"The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" was the cover story of a special issue of Rolling Stone, issue number 963, published in December 2004, a year after the magazine published its list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time".
Statistics
Of the 500 songs, 351 are from the United States and 120 from the United Kingdom; they are followed by Canada, with 13 ; Ireland, with 12 entries ; Jamaica, with 7 ; Australia, with two ; Sweden and France, each with one.
The list includes only songs written in English, with the sole exception of "La Bamba", sung in Spanish by the American singer-songwriter Ritchie Valens.
Few songs written prior to the 1950s are included; some that are listed are Robert Johnson's "Crossroads", in the version recorded by Cream, and Hank Williams's "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry". "The House of the Rising Sun", listed in the version by English rock bandthe Animals, was recorded at least as early as 1934. Muddy Waters' "Rollin' Stone" is based on an earlier song, dating to the 1920s.
There is one instrumental on the list: "Green Onions" by the American band Booker T. and the M.G.'s.
The number of songs from each of the decades represented in the 2004 version is as follows:
The artists not included on the list of the top 100 artists but having the most songs featured in the list are the Animals, Blondie, Frank Sinatra and the Isley Brothers, each with three songs.
Three songs appear on the list twice, performed by different artists: "Mr. Tambourine Man", performed by Bob Dylan and by the Byrds ; "Blue Suede Shoes" by Presley and by Carl Perkins and "Walk This Way" by Aerosmith and by Run-DMC.
The shortest tracks are "Rave On!" by Buddy Holly running 1:47, "Great Balls of Fire" by Jerry Lee Lewis and Eddie Cochran's "C'mon Everybody".
The longest tracks are "The End" by the Doors; "Desolation Row" by Bob Dylan and "Marquee Moon" by Television.
Love is the most frequent word used in the songs' lyrics, with 1,057 occurrences, followed by I'm, oh, know, baby, got and yeah.
2010 update
In May 2010, Rolling Stone compiled an update, published in a special issue and in digital form for the iPod and iPad. The list differs from the 2004 version, with 26 songs added, all of which are songs from the 2000s except "Juicy" by The Notorious B.I.G., released in 1994. The top 25 remained unchanged, but many songs down the list were given different rankings as a result of the inclusion of new songs, causing consecutive shifts among the songs listed in 2004. The highest-ranked new entry was Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy". The number of songs from each decade in the updated version is as follows: Two songs by U2 and two by Jay-Z were added to the list. Jay-Z is featured in two other new songs on the list: "Crazy in Love" by Beyoncé, and "Umbrella" by Rihanna. The only artist to have two songs dropped from the list is the Crystals; their "Da Doo Ron Ron" was the highest-ranked song to have been dropped.
