Wednesday, December 24, 2025

The Top 100 Songs of Pre-Recorded Music History

Pre-Recorded Music History:

Top 100 Songs

The history of recorded music is generally marked as beginning with the introduction of the phonograph by Thomas Edison in 1877. With a few exceptions, this list focuses on music written before that era. These are songs which have been around 150 years or more and have entered the public conscience because of the song itself instead of its performance by a specific artist. This list consists of Christmas songs, children’s songs and nursery rhymes, hymns, and patriotic songs. Songs are listed first by the writers (m=music, w=words), song titles, and year of publication.

Click here to see other song lists focused on specific eras.

DMDB Top 1%:

Katharine Lee Bates (lyrics) & Samuel A. Ward (music) “America the Beautiful” (1895)
James M. Black & Katharine E. Purvis (songwriters) “When the Saints Go Marching In” (1896)
Joseph Mohr (w), Franz Gruber (m), John Freeman Young (English translation) “Silent Night” (1818)
Francis Scott Key (lyrics), John Stafford Smith (music) “The Star-Spangled Banner” (1814)
Stephen Foster (lyrics/music) “The Old Folks at Home (Swanee River)” (1851)
John Newton (w) “Amazing Grace” (1779)
John Kelly, later adapted by Don George “The Yellow Rose of Texas” (1853)
Patty S. Hill & Mildred J. Hill (songwriters) “Happy Birthday to You” (1893)
Julia Ward Howe (w) and William Steffe (m) “The Battle Hymn of the Republic (aka ‘Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!’)” (1861)
Stephen Foster (m/w) “Oh! Susanna” (1847)
Dr. Brewster M. Higley (w), Daniel E. Kelly (m) “Home on the Range” (1874)
traditional/George Washington Dixon, Bob Farrell, Otto Bunnell “Turkey in the Straw” (1820)
Richard Milburn (m), Septimus Winner as Alice Hawthorne (w) “Listen to the Mocking Bird (aka “The Mocking Bird”)” (1856)
Dr. Richard Schukburgh (w), traditional (m) “Yankee Doodle (aka ‘Yankee Doodle Went to Town’)” (1754)
Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore (w), unknown (m) “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” (1863)
John Howard Payne (w), Sir Henry Rowley Bishop (m) “Home Sweet Home” (1823)
Daniel Decatur Emmett (m/w) “Dixie” (1859)
James S. Pierpont (m/w) “Jingle Bells” (1857)
Stephen Foster (m/w) “Camptown Races (Gwine to Run All Night)” (1850)
Robert Burns (adapted by) “Auld Lang Syne” (1796)
Frank Kidson “Scarborough Fair” (1891)
Samuel Francis Smith (w), traditional (m) “God Save the King” (1740) / “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” (1831)
traditional “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” (1894)
Thomas d’Urfey (m), Frederick Thomas Nettleingham (w) “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” (1706)
Jane Taylor (w), unknown (m) “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” (1806) / “The Alphabet Song (The ABC Song)” (1834) / “Baa Baa Black Sheep” (1879)
Percy Montrose “Clementine” (1884)
Wallace Willis, Henry Thacker Burleigh (arranged by) “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” (1872)
traditional/credited to Daniel Decatur Emmett “Jimmy Crack Corn (The Blue Tail Fly)” (1846)
traditional “On Top of Old Smoky” (1841)
Effie I. Canning (m/w) “Rock-a-Bye Baby” (1884)
traditional “She’ll Be Coming ‘Round the Mountain” (1899)
Charles E. Pratt “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean” (1881)
George Frideric Handel (m), Isaac Watts (w), Lowell Mason (arranged) “Joy to the World” (1719)
unknown “O Come All Ye Faithful (Adeste Fideles)” (1751)
Felix Mendelssohn (m), Charles Wesley (w) “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” (1855)
James A. Bland (m/w) “Dem Golden Slippers” (1879)
George Leybourne & Alfred Lee “The Man on the Flying Trapeze” (1867)
Cool White (w) “Buffalo Gals (Will You Come Out Tonight)” (1844)
Eliphalet Oram Lyte “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” (1852)
