The other day I was thinking about who the most acclaimed songwriters of all time are. The Top 4 were obvious.... John Lennon, Paul McCartney (Lennon getting the edge for #1 due to a better solo career), Bob Dylan and The Jagger/ Richards team. From there it got tricky.

The obvious choice for #4 would be David Bowie, but then I thought about Lou Reed; Reed's Velvet Underground is 13 of all time on AM with just 6 albums. Adding his solo work to his VU tally would give him 6 albums inside the top 200, tied with The Beatles. This made him an obvious choice for #4.

Then I got to thinking about other major songwriters who were the primary creative force (or at the very least, part of an equal creative partnership) in more than one acclaimed band. Here are a few I came up with:

Eric Clapton: The Yardbirds, John Mayall Bluesbreakers, Cream, Derek and The Dominos, Blind Faith, and a Solo career. None of these efforts individually rank in the top 100 artists, but if you add them up, Clapton probably becomes a top 20 of all time.
John Lennon: The Beatles (1), Solo (40)...that's just overkill man.
Van Morrison: Solo (27), Them (329)
Gram Parsons: was the creative force behind two top 200 albums of all time not ranked under his name (The Byrds Sweetheart of The Rodeo and The Flying Burrito Brothers Gilded Palace of Sin) in addition to his own solo career (194). Adding up his total contributions would at the very least, put him in the top 100, (maybe top 50) of all time.
Lou Reed: The Velvet Underground (13) and his solo career (45) would probably put him at #4 or 5 of all time.
Jeff Tweedy: Wilco (92), Uncle Tupelo (767)


I know Jack White has The White Stripes, The Raconteurs, and heavy songwriting credit on Loretta Lynn's excellent Van Lear Rose, but I got tired of looking up numbers.

Are there any others I missed?

Damon Albarn [Blur (50) / Gorillaz (253) / the Good, the Bad and the Queen (1016)] comes to mind.

Also: (skimming the top 200 or so for musicians with two high ranking acts)
Dave Grohl for Nirvana [17] & Foo Fighters [342].
Morrissey for the Smiths [24] & solo [160].
John Cale for two VU albums & solo [199] (not to mention his excellent production work).
John Lydon for Sex Pistols [36], PIL [170] & solo [1669].
Kim Deal for Pixies [43] (although not the primary songwriter) & The Breeders [287].
3/4 of Joy Division for JD [51] & New Order [57].
Paul Simon for S&G [55] & solo [105].
Tricky for 1st Massive Attack album & solo [231].
Iggy for the Stooges [62] & solo [188].
Bjork for solo [65] & The Sugarcubes [537].
Brian Eno for Roxy Music [46] & solo [75].
Kevin Shields for My Bloody Valentine [127] & some Primal Scream albums [86].
Peter Gabriel for solo [134] & Genesis [260].
Thomas Bangalter for Daft Punk [147] & Stardust [687].
Ian MacKaye for Fugazi [235] & Minor Threat [554].
Lauryn Hill for solo [267] & the Fugees [273]
And Various Wu-Tang Clan members (Ghostface Killah, Raekwon, GZA, Method Man, ODB, etc.).

Also, jazz is very incestuous.

How about Jason Pierce for Spacemen 3 (587) and Spiritualized (303)

Karl Wallinger for World Party (1140) and the Waterboys (412)

Norman Cook aka Fatboy Slim (250) and for his work with the Housemartins (1216)

Bobby Gillespie for Primal Scream (86) and the Jesus and Mary Chain (120)

Let's not forget Will Oldham, who before settling on his Bonnie "Prince" Billy moniker recorded top 3000 albums as Palace Brothers and Palace Music.

That's true...but given that the name changes were arbitrary, Will gets full credit for all his albums on acclaim.

I don't even know if he is listed inside AM 3000, but Bill Callahan used to record under the name Smog, now he's Bill.

There's Brian Eno and almost every record he had a finger on it.

There's two brazilian supergroups Tribalistas (Marisa Monte, Arnaldo Antunes, Carlinhos Brown) e Doces Barbaros (Gal Costa, Caetano Veloso, Maria Bethania, Gilberto Gil)

Neko Case for The New Pornographers, Janis Joplin for the Big Brother and the Holding Company, Fever Ray for The Knife, Feist for Broken Social Scene, Brian Wilson for The Beach Boys, Bradford Cox for Atlas Sound & Deerhunter, and Panda Bear for Animal Collective & Solo. Stevie Nicks for Fleetwood Mac. Antony for Antony & Johnsons and Hercules & Love Affair (he contributed in some tracks singing and/or writing)

Maybe in the future artists like Bat For Lashes, St. Vincent, Cat Power, will start recording with their real names.

Oh! Also there's Beyonce and her "moniker" Destiny's Child

I always had the doubt about which position would Joy Division be if they hadn't changed their name after Curtis' death. Top 20, maybe?

Owen Pallett/Final Fantasy/Arcade Fire

How about the following:

Neil Young: Solo 18, Buffalo Springfield 206, Crosby, Still, Nash and Young 128

Steve Winwood: Traffic 244, Blind Faith 871, and some credit for his extensive solo career;

Todd Rundgren: Solo 230, Utopia, Nazz and many albums produced.

Pete Townsend: Who 8, Solo

Neil Young: Solo 18, Buffalo Springfield 206, Crosby, Still, Nash and Young 128

Let's not forget the Brill Building songwriters and other songwriting teams of the early rock era (Leiber/Stoller, Pomus/Shuman, Holland/Dozier/Holland, Goffin/King, Barry/Greenwich, etc.). In my opinion the Digital Dream Door list (http://digitaldreamdoor.nutsie.com/pages/best_songwriters.html) is pretty sweet, but you should be aware that it doesn't use acclaim as the only criterion.

No love for Pete Townsend?
Shouldn't he be in the top 10?