Greatest Songwriter of all time

Redwood . . .
Your criteria points to Paul McCartney as much as anyone, doesn't it? Paul was definitely good, but most of his post-Beatles stuff was a bit too bubble-gumish for me.

This brings up another interesting topic. What happens to some songwriters? Do they wake up one day and discover they have lost their creativity? Right now, McCartney (the song writer with more #1 hits than any) couldn't write a good song if his life depended on it and hasn't for the last 20+ years. There are others: Elton John, Dan Fogelberg, etc, etc .

On the other side of the coin, Brian Wilson's, Christopher Cross's, last albums were, in my opinion, their best.

I have looked through this thread and can't find Billy Joel's name...not even once. I find that weird. I know these things are driven as much by personal taste as anything but you'd think once? Well, now it has. I don't know if I would put him in MY top 3 but he is certainly competitive with many of the names in this thread.

anywho...

Beatles music/lyrics/infulence/melody/classics...who could claim more in our lifetime in popular music? How many top 10 hits and classic memorable tunes...too many to number.
Dylan, genius but not popular like Beatles or Elton or Elvis etc. but obviously the musical community thinks he is the beat all to end all
Springsteen -energy/emotion/the story/rock/song

That isn't enough because the creativity of musicians and their unique personalities can't be captured in a one two three...but it is fun thinking about it.

happy listening
cd

Andy Partridge/Colin Moulding (XTC)

maybe not the greatest but deserves to be mentioned- Paul Simon

No mention of David Bowie? He has been one of the biggest influences on rock/pop of the last 30 yrs. And XTC, the greatest underrated act of recent memory.

BUT, nothing has ever touched my soul like a Mozart aria. God sang into this man's ear as he wrote down the notes.