✅ TimeOut (NY): The Best Songs Ever (2016)

Lists of all time (or back to the early rock years) that include all genres (or rock or pop music in a broad sense).
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StevieFan13
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✅ TimeOut (NY): The Best Songs Ever (2016)

Post by StevieFan13 »

https://www.timeout.com/newyork/music/best-songs-ever
Well, here's a biggie.
For our purposes, we selected songs with lyrics in the Western pop- and folk-music tradition—no instrumental, classical, experimental… The list needed to reflect an even distribution across time, with the best ’80s songs alongside party songs from today. The songs had to be good in their own right (nothing influential but, uh, shoddy). And for fairness, we allowed no double dipping: one song per artist.
1. Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit
2. Elvis Presley - Heartbreak Hotel
3. Ben E. King - Stand By Me
4. John Lennon - Imagine
5. Roberta Flack - Killing Me Softly with His Song
6. The Beach Boys - God Only Knows
7. Michael Jackson - Billie Jean
8. Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong - Can't We Be Friends
9. Stevie Wonder - Superstition
10. Fleetwood Mac - Landslide
11. The Who - My Generation
12. Paul Simon - You Can Call Me Al
13. Kanye West - All of the Lights
14. Bruce Springsteen - Born in the USA
15. Nico - These Days
16. Prince - When Doves Cry
17. Radiohead - Paranoid Android
18. OutKast - Ms. Jackson
19. The Rolling Stones - (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
20. Pavement - Gold Soundz
21. The Smiths - There is a Light That Never Goes Out
22. LCD Soundsystem - Dance Yrself Clean
23. Bob Dylan - Blowin' in the Wind
24. Neil Young - Harvest Moon
25. David Bowie - Life on Mars?
26. The Killers - Mr. Brightside
27. Adele - Rolling in the Deep
28. Evanescence - Bring Me to Life
29. Whitney Houston - I Wanna Dance with Somebody
30. Modest Mouse - Float On
31. Lauryn Hill - Doo Wop (That Thing)
32. Bon Iver - Skinny Love
33. The Replacements - Can't Hardly Wait
34. Carly Rae Jepsen - Call Me Maybe
35. The Band - The Weight
36. Frank Ocean - Pyramids
37. Lou Reed - Walk on the Wild Side
38. Nicki Minaj - Anaconda
39. Taylor Swift - I Knew You Were Trouble
40. Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart
41. U2 - With or Without You
42. Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb
43. The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army
44. Skrillex - Scary Monsters, and Nice Sprites
45. The Four Tops - I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)
46. The Beatles - In My Life
47. Little Richard - Tutti Frutti
48. Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody
49. The Notorious B.I.G. - Juicy
50. Dr. Dre - Let Me Ride
51. Nirvana - Come As You Are
52. Iggy and the Stooges - Search and Destroy
53. Phil Collins - In the Air Tonight
54. Leonard Cohen - Hallelujah
55. The Clash - Should I Stay or Should I Go?
56. Cyndi Lauper - Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
57. Blue Öyster Cult - (Don't Fear) The Reaper
58. Thin Lizzy - The Boys Are Back in Town
59. Nina Simone - Feeling Good
60. Aretha Franklin - Respect
61. 2pac - All Eyez on Me
62. The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Purple Haze
63. Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven
64. Bob Marley and the Wailers - Is This Love
65. Donna Summer - I Feel Love
66. Otis Redding - Try a Little Tenderness
67. Joni Mitchell - California
68. Sex Pistols - Anarchy in the UK
69. Madonna - Like a Virgin
70. The Cure - Friday I'm in Love
71. Chuck Berry - Johnny B. Goode
72. Eminem - The Real Slim Shady
73. No Doubt - Don't Speak
74. TLC - No Scrubs
75. The Backstreet Boys - I Want It That Way
76. a-ha - Take on Me
77. Journey - Any Way You Want It
78. Cream - Sunshine of Your Love
79. The Misfits - Hybrid Moments
80. Weezer - Say It Ain't So
81. Cole Porter - Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love)
82. The Spice Girls - Wannabe
83. James Brown - I Got You (I Feel Good)
84. Johnny Cash - I Walk the Line
85. Beyonce - Love on Top
86. Creedence Clearwater Revival - Bad Moon Rising
87. Marvin Gaye - What's Going On
88. Woody Guthrie - This Land is Your Land
89. Beastie Boys - (You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)
90. Steely Dan - Black Cow
91. Fiona Apple - Criminal
92. Dolly Parton - Jolene
93. The Kinks - You Really Got Me
94. Buddy Holly and The Crickets - That'll Be the Day
95. Public Enemy - Fight the Power
96. Black Sabbath - Paranoid
97. Patsy Cline - Walkin' After Midnight
98. Rihanna (feat. Jay Z) - Umbrella
99. Juvenile - Back That Azz Up
100. Usher - Climax

