The Beatles Bible - Topic: Who came closest to being "the next Lennon-McCartney"?

mr. Sun king coming together on Who came closest to being "the next Lennon-McCartney"?

Sat, 01 Oct 2011 17:08:54 +0100

Zig said:

Not being a Simon & Garfunkel expert, I'm not sure if all of their songs were credited as such. Anyone?

Just credited to Simon. Garfunkel wasn't ever a songwriter, AFAIK. *checks wiki* Yep, he was sorta like Ringo's solo career, mostly songs from some friends.

(God, this no math is hell in a handbag.)

Edit: The Clash's Strummer/Jones, perhaps?

JET! on Who came closest to being "the next Lennon-McCartney"?

Sat, 01 Oct 2011 16:47:28 +0100

I think that was a really good post. I love Simon & Garfunkel, but as far as I know (from what my dad told me) Simon did the majority of the songwriting. A lot of people thing Art had the better voice though.

Zig on Who came closest to being "the next Lennon-McCartney"?

Sat, 01 Oct 2011 15:27:34 +0100

If we are talking about pure songwriting, then we could say that Lennon / McCartney became the next Lieber & Stoller. John was quoted as saying without Elvis there would be no Beatles. L & S wrote some of the songs that Elvis became synonymous with - "Hound Dog" and "Jailhouse Rock" leap to mind.

The Beatles themselves played L & S tunes like "Searchin", "Three Cool Cats", "Young Blood", "Kansas City" and one of my favorites, "Some Other Guy". Later in his solo career, John recorded "Stand By Me". Sadly, Jerry Lieber passed away last month at age 78.

If we are talking about ...

JET! on Who came closest to being "the next Lennon-McCartney"?

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 21:48:55 +0100

I don't know how close they were but I love Pete Doherty-Carl Barat of the Libertines. Such a songwriting bromance, and they just wanted to have fun making music.

mr. Sun king coming together on Who came closest to being "the next Lennon-McCartney"?

Sun, 18 Sep 2011 22:41:38 +0100

The Walrus said:

Butler-Chassagne, maybe? Not much commercial success, but there are parallels, such as the difference in style between partners (with exceptions).

Why didn't I think of that?

Holland-Dozier-Holland were great writers, unfortunately they weren't performers.

meanmistermustard on Who came closest to being "the next Lennon-McCartney"?

Sun, 18 Sep 2011 21:44:16 +0100

Stock/Aitken/Waterman? (According to wiki they've either written and/or produced over 100 top 40 hits and sold over 40 million albums!)

Quality wise (and also listenability) i immediately thought of Bernie Taupin and Elton John as they have the quality and consistency.

The Walrus on Who came closest to being "the next Lennon-McCartney"?

Sun, 18 Sep 2011 20:53:25 +0100

Dylan-Harrison could have been the next Lennon-McCartney if they'd worked together for longer.

Butler-Chassagne, maybe? Not much commercial success, but there are parallels, such as the difference in style between partners (with exceptions).

kedame on Who came closest to being "the next Lennon-McCartney"?

Sun, 18 Sep 2011 00:38:40 +0100

I was going to say John-Taupin, too. However, wasn't their arrangement more traditional...John did the music, Taupin the words? That's a little different than Lennon/McCartney.

DoctorRobert on Who came closest to being "the next Lennon-McCartney"?

Sat, 17 Sep 2011 17:48:40 +0100

People often see similarities between Lennon-McCartney and Partridge-Moulding of XTC, even though they didn't share writing credits.

Into the Sky with Diamonds on Who came closest to being "the next Lennon-McCartney"?

Sat, 17 Sep 2011 14:00:45 +0100

On a song for song basis, John-Taupin are probably neck and neck with Jagger-Richards; fabulous songs.

but Taupin has always been invisible - not as a songwriter but as a performer. That gives a slight edge IMHO to Jagger-Richards.

Somewhere in the mix I think we'd also have to consider Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford from Squeeze who were billed as the next Lennon-McCartney for a while - for good reason I think. Their lyrics are even better than Taupin's (maybe not Jagger's).

Anyone else like Squeeze?

paulsbass on Who came closest to being "the next Lennon-McCartney"?

Sat, 17 Sep 2011 07:07:27 +0100

"Into the Sky with Diamonds" said:

I'm going with Jagger-Richards though they were essentially contemporaries.

Elton John/Bernie Taupin would be the obvious choice, since they are the most successful team I know of after the Beatles.

Apart from them nobody came even close to L/M, but when we look at successful songwriting teams who also always used both/all their names on their songs although one was the main writer, I can think of:

Davis/Hodgson - Supertramp

Banks/Collins/Rutherford - Genesis

Parsons/Woolfson - Alan Parson's Project

Into the Sky with Diamonds on Who came closest to being "the next Lennon-McCartney"?

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 22:51:44 +0100

I'm going with Jagger-Richards though they were essentially contemporaries.