List: Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees

by likeorhate

•  Cole Porter

  Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) was an American composer and songwriter. His works include the musical comedies Kiss Me, Kate, Fifty Million Frenchmen, DuBarry Was a Lady and Anything Goes, as well as songs like "Night and Day," "I Get a Kick out of You," "Well, Did You Evah!" and "I've Got You Under My Skin. " He was noted for his sophisticated, bawdy lyrics, clever rhymes and complex forms. He was one of the greatest contributors to the Great American Songbook.

  

  47.8%
  

  39.1%
  

  13.0%
  
•  Andy Razaf

  Andy Razaf (December 16, 1895 – February 3, 1973) was an American poet, composer and lyricist of such well-known songs as "Ain't Misbehavin'" and "Honeysuckle Rose".

  

  66.7%
  

  33.3%
  

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•  Bobby Darin

  Bobby Darin (born Walden Robert Cassotto, May 14, 1936 – December 20, 1973) was an American singer, actor and musician. Darin performed widely in a range of music genres, including pop, jazz, folk and country. Although unknown to his public, his health was dangerously fragile and strongly motivated him to succeed within the limited lifetime he feared he would, and ultimately did, have. He was also an actor, singer/songwriter and music business entrepreneur.

  

  75.0%
  

  25.0%
  

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•  Pete Seeger

  Peter "Pete" Seeger (born May 3, 1919) is an American folk singer and an iconic figure in the mid-20th century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably the 1950 recording of Leadbelly's "Goodnight, Irene", which topped the charts for 13 weeks in 1950. Members of The Weavers were blacklisted during the McCarthy Era.

  

  50.0%
  

  50.0%
  

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•  Smokey Robinson

  William "Smokey" Robinson, Jr. (born February 19, 1940) is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter, record producer, and former record executive. Robinson is one of the primary figures associated with Motown Records, second only to the company's founder, Berry Gordy. Robinson's consistent commercial success and creative contributions to the label have earned him the title "King of Motown.

  

  71.4%
  

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  28.6%
  
•  Hank Williams

  Hiram King ("Hank") Williams (September 17, 1923 - January 1, 1953) was an American country music performer who many believe to be the greatest of all time. He was not able to read or write music to any significant degree. He fathered a son who later became a country star in his own right. Williams died at age 29 after writing some of the greatest country songs of all times. His death is widely believed to have resulted from a mixture of alcohol and drugs.

  

  100.0%
  

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•  Frank Loesser

  Frank Henry Loesser (June 29, 1910 – July 26, 1969) was an American songwriter who wrote the scores to the Broadway hits Guys And Dolls and How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, among others. He won separate Tony Awards for the music and lyrics in both shows, as well as sharing the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the latter.

  

  75.0%
  

  25.0%
  

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•  Jim Croce

  James Joseph "Jim" Croce (January 10, 1943 – September 20, 1973) was an Italian American singer-songwriter. Between 1960 and 1973, Croce released six studio albums and eleven singles. His singles "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" and "Time in a Bottle" were both number one hits on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. Croce died in a plane crash at the age of 30.

  

  100.0%
  

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•  Randy Newman

  Randall Stuart “Randy” Newman (born November 28, 1943) is an American singer/songwriter, arranger, composer, and pianist who is notable for his pop songs and for his many film scores. Newman is noted for his practice of writing lyrics from the perspective of a character far removed from Newman's own biography. For example, the 1972 song "Sail Away" is written as a slave trader's sales pitch to attract slaves, while the narrator of "Political Science" is a U.S.

  

  85.7%
  

  14.3%
  

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•  Bill Withers

  William Harrison "Bill" Withers, Jr. (born July 4, 1938) is an American singer-songwriter and musician who performed and recorded from 1970 until 1985. Some of his best-known songs are "Lean on Me", "Ain't No Sunshine," "Use Me," "Just the Two of Us", "Lovely Day," and "Grandma's Hands".

  

  100.0%
  

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•  Anne Caldwell

  Anne Caldwell (August 30, 1867 – October 22, 1936), also known as Anne Caldwell O'Dea, was a librettist and lyricist. She was born in Boston, Massachusetts. She wrote both pop songs and Broadway shows including working with Jerome Kern.

  

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•  Billy Strayhorn

  William Thomas "Billy" Strayhorn (November 29, 1915 – May 31, 1967) was an American composer, pianist and arranger, best known for his successful collaboration with bandleader and composer Duke Ellington lasting nearly three decades. His compositions include "Chelsea Bridge", "Take the "A" Train" and "Lush Life".

