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

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.