By Michael Laster

Tom Lehrer was born Thomas Andrew Lehrer in 1928 on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. He started classical piano at age seven, but he was more interested in popular music and soon began composing his own show tunes. In addition to his passion for songwriting, he shone as a mathematics prodigy. At 15, he was admitted to Harvard University and started writing satirical songs for his friends. By 19, he had earned his Master’s degree at Harvard and recorded his first album, Songs by Tom Lehrer, in 1953. While Spike Jones was known for his slapstick musical parodies, this album by Lehrer can be said to be the album of modern musical satire, setting the stage for the biting social critique heard in the music of Randy Newman, Tim Minchin, and Bo Burnham, not to mention Weird Al Yankovic. Drafted into the U.S. Army in 1955, Lehrer served until 1957, working at the NSA. Two years later, he released his second and final studio album, More of Tom Lehrer, featuring songs like “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park,” “We Will All Go Together When We Go,” “The Masochism Tango,” and “The Elements,” sung to the tune of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Major-General’s Song. Through the 1950s and ’60s, he toured widely while teaching mathematics at MIT, Harvard, and Wellesley. Around 1972, he retired from performing to focus on teaching math and musical theater at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The oldest composer on our list, he is still alive at 96 as of March, 2025.

Leonard Norman Cohen was born in 1934 in Montreal into an Orthodox Jewish family. At nine, he faced a profound loss when his father passed away, an event that shaped his early years. Reflecting on his upbringing, he once called it “a very Messianic childhood,” noting, “I was told I was a descendant of Aaron, the high priest.” In high school, Cohen nurtured his love for music and poetry, teaching himself acoustic guitar and forming a country-folk group, the Buckskin Boys. A chance meeting with a young Spanish guitarist sparked his interest in flamenco, prompting him to switch to classical guitar. Meanwhile, he shared his poetry at local clubs, sharpening his creative voice. At McGill University, Cohen pursued undergraduate studies and forged a key friendship with faculty member Irving Layton, who guided him to publish his first book of poetry. His early artistic path was captured in the 1965 film Ladies and Gentlemen… Mr. Leonard Cohen. By 1967, he turned his focus to music, though he later released three more poetry collections. A lifelong seeker of spiritual truth, Cohen explored various religions and, in 1996, was ordained as a Buddhist monk in the Zen tradition. Yet he clarified, “I’m not looking for a new religion. I’m quite happy with the old one, with Judaism. For one thing, in the tradition of Zen that I’ve practiced, there is no prayerful worship and no affirmation of a deity. So theologically there is no challenge to any Jewish belief.” Cohen’s songs weave Biblical themes from both the Old and New Testaments. No subject was off-limits for him; he drew inspiration from the sacred, the sensual, and the political, often blending all three. Though not the most technically gifted singer on this list, he wielded his hoarse voice to suit his artistic persona—that of a modern-day prophet imparting wisdom, yet connecting with listeners as an equal. His words sprang not just from studying spiritual texts but from lived experience, casting him as both an otherworldly sage and as a very worldly sinner. Most people recognize Leonard Cohen for his iconic song “Hallelujah,” famously covered by Jeff Buckley and Rufus Wainwright.

Phil Ochs was born Phillip David Ochs in 1940 in El Paso, Texas. His father, drafted into World War II as a medic, witnessed the war’s horrors, which fueled his struggles with depression and bipolar disorder. This instability took a toll on the family, sparking financial hardship and frequent moves as his father worked at hospitals in Far Rockaway, Long Island; Perrysburg, in Western New York; and Columbus, Ohio. As a child, Phil showed a deep love for music—particularly classical and big band—and his talent led him to play clarinet with the Capital University Conservatory of Music orchestra in Ohio, where he became principal soloist before turning 16. After high school, Ochs enrolled at Ohio State University. There, he studied the Cuban Revolution while learning guitar and leftist politics from fellow student Jim Glover. He soon began writing newspaper articles, often tackling radical themes. When the student paper rejected his more provocative pieces, he launched his own underground newspaper, The Word, and contributed to the satire magazine The Sundial alongside classmate and future Goosebumps author R.L. Stine. In the early 1960s, Phil Ochs emerged as a key figure in New York’s Greenwich Village folk scene, renowned for politically charged songs like “The Draft Dodger Rag” and “I Ain’t Marching Anymore.” His career, defined by activism and shadowed by battles with depression, bipolar disorder, and paranoia, met a tragic end when he took his own life in 1976 at age 35—the same age as Mozart when he died.

