Originally this was a list of the top top folk and folk rock songs. However, I’ve now split it into two lists – one focused on folk rock and this one on folk and traditional songs. These lists were generated by aggregating multiple lists that focused on folk and folk rock and then reordering the songs based on their overall status in Dave’s Music Database. Songs are listed by songwriters, then title, and then year.
Click here to see other genre-specific song lists.
1. George M. Cohan “You’re a Grand Old Flag” (1906)
2. Katharine Lee Bates (lyrics) and Samuel A. Ward (music) “America the Beautiful” (1910)
3. Irving Berlin “God Bless America” (1918)
4. Ella Fitzgerald, Al Feldman “A-Tisket, A-Tasket” (1938)
5. Francis Scott Key (lyrics) John Stafford Smith (music) “The Star-Spangled Banner” (1814)
6. John Newton “Amazing Grace” (1772)
7. James M. Black, Katharine E. Purvis “When the Saints Go Marching In” (1896)
8. “The Old Folks at Home (Swanee River)” (music & lyrics: Stephen Foster, 1851)
9. Patty S. Hill & Mildred J. Hill “Happy Birthday to You” (1893)
10. Woody Guthrie “This Land Is Your Land” (1940)
11. Julia Ward Howe (lyrics), William Steffe (music) “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” (1862)
12. John Kelly, Don George, traditional “The Yellow Rose of Texas” (1853)
13. Huddie “Leadbelly” Ledbetter “Goodnight Irene” (1933)
14. Stephen Foster “Oh! Susanna” (1847)
15. Daniel E. Kelly (music), Dr. Brewster M. Higley (lyrics) “Home on the Range” (1874)
16. Harry Dacre “Daisy Bell (A Bicycle Built for Two)” (1893)
17. Louis Lambert as Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore (lyrics), unknown (m) “When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again” (1863)
18. Daniel Decatur Emmett “Dixie” (aka “I Wish I Was in Dixie” or “Dixie’s Land”) (1859)
19. traditional, adapted by Fred Weatherly “Danny Boy” (1913)
20. Robert Burns (adapted by) “Auld Lang Syne” (1799)
21. Stephen Foster (music/lyrics) “Camptown Races (Gwine to Run All Night)” (1850)
22. Richard Shuckburgh (lyrics), music: traditional “Yankee Doodle (aka ‘Yankee Doodle Went to Town’)” (1754)
23. James R. Shannon (music/lyrics) “Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ral (That’s an Irish Lullaby)” (1913)
24. Traditional “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” (1894)
25. Jimmie Davis, Charles Mitchell “You Are My Sunshine” (1940)
26. Hugo Peretti et al “The Lion Sleeps Tonight (Wimoweh)” (1939)
27. Percy Montrose “Clementine” (1863)
28. Frank Kidson (first published by) “Scarborough Fair” (1891)
29. Dave Guard “Tom Dooley” (1958)
30. Thomas D'Urfey (music), Frederick Thomas Nettleingham (lyrics) “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” (1706)
31. J.A. Roff, adapted by A.P. Carter “Wabash Cannonball” (1882)
32. Wallace Willis, arranged by Henry Thacker Burleigh “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” (1872)
33. Traditional “Jimmy Crack Corn” (1848)
34. Jane Taylor (lyrics) “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” (1806)
35. Traditional “She’ll Be Comin’ ‘Round the Mountain” (1899)
36. Cool White “Buffalo Gals (Buffalo Girls Will You Come Out Tonight)” (1844)
37. Carl Sandburg “Skip to My Lou” (1832)
38. Unknown “Greensleeves” (1580)
39. Ada R. Habershon, Charles H. Gabriel, A.P. Carter (adapted by) “Can the Circle Be Unbroken (By and By)” (1935)
40. A.P. Carter “Wildwood Flower” (1928)
41. unknown “Baa Baa Black Sheep” (1744)
42. Daniel Decatur Emmett (music/lyrics) “Old Dan Tucker” (1843)
