Duly noted.

I agree with pretty much all of those 13 choices you listed, though. So far, you are the only other person who agrees me with me on Jailhouse Rock being top dog for the king.
YES!

I thought we all agreed on that.

Nah, everyone else was in favor of Hound Dog.

I'd much rather see Jailhouse there. That song just DEFINES what he was all about.

The album went to #1.

I'll hop on that bandwagon, too.

Actually, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was the number one SELLING single for two weeks as well. It only didn't hit the top five on the Hot 100 because it never got above #41 in top-40 radio play. It was just too "out there" for the pop radio stations of the time. Not unlike the reasons why a lot of the biggest fifties records never hit the pop top five, actually. Or why the really big early rap hits weren't big on the pop charts.

There are only three songs in my entire life where I remember exactly what I was doing when they first came on the radio as my very first exposure to them:

Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit"

The Who's "Pinball Wizard"

Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir"

I'd think "Black Sabbath" would rank relatively high here.
That song spawned an entire genre and has colossal influence.

Oh, I've got loads of these.

Wake Up Little Susie - Everly Brothers - Cousin Brucie on a Saturday night on WABC in 1972 or early 1973. He used to play about 50% oldies on Saturdays then and he said this as he walked up to the start of the vocal, "Ladies and gentlemen, my dear friends, in case you are hearing this for the first time (and I was) these are the Everly Brothers." It was my favorite record of all time for a few months.

I'm In Love Again - Fats Domino - It came on WCBS-FM in the spring of 1973 while we were playing Monopoly in one of the bedrooms. I didn't hear who it was by so I went and asked my mother and she knew it was Fats Domino. It became my favroite record of all time and stayed there for a few years. It is still #2 now, behind only "Shake, Rattle And Roll" by Joe Turner.

Travelin' Band - CCR - They were already my favorite artist by the time I heard this played as a new record on the radio early in 1970. I went out of my mind over the record. Maybe trhe most excciting song I had ever heard up until that time. A few days later I bought the 45 (with a picture sleeve) at Alexander's, a local department store.

Tutti-Frutti - Little Richard - It got played one day as an oldie on WABC - I think in late 1970. I then knew why I liked "Travelin' Band" so much, and where it came from.

Bo Diddley - Bo Diddley - Some time in 1972 someone told me that this station (WCBS-FM) was counting down the top 500 of all time. I turned it on as they got to the top 90 or so. I was expecting to hear things like "Sunshine Of Your Love" and "Rag Doll" and "Hey Jude" and other huge 60s hits that were usually on these kind of radio station lists at that time. I was in shock as most of the top 75 or so were slow doo wops that I had never heard of. In fact, I had never even been aware of doo wops up until that time. One after another came things like "Could This Be Magic" by the Dubs and "The Great Pretender" by the Platters and "You Belong To Me" by the Duprees and "Sincerely" by the Moonglows and "I'm So Young" by the Students. The top ten included "Tears On My Pillow" by Little Anthony and the Imperials and "16 Candles" by the Crests and "Desiree" by the Charts and "Tonight, Tonight" by the Mello-Kings. #2 was "Earth Angel" by the Penguins and #1 was "In The Still Of The Nite" by the 5 Satins. It was the first time I had heard any of these records. I remember being in huge culture shock hearing all of these strange sounding slow records that I never heard before, and having them presented as the top records of all time. The list was listener voted, and most of their listeners at that time were people in their early 30s who had been teenagers in the 50s.

Along the way I heard this amazing thing called "Bo Diddley" by Bo Diddley. I remember thinking, "what kind of artist does a song with his name as the title of the song? I was left cold by most of those slow doo wop records at the time, as I was expecting to hear rocking things from the Beatles and Stones and other 60s artists that I was more familiar with. It did not take long though before I started to like most of those doo wops. Pretty soon I had things like "The Great Pretender" b/w "Only You" on my jukebox along side the current hits of the day, like "Take It Easy" by the Eagles, "The Guitar Man" by Bread and "Your Mama Don't Dance" by Loggins and Messina and "Crocodile Rock" by Elton John. Among the first 50s oldies I had in the jukebox were "Hound Dog" / "Don't Be Cruel" by Elvis and "Book Of Love" by the Monotones and "Tears On My Pillow" by the LA and the Imperials.

Anyone interested in reviewing this list?

What genre did it spawn?

Bluegrass, of course.

That was witty, Neg!

Think giving Black Sabbath (the song) the credit for an entire genre seems a bit off. It wasn't like metal bands popped up on every corner the minute the song was released.. Definitely an important track within the style, but Paranoid (the song) was a far bigger hit and probably ultimately did more to popularize the genre (as much as that genre ever was), and Iron Man is probably a more iconic song, both for the band and the genre (maybe not within the metalhead community, but to your ordinary rock kinda guy)..

I agree, and much of the groundwork for metal had been done before "Black Sabbath". Also, BS doesn't have very much going for it besides influence. I think including it on the list at all would be giving too much weight to influence. There are other influential songs that are also significant in other ways that are unlikely to be proposed for inclusion on this list.