writer(s) unknown “Greensleeves” (1580) / William Chatterton Dix (w), “Greensleeves” (m) “What Child Is This?” (1865)
traditional “Red River Valley” (1896)
“Ave Maria” (Schubert/Scott: 1825, J.S. Bach/Gounod: 1859)
George F. Root (composer) “The Battle Cry of Freedom” (1862)
Lowell Mason (m), Sarah Josepha Hale (w) “Mary Had a Little Lamb” (1830)
unknown (w/m) “Shenandoah” (1837)
James Ramsey Murray (m) and Charles H. Gabriel (w) “Away in a Manger” (1882)
traditional “Michael Row the Boat Ashore” (1863)
Daniel Decatur Emmett “Polly Wolly Doodle (All the Day)” (1843)
Augustus Montague Toplady (w), Thomas Hastings (m) “Rock of Ages” (1763)
Carl Sandburg “Skip to My Lou” (1832)
Stephen Foster (m/w) “Beautiful Dreamer” (1864)
writer(s) unknown “London Bridge is Falling Down” (1744)
Stephen Foster (m/w) “I Dream of Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair” (1854)
Eugene Raymond (adapted by) “Pop Goes the Weasel” (1852)
anonymous “Froggie Went A-Courtin’” (1549)
Davies Gilbert “The First Noel” (1823)
Thomas P. Westendorf (m/w) “I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen” (1875)
Lewis Redner (m), Phillips Brooks (w) “O Little Town of Bethlehem” (1868)
unknown “Frère Jacques (Are You Sleeping?)” (1780)
Henry C. Work (m/w) “Grandfather’s Clock” (1876)
Septimus Winner (m/w) “O Where, O Where Has My Little Dog Gone” (1864)
John Henry Hopkins Jr. (m/w) “We Three Kings of Orient Are” (1857)
Adolphe Adam and John Sullivan Dwight (composers) “O Holy Night” (1847)
Rev. Edmund Hamilton Sears (w) and Richard Storrs Willis (m) “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” (1850)
Daniel Decatur Emmett “Old Dan Tucker” (1843)
traditional “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow” (1709)
traditional “God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman” (1760)
Sanford F. Bennett (w), Joseph Philbrick Webster (m) “In the Sweet By-and-By” (1868)
Rev. H.D.L. Webster (w), Joseph Philbrick Webster (m) “Lorena” (1857)
DMDB Top 2%:
Sabine Baring-Gould (w) and Sir Arthur Sullivan (m) “Onward Christian Soldiers” (1871)
traditional “Alouette” (1879)
Philip Phile (m), Joseph Hopkinson (w) “Hail Columbia (The President’s March)” (1789)
Frederic Austin, traditional “Twelve Days of Christmas” (1780)
traditional “This Old Man (Nick Nack Pattiwack)” (1842)
Bill Dooley “Frankie and Johnny” (1899)
unknown “What Shall We Do with a Drunken Sailor?” (1740)
unknown “Three Blind Mice” (1609)
Joseph Eastburn Winter “The Little Brown Jug” (1869)
Thomas Oliphant (w), Nos Galan (m) “Deck the Halls” (1862)
Billy Reeves (w), Frank Campbell (m), and Rollin Howard (arranger) “Shoo Fly Don’t Bother Me” (1869)
Jay Roberts (copyrighted by) “Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho” (1865)
unknown “Bingo (B-I-N-G-O)” (1780)
James Sanderson (m), Albert Gamse (w) “Hail to the Chief” (1810)
unknown “Blow the Man Down” (1849)
Johannes Brahms (composer) “Brahms’ Lullaby (Wiegenleid) (aka “Cradle Song”) (1868)
Dr. Theodore Baker (translated and arranged by) “We Gather Together (Thanksgiving Prayer)” (1630)
unknown “Old King Cole” (1708)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (writer) “Go Tell Aunt Rhody” (1752)
Hartius Bonar (w), Charles Crozat Converse (m) “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” (1868)
traditional “Sing a Song of Sixpence” (1744)
John Wesley Work (composer) “Go Tell It on the Mountain” (1865)
Ben Johnson (w), traditional (m) “Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes” (1616)
unknown “The Hokey Pokey” (1826)
unknown “Humpty Dumpty” (1797)
Carl Boberg (w) “How Great Thou Art” (1885)
unknown “The Wayfaring Stranger” (1807)
Thomas Haynes Bayly (m/w) “Long, Long Ago” (1843)
unknown “The Farmer in the Dell” (1883)
traditional/James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps (publisher) “Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush” (1842)
Ernst Anschütz (w), “Ach Tannenbaum” (m) “O Christmas Tree (O Tannenbaum)” (1824)