The Beatles turned the world on its ear from their place at the forefront of the British Invasion. At the heart of their success were the songwriting skills of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Throughout the '60s, they wrote a string of hit songs that changed the music scene and set new trends. From early hits like "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "She Loves You" to hits later in the decade like "Revolution" and "Yesterday," the duo of Lennon and McCartney penned more than 180 published songs together during the '60s.
In the 1960s, Burt Bacharach and Hal David wrote hundreds of songs together, including hits recorded by groups like The Carpenters, with "Close to You," and Tom Jones, for whom they wrote "What's New, Pussycat?" During the 1960s they also enjoyed an immensely successful teaming with the singer Dionne Warwick. Bacharach and David wrote 39 hits for Warwick, including "Walk on By" and "I'll Never Fall in Love Again." The two also wrote scores and theme songs for films like "Alfie" and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid."
Carole King and Gerry Goffin were partners both professionally and personally during the 1960s. Together, the married duo turned out hit songs for several of the decade's top recording artists. The two found success in 1960 with "Will You Love Me Tomorrow," which was recorded by the Shirelles. They went on to write hits like "Up on the Roof" for The Drifters, "Pleasant Valley Sunday" for The Monkees, and "(You Make Me Feel Like) a Natural Woman" for Aretha Franklin. Their songwriting partnership was more successful than their marriage---the two divorced in 1967.
Mick Jagger and Keith Richards had their first hit song with The Rolling Stones in 1965 with "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction." Other hits quickly followed, such as "Paint It Black," "Get off of My Cloud," "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and "19th Nervous Breakdown." These hits all came before 1968, when their highest-selling albums would begin being released. Albums like "Beggar's Banquet" and "Let It Bleed" would set up The Stones for success that continued on for decades to come and solidified Jagger and Richards as an all-time great songwriting duo.