The 5 Best Folk Rock Hits Written By Women

Compared to other realms in the galaxy of rock 'n' roll, the sub-genre of folk rock may have better gender parity than others, especially when it comes to its best hits written by women. While you might need a minute and an online search to start naming women in heavy metal, for instance, the big-name female performers in folk rock are a little easier to list, though you'd still be hard-pressed to find musical spaces with a majority of women. But the women that follow aren't just vaunted folk rock performers, but also seriously skilled songwriters with real hit-making ability to back up their legendary reputations.

To pick the best folk rock hits written by women, we looked both at chart performances and overall artistic achievement. To be included, a song needed to reach the upper echelons of a nation's chart (not necessarily in the U.S.). They also must have a unique voice, interesting music, and the kind of thoughtfulness and off-the-beaten-path character that so often distinguishes legendary folk rock.

Some are almost certainly known to you, like Carole King's thrillingly earthy, downright hungry song, "I Feel the Earth Move," off her monumental 1971 album, "Tapestry." King also happens to be the songwriting phenom behind many other artists' hits, which led to Aretha Franklin giving her own powerhouse performance of a King-penned hit at the Kennedy Center in 2015. Thankfully, King doesn't stand alone, and while there's still plenty of room for more women to join them, these hit-making folk rockers have already made their mark.

Perhaps you don't know about British singer-songwriter Joan Armatrading, but you really should. Her first single, "Love and Affection," was released in 1976 and hit No. 10 in the U.K., though it admittedly didn't take off in the U.S. It's since joined other under-the-radar but essential love songs you really ought to keep in rotation. 

Armatrading is famously guarded about her personal life, though perhaps something about the public eye gets to her. When answering reader questions for The Guardian, she noted that "I'm always nervous!" performing even decades into her career. Understandable, sure, but besides achievements like writing and performing a song for Nelson Mandela or getting invited to a breakthrough 1978 concert by Bob Dylan, she's also got her very first hit to be proud of, with its eminently catchy acoustic guitar groove, hypnotic singing, and bass backing vocals.

Going off the title, you might think "Love and Affection" is set to be yet another twee folk-rock song about expressing affection for a romantic partner, but one listen will disabuse you of such a notion. Armatrading complicates the whole idea, opening the song by singing, "I am not in love, but I'm open to persuasion." She's also stated that the smooth, catchy tune doesn't necessarily have to be about romance, either. Talking to M magazine in 2011, Armatrading said, "It's really a song about love and friendship and about not being fickle. [...] Sometimes people get caught up thinking that having lots of friends means they've got lots of acquaintances, instead of just a handful of people that they are close to."

Yes, this could be the place to mention Joni Mitchell's iconic "Both Sides Now," which has been covered hundreds of times and has cemented itself as part of Mitchell's legacy, but there's room for "Big Yellow Taxi" to come into consideration, too. 

The song was inspired by what should have been an idyllic 1969 trip to Hawaii for Mitchell. But, talking to the Los Angeles Times in 1996, Mitchell got to her hotel room, opened the curtains "and saw these beautiful green mountains in the distance. Then, I looked down and there was a parking lot as far as the eye could see, and it broke my heart." With its upbeat tune, simple structure, and clearly articulated lines, "Big Yellow Taxi" was intentionally written as a song children could sing, with the idea that they might snap their boomer parents awake via song and shock them into parking lot-busting action.

Admittedly, this song didn't make a huge splash when first released in 1970, though Mitchell has claimed it was a local hit in Hawaii. The original only hit No. 67 in the U.S., though a live version reached No. 24 in 1975 and a Counting Crows cover became a genuine hit. "Big Yellow Taxi" has become one of Mitchell's more covered songs, with over 620 known recordings since its release. With its prescient environmental message and catchy tune, that's little wonder.

Released in 1989, the track "Closer to Fine" did quite well for the Indigo Girls folk rock duo of Emily Saliers and Amy Ray. Its album, "Indigo Girls," earned them a Grammy for best contemporary folk recording and eventually went platinum. "Closer to Fine" proved itself to be a reflective, catchy, folk-tinged tune that reached No. 52 and became the duo's highest-charting single.

