Top 100 classic rock songs

Artwork by Troy L.

Green Day "Dookie" - Retrospective Review. Updated: Dec 20, Pictured - Black Sabbath, Billboard Magazine We at Melophobe have made the bold statement that rock music is perhaps the greatest artistic gift given to the world in the 20th century, and continue to stand by it wholeheartedly. Throughout the '50s, artists like Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, and more crafted the sound into a well-established, progressive style of creative music by the year For the purposes of our list of the top rock songs of all time, our criteria for eligible songs will begin on January 1,

Top 100 classic rock songs

Bored with Top Classic Rock Songs lists that are dominated by the same handful of artists? We put a twist on that: You'll still find all of the expected legends on the below list, from Aerosmith to ZZ Top, but each artist gets only one song each. We've already anticipated the questions: "Was the right song chosen to represent each artist or band? Of course, this means that all but one song from even the most legendary artists won't be represented here. Even after allowing different artists onto the list, there were still dozens of "How can so-and-so not be included? The below list of the Top Classic Rock Songs may start a lot of fights it did around here at the UCR office , but it's also the start of one hell of a playlist. But the Red Rocker really hit a nerve with the message of the record's first single, which — aided by a truly entertaining video — quickly made him a household name and bona-fide arena headliner. We're not saying Hagar was directly responsible for the late-'80s national law changes that allowed states to once again set speed limits higher than 55, but it certainly couldn't have hurt. This new level of fame also paved the way for him to join Van Halen in We're guessing record sales from this song have paid for that ticket many times over by now. The now-familiar a capella intro for "Carry On Wayward Son" was the sonic hook that would help Kansas score their first major hit, a feat that was a long time coming for the band.

You get lost in it. Although it's considered a masterpiece now, the band's major-label debut, Appetite for Destructionhardly set the world on fire with it was first released in

By Rolling Stone. Click here for the new, updated Greatest Songs list from When you hear a great song, you can think of where you were when you first heard it, the sounds, the smells. It takes the emotions of a moment and holds it for years to come. It transcends time. A great song has all the key elements — melody; emotion; a strong statement that becomes part of the lexicon; and great production.

Artwork by Troy L. The number of essential recordings to choose from is seemingly endless. The subjective importance or quality of a song can shift from day to day, era to era. First, the rules. We also decided to limit it to ONE song per artist. Without such a rule, The Beatles would dominate. That still left a lot of great artists and songs off the list.

Top 100 classic rock songs

By Rolling Stone. Click here for the new, updated Greatest Songs list from When you hear a great song, you can think of where you were when you first heard it, the sounds, the smells. It takes the emotions of a moment and holds it for years to come. It transcends time. A great song has all the key elements — melody; emotion; a strong statement that becomes part of the lexicon; and great production. As soon as you start, you get that magic feeling, an extra feeling. Robinson thought Barrett Strong should record "Shop Around," but Gordy persuaded Smokey that he was the right man for the song. After it came out, Gordy heard it on the radio and found it way too slow. He woke Robinson at 3 a.

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The song was a regional hit, and caught the attention of a couple of New York producers, who re-packaged Bartlett with a new group of musicians and christened them Ram Jam. Imagine - John Lennon. In fact, the engineer thought he had ruined Stills' magic by over-brightening the guitar sound, leaving no low end. Crank it up and you will see that decades later, it still knocks down walls. Yes would travel through even more adventurous terrain, sometimes traveling too far into no man's land Relayer , anyone? The in-tandem playing creates a dense, methodical groove which is only enhanced because the pair also mirrors the beat-keeping of drummer Bill Ward. But the label won, and an effort by the band to be more clear with the title "Heir of the Dog" was also rejected, leaving us with the vague innuendo we have today. By the time Bob Seger had written the song that lands at No. The below list of the Top Classic Rock Songs may start a lot of fights it did around here at the UCR office , but it's also the start of one hell of a playlist. Blitzkrieg Bop - Ramones. Part of what's made the gruop so special over the years has been their ability to expand, mutate and transcend the blues genre on songs such as "Cheap Sunglasses" and "Sharp Dressed Man. Upon initial release, Spector seemed to be wrong. I was so frustrated that I cranked the volume of Randy's amp really loud.

Bored with Top Classic Rock Songs lists that are dominated by the same handful of artists?

Its appeal was evident long before "Sultans of Swing" hit No. Though the band had made great strides in reaching a wider audience with their third release, The Yes Album , Fragile took them to the upper regions of the rock world. Appears on: Heaven Tonight Epic. Paul McCartney's pristine, eight-track recorded words are a true musical serenade, beginning as somber poetry before building up into a symphonic, dopamine-releasing outro. Of course, none of them could be so bold without Michael Anthony filling in both the low and high ends so wonderfully. Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. More than ever, Morrison conjures up the old bluesman within that contradicts the year-old man at the mic, with his world-wise, take-no-prisoners attitude. Interscope Records. Whether pompatus will ever gain that acceptance remains to be seen, but it does exist in the Oxford English Dictionary , where it's defined as "to act with pomp and splendor. Cheap Trick provided the ultimate Seventies teen anthem in "Surrender," with a verse about a kid who catches his parents making out and gets stoned to his Kiss records. Manfred Mann's Earth Band took the loose, folksy vibe of the original and gave it a harder edge, adding a lengthy guitar solo, Moog synthesizer and, for some reason, a snippet of the children's piano lesson, "Chopsticks. After being featured in the series-ending episode of The Sopranos and being adopted as a baseball anthem to use only a couple of examples , "Don't Stop Believin'" continues to demonstrate a seemingly everlasting, and possibly growing popularity more than 30 years after it was originally released. Whatever your political leanings, there's plenty to love about this track, not least of which is the simple gut-punch riff that churns throughout the tune.