Top ten American composers/songwriters

Unfortunately, Difford and Tilbrook are Brits, though I wish the US could claim them.

Warren Zevon
Michael Nesmith
Art Alexakis (Everclear)
Mike Ness (Social Distortion)
1++ Frank Zappa

And Harry Nilsson.

I can’t believe nobody mentioned Burt Bacharach. His contribution to the Greatest Hits far exceeded most of the names listed by others here! And Paul Williams went well beyond a bunch of the artists listed above and isn’t head of ASCAP for nothing!

Carla Bley please!

The "list" is almost entirely men.

Mildred J. Hill wrote the most popular song of all time. She should make every list yet no one knows who the is. I had to look her up!

Perhaps a split between composers/songwriters would be better?
Also different genres of music too? I could toss off many Jazz greats but not a single hip hopper, gospel, metal, or trance composers/songwriter.