The Most Iconic Songs
by 
Goliath 
This list is so interesting because it does not rely on opinions, and does not pander to the requirements of diversity. (Sorry, no Rap, Hip-Hop, Metal, Pink Floyd....). It does not match my list, and is unlikely to match anyone else's either. Having said that I cannot see any track here that I think should not be there, which is very unusual for any list!
Dr Mick Grierson examined a whole host of songs that appeared in ‘greatest songs of all-time’ lists in newspapers, on music stations like VH1 and in iconic music publications such as Q, NME and Rolling Stone. Commissioned by car manufacturer Fiat, who wanted to identify a song they could use to promote the FIAT 500, he also used analytical software in an attempt to put a finger on what exactly made those tunes iconic. That involved taking into account factors such as beats per minute, chord variety, lyrical content and eh, timbral variety and sonic variance before arriving at the list you can see below.
The Top 50 most iconic songs of all time
1. Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
2. Imagine - John Lennon
3. One - U2
4. Billie Jean - Michael Jackson
5. Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
6. Hey Jude - The Beatles
7. Like A Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan
8. I Can't Get No Satisfaction - Rolling Stones
9. God Save The Queen - Sex Pistols
10. Sweet Child O'Mine - Guns N' Roses
11. London Calling - The Clash
12. Waterloo Sunset - The Kinks
13. Hotel California - The Eagles
14. Your Song - Elton John
15. Stairway To Heaven - Led Zeppelin
16. The Twist - Chubby Checker
17. Live Forever - Oasis
18. I Will Always Love You - Whitney Houston
19. Life On Mars? - David Bowie
20. Heartbreak Hotel - Elvis Presley
21. Over The Rainbow - Judy Garland
22. What's Goin' On - Marvin Gaye
23. Born To Run - Bruce Springsteen
24. Be My Baby - The Ronettes
25. Creep - Radiohead
26. Bridge Over Troubled Water - Simon & Garfunkel
27. Respect - Aretha Franklin
28. Family Affair - Sly And The Family Stone
29. Dancing Queen - ABBA
30. Good Vibrations - The Beach Boys
31. Purple Haze - Jimi Hendrix
32. Yesterday - The Beatles
33. Jonny B Good - Chuck Berry
34. No Woman No Cry - Bob Marley
35. Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley
36. Every Breath You Take - The Police
37. A Day In The Life - The Beatles
38. Stand By Me - Ben E King
39. Papa's Got A Brand New Bag - James Brown
40. Gimme Shelter - The Rolling Stones
41. What'd I Say - Ray Charles
42. Sultans Of Swing - Dire Straits
43. God Only Knows - The Beach Boys
44. You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling - The Righteous Brothers
45. My Generation - The Who
46. Dancing In The Street - Martha Reeves and the Vandellas
47. When Doves Cry - Prince
48. A Change Is Gonna Come - Sam Cooke
49. River Deep Mountain High - Ike and Tina Turner
50. Best Of My Love - The Emotions
https://www.gold.ac.uk/news/iconic-pop-songs/
- Chart updated: 11/25/2020 11:15
- (Created: 10/26/2020 10:51).
- Chart size: 50 albums.
There are 2 comments for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and The Most Iconic Songs has an average rating of 87 out of 100 (from 4 votes). Please log in or register to leave a comment or assign a rating.
View the complete list of 57,000 charts on BestEverAlbums.com from The Charts page.
1. (=)
Safe Mode: On Certain images on this site may contain sensitive content and are flagged as 'unsafe'. BestEverAlbums.com does not display these images by default, but you may choose to show or hide these images from your profile page. If you choose to hide these images, you'll see an image with a warning message instead of the actual image. If you choose to show them, you'll see these images no differently than regular (safe) images.
Buy album 
- #Sponsored
Smells Like Teen Spirit.
[First added to this chart: 10/26/2020]
Year of Release:
1991
Appears in:
Rank Score:
37,727
Rank in 1991:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
- #Sponsored
Imagine.
[First added to this chart: 10/26/2020]
Year of Release:
1971
Appears in:
Rank Score:
4,673
Rank in 1971:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
- #Sponsored
One.
[First added to this chart: 10/26/2020]
Year of Release:
1991
Appears in:
Rank Score:
11,791
Rank in 1991:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
- #Sponsored
Billy Jean.
[First added to this chart: 10/26/2020]
Year of Release:
1982
Appears in:
Rank Score:
16,232
Rank in 1982:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
- #Sponsored
Bohemian Rhapsody.
[First added to this chart: 10/26/2020]
Year of Release:
1975
Appears in:
Rank Score:
11,656
Rank in 1975:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
- #Sponsored
Hey Jude.
[First added to this chart: 10/26/2020]
Year of Release:
1973
Appears in:
Rank Score:
698
Rank in 1973:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
- #Sponsored
Like A Rolling Stone.
[First added to this chart: 10/26/2020]
Year of Release:
1965
Appears in:
Rank Score:
27,168
Rank in 1965:
Rank in 1960s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
- #Sponsored
I Can't Get No Satisfaction.
