50 Best Songs of All Time According to Rolling Stone's BRAND NEW, 100% Revamped Top 500

30. Lorde, "Royals"
31. The Rolling Stones, "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"

^this is so fucking funny

Love this:

24. The Beatles, "A Day in the Life"
25. Kanye West feat. Pusha T, "Runaway"

I love or at least like about 40 out of these 50, but at the moment "My Girl" has the strongest claim, for me, of being one of humanity's finest achievements.

I like that Gasolina's there, token tho it may be. Still Be My Baby tho.

I voted for the Beatles but there were other contenders there of course.

Which one? I went with "Strawberry Fields Forever" but it was a toss-up with "A Day in the Life".

Lol sorry

“I Wanna Hold Your Hand”

I’m a sucker for dippy pop classic radio Beatles

"Superstition," but these 10 also ...

02. Public Enemy, "Fight the Power"
07. The Beatles, "Strawberry Fields Forever"
08. Missy Elliott, "Get Ur Freak On"
09. Fleetwood Mac, "Dreams"
20. Robyn, "Dancing on My Own"
21. Billie Holiday, "Strange Fruit"
22. The Ronettes, "Be My Baby"
26. Joni Mitchell, "A Case of You"
28. Talking Heads, "Once in a Lifetime"
39. OutKast, "B.O.B. (Bombs Over Baghdad)"

"Superstition" and "Idioteque" were close for me.

Nice to see “Paper Planes” in here

It’s been said before, but why does anyone like “Runaway”?

i can narrow it down to 14.

01. Aretha Franklin, "Respect"
02. Public Enemy, "Fight the Power"
03. Sam Cooke, "A Change Is Gonna Come"
08. Missy Elliott, "Get Ur Freak On"
10. OutKast, "Hey Ya!"
13. The Rolling Stones, "Gimme Shelter"
16. Beyoncé feat. Jay-Z, "Crazy in Love"
21. Billie Holiday, "Strange Fruit"
22. The Ronettes, "Be My Baby"
34. James Brown, "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag"
37. Prince, "When Doves Cry"
39. OutKast, "B.O.B. (Bombs Over Baghdad)"
40. Jimi Hendrix, "All Along the Watchtower"
43. The Temptations, "My Girl"

it's probably going to be Jimi, Billie or "Gimme Shelter" but any one of these could take it imo.

20. Robyn, "Dancing on My Own"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!

gasolina

Need a companion poll for worst.

Seven Nation Army would get my vote for that ^

seconded on 7 Nation Army

“Strange Fruit” might not be the worst but is the most “look-at-how-woke-we-are” inclusion.

Whatever, "Dancing on My Own" is the most inspired recent addition to this list.

“Strange Fruit” is too low at 21.

x post

voted for “juicy”

"Strange Fruit" really sticks out because it's probably the only pre-'50s track on the whole 500.

Unless there's some Carter Family or Robert Johnson or early Hank.

There is some Hank.

Worst is probably Fleetwood Mac, Kinks or Radiohead

Worst is Kanye.

Or "Imagine."

Worst for me is "Bohemian Rhapsody". I would pay a not insignificant sum if there was a way to block me from ever having to hear it again.

^I'll chip in if this method will block me from having to hear "Imagine" or "Hallelujah"! (admittedly the latter didn't make the Top 50)

Whatever, "Dancing on My Own" is the most inspired recent addition to this list.

― i carry the torch for disco inauthenticity (Eric H.), Thursday, September 16, 2021 2:10 PM (twenty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

feel about this the way stirmonster does bohemian rapsody

"Strange Fruit" is good, but wouldn't be in my top 10 Lady Day songs. I would also put probably a few dozen Beatles songs over "Strawberry Fields Forever". Even "Day in the Life" doesn't really work in any context other than as the closer on Sgt. Peppers. I guess I'm an unreconstructed rockist but this would probably be "Like a Rolling Stone" for me.

solid number one.! voted hendrix, it was my #1 on the classic rock poll too

Difference between worst and most overrated. "Crazy in Love" is a great song. The 16th greatest song of all time?..eh...

I'd choose "Royals". Good song. No business being where it is!

Leaning toward "Like a Rolling Stone" or "Superstition" for best.

"Strange Fruit" is good, but wouldn't be in my top 10 Lady Day songs.

This is me with "Superstition." Doesn't mean I'm not still going to vote for it here.

"Strange Fruit” might not be the worst but is the most “look-at-how-woke-we-are” inclusion.

Wtf?

They're demonstrating their trendy political correctness by including an almost universally canonized anti-lynching song from 1939?

I can't speak for wokeness, but there is some element of trendiness to that song, which avoided all three previous versions of this list but now has a Kanye song, an Academy Award winning movie and ties to the Nina Simone renaissance

being mad at strange fruit's placement because of wokeness is an absolutely classic terrible post

100%!

Also Nina Simone renaissance

when was she ever not in vogue???

The last decade was like the Academy Award winning documentary, the botched biopic, the Watch the Throne sample, the Kanye sample, the Jay-Z sample the Kanye sample, Lauryn going to bat for her all the time, appearing in stuff like The Watchmen and then getting into the Rock and Roll Hall of fame like decades after she was eligible

Worst for me is "Bohemian Rhapsody". I would pay a not insignificant sum if there was a way to block me from ever having to hear it again.

