Variety Magazine came up with a listing of what it called the “Golden 100.” The songs were listed in alphabetical order by title and no specific artist was noted. For this DMDB version of the list, the artist with the highest-ranked version of each song is noted and the songs have been ranked in order by their DMDB rating. There’s no indication when this list was done, but it covers songs from 1906-1959.
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1. Bing Crosby with the Ken Darby Singers “White Christmas” (1942)
2. Judy Garland “Over the Rainbow” (1939)
3. Arthur Collins with Byron Harlan “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” (1911)
4. Fred Astaire with Leo Reisman’s Orchestra “Night and Day” (1932)
5. Gene Austin “My Blue Heaven” (1927)
6. Artie Shaw “Stardust” (1941)
7. Artie Shaw “Begin the Beguine” (1938)
8. Al Jolson “April Showers” (1922)
9. Bessie Smith with Louis Armstrong “St. Louis Blues” (1925)
10. Ethel Waters “Stormy Weather (Keeps Rainin' All the Time)” (1933)
11. Al Jolson “Swanee” (1920)
12. Dooley Wilson “As Time Goes By” (1942)
13. Peerless Quartet “Let Me Call You Sweetheart” (1911)
14. Gene Autry with the Pinafores “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” (1949)
15. Coleman Hawkins “Body and Soul” (1940)
16. Bing Crosby with George Stoll’s Orchestra “Pennies from Heaven” (1936)
17. Billy Murray with the Haydn Quartet “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” (1908)
18. Paul Whiteman with Bob Lawrence “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” (1933)
19. The Harmonicats “Peg O’ My Heart” (1947)
20. Tommy Dorsey with Jack Leonard “All the Things You Are” (1939)
21. Byron Harlan “School Days (When We Were a Couple of Kids)” (1907)
22. Al Jolson “You Made Me Love You (I Didn't Want to Do It)” (1913)
23. Original Dixieland Jazz Band “Tiger Rag” (1918)
24. Paul Robeson “Ol’ Man River” (1928)
25. Ben Selvin “Happy Days Are Here Again” (1930)
26. Bing Crosby with John Scott Trotter’s Orchestra “I’ll Be Seeing You” (1944)
27. Marion Harris “After You’ve Gone” (1919)
28. Les Paul with Mary Ford “How High the Moon” (1951)
29. Kate Smith “God Bless America” (1939)
30. Harry MacDonough with Elise Stevenson (as Miss Walton) “Shine on, Harvest Moon” (1909)
31. Sophie Tucker “Some of These Days” (1911)
32. Marion Harris “Tea for Two” (1925)
33. Marion Harris “The Man I Love” (1928)
34. Judy Garland with Gene Kelly “For Me and My Gal” (1942)
35. Billie Holiday “Summertime” (1936)
36. Cliff Edwards “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” (1928)
37. George Olsen with Fran Frey, Bob Rice, & Edward Joyce “Always” (1926)
38. Heidelberg Quintet “Waiting for the Robert E. Lee” (1912)
39. Byron Harlan “Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie” (1906)
40. Count Basie “April in Paris” (1956)
41. Woody Herman “Blues in the Night (My Mama Done Tol’ Me)” (1941)
42. Ted Weems with Elmo Tanner “Heartaches” (1947)
43. Henry Burr “I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now” (1909)
44. Arthur Collins with Byron Harlan “Darktown Strutters’ Ball” (1918)
45. Glen Gray with Kenny Sargent “Blue Moon” (1935)
46. Red Nichols “I Got Rhythm” (1930)
47. Rosemary Clooney “Tenderly” (1952)
48. Perry Como “Some Enchanted Evening” (1949)
49. Little Jack Little “I’m in the Mood for Love” (1935)
50. Walter Huston “September Song” (1939)
51. Ted Lewis “On the Sunny Side of the Street” (1930)
52. That Old Black Magic…Glenn Miller with Skip Nelson (1943)
53. Gene Austin “My Melancholy Baby” (1928)
54. Ray Noble “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” (1936)
55. Ruth Etting “Love Me Or Leave Me” (1929)
56. Bing Crosby with the Mills Brothers “Dinah” (1932)
57. Paul Whiteman with Jack Fulton “Lover” (1933)
58. Wayne King with Ernie Birchill “Goodnight Sweetheart” (1931)
59. The Victory Military Band “Poor Butterfly” (1917)
60. Prince’s Orchestra “Ballin’ the Jack” (1914)
61. Dinah Washington “What a Diff’rence a Day Makes” (1959)
62. John Steel “A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody” (1919)
63. Bill Snyder “Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered” (1950)
64. Artie Shaw “Dancing in the Dark” (1941)
65. Paul Whiteman “Somebody Loves Me” (1924)
66. Paul Whiteman with Jack Fulton, Charles Gaylord, & Austin Young “The Birth of the Blues” (1926)
67. Dick Haymes “It Might As Well Be Spring” (1945)
68. Benny Goodman with Helen Ward “These Foolish Things Remind Me of You” (1936)
69. Fred & Tom Waring “Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life” (1928)
70. Leo Reisman “What Is This Thing Called Love?” (1930)
71. Al Jolson “All Alone” (1925)
72. George Olsen “Who?” (1926)
73. Ethel Merman “I Get a Kick Out of You” (1935)
74. Guy Lombardo with Carmen Lombardo How Deep Is the Ocean?” (1932)
75. Ben Selvin “Chicago (That Toddlin’ Town)” (1922)
76. Isham Jones with Ray Miller & Frank Bessinger “I’ll See You in My Dreams” (1925)
77. Tommy Dorsey with Jack Leonard “Marie” (1937)
78. Ben Pollack with Franklyn Baur “Sweet Sue, Just You” (1928)
79. Paul Whiteman with Jack Fulton “Lover Come Back to Me” (1929)
80. Ruth Etting “Exactly Like You” (1930)
81. Richard Himber with Stuart Allen “Just One of Those Things” (1935)
82. Edith Piaf “La Vie En Rose” (1950)
83. Frank Sinatra “You’ll Never Walk Alone” (1945)
84. Hal McIntyre “My Funny Valentine” (1945)
85. Margaret Whiting “Come Rain or Come Shine” (1946)
86. Leo Reisman with Clifton Webb “Easter Parade” (1933)
87. Roger Wolfe Kahn “Sometimes I’m Happy” (1927)
88. Larry Clinton with Bea Wain “You Go to My Head” (1938)
89. Paul Whiteman with Al Rinker, Jack Fulton, Charles Gaylord, & Austin Young “My Heart Stood Still” (1928)
90. Cab Calloway “I’ve Got the World on a String” (1932)
91. Frankie Laine “I Believe” (1953)
92. Paul Whiteman with Bing Crosby “Without a Song” (1929)
93. Paul Whiteman with Bing Crosby “Great Day” (1929)
94. Leo Reisman with Ran Weeks “With a Song in My Heart” (1929)
95. Glenn Miller “The Nearness of You” (1940)
96. Sarah Vaughn “S’ Wonderful” (1927)
97. Julie Andrews “I Could Have Danced All Night” (1956)
98. Olive Kline “Kiss Me Again” (1916)
99. Nat Shilkret with Phil Dewey, Frank Luter, & Leo O’Rourke “Get Happy” (1930)
100. Judy Garland “Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart” (1943)
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First posted 8/1/2014; last updated 4/17/2021. | 
