Ask Bruce Springsteen. Bruce has actually never had a number 1 hit. Well, technically, he did. As Songwriter, when Manfred Mann's cover of "Blinded by the Light" went #1. MM also covered "Spirit in the Night" much better than Bruce. While she actually performed it first, Patti Smith's version of Springsteen's "Because the Night" was better. The Band with "Atlantic City", etc.
And to tie back to Johnny Cash, his covers of Bruce's "Highway Patrolman" and "Johnny 99" were better than Bruce's. In the end, I guess Bruce was a much better songwriter than performer.
>> In the end, I guess Bruce was a much better songwriter than performer. <<
Welll... Blinded By the Light may be the most insipid song of the 1970s. Hell, it includes “Chopsticks” where you might expect a guitar solo!
Bruce’s problem is that most of the time, his singing sounds like my uncle’s old dog who’d snarl, bark and growl while he’d attack my shoe laces. He actually sounds great on those rare occasions when he belts; as pissy as it makes the Rolling Stones journalists, there’s no question to me in the slightest why his biggest hits were Born to Run, Hungry Heart, Dancing in the Dark, Born in the USA and Glory Days! (Streets of Philadelphia was also popular, but Gawd, he sounds like he’s a patient at an old-folks’ home muttering to himself.) (My Hometown is more like his mumbly crap, but sung clearer and therefore also popular.)