  

  100.0%
  

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•  Don Henley

  Donald Hugh "Don" Henley is an American musician, singer, songwriter and drummer, best known as a founding member of the Eagles before launching a successful seven time Grammy Award-winning solo career. His solo hits include "The Boys of Summer", "Dirty Laundry" and "The End of the Innocence". In 2008, he was ranked the 87th greatest singer of all time by Rolling Stone magazine.

  

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•  Brian Holland

  Brian Holland (born February 15, 1941 in Detroit, Michigan) is an African American songwriter and record producer, best known as a member of Holland-Dozier-Holland. That songwriting and production team that was responsible for much of the Motown sound and numerous hit records by artists such as Martha & the Vandellas, The Supremes, The Four Tops, and The Isley Brothers. Holland, along with Lamont Dozier, served as the team's musical arranger and producer.

  

  100.0%
  

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•  Sherman Brothers

  The Sherman Brothers are an Academy Award-winning American songwriting duo that specialize in musical films, made up of Robert B. Sherman (born December 19, 1925) and Richard M. Sherman (born June 12, 1928). The Sherman Brothers wrote more motion-picture musical song scores than any other songwriting team in film history, working for Walt Disney during the last six years of his life.

  

  100.0%
  

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•  Leslie Bricusse

  Leslie Bricusse (29 January 1931) is a British lyricist and composer. Although best known for his partnership with Anthony Newley, Bricusse has worked with many other composers. Whilst at Cambridge University, he was Secretary of Footlights between 1952 and 1953 and Footlights President during the following year. He is married to the actress Yvonne Romain. Sammy Davis, Jr. had hits with two of Bricusse's songs - "What Kind of Fool Am I?" and the #1 hit "The Candy Man".

  

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•  Samuel Francis Smith

  Samuel Francis Smith, (1808–1895), Baptist minister, journalist and author, is best known for having written the lyrics to "My Country, 'Tis of Thee", which he entitled America.

  

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•  Harry Ruby

  Harry Ruby (January 27, 1895 in New York City – February 23, 1974 in Woodland Hills, California) was a Jewish American songwriter and screenwriter. After failing in his early ambition to become a professional baseball player, Ruby toured the vaudeville circuit as a pianist with the Bootblack Trio and the Messenger Boys Trio, where he met his long-time partner Bert Kalmar.

  

  100.0%
  

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•  Howard Dietz

  Howard Dietz (September 8, 1896 – July 30, 1983) was an American publicist, lyricist, and librettist.

  

  100.0%
  

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•  Jimmie Rodgers (country singer)

  James Charles Rodgers (September 8, 1897 – May 26, 1933), known as "Jimmie," was a country singer in the early 20th century known most widely for his rhythmic yodeling. Among the first country music superstars and pioneers, Rodgers was also known as "The Singing Brakeman", "The Blue Yodeler", and "The Father of Country Music".

  

  66.7%
  

  33.3%
  

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•  Richard M. Sherman

  Richard Morton Sherman is an American songwriter who specializes in musical film with his brother Robert Bernard Sherman. Some of the Sherman Brothers' best-known writing includes the songs from Mary Poppins, The Jungle Book, Winnie the Pooh, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Slipper and the Rose and the theme park song, "It's a Small World (after all)".

  

  100.0%
  

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•  Ernesto Lecuona

  Ernesto Lecuona y Casado was a Cuban composer and pianist of Canarian father and Cuban mother, and worldwide fame. He composed over six hundred pieces, mostly in the Cuban vein, and was a pianist of exceptional quality.

  

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•  Elton John

  Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE (born 25 March 1947 as Reginald Kenneth Dwight; name change occurred in 1972) is an English singer-songwriter, composer and pianist. In his four-decade career, John has sold more than 250 million records, making him one of the most successful artists of all time. His single "Candle in the Wind 1997" has sold over 37 million copies, becoming the best selling single of all time. He has more than 50 Top 40 hits, including seven consecutive No. 1 U.S.

  

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•  Charles Fox (composer)

  Charles Ira Fox (born October 30, 1940) is an American composer for film and television. His most heard compositions are probably the "love themes" (the sunshine pop musical backgrounds which accompanied every episode of the 1970s ABC-TV show Love, American Style), and the dramatic theme music to ABC's Wide World of Sports and the original ABC Monday Night Football.

  

  100.0%
  

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•  John Green (composer)

  

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