43. Traditional “On Top of Old Smoky” (1841)
44. Charles E. Pratt “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean” (1881)
45. Effie I. Canning (music/lyrics) “Rock-a-Bye Baby” (1884)
46. Lowell Mason (music), Sarah Josepha Hale (lyrics) “Mary Had a Little Lamb” (1830)
47. Traditional “Michael Row the Boat Ashore” (1863)
48. Eliphalet Oram Lyte “Row Row Row Your Boat” (1852)
49. Anonymous “Froggie Went A-Courtin’” (1700)
50. Edith Piaf (lyrics), Louiguy (music) “La Vie En Rose” (1950)
51. Septimus Winner (music/lyrics) “O Where, O Where Has My Little Dog Gone” (1864)
52. Unknown “Frère Jacques” (aka “Brother John, Are You Sleeping?”) (1780)
53. Eugene Raymond (adapted by) “Pop Goes the Weasel” (1852)
54. Unknown “Shenandoah” (1837)
55. Daniel Decatur Emmett (music/lyrics) “Polly Wolly Doodle (All the Day)” (1843)
56. John Wesley Work Jr. “Go Tell It on the Mountain” (1865)
57. William Jerome (lyris), Harry Von Tilzer (music) “The Green Grass Grew All Around” (1913)
58. Sabine Baring-Gould (lyrics), Sir Arthur Sullivan (music) “Onward Christian Soldiers” (1871)
59. Bill Monroe “Blue Moon of Kentucky” (1947)
60. William Swords (lyrics), unknown (music) “Bingo (B-I-N-G-O)” (1780)
61. Traditional “Alouette” (1879)
62. Geoff Love (adapted) “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” (1927)
63. Traditional “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow” (1709)
64. Billy Reeves (w), Frank Campbell (m), arranged by Rollin Howard “Shoo Fly Don’t Bother Me” (1869)
65. Traditional “Red River Valley” (1896)
66. William King (publisher) “Old King Cole” (1708)
67. Traditional “This Old Man (Nick Nack Paddiwack)” (1842)
68. Jay Roberts (copyrighted by) “Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho” (1865)
69. Unknown “Three Blind Mice” (1609)
70. translated and arranged by Dr. Theodore Baker “We Gather Together (Thanksgiving Prayer)” (1630)
71. “The Hokey Pokey” (1826)
72. Traditional “The Farmer in the Dell” (1883)
73. Unknown “Blow the Man Down” (1849)
74. Traditional/Alan Price “The House of the Rising Sun” (1933)
75. Traditional; arranged by Harry Belafonte, William Attaway, Lord Burgess “The Banana Boat Song (Day-O)” (1956)
76. Elliott Daniel “Lavender Blue (Dilly Dilly)” (1685)
77. Verna Hills “The Wheels on the Bus” (1939)
78. Traditional “Hickory Dickory Dock” (1744)
79. “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” (1910)
80. Dr. Alfred B. Smith “If You’re Happy and You Know It” (1905)
81. Unknown “The Wayfaring Stranger” (1807)
82. Traditional “Sweet Betsy from Pike” (1851)
83. Lester A. Walton, C. Lucky Roberts “Billy Boy” (1800)
84. Clarence (Tom) Ashley “The Coo Coo Bird” (1929)
85. “Ring Around the Rosie” (1881)
86. Bill Dooley “Frankie and Johnny” (1899)
87. “Rock Island Line” (1937)
88. Traditional “The Midnight Special” (1923)
89. Steve Nelson, Jack Rollins “Peter Cottontail” (1950)
90. H. Wylie “Kumbaya” (1926)
91. Jean-Jacques Rousseau “Go Tell Aunt Rhody” (1752)
92. “John Henry” (1859)
93. Ken Darby (adapted by) “Aura Lea” (1861)
94. Carl Sandburg “Down by the Riverside” (1918)
95. “Do You Know the Muffin Man” (1829)
96. Epe Sargent (lyrics), Henry Russell (music) “Follow the Drinking Gourd” (1860)
97. “Hush Little Baby” (1918)
98. “Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush” (1842)
99. “Over the River and Through the Woods” (1844)
100. “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child” (1870)
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First posted 4/19/2020; last updated 11/17/2025. | 
