The book 500 Best-Loved Song Lyrics, collected and edited by Ronald Herder, was published by Dover in 1998. It doesn’t offer any background or history about the songs, focusing just on printing the lyrics.
The book doesn’t rank the songs but I have created a top 100 ranking by looking at how many other lists the songs are featured on. Publication years for songs and the songwriters are indicated, but no specific artist is attached to each song.
Click here to see other lists from critics and individuals and here to see other lists from publications and/or organizations
1. “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” (1911) by Irving Berlin
2. “St. Louis Blues” (1914) by W.C. Handy
3. “Amazing Grace” (1772) by John Newton
4. “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” (1908) by Albert Von Tilzer & Jack Norworth
5. “The Battle Hymn of the Republic (aka ‘Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!’)” (1861) by Julia Ward Howe & William Steffe
6. “When the Saints Go Marching In” (1880) by James M. Black & Katharine E. Purvis
7. “Over There” (1917) by George M. Cohan
8. “You’re a Grand Old Flag (aka “The Grand Old Rag”)” (1906) by George M. Cohan
9. “The Star-Spangled Banner” (1814) by Francis Scott Key & John Stafford Smith
10. “Silent Night” (1818) by Joseph Mohr, Franz Gruber, & John Freeman Young
11. “Bill Bailey, Won’t You Please Come Home?” (1902) by Hughie Cannon & Johnnie Queen
12. “Home on the Range” (1873) by Dr. Brewster M. Higley & Daniel E. Kelly
13. “America the Beautiful” (1895) by Katherine Lee Bates & Samuel A. Ward
14. Billy Murray “Give My Regards to Broadway” (1905) by George M. Cohan
15. “You Made Me Love You (I Didn't Want to Do It)” (1913) by Jimmy Monaco & Joseph McCarthy
16. “Yankee Doodle Boy” (1905) by George M. Cohan
17. “Jingle Bells” (1857) by James S. Pierpont
18. “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” (1806) by Jane Taylor
19. “Oh! Susanna” (1847) by Stephen Foster
20. Arthur Collins with Bryon G. Harlan “Darktown Strutters’ Ball” (1918) by Shelton Brooks
21. “Some of These Days” (1911) by Shelton Brooks
22. “Shine on Harvest Moon” (1909) by Jack Norworth & Nora Bayes
23. “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” (1706) by Thomas D’Ufey & Frederick Thomas Nettingham
24. “Swanee” (1920) by George Gershwin & Iving Caesar
25. “Hello Ma Baby” (1899) by Joseph E. Howard & Ida Emerson
26. “After the Ball” (1892) by Charles K. Harris
27. “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” (1832) by Henry Carey/music: traditional French melody
28. “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” (1863) by Louis Lambert as Parick Sarsfield Gilmore
29. “Tiger Rag” (1918) by Harry DeCosta & the Original Dixieland Jazz Band
30. “Dixie” (1859) by Daniel Decatur Emmett
31. “My Melancholy Baby” (1928) by Ernie Burnett & George A. Norton
32. “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” (1894) by traditional
33. “Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis” (1904) by Arthur B. Sterling & Kerry Mills
34. “O Come All Ye Faithful (Adeste Fideles)” (1751) first published by John Francis Wade
35. “Camptown Races (Gwine to Run All Night)” (1850) by Stephen Foster
36. “For Me and My Gal” (1942) by George Meyer, Edgar Leslie, & E. Ray Goetz
37. “Carolina in the Morning” (1923) by Walter Donaldson & Gus Kahn
38. “By the Light of the Silvery Moon” (1909) by Edward Madden & Gus Edwards
39. “Moonlight Bay” (1912) by Edward Madden & Percy Wenrich
40. “Let Me Call You Sweetheart” (1910) by Leo Friedman & Beth Slater Whitson
41. “In the Good Old Summertime” (1902) by Ren Shields & George Evans
42. “Joy to the World” (1719) by George Frideric Handel & Isaac Watts, arranged by Lowell Mason
43. “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” (1852) by Eliphalet Oram Lyte
44. “The Yellow Rose of Texas” (1853) by Edwin Christy, John Kelly, & Don George
45. “Peg O’ My Heart” (1913) by Alfred Bryan & Fred Fisher
46. “After You’ve Gone” (1918) by Turner Layton & Henry Creamer
47. “Anchors Aweigh (U.S. Navy Song)” (1906) by Alfred Hart Miles, Royal Lovell, Charles A. Zimmerman, & George D. Lottman
