Blog view of individual articles
The series has been compiled and tidied up slightly into a free (and DRM-free) eBook for offline reading. Download the EPUB for most eBook-readers, or MOBI for the Amazon Kindle.
100. Sultans Of Ping FC – “Where’s Me Jumper” (1992)
99. Madonna – “Papa Don’t Preach”
98. Deee-Lite – “Groove Is In The Heart”
97. The Beat – “Save It For Later”
96. Belle And Sebastian – “Sleep The Clock Around”
95. Gladys Knight – “License To Kill”
94. Al Green – “How Can You Mend A Broken Heart?”
93. Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers – “Why Do Fools Fall In Love?”
92. Girls Aloud – “Love Machine”
91. Ike And Tina Turner – “River Deep, Mountain High”
90. The Only Ones – “Another Girl Another Planet”
89.5 Skeletal Family – “Promised Land”
89. REEL 2 REEL feat THE MAD STUNTMAN – “I Like To Move It”
88. Subway Sect – “Ambition”
87. Roxy Music – “Virginia Plain”
86. Janet Kay – “Silly Games”
85. Teddybears STHLM ft Mad Cobra – “Cobrastyle”
84. Pulp – “Babies”
83. Orange Juice – “Rip It Up”
82. Jimmy Cliff – “Many Rivers To Cross”
81. The JAMMS – It’s Grim Up North
80. Public Enemy – “Fight The Power”
79. Kim Wilde – “Cambodia”
78. Culture Beat – “Mr. Vain”
77. Depeche Mode – “Just Can’t Get Enough”
76. Shystie – “Woman’s World”
75. Art Garfunkel – “Bright Eyes”
74. Urban Cookie Collective – “The Key, The Secret”<
73. Smiley Culture – “Police Officer”
72. Wee Papa Girl Rappers – “Wee Rule”
71. Jay-Z – “The Takeover”
70. Aqua – “Lollipop (Candyman)”
69. Anthrax and Public Enemy – Bring The Noise
68. The Shirelles – Will You Love Me Tomorrow
67. The Velvelettes – “Needle In A Haystack”
66. Dexy’s Midnight Runners – “Come On Eileen”
65. TEARS FOR FEARS – Pale Shelter
64. CHRISTINA AGUILERA – Dirrrty
63. TAKE THAT – Back For Good
62. GLEN CAMPBELL – Wichita Lineman
61. CARL DOUGLAS – Kung Fu Fighting
60. DIANA ROSS – “Upside Down”
59. C+C MUSIC FACTORY – “Things That Make You Go Hmmm”
58. SHANGRI LAS – “Leader Of The Pack”
57. ELVIS COSTELLO & THE ATTRACTIONS – “Oliver’s Army”
56. MARVIN GAYE – “I Heard It Through The Grapevine”
55. DAVID BOWIE – “Suffragette City”
54. WILL YOUNG – “Leave Right Now”
53. Wham! – Wham Rap
52. Joe Jackson – It’s Different For Girls
51. WHIGFIELD- “Think Of You”
50. Gwen Stefani – What You Waiting For
49. SPICE GIRLS – WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?
48. Glenn Campbell – Rhinestone Cowboy
47. DOOP – DOOP
46. Franz Ferdinand – Take Me Out
45. The Undertones – Teenage Kicks
44. The Selecter – On My Radio
43. Stina Nordenstam – Little Star
42. Abba – The Winner Takes It All
41. t.a.T.u. – Not Gonna Get Us
40. Led Zeppelin – “Immigrant Song”
39. Awesome Toys – Do The Fury Boogie38. Kenickie – Punka
38. BALTIMORA – Tarzan Boy
37. T-REX – Metal Guru
36. KLF – Justified And Ancient
35. Martha & The Muffins – Echo Beach
34. Shanice – I Love Your Smile
33. Echo and the Bunnymen – The Cutter
32. Amii Stewart – Knock On Wood
31. Prince – “I Would Die 4 U”
30. White Town- “Your Woman”
29. PJ & Duncan AKA – Let’s Get Ready To Rhumble
28. The Jam – Going Underground
27. Chaka Khan – I Feel For You
26. The Human League – Open Your Heart
25. MADONNA – “Into The Groove”
24. RACHEL STEVENS – Some Girls
23. Kate Bush – Wuthering Heights
22. Joy Division – Love Will Tear Us Apart
21. Scooter – Ramp! (The Logical Song)
20. Chic – Good Times
19. Michael Jackson – Billie Jean
18. The AlkoholiKs Only When I’m Drunk
17. The Ronettes – Be My Baby
16. EAST 17 – “House Of Love”
15. THE FUTUREHEADS – “The Hounds Of Love”
14. SHIRLEY BASSEY “Goldfinger”
13. Busted- Air Hostess
12. MC Hammer – U Can’t Touch This
11. MR OIZO – “Flat Beat”
10. West Side Story OBC – “America”
9. Uptown Top Ranking – Althea & Donna
8. Dexy’s Midnight Runners – There, There, My Dear
7. Little Fluffy Clouds – The Orb
6. Eartha Kitt’s “Just an Old Fashioned Girl”
5. Belle And Sebastian – The Boy With The Arab Strap
4. Madonna -”Like A Prayer”
3. Shaggy – Boombastic
2. THE TRAMMPS – “Disco Inferno”
1. PET SHOP BOYS – “Always On My Mind/In My House”
what a wonderful list! i can see christina aguilera and jay z in there. but 127 and 128! madonna at 164. but WAIT Jewel even higher at 64 – THE WHOLE THING IS A SHAM AND MUST BE DESTROYED. start again from scratch plz. with sultans of ping.
