The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time
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The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time was the cover story of a special issue of Rolling Stone magazine published in November 2004. It was chosen based on votes by 172 musicians, critics, and industry figures.
As with similar previous lists from Rolling Stone, such as The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time and The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, this new list proved to be controversial. One common criticism is that the list leans towards the 1960s and 1970s at the expense of newer artists and even newer genres such as rap, much as the earlier list of 500 greatest albums did (The list has 202 songs from the '60s and 144 from the '70s, yet only 55 songs from the 80's, 24 songs from the 90's, and just three songs from the 21st century.). It also includes only one song not sung in English, "La Bamba" by Ritchie Valens.
The oldest song on the list is Muddy Waters' Rollin' Stone from 1948 (ranked #459). The only other song from the 1940's is Hank Williams' I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry from 1949 (#111). The most recent is OutKast's 2003 hit Hey Ya! (#180) - one of only three songs from the new millennium.
With 23 songs on the list, The Beatles are the most represented musical act. They are followed by The Rolling Stones (14 entries), Bob Dylan, who also topped the list with "Like a Rolling Stone" (12 entries), Elvis Presley (11 entries), The Beach Boys, U2, and Jimi Hendrix (7 entries each), and Chuck Berry, James Brown, Prince, Led Zeppelin, and Sly & the Family Stone (6 entries each).
When the article ran in the 2004 issue, musicians Brian Wilson, Tom Morello, Brandon Boyd, Solomon Burke, James Hetfield, ?uestlove, Ray Manzarek, Slash, Billy Gibbons, Ozzy Osbourne and Maya Ford all were featured in a column each about their personal ten favorite songs.
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