Your Best 100

Rock music is a genre of popular music that entered the mainstream in the 1950s. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, rhythm and blues, country music and also drew on folk music, jazz and classical music. The sound of rock often revolves around the electric guitar, a back beat laid down by a rhythm section of electric bass guitar, drums, and keyboard instruments such as Hammond organ, piano, or, since the 1970s, synthesizers. Along with the guitar or keyboards, saxophone and blues-style harmonica are sometimes used as soloing instruments. In its “purest form”, it “has three chords, a strong, insistent back beat, and a catchy melody.

The top 100 rock songs

1. Stairway to Heaven – Led Zeppelin
2. Johnny B. Goode – Chuck Berry
3. Like A Rolling Stone – Bob Dylan
4. Respect – Aretha Franklin
5. I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction – Rolling Stones
6. Jailhouse Rock – Elvis Presley
7. A Day In The Life – Beatles
8. Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen
9. Good Vibrations – Beach Boys
10. What’d I Say – Ray Charles
11. Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag – James Brown
12. Won’t Get Fooled Again – Who
13. All Along The Watchtower – Jimi Hendrix
14. (Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay – Otis Redding
15. Imagine – John Lennon
16. Born To Run – Bruce Springsteen
17. Layla – Derek & the Dominos
18. Light My Fire – Doors
19. I Heard It Through The Grapevine – Marvin Gaye
20. Free Bird – Lynyrd Skynyrd
21. Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On – Jerry Lee Lewis
22. When A Man Loves A Woman – Percy Sledge
23. Hey Jude – Beatles
24. Hotel California – Eagles
25. Rock Around The Clock – Bill Haley & His Comets
26. You Really Got Me – Kinks
27. American Pie – Don McLean
28. Tutti Frutti – Little Richard
29. Baba O’Riley – The Who
30. Sympathy For The Devil – Rolling Stones
31. Superstition – Stevie Wonder
32. Louie Louie – The Kingsmen
33. Smells Like Teen Spirit – Nirvana
34. Bo Diddley – Bo Diddley
35. Yesterday – The Beatles
36. My Generation – The Who
37. Smoke On The Water – Deep Purple
38. Don’t Be Cruel – Elvis Presley
39. Whole Lotta Love – Led Zeppelin
40. Shake, Rattle & Roll – Big Joe Turner
41. Purple Haze – Jimi Hendrix
42. Summertime Blues – Eddie Cochran
43. In The Midnight Hour – Wilson Pickett
44. Time – Pink Floyd
45. Oh Pretty Woman – Roy Orbison
46. Sunshine Of Your Love – Cream
47. Walk This Way – Aerosmith
48. Sweet Child O’ Mine – Guns N’ Roses
49. A Whiter Shade Of Pale – Procol Harum
50. What’s Goin’ On – Marvin Gaye
51. Tears in Heaven – Eric Clapton
52. Comfortably Numb – Pink Floyd
53. Bridge Over Troubled Water – Simon & Garfunkel
54. You Shook Me All Night Long – AC/DC
55. Good Golly, Miss Molly – Little Richard
56. Everyday People – Sly & The Family Stone
57. Roundabout – Yes
58. Bye Bye Love – The Everly Brothers
59. Born To Be Wild – Steppenwolf
60. Sixty Minute Man – The Dominoes
61. Voodoo Child (slight return) – Jimi Hendrix
62. November Rain – Guns N’ Roses
63. One Nation Under A Groove – Funkadelic
64. The House Of The Rising Sun – Animals
65. Mr. Tambourine Man – Byrds
66. Let’s Go Crazy – Prince
67. Please, Please, Please – James Brown
68. Thunder Road – Bruce Springsteen
69. Somebody To Love – Jefferson Airplane
70. Dust In The Wind – Kansas
71. Slow Ride – Foghat
72. Crossroads – Cream
73. Blue Suede Shoes – Carl Perkins
74. With Or Without You – U2
75. More Than A Feeling – Boston
76. We Will Rock You – Queen
77. Go Your Own Way – Fleetwood Mac
78. 21st Century Schizoid Man – King Crimson
79. 7Mystery Train – Elvis Presley
80. Suite: Judy Blue Eyes – Crosby, Stills and Nash
81. Show Me The Way – Peter Frampton
82. Where Did Our Love Go – Supremes
83. My My Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue) – Neil Young
84. Money – Pink Floyd
85. Ziggy Stardust – David Bowie
86. Master of Puppets – Metallica
87. Stand! – Sly & The Family Stone
88. Sultans Of Swing – Dire Straits
89. That’ll Be The Day – Buddy Holly & The Crickets
90. Dream On – Aerosmith
91. Maybellene – Chuck Berry
92. Every Breath You Take – Police
93. Jesus Christ Pose – Soundgarden
94. For What It’s Worth – Buffalo Springfield
95. All Day And All Of The Night – Kinks
96. Tom Sawyer – Rush
97. Tangled Up In Blue – Bob Dylan
98. Hound Dog – Elvis Presley
99. Kashmir – Led Zeppelin
100. All Right Now – Free