― stirmonster, Thursday, September 16, 2021 3:33 PM (forty-six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

"Runaway"would probably get my vote for worst, but amen to this nonetheless.

its really funny how after all that Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now" didn't even make the rolling stone list.

which to be clear i'm totally ok with, but it kind of goes against all the people telling me this list is supposed to be a measure of the temperature today rather than some historical narrative

I am oblivious to most of those things except for the documentary & the botched biopic but it has always felt to me she has been iconic and very present my whole life, with perhaps the odd heightened boost here and there.

x post

the Academy Award winning documentary

Nominated.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/how-nina-simone-captivated-a-new-generation-203955/

Not arguing against the notion that Nina is still cresting. That's what these updates are kind of all about tho.

Must be right if it's in Rolling Stone. LOL

Maybe it is different in the UK to the USA? She was always bigger and had more hit records here.

this is "Dreams" for me

I scrolled through this too fast and thought Daddy Yankee was the Damn Yankees and was like "man no wonder everyone is pissed about this list"

I love or at least like about 40 out of these 50, but at the moment "My Girl" has the strongest claim, for me, of being one of humanity's finest achievements.

― Les hommes de bonbons (cryptosicko), Thursday, September 16, 2021 1:24 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

yes

Listening to a playlist of the list on random and getting a few pleasant surprises here and there, like Marshall Jefferson "Move That Body."

did it make the list? I didn't even scroll thru the thing.

I'm devastated Noel's "Silent Morning" and Sylvester-Patrick Cowley's "Do You Wanna Funk" didn't make the list, apparently.

this is "Dreams" for me

xps RS makes it impossible to scroll thru the whole thing ... a Spotify playlist of the purported full list has it on it

You can also see the full list in one place here:
http://www.acclaimedmusic.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=149454#p149454

326 Rilo Kiley, 'Portions for Foxes' 2004
324 Billy Joel, 'Scenes From an Italian Restaurant' 1977

!!

that rilo kiley track showing up is maybe the most 'huh?' pick

Seven nation army really? That stupid riff

I really have to stretch to find a song I'm not at least a little bit tired of. Probably Dr. Dre/Snoop Dogg or Lauryn Hill.

Meant to say that I played about two minutes each of the Top 10 for a grade 6 class today (three minutes for Sam Cooke--played a Malcolm X clip). And held my breath during a clean version of Missy Elliott, because clean to the uploader doesn't necessarily mean clean in a school setting. Stuff I miss about having my own class.

One guy really surprised me by asking if the J5's "I Want You Back" was on the list. Evidently should have been give a vote.

"given"

"fremme neppa ventte" is INAPPROPRIATE for the classroom, Mr Clemenza! Please take the rest of the week off -unpaid!

I'm fired!

I would love to have had you as my 6th grade teacher. Instead I got the harsh Sister Julianna

didn't ever see the Fight the Power video before now

Our French teacher played us "Je t'aime... moi non plus" in class, and blew our minds

I was a little nervous about "Fight the Power," too, but I think "never meant shit to me" is all there is, right (which came later in the song anyway). With "Hey Ya," I played the actual video and was more wary of the visuals with some of the women (and the lawn jockey imagery was potentially a problem, although a little too esoteric for grade 6s; I did flash back to playing Culture Club on a remote job last spring and having blackface pop up.) "Je t'aime"? Wow--don't think I'd risk that

my eye-rolling moment:

120. X-Ray Spex, 'Oh Bondage! Up Yours!'
121. Marvin Gaye, 'I Heard It Through the Grapevine'

These lists never seem to know if they are rating milestones or performances or recordings or songwriting or what.

Went with "A Day in the Life," which still has a lot of magic for me.

Eric is there not some other poll you could be dealing with right now

Maybe a little something called The Last Dangerous Morbsies, aka I Have NO POLL and I Must Screen?

Please stop making lists

Voted Missy without reading any further down, get ur freak on is a really good song. strawberry feilds forever is also very good.

'Respect' wouldn't even make it into in my top ten Aretha songs, I don't think.

This might be 'When Doves Cry' for me. If they'd included 'Long Tall Sally' instead of 'Tutti Frutti' I might've gone with Little Richard.

"Superstition" over "Satisfaction"

I love Unknown Pleasures but I will never understand why "Love Will Tear Us Apart" gets so much acclaim, it's kinda wack

Please stop making lists

Beyoncé feat. Jay-Z, "Crazy in Love"

I know I am way TF out of touch, but don't remember this one at all. Looking at the list of her big hits, I know most of them but this one even listening to it, I kinda don't remember it.

Did not know the MIA, Kanye or the Daddy Yankee tune either...

I can't believe that Idioteque is on this list. Seems odd to me that tune would be the one on this list.

If you asked a bunch of people who are interested in this kind of stuff "What is the most surprising song in the Top 10?" I expect most would pick either Outkast or Missy Elliott. Weirdly--I'd have to give my explanation some thought--it was "Dreams" that surprised me the most (pleasantly so).

The vibe man skateboarded and drank juice

One guy really surprised me by asking if the J5's "I Want You Back" was on the list. Evidently should have been give a vote.

― clemenza, Thursday, September 16, 2021 7:07 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Yeah "I Want You Back" at 104 was the most shocking thing about this list for me

Have to admit I heard the Graham Parker version first.

You guys know the thing about the second verse of “The Love You Save,” right?