It's pretty terrible, not gonna lie. While I have no complaints about Superstition being in the top 10, and I like some of their more interesting picks (Friday I'm in Love, Criminal, Love on Top), to say that I'm less than thrilled at having I Knew You Were Trouble and Anaconda ahead of Johnny B. Goode and In My Life would be an understatement.
Last edited by StevieFan13 on Tue Feb 28, 2017 2:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Music is a world within itself, with a language we all understand - Sir Duke (1976)
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Sweepstakes Ron
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Re: TimeOut (NY): The Best Songs Ever (2016)

Post by Sweepstakes Ron »

This is... interesting, certainly. Personally, any complaints I may have are nullified by the inclusion of "All of the Lights" all the way up at #13.
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StevieFan13
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Re: TimeOut (NY): The Best Songs Ever (2016)

Post by StevieFan13 »

Sweepstakes Ron wrote:This is... interesting, certainly. Personally, any complaints I may have are nullified by the inclusion of "All of the Lights" all the way up at #13.
Agreed. I also like how high There is a Light That Never Goes Out is.
Music is a world within itself, with a language we all understand - Sir Duke (1976)
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babydoll
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Re: TimeOut (NY): The Best Songs Ever (2016)

Post by babydoll »

"I Knew You Were Trouble" isn't even one of Taylor's best songs; ever heard of "New Romantics"? "Anaconda" is definitely not Nicki Minaj's best song; that honor belongs to "Super Bass". The high ranking of John Lennon's "Imagine" also made me go "Eww!"

But Madonna's "Like a Virgin"! In the top 100, where it belongs. And Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" at #1. sonofsam will be very happy.

And, really, StevieFan, I can practically guarantee you that "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out" will be in the AMF's top 25 the next time we will do that.
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Re: TimeOut (NY): The Best Songs Ever (2016)

Post by StevieFan13 »

babydoll wrote:"I Knew You Were Trouble" isn't even one of Taylor's best songs; ever heard of "New Romantics"? "Anaconda" is definitely not Nicki Minaj's best song; that honor belongs to "Super Bass". The high ranking of John Lennon's "Imagine" also made me go "Eww!"

But Madonna's "Like a Virgin"! In the top 100, where it belongs. And Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" at #1. sonofsam will be very happy.

And, really, StevieFan, I can practically guarantee you that "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out" will be in the AMF's top 25 the next time we will do that.
I like Super Bass fine. I like Moment 4 Life and her verse on Monster the most. My favorite Taylor song is Style, but Mean is also great.

I'm also glad that Madonna and Billie are in the top 100, and I'm looking forward to that next poll.

Artists who got the shaft: Elvis Costello, Frank Sinatra, Jay Z, Ramones, Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James, Metallica
Music is a world within itself, with a language we all understand - Sir Duke (1976)
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Re: TimeOut (NY): The Best Songs Ever (2016)

Post by babydoll »

StevieFan13 wrote:Artists who got the shaft: Elvis Costello, Frank Sinatra, Jay Z, Ramones, Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James, Metallica
Ella Fitzgerald is in the top 10.
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Re: TimeOut (NY): The Best Songs Ever (2016)

Post by StevieFan13 »

babydoll wrote:
StevieFan13 wrote:Artists who got the shaft: Elvis Costello, Frank Sinatra, Jay Z, Ramones, Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James, Metallica
Ella Fitzgerald is in the top 10.
Oh yeah. Another brain fart.
Music is a world within itself, with a language we all understand - Sir Duke (1976)
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