''NME'' Single of the Year

Every December, British music magazine NME compiles a list of what it considers the best single or track of the year. It was started in 1975. The list is usually published in one of the issues sold before Christmas – in 2006 it was published in the issue for December 9. The companion list is NME album of the year

The NME Single of the Year list is compiled by the music reviewers and independent journalists who work for the magazine and for NME.com. Each picks his or her top 20 singles of the year and hands them in to the editor. An album marked at Number One gets 20 points, Number Two gets 19 points and so on until the 20th, which gets one point. All of the points from the various top 20s are then gathered together and the overall favourites are worked out and ranked for publication in the official list. The single or track with the most points overall is Number One in the list, the one with the second most points is Number Two and so on. There have been, to date, three artists who have won Album and Single of the Year in the same year: Joy Division in 1980, Klaxons in 2007 and MGMT in 2008. Cecil Womack and Bobby Womack also won Single & Album of the Year respectively in 1984.

Singles of the Year

"Pretty Vacant" by the Sex Pistols topped the listing in 1977.

NME named "Eton Rifles" by The Jam as the best single of 1979.

Prince is the only artist to have topped the list more than once, in 1986 and 1987.

The Stone Roses' "She Bangs the Drum" was named the single of the year in 1989.

"Higher Than the Sun" by Primal Scream was voted the greatest single of 1991.

NME voted "Girls & Boys" by Blur as the number-one song of 1994.

MGMT had three songs in NME's top five singles of 2008.

References

NME End of year critic lists