“be my baby”

I'd like to announce and renounce my ignorance, and write capsule reviews of the eight songs I wasn't familiar with till this morning:

08. Missy Elliott, "Get Ur Freak On” - Good, though I wish the whole song was as rhythmically exciting as the coda

16. Beyoncé feat. Jay-Z, "Crazy in Love” - boring sample, boring song, boring rap

20. Robyn, "Dancing on My Own” - adequate, but about 40% as good as Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder. There’d better be something else amazing about your song if you want me to sit through another I - V - IV pattern

25. Kanye West feat. Pusha T, “Runaway" - intriguing, but I think you’d have to be way more invested in him than I am to know what this all signifies

30. Lorde, “Royals" - very well done, but it’s a protest song about nothing

45. Kendrick Lamar, “Alright" - I know his previous record, and this is obviously great

46. M.I.A., "Paper Planes” - any annoyance on my part is intentional on her part, but I still prefer Elastica. I’d be more impressed if someone told me this came out in 1982

50. Daddy Yankee feat. Glory, “Gasolina” - this wouldn’t be my kind of thing even if I spoke Spanish

I was most pleased to see "Waterloo Sunset" and "B.O.B. (Bombs Over Baghdad)" on here, and I voted for the former.

man someone boarded Challop Airlines today

You know “B.O.B.” but not "Get Ur Freak On”(?)

You know “B.O.B.” but not "Get Ur Freak On”(?)

I saw some of her other videos, OutKast I made a point of listening to.

I'm trying to calculate age and location probabilities for hearing Crazy in Love for the first time in 2021. I have 8, Papua New Guinea or 72, Idaho.

own private Idaho, makes sense

The declaration that Robyn and M.I.A. made two of the 50 greatest songs of all time is as much of a challop as anything in that post imo.

I personally took the rankings of the songs with a grain of salt as I read thru the list, but I guess ppl will inevitably critique the rankings

156 The Kingsmen, 'Louie Louie' 1963
155 The Strokes, 'Last Nite' 2001

This one made me laugh.

Mostly agree with stirmonster and Eric's picks. Went with James Brown on principle, even if that song probably isn't in my top 50 JB.

This recent Rolling Stone list has had me thinking about what an ILX version of this list would look like. I ended up going down a huge rabbit hole this morning and tried to find the #1 track in all the ILM polls over the years. Here's the results (I'm sure I missed some):

Donna Summer - I Feel Love
Pavement - Summer Babe
Blur - This is a Low
Ol’ Dirty Bastard f/Kelis - Got Your Money
Blue Oyster Cult - Don’t Fear the Reaper
Pulp - Common People
The Beach Boys - Good Vibrations
The Beatles - A Day in The Life
U2 - Where The Streets Have No Name
The Beach Boys - God Only Knows
Missy Elliott - Get Ur Freak On
James Brown - Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag
Paul Simon - Graceland
Neil Young - Powderfinger
PJ Harvey - Dress
The Doors - The Crystal Ship
XTC - Senses Working Overtime
Metallica - For Whom the Bell Tolls
Stereolab - Dymaxion Loop
Can - Future Days
Dionne Warwick - Walk On By
The Cramps - Garbageman
Pink Floyd - Echoes
Spacemen 3 - Walkin’ With Jesus
Prince and the Revolution - When Doves Cry
REM - Harborcoat
Pet Shop Boys - What Have I Done To Deserve This?
Led Zeppelin - When the Levee Breaks
Guided By Voices - Game of Pricks
Stevie Wonder - Superstition
David Bowie - Life on Mars?
Beastie Boys - Shake Your Rump
The Cure - A Forest
Lindstrome - I Feel Space
Miles Davis - Shhh/Peaceful
Sonic Youth - Schizophrenia
The Clash - (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais
Marvin Gaye - I Heard It Through The Grapevine
Jay Z - Dead Presidents II
Sam and Dave - Hold On, I’m A Comin’
R. Kelly - Step In The Name Of Love
Sylvester - You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)
Elvis Costello - Beyond Belief
Outkast - SpottieOttieDopaliscious
Brian Eno - St. Elmo’s Fire
Radiohead - There There
Autechre - Cichili
Funkadelic - Maggot Brain
Mr. Flagio - Take a Chance
Oasis - Live Forever
Iggy & The Stooges - Search & Destroy
Chaka Khan - I Feel for You
Van Morrison - Astral Weeks
John Lennon - Instant Karma!
Tori Amos - Silent All These Years
Prefab Sprout - Appetite
Big Black - Kerosene
My Bloody Valentine - Soon
Manic Street Preachers - Motorcycle Emptiness
The Flamingos - I Only Have Eyes for You
The Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter
The Kinks - Waterloo Sunset
Depeche Mode - Never Let Me Down Again
The Bee Gees - To Love Somebody
Fleetwood Mac - Dreams
Kate Bush - Running Up That Hill
The Who - Substitute
Saint Etienne - Avenue
Husker Du - Eight Miles Hight
The Orb - Little Fluffy Clouds
Bruce Springsteen - Thunder Road
The Fall - Slates
New Order - Temptation
The Cocteau Twins - Aikea-Guinea
Lou Reed - Satellite of Love
Roxy Music - Mother of Pearl
Sleater-Kinney - Get Up
Bob Dylan - Like a Rolling Stone
The Ramones - Sheena Is a Punk Rocker
Pixies - Debaser
Yo La Tengo - Tom Courtenay
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Fortunate Son
Spoon - Everything Hits at Once
Queen/David Bowie - Under Pressure
Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers - The Waiting
Slayer - Reign In Blood
The Smiths - There is a Light That Never Goes Out
Van Halen - Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love
Devo - Uncontrollable Urge
Celtic Frost - Monotheist
George Michael - Freedom ’90
Curtis Mayfield - Move On Up
Blondie - Dreaming
Smashing Pumpkins - Mayonaise
Wu-Tang Clan - C.R.E.A.M.
They Might Be Giants - Ana Ng
Beck - Loser
Cat Power - Cross Bones Style
Jimi Hendrix - Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)
Janet Jackson - Escapade
The Replacements - I Will Dare
Todd Rundgren - Hello It’s Me
The Afghan Whigs - Faded
ABBA - SOS
Joni Mitchell - A Case of You
Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit
Talking Heads - The Great Curve
Belle & Sebastian - The State I Am In
Underworld - Rez & Cowgirl
Nick Cave - Sleeping Annaleah
MF Doom - Doomsday
Television - Marquee Moon
Bauhaus - Dark Entries
Joy Division - Disorder
Elton John - Someone Saved My Life Tonight
Madonna - Into the Groove
B-52’s - 52 Girls
Steely Dan - Deacon Blues
The Go-Betweens - Cattle and Cane
Bjork - Hyperballad