[First added to this chart: 10/26/2020]
Year of Release:
1965
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,462
Rank in 1965:
Rank in 1960s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
- #Sponsored
God Save The Queen.
[First added to this chart: 10/26/2020]
Year of Release:
1977
Appears in:
Rank Score:
10,575
Rank in 1977:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
- #Sponsored
Sweet Child O Mine.
[First added to this chart: 10/26/2020]
Year of Release:
1987
Appears in:
Rank Score:
11,139
Rank in 1987:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Total albums: 50. Page 1 of 5
Don't agree with this chart? Create your own from the My Charts page!
The Most Iconic Songs composition
| Decade | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1930s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1940s | 1 | 2% | |
| 1950s | 3 | 6% | |
| 1960s | 17 | 34% | |
| 1970s | 18 | 36% | |
| 1980s | 4 | 8% | |
| 1990s | 7 | 14% | |
| 2000s | 0 | 0% | |
| 2010s | 0 | 0% | |
| 2020s | 0 | 0% |
| Artist | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|||
| The Beatles | 3 | 6% | |
| The Rolling Stones | 2 | 4% | |
| The Beach Boys | 2 | 4% | |
| Various Artists | 1 | 2% | |
| ABBA | 1 | 2% | |
| The Righteous Brothers | 1 | 2% | |
| David Bowie | 1 | 2% | |
| Show all | |||
The Most Iconic Songs chart changes
| New entries |
|---|
| Elvis' Golden Records by Elvis Presley |
| Leavers |
|---|
| Elv1s: 30 #1 Hits by Elvis Presley |
The Most Iconic Songs similar charts
| Title | Source | Type | Published | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top 46 Greatest Music Albums |  janaji | Overall chart | 2012 |  |
| Top 40 Greatest Music Albums | chrono331 | Overall chart | 2013 |  |
| Top 50 Greatest Music Albums | joem92 | Overall chart | 2010 | |
| Top 50 Greatest Music Albums | Rheinufer | Overall chart | 2010 |  |
| Top 50 Greatest Music Albums | TheBond | Overall chart | 2010 | |
| Top 50 Greatest Music Albums | cat69 | Overall chart | 2010 | |
| Top 50 Greatest Music Albums | ian2010 | Overall chart | 2010 | |
| Top 50 Greatest Music Albums | Gregoriano | Overall chart | 2010 | |
| Top 50 Greatest Music Albums | CelticsFan | Overall chart | 2011 | |
| Top 49 Greatest Music Albums | Melatt | Overall chart | 2010 | |
The Most Iconic Songs similarity to your chart(s)
Not a member? Registering is quick, easy and FREE!
Why register?
- Join a passionate community of over 50,000 music fans.
- Create & share your own charts.
- Have your say in the overall rankings.
- Post comments in the forums and vote on polls.
- Comment on or rate any album, artist, track or chart.
- Discover new music & improve your music collection.
- Customise the overall chart using a variety of different filters & metrics.
- Create a wishlist of albums.
- Help maintain the BEA database.
- Earn member points and gain access to increasing levels of functionality!
- ... And lots more!
Register now - it only takes a moment!
Other custom charts by Goliath
| Title | Source | Type | Published | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Greatest Live Albums | Goliath | Custom chart | 2020 | |
| Albums With the Best Guitar Solos | Goliath | Custom chart | 2024 | |
| Under-appreciated Gems | Goliath | Custom chart | 2018 | |
The Most Iconic Songs ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
N.B. The average rating for this chart will not be reliable as it has been rated very few times.
Showing all 4 ratings for this chart.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Chart ratings | Avg. chart rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 11/02/2023 06:21 |  AlvaroIesus | 74 | 77/100 |
| ! | 11/30/2021 02:13 | arnellarsen | 23 | 92/100 |
| ! | 04/25/2021 00:26 |  Crhmgs | 20 | 98/100 |
| ! | 01/04/2021 19:43 |  DommeDamian | 1,003 | 89/100 |
The Most Iconic Songs favourites
Showing all 1 members who have added this chart as a favourite
The Most Iconic Songs comments
Showing all 2 comments |
Most Helpful First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First |
Longest Comments First
(Only showing comments with -2 votes or higher. You can alter this threshold from your profile page. Manage Profile)
From AlvaroIesus 11/02/2023 06:21 | #299749
AlvaroIesus 11/02/2023 06:21 | #299749
Essential chart, mate.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From arnellarsen 11/30/2021 02:14 | #276897
Just a really great top 50-chart!
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Your feedback for The Most Iconic Songs
Let us know what you think of this chart by adding a comment or assigning a rating below!
If you enjoy our site, please consider supporting us by sparing a few seconds to disable your ad blocker.
A lot of hard work happens in the background to keep BEA running, and it's especially difficult to do this when we can't pay our hosting fees :(
We work very hard to ensure our site is as fast (and FREE!) as possible, and we respect your privacy.
A lot of hard work happens in the background to keep BEA running, and it's especially difficult to do this when we can't pay our hosting fees :(
We work very hard to ensure our site is as fast (and FREE!) as possible, and we respect your privacy.
