These are the songs which kicked off the recorded music era and the debut of charts to track the popularity of songs. Often a song’s popularity in this era had more to do with sheet music than specific recorded performances by individual artists. As such, there are multiple songs repeated here.
Rankings are figured by combining sales figures, chart data, airplay, awards, and appearances on best-of lists.
Check out other “songs of the decade” lists here.
DMDB Top 1%:
1. Katharine Lee Bates (lyrics) & Samuel A. Ward (music) “America the Beautiful” (1895)
2. George J. Gaskin “After the Ball” (1893)
3. James M. Black & Katharine E. Purvis (songwriters) “When the Saints Go Marching In” (1896)
4. Arthur Collins “Hello Ma Baby” (1899)
5. Patty S. Hill & Mildred J. Hill (composers) “Happy Birthday to You” (1893)
6. Scott Joplin “Maple Leaf Rag” (1899)
7. Billy Golden “Turkey in the Straw” (1891)
8. John Philip Sousa “The Stars and Stripes Forever” (1897)
9. Dan Quinn “Daisy Bell (A Bicycle Built for Two)” (1893)
10. Len Spencer “Ta-Ra-Ra Boom-De-Ay” (1892)
11. Dan Quinn “A Hot Time in the Old Town” (1896)
12. “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” (1894)
13. Dan Quinn “The Sidewalks of New York” (1895)
14. Dan Quinn “The Band Played On” (1895)
15. Edison Male Quartette “My Old Kentucky Home” (1898)
16. George J. Gaskin “On the Banks of the Wabash” (1897)
17. Frank Kidson (first published by) “Scarborough Fair” (1891)
18. traditional “She’ll Be Coming ‘Round the Mountain” (1899)
19. John Yorke Atlee “Listen to the Mocking Bird (aka “The Mocking Bird”)” (1891)
20. Len Spencer “The Old Folks at Home (Swanee River)” (1892)
21. U.S. Marine Band “The Washington Post March” (1890)
22. Dan Quinn “At a Georgia Camp Meeting” (1898)
23. traditional “Red River Valley” (1896)
24. Silas Leachman “Dem Golden Slippers” (1894)
25. Vess Ossman “Yankee Doodle (aka ‘Yankee Doodle Went to Town’)” (1894)
26. Albert Campbell “My Wild Irish Rose” (1899)
27. Len Spencer “Hello Ma Baby” (1899)
28. Len Spencer “Mr. Johnson, Turn Me Loose” (1897)
29. John Yorke Atlee “After the Ball” (1893)
30. George J. Gaskin “Drill, Ye Terriers, Drill” (1891)
31. George Washington Johnson “The Laughing Song” (1891)
32. George J. Gaskin “Break the News to Mother” (1898)
33. U.S. Marine Band “Semper Fidelis” (1890)
DMDB Top 2%:
34. Arthur Collins “I’d Leave My Happy Home for You” (1899)
35. Jules Levy “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” (1893)
36. Len Spencer “A Hot Time in the Old Town” (1897)
37. George J. Gaskin “Oh Promise Me” (1893)
38. George J. Gaskin “My Old New Hampshire Home” (1898)
39. George J. Gaskin “The Fatal Wedding” (1893)
40. Gilmore’s Band “The Star-Spangled Banner” (1892)
41. Sousa’s Band “El Capitan March” (1895)
42. J.W. Myers “The Sidewalks of New York” (1895)
43. Dan Quinn “In the Baggage Coach Ahead” (1896)
44. George J. Gaskin “The Sidewalks of New York” (1895)
45. Tom Turpin (writer) “Harlem Rag” (1897)
46. Steve Porter “On the Banks of the Wabash” (1898)
47. United States Marine Band “The Liberty Bell” (1894)
48. Dan Quinn “The Little Lost Child” (1895)
49. J.W. Myers “Just Tell Them That You Saw Me” (1895)
50. Len Spencer “Smoky Mokes” (1899)
51. James Thornton (music/lyrics) “When You Were Sweet Sixteen” (1898)
52. George J. Gaskin “Sweet Rosie O’Grady” (1897)
53. George J. Gaskin “Down in Poverty Row” (1896)
54. John Yorke Atlee “Home Sweet Home” (1891)
55. U.S. Marine Band “The Thunderer” (1890)
56. Arthur Collins “I Guess I'll Have to Telegraph My Baby” (1899)
57. Dan Quinn “Curse of the Dreamer” (1899)
58. George Washington Johnson “The Whistling Coon” (1891)
59. Bill Dooley “Frankie and Johnny” (1899)
60. Vess Ossman “Yankee Doodle (aka ‘Yankee Doodle Went to Town’)” (new version, 1897)