Yes, ILX could get there. We just need to work a bit more on canonizing global pop history (the stuff that gave birth to afrobeats, reggaeton, k-pop...). Rolling Stone even tried to do it with the top 50 latin pop songs list and that was an ok start.

i stupidly found out how universal 'gasolina' is around 2017.

literally everything on 'honey' > "dancing on my own"

"Gasolina" is the "You Shook Me All Night Long" of reggaeton, or something like that.

46. M.I.A., "Paper Planes” - any annoyance on my part is intentional on her part, but I still prefer Elastica. I’d be more impressed if someone told me this came out in 1982

gucci gucci should be on here
probably #1 or so

I honestly wonder if we could get D-40 to admit that it isn’t one of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time

Imagine all the songs
Were living yesterday
They'd have to be much higher on the RS 500.

Imagine there are no rankings
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to argue for
And no year-end poll too

This recent Rolling Stone list has had me thinking about what an ILX version of this list would look like.

an approximation: ILM POLLS THE 20TH CENTURY'S BEST TRACKS ››› YOUR RESULTS THREAD ‹‹‹

This whole thing inspired me to make a list of my own 50 favorites… is there a place we can post & share without being unwelcome or clogging another thread?

I love that ILM results. Good job everyone involved.

is there a place we can post & share without being unwelcome or clogging another thread?

Feel free to clog this thread with fantasy ballots.

create a poll of your 50 favorites to annoy the ghost of turrican

Respect has certainly suffered from being overplayed and overused, but it got overplayed and overused because it rules *so hard*

I was curious how many of these songs i had never heard before so i combed the top 200 and played the four new-to-me tracks once.

#14 - The Kinks "Waterloo Sunset"
I like quite a lot of The Kinks music that I've heard quite a lot but I do not like this at all!

#75 - Pulp "Common People"
I have never ever listened to Pulp somehow. This seems okay, maybe, kinda? I like the instrumental parts a lot more than i like jarvis cocker's voice and to give you a sense of how little i care about this band I initially thought the lead singer was damon albarn because pulp and blur have the same number of letters. i don't think i will ever intentionally listen to this again.

#77 - The Modern Lovers "Roadrunner"
Pretty great! I could see trying this album out.

#155 - The Strokes "Last Nite"
I got through the entirety of the 2000s without listening to or forming an opinion about the Strokes. It feels real appropriate that fucking RS is the impetus for me to break a 20 year streak with these guys. Was this like a commercial for jeans or a car or something? It probably should be. I bailed at the 90 second mark.

Feel free to clog this thread with fantasy ballots.

Ok, I may do it! But the more I look at my list, the more idiosyncratic and (I guess) "challopsy" it seems (b/c I was focusing purely on personal faves, rather than historical/canonical significance)... so then I wonder if I should tip the balance a little... etc. It makes me appreciate the difficulty of this task a little more.

#75 - Pulp "Common People"

I have never ever listened to Pulp somehow. This seems okay, maybe, kinda? I like the instrumental parts a lot more than i like jarvis cocker's voice and to give you a sense of how little i care about this band I initially thought the lead singer was damon albarn because pulp and blur have the same number of letters. i don't think i will ever intentionally listen to this again.

boo

Not going to lie, whatever "ballot" I've been composing in a hidden Spotify playlist for myself is somewhat informed by having seen the list. In other words, hedging on some choices (e.g. "Sir Duke" for Stevie Wonder, instead of "Summer Soft" or "You and I").

if not common people, tell me the pulp song i should listen to that will win me over

curious to know what you would think of 'My Legendary Girlfriend' tbh

if you don't like jarvis cocker's voice, pulp is probably not for you, tbh

try "something changed," maybe? it's a well-written british invasion throwback that lays off the psychosexual stuff and the social commentary and smooths down cocker's vocal tics a bit

"Juicy" is the only one that actually belongs here.

Party Hard xp

"Sorted for E's and Whizz" is the best pulp song. But it does sound like maybe Pulp isn't for you.

forks, listen to "this is hardcore" or "sunrise"

"Underwear" is pretty great imo

I used to keep a blog where I wrote about every pulp song, underwear was the last entry I wrote

https://pulpsongs.wordpress.com/

hope to resume it one day but won't be for a while

one listen per, who knew that 9/20/21 would be my pulp day.

My Legendary Girlfriend - Great intro, very Talking Heads and I approve of the effects. In general this is a sufficiently strange enough take on 70's R&B that I could see coming around to it. I wish it would rock out a bit harder at the apex but maybe on headphones?

Something Changed - Inoffensive but boring. I have an association with this era of breakout britpop with a time when i was living in a trailer park in the outskirts of Nashville, sleeping on the floor next to a flea-ridden hound, so you're gonna have to be a lot better than this to win me over with this sorta sound.

