The Greatest Songs Ever Written (In your opinion)

[Jonny Come Lately]

I've started this thread based on a suggestion made by Prettymaid in the Led Zeppelin topic. Basically, feel free to post about what you think are the greatest songs ever written and your personal favourites. You can post lists if you like, or if you are not that way inclined you could just mention your absolute favourite songs, there are several ways of approaching this and I don't want to pressurise anyone into one particular method. There is also the potential to split into favourite songs by genre, era or other subdivisions.

It could be said that this discussion overlaps with the Listography thread and also the Share The Music You Love thread, but I think this is more widely appealing than some of the quirkier subjects that come up in Listography and deserves its own thread, and is more geared towards individual songs than the latter topic, which is somewhat more artist-focused.

I've had a go at this and on a personal level it wasn't easy, but I was able to whittle things down to a top 10 for the 1960s, 80s and 90s, and a top 20 for the 1970s (I would find it very difficult to do just ten from the decade when most of my all-time favourite songs and albums were released), and then made an all-time top 20. I won't list the songs in order of preference, that is a step too far for me right now, it was hard enough reducing it down to this number! My list is probably very predictable, with a certain English progressive rock band featuring prominently alongside several other of my favourites. So here is my top 20 songs at the time of writing in chronological order of release:

Like A Rolling Stone – Bob Dylan (1965)
All Along The Watchtower – The Jimi Hendrix Experience (1968)
Immigrant Song – Led Zeppelin (1970)
Echoes – Pink Floyd (1971)
Stairway To Heaven – Led Zeppelin (1971)
When The Levee Breaks – Led Zeppelin (1971)
Highway Star – Deep Purple (1972)
Take It Easy – Eagles (1972)
Time – Pink Floyd (1973)
Simple Man – Lynyrd Skynyrd (1973)
Tangled Up In Blue – Bob Dylan (1975)
Shine On You Crazy Diamond – Pink Floyd (1975)
Cortez The Killer – Neil Young (1975)
Hotel California – Eagles (1976)
The Last Resort – Eagles (1976)
The Chain – Fleetwood Mac (1977)
Sultans of Swing – Dire Straits (1978)
Comfortably Numb – Pink Floyd (1979)
Telegraph Road – Dire Straits (1982)
What It Is - Mark Knopfler (2000)

There are a lot of songs that I'd have absolutely loved to have included but ended up missing out. With all bar one of the songs on my list being released between 1965 and 1982 (basically covering my favoured era of music), What It Is does stand rather alone, but it's a fantastic song and deserves its place.

I'd be very interested to see what other people think - my list very much revolves around my favourite artists and I'd be curious to see whether I'm common in doing this, or whether other people are very strongly drawn to certain songs even if they are not such big fans of the actual artist.

I do have my 'decade-by-decade' lists as well, if anything I'm more satisfied by those lists than my overall one, so I'll post those up too later.

[AlreadyGone95]

Here is a link to my favorite songs. Most of them are not the big huge hit kind of songs. They were released between 1967-2002. I consider these to be some of the greatest ever made, but I don't have all of them on there.
https://rateyourmusic.com/list/motormouth16/the_songs_that_i_must_turn_up_anytime_i_hear_them/

[WS82Classics]

Top 5

"From the Beginning"-Emerson, Lake, & Palmer
"Question"-The Moody Blues
"Darkness, Darkness"-The Youngbloods
"Journey of the Sorcerer"-The Eagles
"Dogs"-Pink Floyd

In no particular order,

"Room at the Top"-Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
"I'm Not in Love"-10cc
"Superman"-Five for Fighting
"Star Man"-David Bowie
"Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me"-Elton John

[Freypower]

I'm not going to try & do this in strict chronlogical order because I would have to look up the exact year the songs were released. I can do a list of what I consider the greatest songs, some of which overlap with my favourites. And I am not going to include anything from the 50s apart from Elvis because it's not my era. This is straight off the top of my head.