Bob Dylan was born Robert Allen Zimmerman in 1941 in Duluth, Minnesota. His parents, children of Jewish immigrants from Odessa and Lithuania—then part of the Russian Empire—raised him in a culturally rich household. Though later celebrated as a folk artist, Dylan’s musical roots were shaped by early rock and roll influences. At one talent show, his music blared so loudly that the principal reportedly switched off the microphone. In high school, he performed Little Richard and Elvis Presley songs, and at 17, attended a life-changing concert of another idol, the great Buddy Holly. Three days after this performance, Holly was tragically killed in a plane crash. During his first year at the University of Minnesota, Zimmerman dove into Minneapolis’s folk music scene. In a 1985 interview, he reflected, “I knew that when I got into folk music, it was more of a serious type of thing. The songs are filled with more despair, more sadness, more triumph, more faith in the supernatural, much deeper feelings.” After one year, he dropped out of college and, in 1961, settled in New York City, now calling himself Bob Dylan—a name inspired by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. He legally adopted it in 1962, five months after releasing his first album, which featured just two original songs. His next release, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, brimmed with nearly all original tracks, including “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall,” “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right,” and “Blowin’ in the Wind.” Dylan built one of the most prolific solo careers of any artist, easily the most prolific songwriter on this list. Yet, for a brief two-year stint starting in 1988, he joined the supergroup The Traveling Wilburys, alongside George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, and Tom Petty. In the late 1970s, Dylan converted to Christianity, releasing three gospel albums. Still, his occasional ties to Chabad, a branch of Orthodox Judaism, reveals a lasting bond with his Jewish roots. His artistic legacy mirrors a chameleon’s: he began as a devoted Woody Guthrie follower, then famously defied folk purists by going electric at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, later morphing into a country crooner, a facepaint-wearing rocker on the Rolling Thunder Revue, an evangelical Christian in 1979, and even a cryptic figure in Victoria’s Secret ads. Beyond music, he shines as a visual artist, with paintings displayed in galleries worldwide. But his true genius lies in painting narratives with the English language, weaving storytelling, surrealism, metaphor, and social commentary with ease.

Paul Frederic Simon was born in 1941 in Newark, New Jersey to Hungarian Jewish parents. At four, they moved to Flushing, Queens, in New York City. By 13, he teamed up with his schoolmate Art Garfunkel to sing as a duo.  Simon writing original songs inspired by the late 1950s pop style of The Everly Brothers and Buddy Holly. From 1957 to 1963, they performed as Tom & Jerry, while Simon released solo tracks under various pseudonyms on the side. During this time, he studied English at The Queens College of New York, and after graduating, enrolled at Brooklyn Law School—only to drop out after one semester to pursue music full-time. In 1964, he recorded his first album with Garfunkel, followed by a solo album the next year while living in England, where he explored English folk music. Both flopped commercially. But Tom Wilson, the producer of their debut, saw the rise of folk-rock and, without their knowledge, overdubbed their track “The Sound of Silence” with electric guitar, bass, and drums. His hunch paid off: the song soared, selling over a million copies by 1966. The duo released four more albums, with Simon crafting the music and lyrics for all of their original tracks, including Bridge Over Troubled Water, The Boxer, and Mrs Robinson before before they split up in 1971. Simon’s solo career spanned 15 albums, peaking with Graceland in 1986 and finishing with Seven Psalms in 2023. Graceland showcased musicians from Johannesburg, South Africa—drummers and the vocal choir Ladysmith Black Mambazo—while his follow-up album, The Rhythm of the Saints, featured Brazilian artists. Unlike Bob Dylan, whose stylistic reinventions were firmly rooted within the range of Americana, Paul Simon’s eclecticism across continents makes him the most worldly on this list. Yet, despite his global influences, he penned some of the most iconic songs about the American experience.

Carole King was born Carol Joan Klein in 1942 in Manhattan. By age four, her parents discovered she had perfect pitch, able to name a note just by hearing it. Her mother, who learned piano as a child, began giving her formal lessons. King later recalled, “My mother never forced me to practice. She didn’t have to. I wanted so much to master the popular songs that poured out of the radio.” That same year, in kindergarten, she showed a knack for words and numbers, skipping first grade entirely. In high school, she formed a vocal quartet and, at 16 in 1958, recorded her first two songs for ABC-Paramount, “Goin’ Wild” and “The Right Girl,” now using the last name King. At Queens College, she briefly collaborated on two songs with Paul Simon, a friend who leaned on her help in a math class. There, she also met Gerry Goffin, who became her husband and chief lyricist for the next decade. Together, they penned a string of hits for other artists, including “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” for the Shirelles, “Chains” for The Cookies—later covered by The Beatles—“The Loco-Motion” for Little Eva, and “You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman” for Aretha Franklin. Their fruitful partnership ended in divorce in 1968, driven by her push for independence as a songwriter, Goffin’s battles with drugs and mental illness, and his affair with a Cookies singer, which produced a daughter. Her first solo album, Writer, struggled to gain traction. But her next release, Tapestry, changed everything. Her defining solo work, Tapestry stands as the best-selling album by any Jewish composer, with over 30 million copies sold worldwide, ranking it among the all-time best sellers. It features songs like “I Feel the Earth Move,” “So Far Away,” “It’s Too Late” (with lyrics by Toni Stern), and “You’ve Got a Friend,” soon famously covered by James Taylor. Other career highlights include her landmark 1973 Central Park concert, composing music for Maurice Sendak’s animated short Really Rosie—later expanded into an off-Broadway musical—and re-recording “Where You Lead” from Tapestry as the Gilmore Girls theme.