Party Hard - I'm into the electric jaw harp and the guitar line and the driving drums but man i just don't care for Cocker's Lugosi/Dr Frank-n-Furter voice at all. It is weighing down a very very busy track to the point where I don't want to put in the effort to figure out where I'm supposed to grab hold.

Sorted for E's and Wizz - I assume this is made for the clunkiest woodland children. I like the burping electronics.

i'll try three more but then i'm clocking out.

Babies is the best Pulp song

I wish it would rock out a bit harder at the apex but maybe on headphones

yeah Babies might still be the best

This Is Hardcore - Musically, it's kind of interesting: a James Bond theme as imagined by a sad drunk who won't stop going on. Wish it had spun out naturally around 4.15, which is where I derailed right around THAT GOES IN THERE THAT GOES IN THERE UNGHGUGNGHGUUHH. Pretty charming up till then though.

Sunrise - Six minutes of pomp without circumstance. Generally that speaks to me but not here.

Underwear - If they gave the dead milkmen quaaludes

as always, i reserve the right to completely rethink everything i believe but i am okay not listening to pulp anymore except maybe for the newly posted version of Legendary Girlfriend to see if they made the highs higher.

Yeah the Youtube version of Leg Girl is very good!

lo-fi pulp hits the right points imo

I have been biting my tongue not talking about 80s pulp but would say it is all pretty lo-fi

As a Pulp fan I mostly agree with your observations. Try Babies.

forks if you like Roadrunner (and who wouldn't?) you should definitely check out that Modern Lovers album. Lots more of the same vibe.

i will likely go back to that modern lovers album.

Babies is pretty good! If I had started here I woulda likely had a lot more patience for this band.

Frankly had no idea they dated back to the 80s!

So forks is coming around on Pulp. Now onto “Waterloo Sunset.”

xp Formed in 1978 when Jarvis was 15!

Is there an Apple Music playlist of the whole 500 up anywhere? A few quick searches revealed only partial lists, older lists, people's personal selections from the master list, etc.

I thought I knew every song in the top 50 but just listened to "Gasolina," and cannot recall ever hearing this curiosity. Wish I could change my vote. Video is heinous.

Sorry, should have posted that in the Worst songs thread.

just listened to Gasolina in full for first time and I love it

Is there an Apple Music playlist of the whole 500 up anywhere? A few quick searches revealed only partial lists, older lists, people's personal selections from the master list, etc.

Here you go:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4EdmaJCUXvXsXJKXZGvj2r?si=bc91434935b6452d

I also made a playlist of all ILX track poll winers that I listed in my post from yesterday, in case anyone's interested:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4cgduOuzi3ut0Lq2zmz0rt?si=d27239fd317645f0

ILXors discovering "Gasolina," perhaps one of the most consequential songs of the 21st Century, is very entertaining, plz do not stop

It's a good example of how fractured music is in the 21st Century!

I don't know about "discover" as I have heard it many times in bits and pieces, first time I have actually listened to it properly

#14 - The Kinks "Waterloo Sunset"
I like quite a lot of The Kinks music that I've heard quite a lot but I do not like this at all!

this is truly one of the most baffling opinions i've ever heard on ilx

don't know what to tell you!

nor I you!

"purple rain" ranking over "when doves cry" is really grinding my gears

also

42. Bob Marley & the Wailers, "Redemption Song"

isn't even a top 20 marley song much less representing reggae as a whole in the top 50

I never thought Gasolina was one of the best 50 songs of all time but in a dour playlist like this, it certainly feels like a “hell yeah!” moment when it comes on.

the ranking is, in general, hilarious here but it's such an obvious attempt at "sparking discourse" that i can hardly let it bother me.

as with all top whatever lists, this is a list of songs where most of them are well known and pretty good to excellent. which is not to say they are < or > than anything else.

Gasolina was inescapable for years in huge parts of the world, but yeah, living in the US you could easily have never heard it. Of course, the same was true of Las Ketchup, and I don't see them in the top 50.

I kinda like The Ketchup Song (Asereje), something about the slightly out-of-time, slightly-out-of-rhythm unharmonised descending-scale vocals paired with the generic upbeat backing produces this distinctive kind of unintended melancholy, it's like a V/VM version of itself.

very tempted to troll whiney and bring up crazy frog here

I’m not much of a fan of “Waterloo sunset” either. I’d put 10 Kinks’ songs ahead of that one easily.

That said I don’t mind it and can see why some people think it’s one of their best songs.

There was a People's Songs episode on Radio 4 about Waterloo Sunset, and can report that after half an hour or so it becomes pretty tiresome to listen to, my wife asked me to turn the radio off.

I still subscribe to the Challopian Christgovian orthodoxy about "Waterloo Sunset" being "the most beautiful song in the English language," in no small part due to the ethereal harmonizing of Dave and Rasa Davies, but don't expect others to share this belief and hesitate to brand them as infidels, especially someone as nice as forks.

I saw Jon Brion do "Waterloo Sunset" with Benmont Tench & Glenn Kotche, and if memory serves me right, he called it the greatest song ever written.

Pulp will never top "Disco 2000" imo

The other perfect song on Different Class

So many good Pulp songs, hard to pick one.

This video may have the opposite effect. Found it whilst looking for a quote from Steve Jones which I couldn't locate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0qnHaWfQXg

There was a People's Songs episode on Radio 4 about Waterloo Sunset, and can report that after half an hour or so it becomes pretty tiresome to listen to, my wife asked me to turn the radio off.