Heartbreak Hotel - Elvis Presley
She Loves You - Beatles
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction - Rolling Stones
Like A Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan
Eight Miles High - The Byrds
Somebody To Love - Jefferson Airplane
White Room - Cream
Purple Haze - Jimi Hendrix
Hey Jude - Beatles
Won't Get Fooled Again - The Who
Space Oddity - David Bowie
Stairway To Heaven - Led Zeppelin
My Sweet Lord - George Harrison
Layla - Derek & the Dominoes
Bridge Over Troubled Water - Simon & Garfunkel
Band On The Run - Paul McCartney & Wings
Take It Easy - Eagles
Smoke On The Water - Deep Purple
Superstition - Stevie Wonder
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - Elton John
School's Out - Alice Cooper
Supper's Ready - Genesis
Money - Pink Floyd
Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
Hotel California - Eagles
Solsbury Hill - Peter Gabriel
Stayin' Alive - Bee Gees
Romeo & Juliet - Dire Straits
Wuthering Heights - Kate Bush
In The Air Tonight - Phil Collins
Losing My Religion - REM
Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
Don't Look Back In Anger - Oasis

Now if you want a list of my personal favourites, some of you may be able to guess some of them. I will post again later.

ETA: This list really does include a large number of my favourites. I have edited it, but I couldn't bear to remove SH & IATA, both of which will also feature in my Top 20 favourites. I regard them both as extremely influential, although if I went with my head perhaps Biko should be there instead of SH.

[L101]

Top 5


In no particular order,

"Room at the Top"-Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
"I'm Not in Love"-10cc
"Superman"-Five for Fighting
"Star Man"-David Bowie
"Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me"-Elton John

I love Superman - haven't heard it in a long time !! Blast from the past :-)

[travlnman2]

Here are my top twenty favorite songs(in no order of importantce)
1.Feee Bird-Lynyrd Skynyrd (1973)
2.Wah Wah l-George Harrison(1970)
3.Madagscar-Guns N Roses written in 1998-1999 released in 2008
4.Let It Be-Beatles(1970)
5.Take It Easy(1972)
6.November Rain-Guns N Roses(1991)
7.Bright Lights-Gary Clark Jr(2007)
8.Imagine-John Lennon(1971)
9.Layla-Eric Clapton(1971)
10.Something-Beatles(1969)
11.Crossroads-Robert Johnson(1936)
12.Hotel California(1977)
13.Welcome To The Jungle-Guns N Roses-(1987)
14.The Last Rebel-Lynyrd Skynyrd(1993)
15.While My Guitar Gently Weeps-Beatles(1968
16.My Sweet Lord-George Harrison(1970)
17.Stairway To Heaven-Led Zeppelin(1977)
19.Sweet Child O Mine-Guns N Roses(1987)
20.That Smell-Lynyrd Skynyrd(1977)

[Prettymaid]

Now if you want a list of my personal favourites, some of you may be able to guess some of them. I will post again later.

FP makes a good point that I was actually going to make, too. "The Greatest" may not always be our favorites. I remember in a certain Survivor game here, the final round came down to Hotel California vs. Take It Easy. I heavily weighed my decision - should I vote for Hotel California, which I thought was the better written song of the two, or should I vote for Take It Easy to win, because I enjoy listening to it more? At the time it seemed like the most important decision in my life, lol, and I think I voted for HC, but later, in a similar Survivor game, I chose TIE simply because it's my favorite of the two. So, does greatest mean best written, or does it mean favorite to listen to? I guess it's up to each of us to decide.

Jonny, I also noticed you left out the work 'rock' in the thread title from what was brought up in the other thread, but I'm kind of glad you did. Opens it up quite a bit, doesn't it?

[Brooke]

Yeah, I kinda wondered about the 'greatest' song ever written. It doesn't say your favorite, it says greatest. Iyo.

This is so hard for me. How do you define 'greatest'. What are the qualifications?

[Freypower]

Yeah, I kinda wondered about the 'greatest' song ever written. It doesn't say your favorite, it says greatest. Iyo.

This is so hard for me. How do you define 'greatest'. What are the qualifications?

None of us are critics. 'Greatness' is subjective even with critics, which is why a lot of their alleged 'great' lists are hard to take seriously. They would normally say something like 'these songs have had a significant impact on popular culture' or they were genre defining or ground breaking in some way. My advice really is to stick with YOUR favourites, the songs which have had the biggest impact on you personally.

[Freypower]

OK - I have done this in two parts. First I did a list of songs by my top 20 favourite artists. These are the songs by these artists I would have to have if stranded on the proverbial desert island.I have ranked them in order of preference as far as I can.

