Top 50 Radio Rock Songs of All-Time

Posted about 1 year ago

Artist:
- PLAY
Radiohead
Album:
- PLAY
- QUEUE
The Bends
Track:
- PLAY
Creep

The radio phenomenon, WOXY.com, has released its annual list of top 500 radio rock songs of all-time. Below, I have listed the top 50, while the entire list can be found here:50. Kate Bush - Running Up That Hill49. R.E.M. - Losing My Religion48. Nirvana - All Apologies47. Bjork - Human Behaviour46. The Police - Message In A Bottle45. Elvis Costello - (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding44. The Clash - Should I Stay Or Should I Go?43. Beastie Boys - Sabotage42. Jeff Buckley - Last Goodbye41. James - Laid40. Jane’s Addiction - Been Caught Stealing39. R.E.M. - It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)38. David Bowie - Changes37. The Breeders - Cannonball36. U2 - New Year’s Day35. Patti Smith - Gloria34. Nirvana - Come As You Are33. The Cure - Just Like Heaven32. Radiohead - Karma Police31. Lou Reed - Walk On The Wild Side30. The Jesus And Mary Chain - Just Like Honey29. Talking Heads - Burning Down The House28. Sex Pistols - Anarchy In The UK27. The Clash - Rock The Casbah26. Sonic Youth - Teenage Riot25. Pixies - Monkey Gone To Heaven24. Jane’s Addiction - Jane Says23. New Order - Blue Monday22. Depeche Mode - Personal Jesus21. My Bloody Valentine - Only Shallow20. David Bowie - Space Oddity19. Television - Marquee Moon18. Talking Heads - Psycho Killer17. The Ramones - I Wanna Be Sedated16. Fugazi - Waiting Room15. Beck - Loser14. The Cure - Boys Don’t Cry13. The Replacements - Alex Chilton12. Elvis Costello - Radio Radio11. Sex Pistols - God Save The Queen10. U2 - Sunday Bloody Sunday9. Radiohead - Paranoid Android8. Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit7. The Clash - London Calling6. Pixies - Where Is My Mind?5. R.E.M. - Radio Free Europe4. The Smiths - How Soon Is Now?3. Violent Femmes - Blister In The Sun2. Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart1. Radiohead - CreepAny surprises? Leave me your thoughts.

Comments (9)

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brittanybf says looks like they have a strong bent towards Radiohead :) It's nice that Nirvana isn't number one.

Permalink posted 05/30/2008
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hawaiianpunch says hmmm.... What was the criteria for compiling this list? Is it just one radio station's top 500 based on most played/most requested? If that, then I guess there are no surprises here. There were definitely songs I thought should be higher on the list and bands that are on here but with lesser songs than I would've picked. I mean, as a radio rock song, I would've expected "Rock the Casbah" to have been higher than "London Calling". And what's with Radiohead's "Creep" being number one. It's a good song, but by far one of the worst songs relative to the rest of their library. I know people love to hate on Nirvana and Kurt Cobain nowadays saying they were overrated and all that, BUT, can anyone deny the impact that "Smells Like Teen Spirit" had on rock radio when it first came out? I remember hearing the song on first on my local alternative rock station and loving it so much that I searched out "Bleach" before "Nevermind" came out. Then, the song blew up! And I don't mean regular rotation on all the rock stations and MTV. I mean the HIPHOP stations started playing it in regular rotation for a long minute. That was the one time I remember a straight ahead rock song (not nu-metal, rap-rock, or any other hybrid) broke that barrier. It was something to remember. I'm just sayin'....

Permalink posted 05/30/2008
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brittanybf says good point about nirvana being played on hip hop stations...i forgot but yeah, i remember hearing it on those stations too at one point.

Permalink posted 05/30/2008
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loganlenz says I just realized that the link in the post didn't work. Here is the entire list of 500 that the radio station made: http://woxy.lala.com/blog/2008/05/27/the-2008-modern-rock-500-final-song-listing/#more-1725

Permalink posted 05/30/2008
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Zeroskilz says I like reading these lists, but it's hard to take them serious. Sometimes it just seems that the lists are posted to create controversy and draw attention to the site. How many people even live in a market that regularly spun Fugazi? Not that I wouldn't love to turn on the radio and hear them.... Just sayin'.

Permalink posted 05/30/2008
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Cody B says That list is all over the place,no? oh wait, I promised myself I'd never say anything about a list again..Damn!

Permalink posted 05/30/2008
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ardyjormkiv says hmm. i've probably only heard about half of these. but i WILL agree with number one because, up until a few years ago, that was one of the only radiohead songs i knew. and i didn't know it was them for awhile either. so yeah.

Permalink posted 05/30/2008
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Anna says No Surprises ;)

Permalink posted 06/01/2008
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kaw1216 says pretty damn good list here

Permalink posted 06/10/2008