I don’t see an issue with songwriters or session players, or even producers… enjoy a good deep dive into people associated with the music industry, no matter their role. There are a number of musicians that I feel like the only way to do their career and full body of work justice would be to include producer work too. While I hesitate to spotlight anyone under consideration by anyone (and he is not currently under mine because I don’t think I could pull it off), but stick something like a playlist of Nile Rodgers’ career straight into my veins.
Just my two cents though.
I agree. Although I’d think if someone had the artist recording the song, they’d have preference to “claim” the song. For example, if I had Sinead O’Connor as my artist, I wouldn’t want the person ranking Prince songs to take the Sinead version of Nothing Compares 2U on their list. A Prince version of the song would be fine, just not the version done by Sinead.