Snoop Dogg, Patti Smith, Gloria Estefan & More Vying to Join Songwriters Hall of Fame’s 2023 Class: Full List

The voters who select the 2023 class of inductees into the Songwriters Hall of Fame have a highly diverse list of nominees from which to choose. The list includes rapper and entertainer Snoop Dogg, rock poet Patti Smith, Broadway writers Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, and country pros Vince Gill, Liz Rose and Dean Dillon.

Twelve performing songwriters or songwriting teams and 12 non-performing songwriters or songwriting teams are vying to join the SHOF. Three songwriters or teams in each of these two divisions will be inducted at the SHOF’s 54th Annual Induction & Awards Gala on June 15, 2023, in New York City.

A songwriter with a notable catalog of songs qualifies for induction 20 years after the first significant commercial release of a song.

Gloria Estefan, who received the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song three years ago in tandem with her husband Emilio Estefan, is nominated. So are two songwriters who have already been voted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame – Dillon and Gill.

Most of the nominees are individuals, but eight songwriting teams are vying for induction – Ahrens and Flaherty; Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart; Sandy Linzer and Denny Randell; Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham; and the individuals who comprise Blondie, The Doobie Brothers, Heart and REM.

Boyce is the only songwriter vying to be inducted posthumously. He died in 1994 at age 55.

Tom Snow and Dean Pitchford have written several big hits together, including “Let’s Hear It for the Boy” and “After All,” but they are vying here as individuals.

Pitchford won an Oscar for best original song for co-writing “Fame.” Another nominee, Michael McDonald, won a Grammy for song of the year for co-writing “What a Fool Believes.”

Six of the performing songwriter candidates have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – Smith, Jeff Lynne and the individuals who comprise Blondie, The Doobie Brothers, Heart and REM.

Eligible voting members have until 12 p.m. ET on Dec. 28 to turn in ballots with their choices of three nominees from the non-performing songwriter category and three from the performing songwriter category.

Bios, song lists and photos of the 2023 nominees can be found on songhall.org. Note: The SHOF supplied the titles of the five songs listed after each nominee’s name, but stresses that these “are merely a representative sample of their extensive catalogs.”

Performing Songwriters       

Bryan Adams – “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You,” “Heaven,” “All for Love,” “Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?,” “Summer of ‘69”

Clem Burke / Debbie Harry / Chris Stein (p/k/a Blondie) – “Call Me,” “Heart of Glass,” “Rapture,” “One Way or Another,” “Sunday Girl”

Calvin Broadus Jr. (p/k/a Snoop Dogg) – “Drop It Like It’s Hot,” “Nuthin’ But A “G” Thang,” “Young, Wild & Free,” “Gin & Juice,” “Next Episode”

Tom Johnston / Michael McDonald / Patrick Simmons (p/k/a The Doobie Brothers) – “Listen to the Music,” “Long Train Running,” “What a Fool Believes,” “China Grove,” “Black Water”

Gloria Estefan –  “Anything for You,” “Don’t Wanna Lose You,” “Words Get in the Way,” “Rhythm Is Gonna Get You,” “Let’s Get Loud”

Vince Gill – “Go Rest High on That Mountain,” “When I Call Your Name,” “I Still Believe in You,” “Don’t Let Our Love Start Slippin’ Away,” “Whenever You Come Around”

Ann Wilson / Nancy Wilson (p/k/a Heart) – “Barracuda,” “Crazy on You,” “Dog and Butterfly,” “Straight On,” “Even It Up”

Jeff Lynne (ELO – Electric Light Orchestra) – “Mr. Blue Sky,” “Don’t Bring Me Down,” “Evil Woman,” “Livin’ Thing,” “Telephone Line”

Bill Berry / Peter Buck / Mike Mills / Michael Stipe (p/k/a REM) – “Losing My Religion,” “Everybody Hurts,” “It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine),” “Radio Free Europe,” “The One I Love”

Sade Adu (p/k/a Sade) – “Smooth Operator,” “No Ordinary Love,” “The Sweetest Taboo,” “By Your Side,” “Is It a Crime”

Patti Smith – “Because the Night,” “Redondo Beach,” “Dancing Barefoot,” “Frederick,” “People Have Power”

Steve Winwood – “Higher Love,” “Gimme Some Lovin’,” “I’m A Man,” “Valerie.” “Roll With It”

Non-Performing Songwriters

Lynn Ahrens / Stephen Flaherty – “Journey to the Past” (Anastasia), “Once Upon a December” (Anastasia), “At the Beginning,” “Wheels of a Dream” (Ragtime), “Make Them Hear You” (Ragtime)

Glen Ballard – “Man in the Mirror,” “You Oughta Know, “Hold On,” “The Voice Within,” “The Space Between”

Dean Dillon – “Tennessee Whiskey,” “Ocean Front Property,” “Here for a Good Time,” “The Chair,” “I’m Alive”

Franne Golde – “Nightshift,” “Dreaming of You,” “Don’t Look Any Further,” “Don’t You Want Me,” “Stickwitu”

Bobby Hart / Tommy Boyce – “Last Train To Clarksville,” “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone,” “Come a Little Bit Closer,” “(Theme From) The Monkees,” “I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonight”

Sandy Linzer / Denny Randell – “Working My Way Back to You,” “Let’s Hang On,” “Lover’s Concerto,” “Native New Yorker,” “Opus 17 (Don’t Worry ‘Bout Me)”

Roger Nichols – “We’ve Only Just Begun,” “Rainy Days and Mondays,” “I Won’t Last a Day Without You,” “Out in the Country,” “Times of Your Life”

Dan Penn / Spooner Oldham – “I’m Your Puppet,” “It Tears Me Up,” “Cry Like a Baby,” “Sweet Inspiration,” “A Woman Left Lonely”

Dean Pitchford – “Footloose,” “Fame,” Holding Out for a Hero,” “All The Man That I Need,” “Let’s Hear it for the Boy”

Teddy Riley – “Make It Last Forever,” “I Want Her,” “Just Got Paid,” “I Like,” “My Prerogative”

Liz Rose – “You Belong With Me,” “Crazy Girl,” “Girl Crush,” “All Too Well,” “White Horse”

Tom Snow – “He’s So Shy,” “Let’s Hear It for the Boy,” “Dreaming of You,” “Don’t Know Much,” “After All”

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