Standards of the American Songbook: Top 100

First posted 4/11/2020.

American Songbook Standards: Top 100 Songs

Songs which have become known as standards or those comprising the great American songbook are generally popular songs from the early 20th century. These are songs from an era when songwriters were more at the forefront, penning songs for theater and film that were often recorded by multiple artists and spawned multiple chart versions. This list has been created by aggregating multiple lists (see sources at the bottom of the page) which focused on 20th century song titles not recorded by any specific artist. Songs are ranked by their number of list appearances with ties being broken by overall points those songs amassed on those lists. Here are the top 100 songs listed with their songwriters: “Stardust” by Hoagy Carmichael and Mitchell Parish “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” by Irving Berlin “Night and Day” by Cole Porter “St. Louis Blues” by W.C. Handy “White Christmas” by Irving Berlin “All the Things You Are” by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II “I Got Rhythm” by George and Ira Gershwin “Over the Rainbow” by Harold Arlen and E.Y. “Yip” Harburg “Begin the Beguine” by Cole Porter “Tea for Two” by Vincent Youmans and Irving Caesar “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” by Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields “My Melancholy Baby” by Ernie Burnett and George A. Norton “On the Sunny Side of the Street” by Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” by Cole Porter “As Time Goes By” by Herman Hupfield “Blue Moon” by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart “Ain’t Misbehavin’” by Fats Waller “Ol’ Man River” by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” by Jerome Kern and Otto Harbach “Stormy Weather (Keeps Rainin' All the Time)” by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler “Darktown Strutters’ Ball” by Shelton Brooks “Body and Soul” by Johnny Green, Eddie Heyman, Robert Sour, and Frank Eyton “Blue Skies” by Irving Berlin “April in Paris” by Vernon Duke and E.Y. “Yip” Harburg “Always” by Irving Berlin “You Made Me Love You (I Didn't Want to Do It)” by Jimmy Monaco and Joseph McCarthy “Someone to Watch Over Me” by George & Ira Gershwin “The Way You Look Tonight” by Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields “Swanee” by George Gershwin and Irving Caesar “I Only Have Eyes for You” by Harry Warren and Al Dubin “My Blue Heaven” by Walter Donaldson and George A. Whiting “Give My Regards to Broadway” by George M. Cohan “It Had to Be You” by Isham Jones and Gus Kahn “Bill Bailey, Won’t You Please Come Home” by Hughie Cannon and Johnnie Queen “After You’ve Gone” by Turner Layton and Henry Creamer “Blues in the Night (My Mama Done Tol’ Me)” by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer “I’m in the Mood for Love” by Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields “Ain’t We Got Fun?” by Gus Kahn, Raymond B. Egan, and Richard Whiting “Cheek to Cheek” by Irving Berlin “For Me and My Gal” by George Meyer, Edgar Leslie, and E. Ray Goetz “Carolina in the Morning” by Gus Kahn and Walter Donaldson “Danny Boy” – traditional, adapted by Fred Weatherly “Mood Indigo” by Duke Ellington “September Song” by Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson “Over There” by George M. Cohan “God Bless America” by Irving Berlin “The Man I Love” by George & Ira Gershwin “They Can’t Take That Away from Me” by George & Ira Gershwin “Lover” by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart “Sophisticated Lady” by Duke Ellington, Mitchell Parish, and Irving Mills “Peg O’ My Heart” by Alfred Bryan and Fred Fisher “The Christmas Song” by Mel Tormé and Robert Wells “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” by Jay Gorney and E.Y. “Yip” Harburg “How High the Moon” by Morgan Lewis and Nancy Hamilton “Georgia on My Mind” by Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell “April Showers” by Buddy DeSylva and Louis Silvers “Chicago (That Toddlin’ Town)” by Fred Fisher “Sweet Adeline (You’re the Flower of My Heart)” by Richard H. Gerard and Harry Armstrong “Let Me Call You Sweetheart” by Leo Friedman and Beth Slater Whitson “Moonlight Bay” by Edward Madden and Percy Wenrich “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” by Jack Norworth and Albert von Tilzer “Summertime” by George & Ira Gershwin “Some of These Days” by Shelton Brooks “That Old Black Magic” by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer “Tenderly” by Walter Gross and Jack Lawrence “My Funny Valentine” by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart ““I Can’t Get Started”” by Vernon Duke and Ira Gershwin “Manhattan” by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart “They Didn't Believe Me” by Jerome Kern and P.G. Wodehouse “What Is This Thing Called Love?” by Cole Porter “Just One of Those Things” by Cole Porter “Honeysuckle Rose” by Fats Waller “Happy Days Are Here Again” by Milton Ager and Jack Yellen “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered” by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart “Embraceable You” by George & Ira Gershwin “Dinah” by Harry Akst, Sam M. Lewis, and Joe Young “Dancing in the Dark” by Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz “How Deep Is the Ocean?” by Irving Berlin “Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis” by Arthur B Sterling and Kerry Mills “Mack the Knife” by Kurt Weill, Mark Blitzstein, and Berthold Brecht “You’re a Grand Old Flag (aka “The Grand Old Rag”)” by George M. Cohan “In the Good Old Summertime” by Ren Shields and George Evans “Shine on, Harvest Moon” by Jack Norworth and Nora Bayes “In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree” by Harry H. Williams and Egbert Van Alstyne “Oh You Beautiful Doll” by Nat D. Ayer and Seymour Brown “I’ll Be Seeing You” by Sammy Fain and Irving Kahal “Till We Meet Again” by Richard A. Whiting and Raymond B. Egan “Singin’ in the Rain” by Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed “Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning” by Irving Berlin “Whispering” by John Schonberger, Richard Coburn, and Vincent Rose “Love Me or Leave Me” by Walter Donaldson and Gus Kahn “The Sheik of Araby” by Ted Snyder, Harry B. Smith, and Francis Wheeler “By the Light of the Silvery Moon” by Edward Madden and Gus Edwards “The Japanese Sandman” by Richard Whiting “Ballin’ the Jack” by James Henry Burris and Chris Smith “My Buddy” by Walter Donaldson and Gus Kahn “The Aba Daba Honeymoon” by Walter Donaldson and Arthur Fields “42nd Street” by Harry Warren and Al Dubin “Dardanella” by Johnny S. Black, Felix Bernard, and Fred Fisher “Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive” by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer Resources and Related Links: AmericanMusicPreservation.com (2017). “100 Essential Songs (1861-1961)” ASCAP (2009). “Top 25 Holiday Songs of the Decade” ASCAP (2000). “Top Love Songs of the 20th Century” ASCAP (1999). “Top 25 Songs of the Century” ASCAP (1998). “Top 25 Holiday Songs of the 20th Century” ASCAP All-Time Hit Parade (1985) as found in Don Tyler’s Hit Parade 1920-1955. New York, NY: Quill. Billboard (1953). “Disc Jockey Poll: All-Time Favorite Songs” as found in Joel Whitburn’s Pop Memories, page 639. BBC Radio 2 (1999). “100 Favourite Songs of the Century” BMI (1999). “Top 100 Songs of the Century” Café Songbook (2018). “Catalog of the Great American Songbook” Doug Clark (2008). “Popular Music in the First Half of the 20th Century” Peter Evans and Peter Lavender (1999). Great Songs of the 20th Century: 1900-1950 Roger Hall (2018). “100 Essential Songs of the 20th Century” Charles Hamm (1983). Yesterdays: Popular Song in America: “Most-Recorded Songs 1900-1950,” Page 487. Ronald Herder (1997). 500 Best-Loved Song Lyrics David A. Jasen (2002). A Century of American Popular Music: 2000 Best-Loved and Remembered Songs (1899-1999). Routledge: Taylor & Francis, Inc. Alan Lewens (2001). Popular Song – Soundtrack of the Century. Billboard Books: New York, NY. Julius Mattfield (1971). Variety Music Cavalcade, 1620-1969 Max Morath (2002). The NPR Curious Listener's Guide to Popular Standards National Public Radio (1999). “The Most Important American Musical Works of the 20th Century” Joel Whitburn (1986). “The 100 Most-Recorded Songs 1890-1954” as found in Pop Memories, page 632. ParlorSongs.com (2020): catalog ParlorSongs.com (2002). “Enduring American Song Hits: The Best of American Popular Song, Part One 1890-1910” PopCultureMadness.com: “1800s’ Most Popular Singers and Songs” PopCultureMadness.com: “1900s’ Pop Song Hits” (1900-1919) Public Domain Music (2020). “World War I Music from 1914-1918” Theodore Raph (1964). The Songs We Sang RimChiGuy.com “The Old Songs (1900-1929)” Songbook “1890-1969 Selected Standards and Hits Index” Don Tyler (1985). Hit Parade 1920-1955. New York, NY: Quill. Variety (1/4/1956). “Hit Parade of a Half Century” (as published in Don Tyler’s Hit Parade 1920-1955 Variety’s Golden 100 Tin Pan Alley Songs” as found in Mattfield’s Variety Music Cavalcade, p. xii. Wikipedia.org (2020). “List of Pre-1920 Jazz Standards” Wikipedia.org (2000). “Great American Songbook” Alec Wilder (1990). American Popular Song: The Great Innovators, 1900-1950