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- “Imagine” — John Lennon. Voted second by the Ranker community and third by Rolling Stone, John Lennon’s “Imagine” is worthy of our top spot. First released in the U.S. in October 1971 and in the U.K.
- “Hey Jude” — The Beatles. It’s the best song of all time, according to thousands of Ranker voters, and it comes in at No. 8 on the Rolling Stone list.
- “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” — The Rolling Stones. “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” deemed by Rolling Stone to be the second-best song of all time, gave The Rolling Stones their first U.S. No. 1, and despite being initially restricted to pirate radio stations in the U.K.
- “Yesterday” — The Beatles. The Beatles’ most famous ballad was voted third-best by the Ranker community and 13th by Rolling Stone. It was also ranked third on BMI’s list of the Top 100 Songs of the Century and was voted the best song of the 20th century in a 1999 BBC Radio 2 poll of music experts and listeners.
Feb 16, 2024 · Feb 16, 2024 11:37 am. Editor’s note, February 2024: In the two and a half years since Rolling Stone rolled out the all-new, fully revamped version of our 500 Greatest Songs list in September ...
- 3 min
- Rolling Stone
- U2 – with Or Without You
- Elton John – Bennie and The Jets
- The Rolling Stones – Paint It, Black
- Led Zeppelin – Stairway to Heaven
- Pink Floyd – Money
- Madonna – Papa Don’T Preach
- Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody
- Elvis Presley – Suspicious Minds
- The Beatles – A Day in The Life
- Michael Jackson – Billie Jean
Streams (Spotify): 902.0 Million
We warned you. We aren’t messing around with this list. Too much is at stake! Which is why, despite being the lead single off U2’s 1987 monster album The Joshua Tree, “With or Without You” appears at the bottom. The album itself is a stone-cold, certified classic, selling an eye-watering 25 million copies worldwide, storming charts all over the globe, being named by the BBC as the defining album of the ‘eighties ’80s, and confirming the Irish band as superstars. Simply put, albums don’t come...
Streams (Spotify): 395.8 Million
Goodbye Yellow Brick Roadis, without a doubt, Elton John’s biggest and best album, with over 31 million units sold. This is why his second Billboard Hot 100 #1 comes in at #9. The album is a Grammy Hall of Fame member since 2003, and includes such singles as “Candle in the Wind” and “Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting)” but we opted to highlight “Bennie and the Jets”. It’s a big glittery slab of glam-rock as translated through the prism that is Elton John. The song in anyone else’s hands...
Streams (Spotify): 980 Million
Question 1: Are the Rolling Stones the world’s greatest singles band? It seems disrespectful to even pose the question of a band that have to their name such classic LPs as Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main Street and Let it Bleed, but when you consider the success enjoyed by their compilations, perhaps it’s not such a baseless question after all. Their first collection, 1971’s Hot Rocks 1964-1971, is their biggest seller and covers everything from “Brown Sugar” to “Sympathy for the Devil”. But e...
Streams (Spotify): 870.6 Million
Led Zeppelin are a band that trades on their mystique almost as much as their music. From the Olympian—and strongly refuted—tales committed to print in the salacious (and very addictive) 1985 book, Hammer of the Gods to the frequent and adoring references to them in film and TV, including Wayne’s World, Almost Famous and, of course, This is Spinal Tap, they cast a huge shadow. All that hype started in earnest with the release of their fourth album,IV, or Four Symbols. It was produced by guita...
Streams (Spotify): 448.8 Million
Dark Side of the Moonis the very definition of a classic album, shipping a barely believable 50 million copies, making it the bestselling album of the ’70s. It is the reason high fidelity sound systems exist. “Money”, the album’s lead single, is an astonishing piece of work—a commentary on insatiable greed set to a six-minute funk workout, complete with looped sound effects, guitar lines and interviews with the band’s crew and staff. On paper it sounds, at best, baffling; at worst, unlistenab...
Streams (Spotify): 113.6 Million
Madonna’s third album True Bluemarked the singer’s ascent to superstardom, to join the ranks of eventual pop icons Prince and Michael Jackson. She co-wrote and co-produced all nine tracks on the album, five of which hit the Billboard top five, including three #1s, proving to the world that the Material Girl was no flash in the pan. The album would go on to sell 25 million copies and ushered in a new phase in her career. “Papa Don’t Preach”, from the dramatic strings of the opening and the Pri...
Streams (Spotify): 2.2 Billion
So, were the Rolling Stones the greatest singles band ever? No. That honor goes to Queen. The band’s first (of many) ‘Greatest Hits’ collections, released in 1981, is one of the top 50 bestselling albums of all time and feels like it belongs in the jukebox in heaven. Including “Another One Bites the Dust”, “We Are the Champions”, “Killer Queen”, and “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”, it is a majestic—even silly at times—compendium of ’70s rock. Standing proud at center stage is the oversized j...
Streams (Spotify): 405.9 Million
“Suspicious Minds” was actually written by Mark James, a hitmaker based in Elvis’s hometown of Memphis, Tennessee. (James was also responsible for another of Elvis’s signature pieces, “Always on My Mind”.) It was released to commercial indifference in 1968. The next year, during sessions at the American Sound Studio, which resulted in the album From Elvis in Memphis, James played the song for Presley, who thought it might make a hit and quickly recorded a version of his own. The song debuted...
Streams (Spotify): 119.5 Million
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is not just an album; it is widely considered to be THE album, without which the entire format might not have taken root. Had the Fab Four not set out to prove that the only limits on popular music are set by the imagination of the songwriters, at least half of this list wouldn’t exist. Sgt. Pepperis regarded not only as a 32-million-selling classic in its own right, it serves as a precursor to prog and concept albums, as well as a leap forward in terms o...
Streams (Spotify): 1.5 Billion
From the King to the Prince. The second single from the biggest-selling album worldwide of all time, Jackson’s 1982 magnum opus, Thriller. Reprising his relationship with production expert Quincy Jones, Jackson sought to move away from the disco sound of ’79’s Off the Walland compose an album on which every track was a hit. He succeeded regardless of genre. This album, according to the Library of Congress, resides as a culturally significant artifact, and almost single-handedly rejuvenated po...
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- The Twist – 1960. Chubby Checker. The only song to rule the Billboard Hot 100in separate release cycles (one week in 1960, two in 1962), thanks to adults catching on to the song and its namesake dance after younger audiences popularized them.
- Smooth – 1999. SantanaFeat. Rob Thomas.
- Mack the Knife – 1959. Bobby Darin. “I love that eternally cool feel,” says Warren. “It’s a nostalgic thing: It brings me back to the songs my older sisters and my parents would play.
- Uptown Funk! – 2015. Mark RonsonFeat. Bruno Mars.
Sep 15, 2021 · For the first time in 17 years, we’ve completely remade our list of the best songs ever. More than 250 artists, writers, and industry figures helped us choose a brand-new list full of histori…
Dec 11, 2003 · RELATED: • 100 Greatest Singers of All Time: Number 16, Mick Jagger. • 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time: Number Ten, Keith Richards. • 100 Greatest Artists of All Time: Number Four, The ...
Oct 24, 2023 · Last week at Billboard, we spent three days counting down the 500 best pop songs to ever hit the Billboard Hot 100, in honor of the chart’s 65th anniversary. And really, that’s just the tip of ...
