In 2011, Time magazine critics crafted their “All-TIME 100 Songs” list of what they called “the most extraordinary English-language popular recordings since the beginning of TIME magazine in 1923.” Their list was unranked, but the songs have been ranked here based on their overall status in Dave’s Music Database.
This is a bizarre list. While it should be commended for its breadth in representing different genres and eras, it constantly creates head-scratching moments. In the Elvis Presley canon, how is “Jailhouse Rock” more listworthy than “Heartbreak Hotel,” “Hound Dog,” or “Don’t Be Cruel”? Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” over “Stairway to Heaven” and “Whole Lotta Love”? Madonna’s “Borderline” instead of “Like a Virgin” or “Like a Prayer”?
The DMDB works hard to recognize the subjectivity of any list. Still, there are some oversights that are overwhelming glaring.
When you scroll to the bottom of the list, it’s baffling to try to understand how Time decided Lucinda’s “Pineola” and Lil Wayne’s “Georgia Bush” seemed more noteworthy than Bill Haley & the Comets’ “We’re Gonna Rock Around the Clock,” the Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” the Beatles’ “Hey Jude,” John Lennon’s “Imagine,” the Police’s “Every Breath You Take,” and Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” (all in the top 10 of all time according to the DMDB).
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1. Bing Crosby with the Ken Darby Singers “White Christmas” (1942)
2. Michael Jackson “Billie Jean” (1982)
3. Queen “Bohemian Rhapsody” (1975)
4. Nirvana “Smells Like Teen Spirit” (1991)
5. The Beatles “I Want to Hold Your Hand” (1963)
6. Marvin Gaye “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” (1968)
7. Bee Gees “Stayin’ Alive” (1977)
8. Judy Garland “Over the Rainbow” (1939)
9. Sinéad O’Connor “Nothing Compares 2 U” (1990)
10. OutKast “Hey Ya!” (2003)
11. Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers with Leo Reisman’s Orchestra “Cheek to Cheek” (1935)
12. Elvis Presley “Jailhouse Rock” (1957)
13. Chuck Berry “Johnny B. Goode” (1958)
14. Bessie Smith with Louis Armstrong “St. Louis Blues” (1925)
15. Stevie Wonder “Superstition” (1972)
16. Les Brown with Doris Day “Sentimental Journey” (1945)
17. Ray Charles “What’d I Say” (1959)
18. The Ronettes “Be My Baby” (1963)
19. Beyoncé “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It) ” (2008)
20. Buddy Holly and The Crickets “That’ll Be the Day” (1957)
21. The Beach Boys “God Only Knows” (1966)
22. Paul Robeson “Ol’ Man River” (1928)
23. Les Paul with Mary Ford “How High the Moon” (1951)
24. Patsy Cline “Crazy” (1961)
25. Kanye West with Jamie Foxx “Gold Digger” (2005)
26. Joy Division “Love Will Tear Us Apart” (1980)
27. The Jackson 5 “I Want You Back” (1969)
28. Little Richard “Tutti Frutti” (1955)
29. Billie Holiday “Strange Fruit” (1939)
30. Lady Gaga “Bad Romance” (2009)
31. The Supremes “Where Did Our Love Go” (1964)
32. Cab Calloway “Minnie the Moocher (The Ho De Ho Song)” (1931)
33. New Order “Blue Monday” (1983)
34. Woody Guthrie “This Land Is Your Land” (1944)
35. David Bowie “Heroes” (1977)
36. Fleetwood Mac “Dreams” (1977)
37. Prince “Kiss” (1986)
38. Duke Ellington “It Don’t Mean a Thing if It Ain’t Got That Swing” Duke Ellington (1932)
39. Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliott “Get Ur Freak On” (2001)
40. Public Enemy “Fight the Power” (1989)
41. The Who “Baba O’Riley” (1971)
42. The Andrews Sisters “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” (1941)
43. The Rolling Stones “Gimme Shelter” (1969)
44. Roy Orbison “Crying” (1961)
45. Pulp “Common People” (1995)
46. Donna Summer “I Feel Love” (1977)
47. Hank Williams “Cold, Cold Heart” (1951)
48. The Carter Family “Wildwood Flower” (1928)
49. Bruce Springsteen “Thunder Road” (1975)
50. Mahalia Jackson “Move on Up a Little Higher” (1948)
51. Stan Getz & Astrud Gilberto “The Girl from Ipanema” (1964)
52. Radiohead “Paranoid Android” (1997)
53. George Jones “He Stopped Loving Her Today” (1980)
54. Bob Dylan “Subterranean Homesick Blues” (1965)
55. Ramones “I Wanna Be Sedated” (1978)
56. Louis Armstrong “Stardust” (1931)
57. Tupac Shakur (2pac) with Dr. Dre & Roger Troutman “California Love” (1996)
58. Crosby, Stills & Nash “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” (1969)
59. James Brown “Get Up, I Feel Like Being a Sex Machine” (1970)
60. Johnny Cash “Folsom Prison Blues” (1955)
61. Jay-Z “99 Problems” (2004)
62. R.E.M. “It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” (1987)
63. Boney M “Rivers of Babylon” (1978)
64. Black Sabbath “Iron Man” (1970)
65. Spike Jones “Der Fuehrere’s Face” (1942)
66. Lena Horne “Stormy Weather (Keeps Rainin' All the Time)” (1942)
67. Aretha Franklin “I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You” (1967)
68. Frank Sinatra “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” (1956)
69. Madonna “Borderline” (1984)
70. Loretta Lynn “Coal Miner’s Daughter” 1970)
71. Dolly Parton “Jolene” (1973)
72. Ethel Merman “I Got Rhythm” (1930)
73. Funkadelic “One Nation Under a Groove” (1978)
74. Al Jolson “My Mammy” (1928)
75. The Band “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” (1969)
76. Led Zeppelin “Immigrant Song” (1970)
77. Otis Redding “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” (1965)
78. Metallica “Master of Puppets” (1986)
79. Kitty Wells “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky-Tonk Angels” (1952)
80. Betty Hutton “It Had to Be You” (1944)
81. The Notorious B.I.G. “Juicy” (1994)
82. Arcade Fire “Wake Up” (2005)
83. Ray Heatherton “Where or When” (1937)
84. Ella Fitzgerald “Baby It’s Cold Outside” (1949)
85. Janelle Monáe with Big Boi “Tightrope” (2010)
86. Big Star “September Gurls” (1974)
87. Wu-Tang Clan “C.R.E.A.M. (Cash Rules Everything Around Me)” (1994)
88. Velvet Underground “Rock and Roll” (1970)
89. Joni Mitchell “A Case of You” (1971)
90. LCD Soundsystem “All My Friends” (2007)
91. Pet Shop Boys “Being Boring” (1990)
92. A Tribe Called Quest with Busta Rhymes “Scenario” (1992)
93. Richard Thompson “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” (1991)
94. Bonnie Raitt “Angel from Montgomery” (1971)
95. Willie Mae “Big Mama’ Thornton “Ball and Chain” (1968)
96. Fela Kuti “Zombie” (1976)
97. Peter Tosh “Equal Rights” (1977)
98. Odetta Holmes “Take This Hammer” (1955)
99. Lucinda Williams “Pineola” (1992)
100. Lil Wayne “Georgia Bush” (2006)
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First posted 3/30/2021. | 
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