100 Greatest Rock Songs

Bruce · **Posted:** Sat May 05, 2012 11:42 am

J.B. Trance wrote:

"Physical" hit #1 US pop for 10 weeks (staying in the Hot 100 for 26 weeks, which is over half a year),

I hope you're not a math teacher.

A year has 52.14 weeks.

So 26 is not "over" half a year.

J.B. Trance · **Joined:** Thu Oct 07, 2010 5:04 pm **Posts:** 609

No, I was going by an average Gregorian month having 4 full weeks (a month has 4 full weeks constituting a Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday), so 6 months of 4 weeks equals 24 weeks, with a little extra left over. And who cares; it stayed on the Hot 100 for a considerable time.

An average Gregorian year is 52.1775 weeks . A leap year is 52.28514 weeks.

pauldrach · **Posted:** Sat May 05, 2012 5:52 pm

Bruce wrote:

pauldrach wrote:

Bruce wrote:

Okay, I moved up "HH" on both the 1956 list and the 50s list. Probably not as high as you would have moved it though. It goes from #15 to #11 on the 1956 list and from #45 to #36 on the 50s list.

Sweet. Could you also explain why "I Saw Her Standing There" is that high on your 1960's list? I don't see anything it has going for it really.

Well, you never played it for a huge crowd of 500 people going crazy like I did. "I Want To Hold You hand," while it has significance as the song that broke the Beatles in America, it sounds really dated and it never went over much when I played it in front of a crowd. "I Saw Her Standing There" and "Twist And Shout" on the other hand were humongous.

One time Paul McCartney was at a Yankees game and "I Saw Her Standing There" was played in between innings, and he sand along with the whole record as he sat in the crowd.

True, I didn't. But does that have anything to do with the criteria?

pauldrach · **Posted:** Sat May 05, 2012 5:55 pm

J.B. Trance wrote:

Pauldrach wrote:

What impact does "Physical" have?

OK, thanks for the clarification. I knew it was hugely popular but wasn't quite aware of its lasting impact.

Bruce · **Posted:** Sat May 05, 2012 6:07 pm

pauldrach wrote:

Bruce wrote:

pauldrach wrote:

Bruce wrote:

Okay, I moved up "HH" on both the 1956 list and the 50s list. Probably not as high as you would have moved it though. It goes from #15 to #11 on the 1956 list and from #45 to #36 on the 50s list.

Sweet. Could you also explain why "I Saw Her Standing There" is that high on your 1960's list? I don't see anything it has going for it really.

Well, you never played it for a huge crowd of 500 people going crazy like I did. "I Want To Hold You hand," while it has significance as the song that broke the Beatles in America, it sounds really dated and it never went over much when I played it in front of a crowd. "I Saw Her Standing There" and "Twist And Shout" on the other hand were humongous.

One time Paul McCartney was at a Yankees game and "I Saw Her Standing There" was played in between innings, and he sand along with the whole record as he sat in the crowd.

True, I didn't. But does that have anything to do with the criteria?

Yes, I think that "Standing" has much better lasting popularity than "Hand."

"Hand" sounds campy and old fiashioned now, and is not very big while "Standing" is a classic party song.

pauldrach · **Posted:** Sat May 05, 2012 6:13 pm

Interesting. I've always had the impression that IWtHYH was very well-known even among people, who don't usually listen to The Beatles, whereas I wouldn't say the same about ISHST. Last.fm confirms the assumption that IWtHYH has the bigger lasting popularity: http://www.last.fm/music/The+Beatles/+tracks / http://www.last.fm/music/The+Beatles/+tracks?page=2

pauldrach · **Posted:** Sun May 06, 2012 1:06 pm

Anyway, what are people's thoughts on either
a) first deciding on the 100 songs to make the list and order them afterwards
or
b) creating a list using the decade lists as a basis and tweak it afterwards
?

Negative Creep · **Joined:** Tue Oct 12, 2010 5:21 pm **Posts:** 11679

I vote for A.

Brian · **Joined:** Wed Oct 06, 2010 1:52 pm **Posts:** 2338

A & B aren't mutually exclusive are they? If you want to first decide on the 100 songs and then order them afterwards, you still have to decide how to go about selecting the 100 songs. I think it would make sense to use the decade lists at least as a guideline, making exceptions where you feel it's necessary.

pauldrach · **Posted:** Mon May 07, 2012 11:54 am

What I imagined for option B was looking at the #1's on each of the seven decade lists, then deciding which of those is the greatest and continuing in that vein. Or maybe proposing a Top Ten but one that uncompromisingly uses the rankings from the decade lists. That way we wouldn't have to decide on the 100 greatest songs right in the beginning, which I imagine could be quite difficult because there are so many songs to consider. And if some songs ended up in spaces that seemed inappropriate, we could steel move them up or down.

