<p>Ok, so I was just looking up new songs to put into my iPod and I found Rolling Stones Top 500 songs. It's a very good list, but I think that Stairway to Heaven, Bohemian Rhapsody, and Freebird should be higher, and I did not see even see American Pie on that list. I thought that Stairway to Heaven and Bohemian Rhapsody both should be in the top 10, and Freebird and American Pie should be in the top 25.</p>
<p>So I was wondering what CCers would rate, objectively, as the top 10 songs of all time (I don't think the RS list included classical music, so I won't put that into my top 10). I just rated this based on the impact of the songs, impact of the lyrics, creativity of the song, popularity of the songs, awards that the songs won, and the music itself (singing, guitar, drums...)</p>
<ol>
<li>Johnny B. Goode (Chuck Berry)</li>
<li>Stairway to Heaven (Led Zeppelin)</li>
<li>Satisfaction (Rolling Stones)</li>
<li>Yesterday (Beatles)</li>
<li>Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen)</li>
<li>Good Vibrations (Beach Boys)</li>
<li>Respect (Aretha Franklin)</li>
<li>Like a Rolling Stone (Bob Dylan)</li>
<li>Layla (Derek and the Dominoes)</li>
<li>Imagine (John Lennon)</li>
</ol>
<p>EDIT: I left out a lot of good songs: All songs by Elvis, Jimi Hendrix, Marvin Gaye, and Ray Charles...and a whole bunch of other great songs but this is only the top 10.</p>
<p>I’ve never heard of like 3 of those songs. </p>
<p>Most of these lists usually (disproportionately?) represent Classic rock, in which I have no interest and about which I know nothing, so I think I shouldn’t write a list.</p>
<p>You cannot have an objective list of the Top X number of songs. What makes one song better than the other? How can you compare between different genres? How can you compare between different eras? This is one thing that is completely subjective.</p>
<p>I might agree with the first statement about the Beatles. I personally think “Let It Be”, “Hey Jude”, “A Day in my Life”, and “In my Life” are all better than “Imagine”, but if i were just an objective reviewer, I would say that “Imagine”'s lyrics are a lot more powerful.</p>
<p>But there’s no way any Queen song is better than “Bohemain Rhaposody” </p>
<p>And yea, a lot of these songs do come from classic/progressive rock in the 60s and 70s, but many would also argue (although it’s a total opinion) that the songs in the last 10 years haven’t really been all the great.</p>
<p>Oh yea, that’s a good point about using objectively (I guess its a little misleading), but if I say subjectively, then a person is just going to put his/her top 10 favorite songs.</p>
<p>I don’t mean that the time periods are off, just that there are genres that these lists seem (to me, who knows nothing about music) to under-represent.</p>
<p>^^That’s exactly the reason why I said it was an objective list (to the person that mentioned MJ).</p>
<p>Make your top 10 then. I never said my top 10 was right. I was asking for other people’s opinion of their top 10. It’s an objective analysis of subjective opinions.</p>
<p>Hmm so no one else? This wasn’t suppose to be a debate on MY list…you guys were suppose to name your top 10.</p>
<p>By the way, just because I don’t put someone in the top 10 of an objective list does not mean I hate the person (I don’t know why ansar would just randomly say something like that over a useless list…) </p>
<p>I have tons of repect for Michael Jackson as a singer and a dancer, but even the best musicians and critics will tell you that he was no match to Elvis as a performer, to Freddie Mercury as a singer, as talented as Jimi Hendrix, or had the composition abilities of Bob Marley, all 4 of whom also sadly passed away very early.</p>
<p>We Will Rock You, Another One Bites the Dust, Under Pressure, We Are The Champions… there are plenty of candidates. There are others I like more too.</p>
<p>Ya, I listen to music for the music. I am just asking because I read saw this on RS Magazine. If you know me, then you know that I don’t even like Bob Dylan (his voice is not that good compared to everyone else), but you have to admit that he was an amazing song writer.</p>
<p>If you are talking about brilliant lyrics (but not so great singing), then just go to any Bob Dylan song. They were culturally significant also…</p>
<p>I remember in APUSH we actually listened to some Dylan and Woodstock 69 (Hendrix + others) because they were important to American History. I also remember we did some practice DBQs/FRQs from old APUSH tests, and on collegeboard’s website on some recommended terms that one could have used, Woodstock was a term. </p>
<p>@ansar: lol. I actually took you seriously. But I would actually say if you are talking about top 10 artists, I would put him in the top 10. He is only one of the few to be great in a band (Jackson 5) and as a solo artist.</p>
<p>I like songs for creative MV’s, meaningful and poetic lyrics, and creative instrumentation and melodies.
All of my top ten are from one artist. Although I have a big bias, she is very good. And she is a Columbia alumni:
<p>^Well that’s just my list. Like I said, it is totally an opinion (although objectively…if you get that paradox).</p>
<p>However, I do have to defend Stairway to Heaven. </p>
<p>In my opinion, it contains the greatest guitar solo ever played. It also is the signature song of Led Zeppelin, a top 5 band of all time, and pretty much every musician today recongizes it as an influential piece of music for rock.</p>