Written by Saliers, the meaning of "Closer to Fine" urges listeners to get comfortable with uncertainty. The narrator looks for answers to life's grand, often overwhelming questions, turning to religion, art, philosophy, and more in her quest. But, speaking to Songfacts, Saliers said, "[T]hat song is about not beating yourself up too hard to get your answer from one place." Some elements are inspired by real life (Saliers says a high school teacher displayed a poster of Rasputin), though the "doctor of philosophy" verse is more a general critique of academia's ivory tower.

The Indigo Girls have regularly released albums into the 2020s, speaking to the staying power of their work — all the more meaningful given that both are out lesbians who have faced considerable pressure. That difficulty was featured in the 2023 documentary focusing on their careers, "It's Only Life After All." But "Barbie," released the same year, may have netted them the most new fans for the scene in which Barbie herself motors out of Barbieland, belting out "Closer to Fine" as she seeks deeper meaning in the "real" world.

It's possible to get so caught up in the matter of just who was the self-obsessed inspiration for "You're So Vain" that you might forget Carly Simon wrote a really good song. The track is perhaps the ultimate rejection, especially since it hit No. 1 in January 1973 and has been getting regular airplay ever since. 

Written from an older, wiser perspective, Simon manages a delicate balance between expressing heartbreak and finally getting over it, with some truly excellent put-downs ("You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you" is pretty brilliant) amongst its folky music. Its raw edges and propulsive melody have proven compelling for all sorts of artists, with musicians as far afield as Marilyn Manson recording cover versions.

Simon was famously mum about the song's inspiration for years. Back in 2003, NBC Sports president Dick Ebersol even won an auction to hear the much-guarded name, paying $50,000 for Simon to reveal the vain man's identity to him alone (the funds at least went to charity). It took until 2015 for Simon to admit that her relationship with actor Warren Beatty was the impetus for the second verse. The partners who inspired the song's other verses remain unidentified, at least not until Simon gets their blessing first or we figure out the meaning of the song's lost verse (perhaps we'll never know who owned that apricot-colored scarf). Potential suspects include Simon's former husband James Taylor, ex-boyfriend Kris Kristofferson, David Geffen, Jack Nicholson, and even David Bowie, though Simon has said rumors about Mick Jagger's involvement are unfounded.

It's hard to call Carole King anything other than a legend. Early on in her career, King was solely a songwriter, working under the aegis of Aldon Music. King's first penned hit, written at just 17, was the nearly perfect "Will You Love Me Tomorrow," written for the Shirelles' 1960 release, followed by "Some Kind of Wonderful" for the Drifters (1961) and Herman's Hermits' "Something Tells Me I'm Into Something Good" (1964). King finally wrote and recorded her own work for "Tapestry," released in 1971. On the album's lead single, "I Feel the Earth Move," the frank, soulful way King sings of her attraction to a partner helped the song reach No. 1 as part of a double-side with "It's Too Late." 

This liberated sensibility rang true for King, who had just ditched an unfaithful ex-husband and moved to California with her two young children. King's piano playing on the single deserves special attention for its rich, heavy chords that echo the earth-shaking feeling not just of contemplating an exciting new partner, but a more independent life — one that many other women had just realized was possible. King certainly wasn't shying away from claiming her boldness on the track, and others eagerly keyed in. Tori Amos, upon hearing "Tapestry" as a young child, said that "It was almost as if Mother Earth herself was singing to us" (via The Guardian).

King continued songwriting even after finding success under her own name, with the likes of Paul McCartney, Isaac Hayes, and Rod Stewart amongst her clients. James Taylor's 1971 hit, "You've Got A Friend," was also written by King. Heck, even Aretha Franklin was part of it. She sang "You Make Me Feel" (composed by King, of course) when King became a Kennedy Center Honoree in 2015.