― edited to reflect developments which occurred (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Monday, September 20, 2021 3:50 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Is this supposed an indictment of the song somehow?

I listened to “People Get Ready” for 24 hours straight and you know what, it’s just not that good a song.

Sometimes I can listen to a song over and over for hours on end and sometimes I have to turn it off right away and take a break from it for a few years, not necessarily a reflection on the quality of the song.

Ha, xpost!

think my favourite songs I could listen to for half an hour on repeat and wouldn't tire of them at all, since that's the format of the show and there were lots of episodes, I would say that approx 40% of the songs got fairly annoying by the end (worst was Part Of The Union)

I'm trying to calculate age and location probabilities for hearing Crazy in Love for the first time in 2021. I have 8, Papua New Guinea or 72, Idaho.

I did see the video at the time, but never made it to the end till now. I haven't trusted her since she turned Destiny's Child to a trio.

What if I told you this song … did come out in 1982

Oh I hear the Clash in it now, must have been subconscious. Another I - V - IV progression, too, which I criticized in the Robyn song, and then realized is also in "Waterloo Sunset", my poll choice! (hypocrisy)

Sometimes I can listen to a song over and over for hours on end

I have a rule never to listen to a song more than once a day (unless I'm learning to play it, or practicing it); I don't want to have a song I like "go dead" on me.

Is the going dead related to semantic satiation?

Looks like it. I remember the phrase from film critic/teacher Robin Wood, talking about Hitchcock's films.

Waterloo Sunset is one of those songs that's special to me not because I want to listen to it all the time or on repeat, but because it captures a particular mood that I have felt often and there's nothing else that quite captures that particular nuance of feeling and POV for me. When you want to listen to Waterloo Sunset there are no substitutes, and if Waterloo Sunset didn't exist, there would be a big empty space where it's supposed to be.

That perfect balance of loneliness and beauty; the way you can feel that the singer both is and isn't lying to himself when he says he doesn't need anything but this.
There's genuine awe and wonder in it, and a real joy in being an observer, and yet you never lose the knowledge that all this beauty is born out of loneliness and that loneliness will be waiting again when the moment is over.

I did see the video at the time, but never made it to the end till now. I haven't trusted her since she turned Destiny's Child to a trio.

this is incredible

lol

For fellow Apple Music users: https://music.apple.com/ca/playlist/rolling-stone-500-greatest-songs/pl.u-DdANeoqIaa7PdR

The only error I've encountered on this playlist so far: the Merle Haggard/Willie Nelson cover of "Pancho & Lefty" is included in place of the original.

To be honest, that's probably the version people actually voted for/think of when they think of that song.

Blasphemy

Looks like they missed one: https://exclaim.ca/music/article/smash_mouth_want_to_know_why_all_star_isnt_on_that_rolling_stone_list-the_band_took_to_twitter_to_demand_answers

Feel free to clog this thread with fantasy ballots.

OK – I'm gonna do it (timing it after hours, for minimal annoyance).

These are in no particular order; I just listed til I hit 50, then made a few swaps. It's purely personal faves – songs that are close to my heart, for whatever reason – and not going for objective/historical significance. (The list probably has some "recency bias" – 2 songs from this year! – but I think that's OK)

I Missed the Point - Neko Case
Push It - Salt-N-Pepa
Match Made Up in Heaven - Jill
You Dropped a Bomb on Me - Gap Band
Tumbling Dice - Rolling Stones
Start Me Up - Rolling Stones
Loretta's Scars - Pavement
Found a Job - Talking Heads
Man, I Feel Like a Woman - Shania Twain
Give Him a Great Big Kiss - Shangri-Las
Out in the Streets - Shangri-Las
When U Were Mine - Prince
She Makes Me Shake Like a Soul Machine - Unrest
Shivers - Boys Next Door
Mamma Mia - ABBA
The Drum - Slapp Happy + all covers (Bongwater, Impossibles, Love and Hates)
Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man - Loretta Lynn & Conway Twitty
Break Free - Ariana Grande ft. Zedd
NASA - Ariana Grande
She's Your Lover Now - Bob Dylan
Plekhanov - Red Crayola w/Art & Language
A Portrait of V.I. Lenin in the Style of Jackson Pollock, Part 1 - Red Crayola w/Art & Language
The United States vs. One 1974 Cadillac El Dorado Sedan - Royal Trux
Green Limousine - Howling Hex
Into the Groove - Madonna
Is It True - Brenda Lee
Look in My Diary - Reparata and the Delrons
Trash - New York Dolls
Tossin' and Turnin' - Bobby Lewis
Father Figure - George Michael
Don't Change - INXS
The Great Pretender - Platters
Nanou2 - Aphex Twin
Good 4 U - Olivia Rodrigo
Watch - Billie Eilish
Shine a Light - Wolf Parade
Breakin' Down the Walls of Heartache - The Bandwagon
When It All Comes Down - Miaow
L.A. Mist - The Sharp Ease
Part of Your World - Jodi Benson (Little Mermaid soundtrack)
What Goes On - Velvet Underground
Rare - Selena Gomez
Garden - The Fall
Ten Years Gone - Led Zeppelin
Band of Gold - Freda Payne
Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd
These Are Days - 10,000 Maniacs
Chris Michaels - Fiery Furnaces
Centerfold - J. Geils Band
Law Man - Jefferson Airplane

(oh, it's just one from this year... OK, I feel better, lol)

Here’s a top 10 ballot I whipped up with a few days ago

Al Green - Love and Happiness
Beach Boys - God Only Knows
Donna Summer - I Feel Love
Glenn Campbell - Wichita Lineman
Stevie Wonder - Superstition
Fela Kuti - Zombie
Nina Simone - Sinnerman
Kate Bush - Cloudbusting
Deee-Lite - Groove is in the Heart
Talk Talk - New Grass

I've got 40 or so and am just deciding what 10 will round it out.