“National Association of Recording Merchandisers” – NARM, surely that should read “THE MAN”. let’s go stick it to THE MAN/NARM.
i say we head over to NARM/THE MAN’s site and repeatedly post about the sand in recording merchandisers’s vaginas (i am crying with laughter as i write this) until they change the list to something WE like.
Sidestepping the inevitable sandy-vagina explosion: if that’s your 100 Albums, what are your 100 Singles? I’m genuinely curious as to whether your Number 1 is Bohemian Rhapsody or Imagine by John Lennon.
sorry but this list is so so so bad think about it
You all suck so much dong that you all think good dong tastes like bad dong
WHERE THE FUCK IS THE N.W.A AND THE EAZY E, AND THE KINGS OF LEON, YOU ALL SUCK SOO MUCH DONG
CHIPPA PUTS OUT
Peculiar taste you lot have. Bit limited, innit?
It’s limited to 100 tracks, popular music, the ones we really like… how else? Obviously not limited to a particular canon of artists or songs
FEED BABIES NOT TROLLS!
Limited by the number of songs you’ve heard, I presume.
oh my god i love this wheres the rest
Would certainly make for an excellent student disco, absolutely.
Actually Dru’s RIGHT in that the methodology (see “A note on methodology”) means that the list privileges shared experience among the listmakers rather than obscure tidbits – assuming people might veto tracks they don’t know, which isn’t always the case. I have heard lots of songs I like, not as many as Drucius I’m sure but enough to get by – but I’m only going to nominate a certain proportion of those.
But this is a good thing! Shared experience is an important part of pop.
Beware the avalanche of random angry trolls you’re going to get when they discover that Angles by Robbie William has not come top.
Or the avalanche of non-random angry regulars when they discover that it HAS!
AQUA???LOLLIPOP??? Need i say more.
Who compiled this list? 8 years olds?
scathing
I may cry.
Actually, as a “Bunch of Mates Down the Pub Top 100” it’s excellent, so long as it’s not meant to be anything close to definitive.
Some of the “look at meeeee!!” post-ironic iconoclasm is pretty ghastly, mind.
And this is still only the bottom 50!
The trouble with ‘look at meeeeee’ as criticism is that everyone on the interweb is usually guilty of it – there’s no real difference between “Look at meeee, I’m so ironic” and “No look at meeeee I’m so NOT ironic UNLIKE YOU”, apart from a gradual climbing of the ladder of superiority. (I’m as guilty of this as anyone else obv.)
The other thing I’d disagree with is that a ‘Top 100’ list can be definitive at all – I’d say this is as ‘definitive’ as any other list you’d find anywhere.
I would say that it is as definitive a list as you would find in the field of lists compiled by the compilers who compiled this list.
Well, quite.
oh no! iconoclasm! no wonder you felt so uncomfy
Oh lordy, here comes Captain Iconoclast with his cloak of irony and his trusty staff of self-regard.
In this morning’s edition of hip n’ happening free newspaper METRO top music commentator Dermot O’Leary says that he’d rather listen to good pop than bad indie any day.
Had I contributed to this list there would certainly have been some welcome improv input – AMM’s Live At The Roundhouse Parts 1 & 2 would have been there for a start (and possibly a finish).
I believe that this is, or at least was, the single definitive list of the best 100 songs of all time.
Sadly I think the veto system might have accounted for these noble warriors of improv Marcello.
Iconoclasm is a great word (though I just typed ICONOCLAMS!! – surely a better one!) but I don’t think it’s apt here – this isn’t a list of the Top 100 Worst Songs after all. Which icons are p^nk s and crew trying to clasm?
Which ones have you got?