48. “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” (1739) by Charles Wesley & Felix Mendessohn
49. “O Holy Night (Minuit, Chrétiens)” (1847) by Adolphe Adam & John Sullivan Dwight
50. “Sweet Adeline (You’re the Flower of My Heart)” (1903) by Richard H. Gerard & Harry Armstrong
51. “Whispering” (1920) by John Schonberger, Richard Coburn, & Vincent Rose
52. “Oh, You Beautiful Doll” (1911) by Nat D. Ayer & Seymour Brown
53. “Auld Lang Syne” (1799) adapted by Robert Burns
54. “Daisy Bell (A Bicycle Built for Two)” (1892) by Hary Dacre
55. “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” (1873) by Wallace Willis, arranged by Henry Thacker Burleigh
56. “On Top of Old Smoky” (1841) traditional
57. “She’ll Be Coming ‘Round the Mountain” (1899) traditional
58. “Clementine” (1884) by Percy Montrose
59. “Mary Had a Little Lamb” (1830) by Lowell Mason & Sarah Josepha Hale
60. “London Bridge is Falling Down” (1744) writer unknown
61. “Frère Jacques (Are You Sleeping?)” (1780) traditional
62. “The Old Folks at Home (Swanee River)” (1851)
63. “Home Sweet Home” (1823) by John Howard Payne, arranged by Sir Henry Rowley Bishop
64. “Turkey in the Straw” (1820) by George Washington Dixon, Bob Farell, Otto Bunnell/traditional
65. “Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody” (1918) by Sam M. Lewis, Joe Young, & Jean Schwartz
66. “Way Down Yonder in New Orleans” (1922) by Turner Layton & Henry Creamer
67. “My Old Kentucky Home” (1853) by Stephen Foster
68. “Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning” (1918) by Irving Berlin
69. “I Want a Girl Just Like the Girl Who Married Dear Old Dad” (1911) by William Dillon & Harry Von Tilzer
70. “Rock-a-Bye Baby” (1884) by Effie I. Canning
71. “The Alphabet Song (The ABC Song)” (1834) by Charles Bradlee, music unknown
72. “Danny Boy” (1913) traditional, adapted by Fed Weatherly
73. “The Japanese Sandman” (1920) by Richard A. Whiting & Ray Egan
74. “Jimmy Crack Corn (The Blue Tail Fly)” (1846) by Daniel Decatur Emmett
75. “I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now” (1909) by Joseph E. Howard, Harold Orlob, Frank R. Adams, & Will M. Hough
76. “The Sidewalks of New York” (1894) by Charles B. Lawlor & James W. Blake
77. “Ballin’ the Jack” (1914) by James Henry Burris & Chris Smith
78. “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean” (1881) by Charles E. Pratt
79. “Rock of Ages” (1763) by Augustus Montague Toplady & Thomas Hastings
80. “Away in a Manger” (1882) by James Ramsey Murray & Charles H. Gabriel
81. “The First Noel” (1823) by Davies Gilbert
82. “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” (1927) adapted by Geoff Love
83. “Till We Meet Again” (1919) by Richard A. Whiting & Raymond B. Egan
84. “In My Merry Oldsmobile” (1905) by Vincent Bryan & Gus Edwards
85. “My Buddy” (1922) by Walter Donaldson & Gus Kahn
86. “School Days (When We Were a Couple of Kids)” (1907) by Gus Edwards & Will D. Cobb
87. “Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie” (1906) by Andrew B. Sterling & Harry Von Tilzer
88. “Down by the Old Mill Stream” (1910) by Tell Taylor
89. “A Hot Time in the Old Town” (1896) by Theodore August Metz & Joe Hayden
90. “Skip to My Lou” (1832) by Carl Sandburg
91. “O Little Town of Bethlehem” (1868) by Lewis H. Redner & Phillips Brooks
92. “My Gal Sal” (1907) by Paul Dresser
93. “In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree” (1905) by Harry H. Williams & Egbert Van Alstyne
94. “A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody” (1919) by Irving Berlin
95. “The Battle Cry of Freedom” (1862) by Geoge Frederick Root
96. “When You Wish Upon a Star” (1940) by Leigh Harline & Ned Washington
97. “Margie” (1921) by Benny Davis, Con Conrad, & J. Russell Robinson
98. “Ta-Ra-Ra Boom-De-Ay” (1891) by Henry J. Sayers
99. “Pop Goes the Weasel” (1853) adapted by Eugene Raymond
100. “The Marines’ Hymn” (1919) arranged by A. Tregina
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First posted 12/20/2025. | 
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