorite songwriter duos because it's not something I've really reflected on, but I guess I could mention that I think Burt Bacharach & Hal David and Elton John & Bernie Taupin are worthy of mentions in this thread.

Elton John & Bernie Taupin ! Good call.

Lennon & McCartney team and the Bacharach & David team were the among the most prolific songwriting teams of the Sixties... but the Holland brothers may have written more hit songs than either Lennon & McCartney or Bacharach & David.

Eddie (lyrics) & Brian Holland (music) wrote many of the Motown classics for the Supremes, the Marvelettes, the Four Tops, Marvin Gaye, Martha & the Vandellas, and the Miracles. Lamont Dozier also got a songwriting credit for being the producer and arranger of the Holland brothers' songs; hence the Holland-Dozier-Holland imprint on many of the Motown songs. Here's a link to a list of songs written by the Holland-Dozier-Holland team: Category:Songs written by Holland-Dozier-Holland.

Eddie Holland also teamed with another in-house Motown producer, Norman Whitfield, to write most of hit songs for the Temptations. The Holland brothers, along with Lamont Dozier & Norman Whitfield all left the Motown label over royalty distribution disputes with owner Barry Gordy.

You can't ignore the Gershwin brothers whose songs have endured for nearly a century.

George & Ira Gershwin composed a book of pop music and jazz standards that have endured longer than any of the pop/rock music composers. The Gershwin Brothers wrote hit songs for such musical giants as Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald & the Count Basie Band. Among the Gershwin brother classics:

But Not For Me
Let's Call the Whole Thing Off
Nice Work If You Can Get It
Oh Lady Be Good
They All Laughed
I've Got a Crush on You
Our Love Is Here To Stay
Embraceable You
I Got Rhythm
Let's Call the Whole Thing Off
They Can't Take That Away From Me

Any jazz player or singer worth their salt knows the Gershwin-Gershwin songbook like the back of their hand...Even Coltrane & Monk performed covers of many of the Gershwin standards.

Certainly one of the greatest songwriting duos of all time: Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller. I'd say after Chuck Berry they were the most determinant songwriters of the 50s.
Key Tracks: There Goes My Baby, Hound Dog, Jailhouse Rock, Stand By Me, Kansas City, etc.

And, of course, I won't miss criticizing Page & Plant for being the most overrated songwriters ever (one should always have in mind that although they certainly are one of the absolute greatest bands ever and their songs are bloody good, 90% of their music is ripped off from somewhere).

Thanks all for the replies some very though provoking stuff for me to digest here.

Great post, Gavin :)

I would say La Reid and babyface. those are two great combinations.

Based on their popularity and ability to endure the ages, I'm gonna have to throw Don Henley and Glen Frey. I know they had a lot of help from that guy that sued them (and won). Felder? Also, I believe Joe Walsh did the guitar stuff on 'Hotel California.'

I am not a big Eagles fan. But my god, these dudes are still overplayed today, so that has mean something, right?

It doesn't help that I have recently watched the new documentary on them. I was surprised by how many of their songs I knew. When I say knew, I mean I could sing along with ease. And I don't have any Eagles music in my library and haven't for, well, ever. There's something to be said for staying and overplaying power.

Lou Reed + John Cale

I don't know, maybe if it's only UK Rock bands. As much as I like The Smiths I think there could be other canidates that are just as worthy at the #3 spot. Most bands I like write as a band and I really don't know if there is a songwriting duo behind them. I think one of the best that doesn't get mention much as a writing team is Winwood/Capaldi (with Chris Wood on some tracks). I think Jim Capaldi is under-rated as a songwriter. His lyrics had meaning behind them. Even the next bunch really wrote some meaningful lyrics as well. Since they didn't write hundreds of hits, I give them honourable mention: Difford & Tilbrook, Ashford and Simpson, Leiber and Stoller, Gamble and Huff. And another honourable mention to Rice and Webber, I mean "Jesus Christ Superstar" rocked like it was written by Curved Air.

