Stevie Nicks is often thought of as the greatest female songwriter in Fleetwood Mac, thanks to the success of “Dreams” and “Rhiannon,” but one of her bandmates has an even deeper catalogue. And for traditional tastes, there’s a killer power-pop song, the Marshall Crenshaw collaboration “All I Ever Wanted.” Her masterpiece, Electric Landlady, includes touches of hip-hop, Celtic, and Tropicália. MacColl got far more adventurous afterward, in a career that was sadly cut off with her accidental death in 2000. Her first success, “They Don’t Know” (a UK hit for Tracey Ullman), was one of the better girl-grouphomages of its time and her first album, Desperate Character, ranks as one of the great lost Rockpile-style albums. Like many progressive songwriters, Kirsty MacColl started out doing retro-styled pop. We’re not claiming that it’s comprehensive, but this list of the best female songwriters spans many genres and stretches back a good 100 years.

Women have been at the songwriting frontlines for decades – longer, if you count the many anonymous ballads clearly written from a female perspective, starting with “House Of The Rising Sun.” So, in putting together a list of the best female songwriters of all time, we’re effectively choosing between half of the great songwriters who have ever been.

Song writer higginbotham crossword