61. George J. Gaskin “My Wild Irish Rose” (1899)
62. Eubie Blake “Charleston Rag” (1899)
63. George J. Gaskin “A Hot Time in the Old Town” (1897)
64. Sousa’s Band “The Star-Spangled Banner” (1898)
65. Len Spencer “The Bully (aka ‘Dat New Bully’)” (1895)
66. Emile Berliner “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” (1890)
67. Len Spencer “Carry Me Back to Old Virginny” (1893)
68. Dan Quinn “Daddy Wouldn’t Buy Me a Bow Wow” (1892)
69. Edward M. Favor “Say Au Revoir, But Not Goodbye” (1894)
70. Manhansett Quartette “Sally in Our Alley” (1892)
71. Len Spencer “You’ve Been a Good Old Wagon But You’ve Done Broke Down” (1896)
72. Edward M. Favor “Daisy Bell (A Bicycle Built for Two)” (1894)
73. J.W. Myers “Goodbye Dolly Gray” (1897)
74. Emile Berliner “Auld Lang Syne” (1890)
75. Sousa’s Band “The Washington Post March” (1895)
76. Harry MacDonough & S.H. Dudley “Mid the Green Fields of Virginia” (1899)
77. Issler’s Orchestra “Tiger Rag” (1895)
78. Vess Ossman “At a Georgia Camp Meeting” (1898)
79. George J. Gaskin “Sweet Marie” (1894)
80. J.W. Myers “Two Little Girls in Blue” (1893)
81. Vess Ossman “Whistling Rufus” (1899)
82. Russell Hunting “Michael Casey Taking the Census” (1892)
83. Roger Harding “On the Banks of the Wabash” (1898)
84. Russell Hunting “Michael Casey at the Telephone” (1892)
85. Joe Belmont “Listen to the Mocking Bird (aka “The Mocking Bird”)” (1899)
86. Billy Golden “Bye Bye My Honey” (1898)
87. Len Spencer “My Gal Is a High-Born Lady” (1897)
88. Charles Marsh “Throw Him Down, McCloskey” (1892)
89. George J. Gaskin “The Sunshine of Paradise Valley” (1896)
90. George J. Gaskin “She Was Bred in Old Kentucky” (1898)
91. George J. Gaskin “She May Have Seen Better Days” (1896)
92. William F. Hooley “Gypsy Love Song (Slumber on, My Little Gypsy Sweetheart)” (1899)
93. Dan Quinn “The Bowery” (1893)
DMDB Top 5%:
94. Russell Hunting “Michael Casey As a Physician” (1891)
95. Dan Quinn “And Her Golden Hair Was Hanging Down Her Back” (1894)
96. Manhansett Quartette “The Picture Turned to the Wall” (1892)
97. Manhansett Quartette “The Old Oaken Bucket” (1894)
98. Dan Quinn “My Mother Was a Lady” (1897)
99. Thomas Bott “Love’s Old Sweet Song” (1892)
100. Steve Porter “My Creole Sue” (1899)
Resources/Related Links:
First posted 7/27/2018; last updated 11/29/2025.
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Thank you for using the video I uploaded! Great list!
ReplyDeleteThank you for using my video! This was an excellent list.
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome and thank you!
DeleteI like old music myself so this list helped me so much while doing a spotify series
DeleteHey Dave.
ReplyDeleteI'm self-producing a series of webisodes (for the fun of it) about a railway disaster that occurred in 1899 - and will love to use some of this as incidental music.
Would you be open to that?
According to https://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/faqs/copyright-basics/ "All works published in the United States before 1924 are in the public domain" so you shouldn't have to get permission to use any songs from this era. As far as finding songs from the 1890s, I'd suggest archive.org.
DeleteYears Ago - Jimmie Rodgers 1933
ReplyDeleteI Love Sing-a - Al Jolson & Cab Calloway 1936
All of Me - Louis Armstrong 1932
Tiger Rag - Louis Armstrong 1933
This is amazing I'm a fan of old music myself I got it from a YouTuber Nathaniel Jordan and loved it since.
ReplyDeleteyou wouldn't happen to have made a spotify playlist for this or any of the other 100 per decade lists - would you ?
ReplyDeleteI haven't. I'm starting to make Spotify playlists for some of the lists that appear here on the site, though. As I add them, I'll updated the pages with links.
Delete