Rock ’n’ roll is full of giants. And among the giants are those who shaped the very sound of rock music on the whole. The songwriters on this list are connected by influence and invention. And sure, they may be on your “best” classic rock songwriters list, too. But these are the five (i.e. four plus easily the most accomplished songwriting duo in popular music history) most influential classic rock songwriters. For our money they inspired more people to pick up an instrument or start singing songs than any other artists.
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1. John Lennon and Paul McCartney
The world never seems to get enough of The Beatles. There’s always a new documentary or some lost photographs so dissect. Volumes have been written on the Fab Four. People study The Beatles in the same way one might study Bach. If you were stranded on an island, and you had only one catalog, you could learn everything you need to know about music from The Beatles. Classical, jazz, blues, rhythm and blues, country, folk, psychedelic space-rock, Indian raga, etc., etc. In The Beatles’ music you’ll hear Bach’s influence alongside the Everly Brothers and Little Richard. Then you’ll hear what came after The Beatles. The artists they shaped like Oasis or Wilco or Sufjan Stevens. John Lennon once compared the band to Jesus. The Beatles’ catalog is the songwriter’s Bible.
2. Bob Dylan
The phrase “standing on the shoulders of giants” predates Isaac Newton’s famous letter in 1675 to Robert Hooke. Combinatorial knowledge is crucial to music, too. Bob Dylan learned from Woody Guthrie. Then Dylan became the voice of his generation. Then he plugged in his guitar and the folk hero became a rock ’n’ roll legend. The folkies called him Judas. They felt betrayed. How dare he use electricity? But Dylan used irony and contradiction better than anyone. He’s considered authentic but major parts of his story are wholly made up. Though he’s borrowed to the point of plagiarism, he always sounds like… Dylan. “Like a Rolling Stone” was transformative in 1965. The evolution from folk to rock ’n’ roll was completed with four words: How does it feel?
3. Chuck Berry
Chuck Berry has been called the “Father of Rock ’n’ Roll.” Berry might be more accurately described as an architect of rock ’n’ roll. A lot was happening to rhythm and blues music in the 1950s. Bo Diddley, Fats Domino, Bill Haley & the Comets, and Little Richard were all making music unlike anything heard at the time. If “Tutti Frutti” is the most rock ’n’ roll lyric, then “Johnny B. Goode” is the most rock ’n’ roll guitar lick. “Maybellene” was adapted from Berry’s cover of the Bob Willis song “Ida Red.” Chess Records was interested in the idea of a Black man singing “hillbilly” music. They pushed Berry to write a lyric about cars and young love to appeal to kids. The cover of “Ida Red” became a Berry original named after a cosmetic company called “Maybellene.”
4. Little Richard
Whether or not the Big Bang was engineered doesn’t change the existence of the Universe. Little Richard birthed rock ’n’ roll in the 1950s with his single “Tutti Frutti.” He may not have planned to invent a new genre of music, but when he sang A-wop-bop-a-loo-mop-a-lop-bam-boom, that’s exactly what he did. His piano playing and singing were unhinged. The lyrics to “Tutti Frutti” are pure sexualized rock ’n’ roll. If there lived a pissed-off parent, this song was going to find them. “Long Tall Sally,” a rock ’n’ roll standard, has been covered by Elvis and The Beatles.
Little Richard was famously aggrieved by what others took from him. He was furious about not getting the credit he deserved. But he, too, found a blueprint. The gospel music he was raised on shaped his rhythm and blues in very much the same way he shaped Paul McCartney or Mick Jagger. Little Richard pioneered the sound and style of rock ’n’ roll. He changed the tempo, the volume, and how it was performed. Richard’s injustice cannot be separated from what Black artists experienced in many eras. What he did was liberate culture. He challenged racial, sexual, and gender stereotypes. Little Richard started a revolution whether people gave him just credit or not.
[RELATED: 4 Songs You Didn’t Know Brian Wilson Wrote For Other Artists]
5. Brian Wilson
Brian Wilson’s response to The Beatles’ Rubber Soul was Pet Sounds. Wilson wanted to create the “greatest rock album ever made.” He did exactly that. Then The Beatles responded with Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. What was happening in popular music between 1965 and 1967 was the hyper-speed evolution of record making. Wilson and The Beatles, inspired by each other, pushed the boundaries of how an album was made. They redefined rock ’n’ roll music compositionally, but also instrumentally. The recording studio—no longer simply used to capture a performance—had become an instrument to bend and manipulate music. The Beatles and The Beach Boys were the sonic architects foreshadowing Pink Floyd. And Pink Floyd made space for Radiohead and beyond.
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