"The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" was the cover story of a special issue of Rolling Stone, issue number 963, published December 9, 2004,[1] a year after the magazine published its list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time".
The song list was compiled based on votes by 172 Western musicians, critics, and music industry figures, with no fan or non-English speaking input.
Contents |
| Decade | Number of songs | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| 1940s | 1 | 0.2% |
| 1950s | 72 | 14.4% |
| 1960s | 204 | 40.4% |
| 1970s | 141 | 28.2% |
| 1980s | 57 | 11.4% |
| 1990s | 22 | 4.4% |
| 2000s | 3 | 0.6% |
In May 2010, Rolling Stone compiled an updated list which was published in a special issue and in digital form for iPod and iPad applications. The list differs only slightly from the 2004 version, with all of the new additions being songs from the 2000's with the exceptions of "Juicy" by The Notorious B.I.G. and "Big Pimpin'" by Jay-Z, which were released in 1994 and 1999, respectively. The entire top 25 remained unchanged. Although certain songs had changed their rank in the top 100, the only new entry was Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" at number 100.
The number of songs from each decade in this updated version is as follows:
| Decade | Number of songs | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| 1940s | 2 | 0.4% |
| 1950s | 69 | 13.8% |
| 1960s | 195 | 39% |
| 1970s | 131 | 26.2% |
| 1980s | 55 | 11% |
| 1990s | 22 | 4.4% |
| 2000s | 26 | 5.2% |
U2 and Jay-Z both have two songs added to the list, however Jay-Z is also featured in an additional two other new songs on the list, "Crazy in Love" by Beyoncé, and "Umbrella" by Rihanna. The Crystals are the only artist to have had two songs dropped from the list.