That’s a pretty good top 10

i did a top 50 a couple years ago, probably would swap a few out and i never ordered it, but i wouldn't change that much: 50 of My Favorite Songs - choose one

Yeah love that list, I see at least 5 songs which I’d probably consider top 10 of their respective decade.

i honestly think i would be hard pressed to do an unnumbered top 500 so i am cool with whatever anybody wants to do with anything forever

I'll give it a shot:

Judee Sill - The Kiss
Sly and the Family Stone - Family Affair
Steely Dan - King of the World
Willie Nelson - One Day at a Time
Ernie (from Sesame Street) - I Don't Want to Live on the Moon
Laura Nyro - Up On the Roof
The Incredible String Band - Maya
Arthur Russell - That's Us/Wild Combination
Tracy Chapman - Fast Car
Primitive Radio Gods - Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth With Money in My Hand
Grateful Dead - Dark Star
Sheryl Crow - If It Makes You Happy
OMD - Souvenir
Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns
Milton Nascimento - Ponta De Areia
Seal - Kiss From a Rose
The Smiths - Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now
Dolly Parton - Down From Dover
Belle and Sebastian - The Model
Tommy James & The Shondells - Crystal Blue Persuasion
Jimmy Webb - Met Her on a Plane
Cocteau Twins - Lorelei
Broadcast - Corporeal
Yo La Tengo - Let's Save Tony Orlando's House
Prefab Sprout - The Sound of Crying
Sandy Denny - No End
Bob Marley & The Wailers - No Woman, No Cry
The Beatles - Dear Prudence
The Temptations - My Girl
OMC - How Bizarre
Prince - Adore
Moondog - Do Your Thing
Richard & Linda Thompson - I Want To See the Bright Lights Tonight
Gal Costa - Baby
Bruce Springsteen - Tougher Than the Rest
Joanna Newsom - Esme
Hatfield & the North - Son Of 'There's No Place Like Homerton'
Scott Walker - Joe
Gong - Love Is How Y Make It
Van Morrison - Snow In San Anselmo
The Cosmic Rays w/Sun Ra - Dreaming
The Rolling Stones - Dead Flowers
Al Green - Funny How Time Slips Away
Rufus Wainwright - Greek Song
Carly Rae Jepsen - Warm Blood
Yes - Starship Trooper
Randy Newman - Living Without You
Kraftwerk - Computer Love
Hüsker Dü - Flexible Flyer
Björk - Hyperballad

(no particular order)

Grateful Dead - Dark Star

Which version??

Ideally all of them, but if I have to pick one it's 8/1/73

gut says Once in a Lifetime

Carly Rae Jepsen - Warm Blood

Once In a Lifetime is definitely one of the greatest songs of all time

had to go with Strawberry Fields

Scott Woods has started posting Top 50s on rockcritics.com as kind of a parallel poll for outcasts, has-beens, and never-weres like me (he's not tabulating votes, though). My list is up, followed by Scott's, and there'll be more in the coming weeks. (Two I know: Frank Kogan and Kevin J. Bozelka...also Scott's 20-year-old nephew, Ethan.)

My own list is definitely contrived/self-conscious/whatever, in that I intentionally tried to stay clear of famous hits as much as possible. (A handful snuck in.) I've just reached a point where I get tired of seeing that stuff reshuffled endlessly.

https://rockcritics.com/

"Strawberry Fields Forever." My favorite song of all time.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Looking for songs that I honestly deeply loved and that weren’t completely destroyed by hypercanonicity and media synergies, it ended up coming down to “Once in a Lifetime” vs “Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag”….

Was tempted by Waterloo Sunset but I went for Heroes.

wasn't gonna vote and thus validate this exercise in tedious canon-forming nonsense but then I saw 15 of you had voted Bohemian Rhapsody as the worst and frankly bismillah NO

I guess I'm going with hypercanonicity and hyperagreement by voting for the representative of the RS album #1 (I was very happy with that choice)
I could have gone for Joni Mitchell, but Case of You isn't my fave from the album
Talking Heads and Notorious B.I.G certainly good options. Wonder if Heroes takes this. Or maybe there will be revenges carried on from the "worst" poll :)

And I hope some people are less cowards than me and vote for Nuthing but a G thang

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Go straight to hell, ILM.

Lol

Go straight to hell, ILM.

― i carry the torch for disco inauthenticity (Eric H.)

how does it feel to be on your owwwwwnnn

5 votes for "dancing on my own" is about as ridiculous as its recent overrating itself

1 vote for what's going on
what's going on

its not as good as 'dancing on my own,' obviously

I'm not the biggest Dylan fan and I voted for something else but "Like a Rolling Stone" is a 100% deserving winner. I never fail to find it compelling any time I hear it.

"Strange Fruit" is a great record and a greater cause, but Holiday has had much better records.

Well, many not MUCH better, but better records, at least performance-wise and musically speaking.

*maybe (not many)

These are so nauseating and I don't understand the impulse to rank music at all, but "I only have eyes for you" is the only song I can think of where a magazine could say "this is the #1 greatest song of all time" and I would think 'yeah, that sounds about right'

Think I'm gonna FP anyone who posts a list from here on out.

I voted for Gimme Shelter. One of the few songs that I keep hearing pretty regularly on the radio or in movies that I somehow never really tire of and still think is great.

