When I was doing some roll listing, I was told that the convention is
to name the lyricist first.  Apparently this is from the way that sheet
music is printed, with composer's name at top right of the first page,
and lyricist, if so identified, at top left.  When reading the names
off the lyricist naturally comes first.

The music I have seems to use the term "Words by" rather than "Lyrics
by".  In many cases it's not really possible to work out who contributed
what, especially when working from credits on a roll, so it's common to
see popular music with just the names given.

Of course, with all rules there are many exceptions.  Some famous
partnerships were always known composer-first.  Think of Rogers and
Hart, for instance -- never Hart-Rogers.

Given that in the UK dance rolls were generally issued without words,
the roll credits normally only give the composer (although at least the
labels do give the name, not just the publisher as commonly seen on
American rolls).  The lyricist was only named on the word version of
the roll, issued under a different serial number.  If you think about
this, it's a bit unfair because the lyricist presumably was normally
the one responsible for the song's title.

Seeing that rollography is about imposing patterns on the nasty
untidiness of the real world, it's natural to group the word and dance
versions of a roll.  This gives problems for credits: the lyricist's
name wasn't on the (commoner) dance version of the roll, so it seems
inappropriate to list the lyricist's name first.  I decided to put my
roll lists the other way round, composer first, without identifying who
did what.  This was more an exercise on how you can make work for
yourself by over-intellectualising a problem than a practical
contribution to musical history, I must admit.

Julian Dyer