If we choose to decide on the 100 songs first, the question remains how we are going to do that. What do you think about the starting lists Bruce and I proposed? Another list that I personally like a lot and that could be used as a point of reference is the "1000 Songs Every Rock Fan Should Know" list, though it may be too extensive to serve as a starting point. It doesn't include "Physical" by the way.

Bruce · **Posted:** Mon May 07, 2012 12:17 pm

Here's what I would consider for the top ten. 13 songs.

1. Johnny B. Goode - Chuck Berry
2. Jailhouse Rock - Elvis Presley

1. Respect - Aretha Franklin
2. Louie Louie - Kingsmen
3. I Heard It Through The Grapevine - Marvin Gaye
4. (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction - Rolling Stones
5. Like A Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan
6. Hey Jude - Beatles
7. Good Vibrations - Beach Boys

1. Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin
4. What's Going On - Marvin Gaye
5. Born to Run - Bruce Springsteen

1. Billie Jean - Michael Jackson

Brett Alan · **Joined:** Thu Oct 07, 2010 2:17 pm **Posts:** 2836

Bruce wrote:

Here's what I would consider for the top ten. 13 songs.

1. Johnny B. Goode - Chuck Berry
2. Jailhouse Rock - Elvis Presley

1. Respect - Aretha Franklin
2. Louie Louie - Kingsmen
3. I Heard It Through The Grapevine - Marvin Gaye
4. (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction - Rolling Stones
5. Like A Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan
6. Hey Jude - Beatles
7. Good Vibrations - Beach Boys

1. Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin
4. What's Going On - Marvin Gaye
5. Born to Run - Bruce Springsteen

1. Billie Jean - Michael Jackson

The first thing I notice is no "What'd I Say". It doesn't have the popularity of most of those songs, but I think it may be the most influential record in rock. I think it belongs with these. (And I'd move it up a bit on the 50s list.)

Bruce · **Posted:** Mon May 07, 2012 12:35 pm

Brett Alan wrote:

Bruce wrote:

Here's what I would consider for the top ten. 13 songs.

1. Johnny B. Goode - Chuck Berry
2. Jailhouse Rock - Elvis Presley

1. Respect - Aretha Franklin
2. Louie Louie - Kingsmen
3. I Heard It Through The Grapevine - Marvin Gaye
4. (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction - Rolling Stones
5. Like A Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan
6. Hey Jude - Beatles
7. Good Vibrations - Beach Boys

1. Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin
4. What's Going On - Marvin Gaye
5. Born to Run - Bruce Springsteen

1. Billie Jean - Michael Jackson

The first thing I notice is no "What'd I Say". It doesn't have the popularity of most of those songs, but I think it may be the most influential record in rock. I think it belongs with these. (And I'd move it up a bit on the 50s list.)

I think "What'd I Say" has been overrated.

How can a record that is not even guitar driven be the "most influential record" in rock?

It almost sounds more like a jazz record than a rock record.

Are you okay with skipping over "Hotel California" and "Imagine?"

pauldrach · **Posted:** Mon May 07, 2012 12:50 pm

"What'd I Say" doesn't sound a lot like jazz. It's clearly an R&B record.

Songs I could see in the Top 10:
Johnny B. Goode
Jailhouse Rock
(We're Gonna) Rock Around the Clock
What'd I Say
Respect
I Heard It Through the Grapevine
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
Like a Rolling Stone
Hey Jude
Billie Jean
Smells Like Teen Spirit

Bruce · **Posted:** Mon May 07, 2012 12:57 pm

pauldrach wrote:

"What'd I Say" doesn't sound a lot like jazz. It's clearly an R&B record.

Songs I could see in the Top 10:
Johnny B. Goode
Jailhouse Rock
(We're Gonna) Rock Around the Clock
What'd I Say
Respect
I Heard It Through the Grapevine
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
Like a Rolling Stone
Hey Jude
Billie Jean
Smells Like Teen Spirit

You've got nothing from the 70s.

You see that Nirvana shite as bigger than "Stairway To Heaven" and "Born To Run?" Maybe in Europe it's like that?

I don't think I've ever heard more than like 30 seconds of the Nirvana song. It sounded so awful that I shut it right off when I checked it out a couple of times.

100 Greatest Rock Songs

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