I think ranked lists are bound to lead more to argument/derision than assent or constructive debate, though I do like interesting lists (esp if they're not ranked, which I guess is rare).

But how else do we know what the best songs are?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2FGRVRzXZM

Both of Otis Redding’s songs shut out.

The arguments and debates bother me as much as the lists or more, the idea that such a list could potentially be good if only they were more inclusive, or informed, or ranked in a different order, or whatever. No, the idea of a '500 greatest songs' is totally irredeemable, there are no best songs, just stop it imo

What if were just called "500 Cool Songs You Should Totally Hear and Stuff"?

How about: "500 Songs. Have at it."

500 songs. Some we like, some we had to add begrudgingly for clicks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzdEd1dZJjA

At the risk of being flagged, I'll link here to the Top 50 that I contributed to Scott Woods's ongoing roundup on rockcritics.com. Much more canonical than some of the lists that have been collected thus far (including clemenza's), but less canonical than others, I guess:

https://rockcritics.com/2021/10/12/top-50-favourite-songs-jeremy-fairall/

Good list.

8. “No Easy Way Down,” Dusty Springfield (1969)
33. “Move With Me,” Neneh Cherry (1992)

hell yeah

Thanks! I made several drafts before finalizing, and those two songs were never not on my list.

"Inverness" is a nice pick if you only have one Scott Miller song.

Questlove's new list-based Music Is History sounds promising (comments & song excerpts):
In his new book, Roots co-founder Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson starts in 1971 and moves year-by-year through his life, writing about memories, turning points and the songs he listened to.
stream/download/transcript (Fresh Air)
https://www.npr.org/2021/10/12/1045247409/questlove-spins-the-soundtrack-of-his-life-in-music-is-history

Bashing "Strange Fruit" because of someone else's alleged motivations in posting it is some of that ol' classick reductive ilx religion---to say the least---

Aaand I took the bait, sry

But by that logic, any artist on here who's ever been subject of a documentary etc. could be exculded; hell whole list could be dismissed because it's pantheon-sucking trend-molesting Rolling Stone

This will seem weird, but it's meant to address an obvious problem.

I mentioned above that Scott Woods has been posting Top 50s on rockcritics.com--not an answer to the Rolling Stone list, but prompted by it and kind of related. Anyway, Scott's running into the same problem I encountered putting out a fanzine in the '90s where we rated hit singles: it's one male contributor after another. At the time, I was able to recruit a few female contributors, but it wasn't easy. The world has changed a lot in 25 years, but it in this regard, time seems to have stood still: females evidently aren't that big on rating or listing pop songs.

So this is a recruitment list, meant for ILM's female posters: if you'd like to put together a Top 50, with or without a short intro/comments, Scott will post it.

https://rockcritics.com/

Ladies, please make unpaid content for us

females evidently aren't that big on rating or listing pop songs submitting free work with no discernable benefit beyond peacocking the breadth and depth of your performatively diverse and eclectic tastes

"Unpaid content"--if you use language like that, I suspect you and I are from different universes. I've been doing this for 35 years, and I could take all the money I've made and go buy a few pizzas.

A few pizzas does sound pretty good tbh

JFC

People should be paid for their writing, but if it's just a ballot or list of 50 favorite songs and nothing else, I'm not sure I'd expect much compensation - maybe a free record I guess. If you offered real pay for an accompanying essay (assuming it's worthy of publication), that would be a nice incentive.

People should of course be paid when writing for venues that make (or at least attempt to make) money. Really and truly, this is not any different than the polls that go on here. (And it's not even a poll, just a bunch of a lists.) Rockcritics.com is a fan site that has been around for 20 years. I'd have to check with Scott, but I am 99% sure it generates 0% revenue.

Do you have to be a Rock Critic to contribute(?)

I'm actually not against what you're doing at all - all you're asking for is lists. If I ran a publication, I'd pay for an article, whether it was pitched to me or if I assigned it to someone, but if I got a list of 50 songs put on my desk, regardless of how much time or thought is put into it, it's still a list of 50 songs. I don't think Sight & Sound or Pazz & Jop give any monetary compensations for any of the thousands of ballots they've sent out for their esteemed polls, and though they don't require comments, people frequently give them.

Pazz & Jop used to pay a tiny bit, then they stopped a few years ago. For what it's worth, this is to help a friend--it's his site.

(xpost) Here's the very first iteration of rockcritics.com, going back to 2000. It's changed over the years, but I think the right answer is "no."

https://web.archive.org/web/20000823130535/http://www.rockcritics.com/

Pazz & Jop used to pay a tiny bit, then they stopped a few years ago.

Wow, I stand corrected. When you say stopped, do you mean because the Voice (before it was re-animated) closed shop?

we'd get paid for blurbs too

No, this was before they went under. It wasn't much, believe me--$10 per printed P&J comment?

I might be able to submit one! Not really sure if I have that unique of a perspective and I suck at blurbs since I’m not a writer or a native english speaker but yeah… I could maybe give it a try. I have probably such a list more or less curated by now.

Please do! If you look at the short intros that are there, I think you'll find them as informal as humanly possible.

No, this was before they went under. It wasn't much, believe me--$10 per printed P&J comment?

In that case, I definitely prefer a free record (as long as I get to choose)!

Thanks to this thread, I dreamt someone gave me a pizza. I didn't have to provide any lists in exchange though.

ILX'ors cryptosicko and Kevin J. Bozelka have their lists up there.

I've discovered the Tammys' "Egyptian Shumba" (1964) off KJB's list.