Steve Winwood and Jim Capaldi
Paper Sun
Pearly Queen
The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys
Freedom Rider
Empty Pages
Dear Mr. Fantasy (Capaldi, Winwood, Wood)
Heaven Is in Your Mind (Capaldi, Winwood, Wood)

Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook
Vanity Fair
Annie Get Your Gun
Black Coffee in Bed
Up The Junction
Tempted

Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson
Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing
California Soul (5th Dimension, Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell, and Marlena Shaw)
Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)
Ain't No Mountain High Enough
You're All I Need to Get By

Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller
Jail House Rock
Kansas City
Stand By Me

Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff
If You Don't Know Me by Now
Love Train
Me and Mrs. Jones (with Cary Gilbert)
TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)
List of songwriter collaborations - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Did you ever have a reflection upon Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus? I was curious since you live relatively close to ground zero. I mean respectively compare to where other members live. I don't know if you are strictly Prog, (I guess what I'm asking) did you ever have a foray into Pop?

Of course I listen to a lot of pop and don't really consider myself a proghead at all. About Benny and Bjørn, I feel like I've heard enough ABBA to last me a lifetime, starting with LPs from when I was a kid. But there's no denying they wrote great pop songs - and lots of them. My personal favorites may be Voulez Vous and SOS :)

They weren't too popular here, so they never worn on me. I can take them or leave them depending on the song. But I still love SOS, Pete Townsend said it was the greatest Pop song ever written. What I like about it is like a mini Prog song, under three and a half minutes.

It wasn't a writing partnership like Elton and a Bernie Taupin were like everything was a colabortain. They did write some songs together, but Lou Reed singularly gets the credit for something like 73% of the songs on VU & Nico. But I'm not saying the Cale or the other had no imput, even Moe got credit on European son, and the band as a whole contribute to the music as a whole. Still "Sunday Morning" is enough to mention them.

I guess another example would be Mike Love and Brian Wilson there a few songs, but Brian wrote most, some with outside (of the band) help.

I'm going to have to throw two partnerships in to the hat here:

Mercury/May
Godley/Creme

David Bowie & Coke

lennon/mccartney imo made a huge and lasting impression

Still you ca't say they worked together the same way John & Taupin did - using them (J&T) as one example of songwriting team in the traditional sense. Lennon and McCartney didn't either, Paul would write the song and John would givehis imput and vice a versa.

50/50? What about Sterling and Moe, what are they... chop liver? Lou wrote the song and the band together turun it into the final peice of artwork.

A lot of really great names mentioned (Gershwins, LennonMac, JohnTaupin, BowieBlow), and knowing me you know I gotta say WilsonParks, just cuz Smile was too rad, and then I'd have to put in BuckinghamNicks, because I think they had a really distinct style individually but balance each other out that way.

I'd say Brian May and Freddie Mercury, which was the vast majority of Queen's output.

Simon and garfunkel it is!

They are one of the very greatest music duos ever, but they certainly are NOT a songwriting duo. Only Paul Simon is the one who is responsible for their songs.

Lil B and Soulja Boy, anyone?

Soulja Boy ft Lil B - 30 Thousand 100 Million (Official Music Video) - YouTube

1. P-Mac and John L
2. Simon and Garfunkel
3. Hall And Oats
4. Carol King and Gerry Goffin ( spelt wrong)
5. Phil and Don Everly

They were stictly a songwriting duo. The Allen sister, Sarah and Janna help write many of their biggest hits during their halcyon days e. g. Kiss on My List was written by Janna Allen and Daryl Hall.

Peaches n cream

Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding
James Dean Bradfield and Richey Edwards
(Lennon and McCartney
Morrissey and Marr)

Just a few that spring to mind.

Brian Wilson & Mike Love
Gerry Goffin & Carole King

Mike Chapman & Nicky Chinn probably had more songs at number one in the 70s than any other songwriting duo

I'd also like to nominate Holland Dozier Holland. They are responsible for more hits then most of the others mentioned collectively.

Donald Fagen and Walter Becker.

I have to be a big Smiths-head here and say Morrissey and Johnny Marr. For me personally it was a match made in heaven. They were two very different people with different interests who had an amazing chemistry when paired together. In terms of partnerships nothing comes close to them for me.