Rock and roll wasn’t even a decade old when garage rock started in the mid-1960s as a sort of back-to-basics movement. The name evoked the primitive sound, equipment, and recording techniques of high school buddies jamming in the garage.
Genres are often tied to a specific era, often only about five years, but garage rock has the unique trait of being associated with two distinct time periods. The original wave in the 1960s was helmed by well-known acts such as the Who and the Kinks and set up proto-punk with acts like Velvet Underground and the Stooges.
In the early 2000s, the garage sound experienced a revival via bands like the White Stripes, the Strokes, the Hives, and the Vines committed to the low-fi recording techniques.
This list reflects both eras and a smattering of songs that fall between them. It was created by aggregating 11 lists focused on the best of garage rock. Those songs appearing on 2 or more lists were then ranked based on their overall status in Dave’s Music Database.
Click here to see other genre-specific song lists.
DMDB Top 1%:
1. The Kinks “You Really Got Me” (1964)
2. The Kingsmen “Louie Louie” (1963)
3. The White Stripes “Seven Nation Army” (2003)
4. The Troggs “Wild Thing” (1966)
5. The Strokes “Last Nite” (2001)
6. Arctic Monkeys “I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor” (2005)
DMDB Top 2%:
7. Them “Gloria” (1964)
8. The White Stripes “Fell in Love with a Girl” (2001)
9. The Who “I Can’t Explain” (1965)
10. ? & the Mysterians “96 Tears” (1966)
11. Iggy Pop “Lust for Life” (1977)
12. Yeah Yeah Yeahs “Maps” (2003)
13. Jet “Are You Gonna Be My Girl?” (2003)
14. The Kinks “All Day and All of the Night” (1964)
15. Sam the Sham & the Pharoahs “Wooly Bully” (1965)
16. Bobby Fuller Four “I Fought the Law” (1966)
17. The Stooges “Search and Destroy” (1973)
18. The Stooges “I Wanna Be Your Dog” (1969)
19. The Black Keys “Lonely Boy” (2011)
20. Strawberry Alarm Clock “Incense and Peppermints” (1967)
21. The Count Five “Psychotic Reaction” (1966)
22. The MC5 “Kick Out the Jams” (1969)
23. Velvet Underground & Nico “I’m Waiting for the Man” (1967)
DMDB Top 5%:
24. The Hives “Hate to Say I Told You So” (2000)
25. Patti Smith “Gloria (In Excelsis Deo)” (1975)
26. The Modern Lovers “Roadrunner” (1976)
27. The Raconteurs “Steady As She Goes” (2006)
28. Alice Cooper “I’m Eighteen” (1971)
29. The McCoys “Hang on Sloopy” (1965)
30. The Vines “Get Free” (2002)
31. The White Stripes “Icky Thump” (2007)
32. The Lemon Pipers “Green Tambourine” (1967)
33. Tommy James & the Shondells “Hanky Panky” (1966)
34. The Electric Prunes “I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night” (1966)
35. The Strokes “Hard to Explain” (2001)
36. The White Stripes “Hotel Yorba” (2001)
37. The Libertines “Time for Heroes” (2002)
38. The White Stripes “Blue Orchid” (2005)
39. Them “Here Comes the Night” (1965)
40. The Amboy Dukes “Journey to the Center of the Mind” (1968)
41. Mudhoney “Touch Me I’m Sick” (1988)
42. The White Stripes “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground” (2001)
43. Jet “Look What You’ve Done” (2003)
44. The Seeds “Pushin’ Too Hard” (1965)
45. The White Stripes “The Hardest Button to Button” (2003)
46. The 13th Floor Elevators “You’re Gonna Miss Me” (1966)
47. The Libertines “Can’t Stand Me Now” (2004)
48. The Velvet Underground “White Light/White Heat” (1968)
49. The Standells “Dirty Water” (1966)
50. The Knickerbockers “Lies” (1965)
DMDB Top 10%:
51. The Trashmen “Surfin’ Bird” (1963)
52. Paul Revere & the Raiders “Kicks” (1966)
53. Jack White “Sixteen Saltines” (2012)
54. The American Breed “Bend Me, Shape Me” 1967)
55. The Human Beinz “Nobody But Me” (1967)
56. The Blues Magoos “We Ain’t Got Nothin’ Yet” (1966)
57. Iggy Pop “The Passenger” (1977)
58. The Strokes “Reptilia” (2003)
59. The Castaways “Liar Liar” (1965)
60. Sir Douglas Quintet “She’s About a Mover” (1965)
61. The Who “Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere” (1965)
62. The Strokes “Someday” (2001)
63. The Music Explosion “Little Bit O’ Soul” (1967)
64. The Seeds “Can’t Seem to Make You Mine” (1965)
65. The Strangeloves “I Want Candy” (1965)
66. The Von Bondies “C’mon C’mon” (2004)
67. The Raconteurs “Salute Your Solution” (2008)
68. The White Stripes “We’re Going to Be Friends” (2001)
69. The Strokes “12:51” (2003)
70. Love “7 and 7 Is” (1966)
71. The Strokes “The Modern Age” (2001)
72. The Music Machine “Talk Talk” (1966)
73. The Beau Brummels “Laugh Laugh” (1964)
74. The Libertines “What a Waster” (20020
75. The Outsiders “Time Won’t Let Me” (1966)
76. The Nashville Teens “Tobacco Road’ (1964)
77. The Hives “Walk Idiot Walk” (2004)
78. Love “My Little Red Book” (1966)
79. The Balloon Farm “A Question of Temperature” (1968)
80. The Godfathers “Birth, School, Work, Death” (1988)
81. Wolfmother “The Joker and the Thief” (2005)
82. The Velvet Underground “What Goes On” (1969)
83. Wolfmother “Woman” (2005)
84. Arctic Monkeys “Brianstorm” (2007)
85. The Strokes “Juicebox” (2005)
86. The Libertines “Don’t Look Back into the Sun” (2003)
87. Paul Revere & the Raiders “Just Like Me” (1965)
88. The Stooges “1969” (1969)
89. Arctic Monkeys “Fluorescent Adolescent” (2007)
90. Them “Baby Please Don’t Go” (1965)
91. The Sonics “The Witch” (1964)
DMDB Top 20%:
92. Nazz “Open My Eyes’ (1968)
93. The Strangeloves “Night Time” (1965)
94. The Strokes “New York City Cops” (2001)
95. The Raconteurs “Level” (2006)
96. The Kingsmen “Money (That’s What I Want)” (1964)
97. Arctic Monkeys “When the Sun Goes Down” (2006)
98. The Stooges “No Fun” (1969)
99. Kings of Leon “Molly’s Chamber” (2003)
100. The Leaves “Hey Joe” (1965)
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First posted 9/28/2023.
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