1. A Day In The Life - Beatles
2. Romeo & Juliet - Dire Straits
3. Stairway To Heaven - Led Zeppelin
4. Sympathy For The Devil - Rolling Stones
5. Like A Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan
6. Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
7. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - Elton John
8. Band On The Run - Paul McCartney & Wings
9. Heroes - David Bowie
10. Stayin' Alive -Bee Gees
11. In The Air Tonight - Phil Collins
12. Solsbuy Hill - Peter Gabriel
13. New Kid In Town - Eagles
14. Home By The Sea - Genesis
15. Silvertown Blues - Mark Knopfler
16. Part Of Me, Part Of You - Glenn Frey
17. Baltimore - Randy Newman
18. Into The Mystic - Van Morrison
19. American Tune - Paul Simon
20. Allentown - Billy Joel

The two I struggled with were the Genesis & Knopfler songs. Silvertown Blues had to compete with Sailing To Philadelphia & Home By The Sea with Land Of Confusion. The songs which won ultimately I feel have more depth & are more interesting musically.

Then I did another list which includes a couple of other songs by other artists which I know are in my top 20 of all time.

1. Hey Jude - Beatles
2. Nights On Broadway - Bee Gees
3. Wuthering Heights - Kate Bush
4. Tangled Up In Blue - Bob Dylan
5. Honky Tonk Women - Rolling Stones
6. Sultans Of Swing - Dire Straits
7. Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd
8. Superstition - Stevie Wonder
9. Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding - Elton John
10. Baker Street - Gerry Rafferty
11. Kashmir - Led Zeppelin
12. Games Without Frontiers - Peter Gabriel
13. Galveston - Glen Campbell
14. Sundown - Gordon Lightfoot
15. Land Of Confusion - Genesis
16. Cortez The Killer - Neil Young
17. Tunnel Of Love - Dire Straits
18. Come Together - Beatles
19. Black Dog - Led Zeppelin
20. Ziggy Stardust - David Bowie

So you could pretty much replace the second half of the first list with the first half of the second list & you would pretty much have my top 20, although as I said both SH & IATA are on their way up.

I am aware that on an Eagles board the fact that there is one Eagles song & one Glenn Frey song may raise eyebrows. All I can say is Lyin' Eyes would be in my Top 30 & Take It Easy not far away.

[Ive always been a dreamer]

The problem with this to me is that if folks are going to just pick their favorite songs, then that becomes very redundant with several other threads on the board. To me, if you are going to talk about 'greatest', it should be a much more objective process than just going with your favorites.

For example, FP, you do not even include Hotel California in a list of 40 songs. I find that pretty amazing considering the high esteem you used to bestow upon this song only a few short year ago. In contrast, as many of you are aware, I a not a fan of Led Zeppelin - however, there is no way I could exclude Stairway to Heaven on a list of greatest songs ever written.

[Freypower]

The problem with this to me is that if folks are going to just pick their favorite songs, then that becomes very redundant with several other threads on the board. To me, if you are going to talk about 'greatest', it should be a much more objective process than just going with your favorites.

For example, FP, you do not even include Hotel California in a list of 40 songs. I find that pretty amazing considering the high esteem you used to bestow upon this song only a few short year ago. In contrast, as many of you are aware, I a not a fan of Led Zeppelin - however, there is no way I could exclude Stairway to Heaven on a list of greatest songs ever written.

Please see my first post which did include Hotel California. I thought, however, that we were able to make up our own minds about which songs we wished to choose. I make no bones about the second post being my favourites (all of which I believe are great songs). If it bothers you that much I will delete the last post; however I should point out that others have also gone with their favourites.

[Ive always been a dreamer]

Folks are free to post whatever they wish. I only expressed a concern about posting favorites because we have several other threads for those types of lists. The title of the thread suggests to me that this should be a different type of list and discussion.

[AlreadyGone95]

Top 50 "non favorites" songs. These are in a ranked order. I tried to be objective, but my preferences for these songs did influence the rankings a bit.(#s 3 and 10 for example) Also tried to include all genres. The only criteria required is that I like all of the songs picked. (I posted a link to my favorite songs earlier in this thread). I thought of songs that are the most popular, but influential as well. 1 song per artist.

