Acclaimed Music – Songs of the Year, 1920-2018

Originally posted 12/29/2014; updated 12/31/2018.

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”

---