Steven Patrick Morrissey and Johnny Marr - (Great Songwriters)

by someone
(sydney, australia)

Steven Patrick Morrissey and Johnny Marr are the songwriting duo that formed the rock group, The Smiths, along with Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce. Any one who is writing a factual and non-biased list of the greatest songwriters of all time needs to include this duo in it. No less than the top 20.

Credited as Morrissey/Marr, between the years of 1983 and 1987 the pair wrote eight top 40 hits, seven top twenty hits, and three top ten hits on the UK top 40 alone before the band disintegrated due to musical disagreements. Apart from their 18 top 40 hits, the band also spent more time at no.1 (53 weeks) on the UK Indie charts than any other band or solo artist.

During the bands life time, 16 percent of the no.1 hits on the indie charts belonged to The Smiths.

However, besides having three gold albums in the US, a string of gold and platinum albums in the UK and a bunch of top ten singles in Ireland, The Smiths have had far more influence than commercial success. A number of bands influenced by The Smiths are Blur, Oasis, Radiohead, The Stone Roses, The Verve, Belle and Sebastien and countless others. Depsite their lack of commercial success in the United States while they were alive, the Smiths have still racked up quite a following there. Morrisseys smart, witty and clever lyrics and Johnny Marrs knack for crafting great melodies ensured that they also influenced bands such as Blink 182 (pop-punk), No Doubt (ska), System of A Down (extreme metal), Andre 3000 from Outkast (hip-hop/rap), Phil Anselmo of Pantera (thrash metal) and a long list of other well known groups and an even longer list of unknown garage bands. It is a known fact, that with out The Smiths, Brit-pop probably never would have happened or it would have been an entirely different scene.

In terms of critical success, not many bands have outdone The Smiths. For a start, most critics regard them as one of the most important bands to have come out of the 1980's UK. Morrissey is regarded by A LOT to be one of the best lyricists of all time and Johnny Marr and Morrissey were voted as the 5th greatest songwriting duo of all time by Rolling Stone magazine, beating out David/Bacharach and Lieber/Stoller and many others. NME ranked them the most influential band of all time and Smiths albums constantly top their greatest albums lists. The Smiths have 4 albums on the RS 500 Greatest Albums list as well.