Acclaimed Music was started in 1994 by Henrik Franzon in Stockholm, Sweden. He has aggregated multiple best-of lists to come up with all-time lists for albums and songs as well as annual lists.
- 2018: Childish Gambino “This Is America”
- 2017: Kendrick Lamar “Humble”
- 2016: Beyoncé “Formation”
- 2015: Tame Impala “Let It Happen”
- 2014: Future Islands “Seasons (Waiting on You)”
- 2013: Daft Punk with Pharrell Williams “Get Lucky”
- 2012: Frank Ocean “Pyramids”
- 2011: M83 “Midnight City”
- 2010: Kanye West with Pusha T “Runaway”
- 2009: Jay-Z with Alicia Keys…Empire State of Mind
- 2008: Hercules & Love Affair “Blind”
- 2007: M.I.A. “Paper Planes”
- 2006: Gnarls Barkley “Crazy”
- 2005: Arctic Monkeys “I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor”
- 2004: Franz Ferdinand “Take Me Out”
- 2003: OutKast “Hey Ya!”
- 2002: LCD Soundsystem “Losing My Edge”
- 2001: Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliott “Get UR Freak On”
- 2000: OutKast “Ms. Jackson”
- 1999: Aphex Twin “Windowlicker”
- 1998: Stardust “Music Sounds Better with You”
- 1997: Radiohead “Paranoid Android”
- 1996: The Prodigy “Firestarter”
- 1995: Pulp “Common People”
- 1994: Oasis “Live Forever”
- 1993: Beck “Loser”
- 1992: Radiohead “Creep”
- 1991: Nirvana “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
- 1990: Sinéad O’Connor “Nothing Compares 2 U”
- 1989: Public Enemy “Fight the Power”
- 1988: The La’s “There She Goes”
- 1987: Guns N’ Roses “Sweet Child O’ Mine”
- 1986: The Smiths “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out”
- 1985: Madonna “Into the Groove”
- 1984: Prince “When Doves Cry”
- 1983: New Order “Blue Monday”
- 1982: Michael Jackson “Billie Jean”
- 1981: The Specials “Ghost Town”
- 1980: Joy Division “Love Will Tear Us Apart”
- 1979: The Clash “London Calling”
- 1978: Blondie “Heart of Glass”
- 1977: Sex Pistols “God Save the Queen”
- 1976: Sex Pistols “Anarchy in the U.K.”
- 1975: Bruce Springsteen “Born to Run”
- 1974: Bob Marley & the Wailers “No Woman, No Cry”
- 1973: The Stooges “Search and Destroy”
- 1972: Stevie Wonder “Superstition”
- 1971: Marvin Gaye “What’s Going On”
- 1970: Derek & the Dominos “Layla”
- 1969: The Rolling Stones “Gimme Shelter”
- 1968: Marvin Gaye “I Heard It Through the Grapevine”
- 1967: The Beatles “A Day in the Life”
- 1966: The Beach Boys “Good Vibrations”
- 1965: Bob Dylan “Like a Rolling Stone”
- 1964: The Kinks “You Really Got Me”
- 1963: The Ronettes “Be My Baby”
- 1962: Booker T & the MG’s “Green Onions”
- 1961: Ben E. King “Stand by Me”
- 1960: The Shirelles “Will You Love Me Tomorrow”
- 1959: Ray Charles “What’d I Say”
- 1958: Chuck Berry “Johnny B. Goode”
- 1957: Buddy Holly & the Crickets “That’ll Be the Day”
- 1956: Elvis Presley “Heartbreak Hotel”
- 1955: Little Richard “Tutti Frutti”
- 1954: Bill Haley & His Comets “We’re Gonna Rock Around the Clock”
- 1953: Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton “Hound Dog”
- 1952: Lloyd Price “Lawdy Miss Clawdy”
- 1951: Woody Guthrie “This Land Is Your Land”
- 1950: Muddy Waters “Rollin’ Stone”
- 1949: Hank Williams “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry”
- 1948: John Lee Hooker “Boogie Chillen’”
- 1947: Bill Monroe & the Blue Grass Boys “Blue Moon of Kentucky”
- 1946: Charles Trenet “Beyond the Sea (La Mer)”
- 1945: Edith Piaf “La Vie En Rose”
- 1944: Les Brown with Doris Day “Sentimental Journey”
- 1943: Duke Ellington “Come Sunday”/“Black, Brown, and Beige”
- 1942: Bing Crosby with the Ken Darby Singers & the John Scott Trotter Orchestra “White Christmas”
- 1941: Billie Holiday “God Bless the Child”
- 1940: Quintet of the Hot Club of France “Nuages”
- 1939: Billie Holiday “Strange Fruit”
- 1938: Artie Shaw Begin the Beguine
- 1937: Robert Johnson “Hellhound on My Trail”
- 1936: Robert Johnson “Crossroads (aka "Cross Road Blues")”
- 1935: The Carter Family “Can the Circle Be Unbroken (Bye and Bye)”
- 1934: Huddie “Leadbelly” Ledbetter “The Midnight Special”
- 1933: Bennie Moten’s Kansas City Orchestra “Moten’s Swing”
- 1932: Bing Crosby “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?”
- 1931: Cab Calloway “Minnie the Moocher”
- 1930: Duke Ellington “Mood Indigo”
- 1929: Fats Waller “Ain’t Misbehavin’”
- 1928: Louis Armstrong “West End Blues”
- 1927: Blind Willie Johnson “Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground”
- 1926: Jelly Roll Morton “Black Bottom Stomp”
- 1925: Bessie Smith with Louis Armstrong “St. Louis Blues”
- 1924: Paul Whiteman with George Gershwin “Rhapsody in Blue”
- 1923: Bessie Smith “Down Hearted Blues”
- 1922: James P. Johnson “Carolina Shout”
- 1921: Al Jolson “April Showers”
- 1920: Mamie Smith “Crazy Blues”
