Taylor Swift has received enough awards and honors to fill a museum – if not an airplane hangar – but she is especially proud of recognition for her songwriting. She got a big win along those lines today with the announcement that she will be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame at their annual Induction and Awards gala on June 11. At 36, she is one of the youngest songwriters ever elected to the SHOF, which was established in 1969 and which inducted its first class in 1970.
A songwriter with a notable catalog of songs qualifies for SHOF induction 20 years after the first commercial release of a song. Swift’s first single, “Tim McGraw,” was released in June 2006, so she just made it this year.
Swift received the Hal David Starlight Award from the SHOF in 2010, an award for a songwriter who shows promise. Swift is the first person to graduate from the Starlight Award (which dates to 2004) to full membership status.
Now that she’s been inducted into the SHOF, Swift is eligible for the organization’s highest honor, the Johnny Mercer Award, which is presented “to a writer or writers already inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and judged by the nominating committee as having established a history of outstanding creative works.” If Swift gets that award at any time in the next 15 years, she’ll set a new record as the youngest recipient of that award. That distinction is currently held by Billy Joel, who was 52 when he was honored in 2001. The youngest woman to receive that award is Carole King, who was 60 when she was honored in 2002.
Here’s a complete list of everyone who was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame at age 42 or younger. First we’ll quickly mention that some great songwriters who died way before their time have been posthumously inducted, including Buddy Holly (who died at 22), Otis Redding (at 26), Jim Croce (at 30), Sam Cooke (at 33), Bob Marley (at 36), Bobby Darin and Linda Creed (both at 37), and Bert Berns (at 38).
The songwriters who lived to see their inductions, and who were inducted at age 42 or younger, are listed in descending order by age, so the youngest inductee is listed at the bottom. Spoiler alert: It’s not Swift, but it is a certified music legend who got an even earlier start in the music business than she did.
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Bernie Taupin
Age at Induction: 42 years and six days
Born: May 22, 1950
Induction Ceremony: May 27, 1992
Key Songs: “Your Song,” “Daniel,” “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” “Candle in the Wind,” “We Built This City”
Notes: Taupin was inducted into the SHOF in the same class as John, who was 45 at the time. In 2013, they received the Johnny Mercer Award. In 2020,they won an Oscar for best original song for “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” from Rocketman. In 2024, they received the Gershwin Prize.
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Marvin Hamlisch
Age at Induction: 41 years, nine months and two days
Born: June 2, 1944
Induction Ceremony: March 3, 1986
Key Songs: “The Way We Were,” “One,” “What I Did for Love,” “Nobody Does It Better,” “The Last Time I Felt Like This”
Notes: Hamlisch won both an Oscar for best original song and a Grammy for song of the year for the instant standard “The Way We Were,” which he co-wrote with Alan & Marilyn Bergman. (The husband-and-wife team who raised the bar in lyric writing were inducted into the SHOF in 1980, when they were in their early 50s.) Hamlisch won three Oscars in 1974, which is still a one-year record for a composer. He won a Tony in 1976 for composing the score for A Chorus Line and won four Primetime Emmys. In 1995, he became the sixth person to achieve EGOT status.
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Bob Dylan
Age at Induction: 40 years, nine months and 20 days
Born: May 24, 1941
Inducted: March 15, 1982
Key Songs: “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “The Times They Are a-Changin’,” “Like a Rolling Stone,” “Tangled Up in Blue,” “Make You Feel My Love”
Notes: Dylan has never even been nominated for a best song Grammy (!), but in 2001, he won an Oscar for best original song for writing “Things Have Changed” from Wonder Boys. In 2016, he became the first songwriter to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
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Paul Simon
Age at Induction: 40 years, five months and three days
Born: Oct. 13, 1941
Inducted: March 15, 1982
Key Songs: “The Sounds of Silence,” “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” “Mother and Child Reunion,” “Still Crazy After All These Years,” “Graceland”
Notes: In 1971, on the first live Grammy telecast,Simon won the Grammy for song of the year for “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” It was part of his awards sweep, where he became the first person to win album, record and song of the year in one night. He had previously been nominated in that category for “Mrs. Robinson” and would be nominated again for “Graceland.” Since “Mrs. Robinson” was not written specifically for The Graduate, it was deemed ineligible to compete for the Academy Award for best original song, which is why the award in 1968 went instead to the cute but less essential “Talk to the Animals.” In 1998, Simon received the Johnny Mercer Award. In 2007, he became the first recipient of the Gershwin Prize.
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Jimmy Webb
Age at Induction: 39 years, six months and 17 days
Born: Aug. 15, 1946
Induction Ceremony: March 3, 1986
Key Songs: “Up, Up and Away,” “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” “Wichita Lineman,” “Didn’t We,” “The Highwayman”
Notes: In 1968, at just 21, Webb won the Grammy for song of the year for the effervescent “Up, Up and Away.” He was the youngest winner in that category until Alicia Keys won in 2002 for “Fallin.’” (Keys was also 21 when she won, but five months younger than Webb had been.) Webb was also a nominee at the 1968 ceremony for the sublime “By the Time I Get to Phoenix.” Webb’s “Wichita Lineman” (though inexplicably not Grammy-nominated in a songwriting category) is widely regarded as one of the best pop songs ever written. If there’s a better lyric than “I need you more than want you/ And I want you for all time,” I’d like to hear it. In 2003, Webb received the Johnny Mercer Award.
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Taylor Swift
Age at Induction: 36 years, five months and 30 days
Born: Dec. 13, 1989
Induction Ceremony: June 11, 2026
Key Songs: “You Belong With Me,” “Shake It Off,” “Blank Space,” “Anti-Hero,” “The Fate of Ophelia”
Notes: Swift has received eight Grammy nominations for song of the year, which puts her in a tie with her former collaborator Jack Antonoff for the most nods in the history of the category. Unlike Antonoff, she has yet to win in the category, an awards oddity she would doubtless like to change. Swift is the youngest woman ever inducted into the SHOF, a title previously held by Carole Bayer Sager, who was 43 years and two days old when she was honored in 1987 – just missing this list. Swift is being inducted three years after Liz Rose, with whom she wrote “Tim McGraw,” “Teardrops on My Guitar,” “You Belong With Me” and one of her most prized songs, “All Too Well.”
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Stevie Wonder
Age at induction: 32 years, nine months and 23 days
Born: May 13, 1950
Induction Ceremony: March 7, 1983
Key Songs: “Superstition,” “You Are the Sunshine of My Life,” “Livin’ for the City,” “Isn’t She Lovely,” “Sir Duke”
Notes: Wonder received Grammy nominations for song of the year for “You Are the Sunshine of My Life” and “I Just Called to Say I Love You.” In 1985, he won an Oscar for best original song for “I Just Called to Say I Love You” from The Woman in Red, a sweet trifle that likely won mostly because it gave Oscar voters a chance to honor Stevie Wonder. In 2004, Wonder received the Johnny Mercer Award. In 2009, he received the Gershwin Prize.