Laura Nyro (NEER-oh) was born Laura Nigro in 1947 in the Bronx, New York City, her Italian last name inherited from her paternal grandfather. Her other three grandparents were Jews of Russian and Polish descent. As a child, she taught herself piano while absorbing her parents’ jazz, classical, soul, and rock albums, eventually writing her first original song at age eight. In a 1970 interview with Billboard magazine, she reflected, “I’ve created my own little world, a world of music, since I was five years old. I was never a bright and happy child.” After graduating from Manhattan’s High School of Music and Art, she dove straight into her career as a singer-songwriter, releasing her first two songs in 1966: “Wedding Bell Blues,” a future hit for the 5th Dimension in 1969, and “Stoney End,” which was covered by Barbra Streisand in 1970. Her second album, Eli and the Thirteenth Confession, earned the highest critical praise. It showcased a musical uniqueness rare in pop, with unpredictable shifts in speed and mood that became her signature across all her work. Unlike performers who connect through outward stage presence, Nyro’s introverted, creative, and sensitive nature turned her live shows into intimate glimpses of her retreating into the inner world of her childhood. She died at 49 in 1997 from ovarian cancer—the same disease that claimed her mother at the same age.

Billy Joel was born in 1949 in the Bronx, but within a year, his family moved to Hicksville, Long Island. His father, Howard—originally Helmut, a German Jew—fled the Nazis in 1938 with his own father, escaping first to Switzerland, then Cuba, and finally to New York. He found Americans “uneducated and materialistic,” and resettled in Vienna after divorcing Billy’s mother, Rosalind when Billy was eight. There, after remarrying, he fathered Billy’s half-brother, Alexander Joel, now an acclaimed conductor. Billy began piano lessons at four, and as adolescence hit, faced bullying over his small stature, Jewish heritage, and love for music—prompting him to take up boxing. Though he joined friends at church as a young teen, he identifies as an atheist Jew. In high school, Joel played gigs with local bands to support his family, but after one late night, he missed a crucial English exam needed to graduate. He recalled, “I told them, ‘To hell with it. If I’m not going to Columbia University, I’m going to Columbia Records, and you don’t need a high school diploma over there.’” In 1971, he released his debut album, Cold Spring Harbor, featuring favorites like “She’s Got a Way” and “Tomorrow Comes Today,” the latter’s lyrics drawn from a suicide note he wrote before drinking furniture polish after a breakup. Fortunately, his drummer rushed him to the hospital, where he received treatment for depression. Two years later, Joel broke through with the album Piano Man, propelled by the title track’s popularity. Like Paul Simon, Joel stands as a key songwriter proudly tied to New York City, especially through “New York State of Mind.” Much like Bob Dylan, he’s a chameleon, but with a twist: rather than shifting personas, Joel mastered composing in any genre he chose—doo-wop in “River of Dreams,” or Bach- and Chopin-inspired pieces in his classical album of solo piano works, Fantasies and Delusions. Not only a chameleon in style, he was also a vocal shapeshifter, channeling specific singers for different songs, like Mick Jagger in “You May Be Right,” John Lennon in “Laura,” James Brown in “Easy Money,” and Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons in “Uptown Girl.”

Janis Ian was born Janis Eddy Fink in 1951 in Farmingdale, New Jersey. At two, she insisted on piano lessons, likely inspired by her father, Victor, a professional music teacher. By twelve, she wrote her first song, and in her early teens, was already skilled on organ, harmonica, French horn, and guitar. At 14, she recorded her debut single, “Society’s Child,” a poignant tale of a white girl ostracized by friends, family, and teachers for dating a Black boyfriend, ultimately yielding to social pressure to end the relationship. Leonard Bernstein praised the song on his 1967 CBS TV special about pop music. Still, many radio stations banned the song, and Ian faced ongoing hate mail and death threats. Despite this early hit, her initial albums sold poorly. It wasn’t until 1975, with Between the Lines, that she found major success, winning a Grammy for “At Seventeen,” a reflection on being a high school outcast. She has stayed musically active ever since, and her autobiography, released as an audiobook, earned her a second Grammy in 2013, this time for Best Spoken Word Album. Beyond music, she writes short science fiction stories and has been with her partner, Patricia Snyder, since 1989; they married in Toronto in 2003.

Regina Spektor was born in 1980 in Moscow, eleven years before the Soviet Union’s collapse. At seven, she began piano lessons, and two years later, her family relocated to the Bronx to escape rising antisemitism. She attended a Jewish middle school and studied classical piano privately with Sonia Vargas of the Manhattan School of Music until age 17, when she started writing songs. Spektor then enrolled at Purchase College to study composition, completing the four-year program in three years with honors. Her debut album, 11:11 followed shortly after in 2001. Her songs are known for their imagination, quirkiness, and clever nods to literature and world history. As opposed to songwriters whose lyrics reflect their personal feelings, she sees her songs as short works of fiction, giving voice to one or many characters in imaginary circumstances. Highly versatile, she pulls from classical, jazz, pop, or any other style she’s inspired by.