1. Stairway to Heaven (Led Zeppelin)
2. Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen)
3. Hotel California (Eagles)
4. Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana)
5. Candle in the Wind (Elton John)
6. Let It Be (Beatles) (I don't really know which Beatles song is the most well recognized, so I went with the one that I've known about the longest)
7. The Chain (Fleetwood Mac)
8. Smoke on the Water (Deep Purple)
9. (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction- Rolling Stones
10. For What Its Worth (Buffalo Springfield) (maybe this one shouldn't be on here, but I think that it's one of the most iconic American songs of the '60s)
11. Respect (Aretha Franklin)
12. Lose Yourself (Eminiem)
13. Imagine (John Lennon)
14. Welcome to the Jungle (Guns n Roses)
15. That's All (Genesis)
16. Enter Sandman (Metallica)
17. Like a Rolling Stone (Bob Dylan)
18. Born to be Wild (Steppenwolf)
19. Who Are You? (The Who)
20. In the Air Tonight (Phil Collins)
21. Back in Black (AC/DC)
22. Another Brick in the Wall Part 2 (Pink Floyd)
23. Paranoid (Black Sabbath)
24. Light My Fire (The Doors)
25. Purple Haze (Jimi Hendrix)
26. My Girl (The Temptations)
27. Jailhouse Rock (Elvis Presley)
28. London's Calling (The Clash)
29. Jeremy (Pearl Jam)
30. Under the Bridge (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
31. Pour Some Sugar on Me (Def Leppard)
32. Jump (Van Halen)
33. Piano Man (Billy Joel)
34. The Weight (The Band)
35. Midnight in Montgomery (Alan Jackson)
36. Straight Outta Compton (NWA)
37. White Room (Cream)
38. Tears in Heaven (Eric Clapton)
39. Freebird (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
40. Whippin' Post (Allman Brothers Band)
41. Boulevard of Broken Dreams (Green Day)
42. All Right Now (Free)
43. Suite: Judy Blue Eyes (Crosby, Stills, and Nash)
44. Born in the USA (Bruce Springsteen)
45. Crazy Train (Ozzy Osbourne)
46. Hey Good Lookin' (Hank Willams Sr)
47. Dram On (Aerosmith)
48. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For (U2)
49. Free Fallin' (Tom Petty)
50. Night Moves (Bob Seger)

[MortSahlFan]

Impressive - lots of my favorites too.. I'm interpreting "writing" as lyrics and/or music. I have almost 3,000 mp3s, and it's easy to gloss over songs that aren't by my Top 10 or 20 favorite bands. It's hard to distinguish, especially when you've heard a certain song many times, against a song that's a little newer to you which hasn't lost any flavor.

My first initial list will only contain one song from each band or artist.

1. Pink Floyd - Time
2. Led Zeppelin - Achilles Last Stand
3. John Lennon - Imagine
4. The Doors - The End
5. The Beatles - A Day In The Life
6. Steely Dan - Don't Take Me Alive
7. Fleetwood Mac - The Green Manalishi
8. Dire Straits - Sultan of Swing
9. Bee Gees - Nights On Broadway
10. Neil Young - Revolution Blues
11. The Who - The Rock
12. Genesis - Dancing With the Moonlit Knight
13. The Carpenters - Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft
14. Billy Joel - The Stranger
15. Bob Marley - High Tide Or Low Tide

I know I'm forgetting some, but I'm watching the game! Great thread!

[Brooke]

Well, I am not good at these kinds of lists and usually just give up and don't post any.

But I still don't see how just because a song is a favorite song makes that one of the greatest songs ever written. Greatest ever written should mean more than that. What makes it great? Being a favorite song doesn't make it a great song.

[UndertheWire]

I struggle with this kind of list, too. I always think that there are hundreds and thousands of great songs that I've never heard.

To me, a "greatest" song is one that sounds good when sung by many different people. It's often one that even I will sing along to and I'm not a singer. Here's a few:

"Summertime"
"Oh What a Beautiful Morning"
"You've Got a Friend"
"White Christmas"
"Desperado"
"Something"
"Yesterday"
"Imagine"

Some favourites, that bring back the yearning of youth
"At Seventeen" - Janis Ian
"Schools Out" - Alice Cooper
"I'm not in Love" - 10CC
"It's Different For Girls" - Joe Jackson