There's only one way to kick this thing off:
A wop bop a loo bop a lop bam boom!Yep, it's the long awaited normblog songs poll result. Await no more, suffering friends. Here it is.
I received 230 entries, way the biggest normblog poll there's been to date. You do the maths. Even allowing for the fact that a (very) few participants didn't avail themselves of the 10 choices they had, that's well over 2000 song choices to process. Hence 'long awaited'. The normblog Polling Organization was at full stretch, considering that other things have been going on, both here and in the world at large. (Get on with it - Ed.)
As was to be expected, votes were distributed over a huge number of songs, and no single song was voted for by more than 10 per cent of participants. There's one 'natural' cut at 9-votes-plus, yielding a top 25, but after that nothing neat. I decided to go with 4-plus as the final cut-off. This gives an almost top 100 greatest songs of rock - 98 in fact. Let this serve to remind everyone that the world is not neat but messy, and pictures or theories of the world which disguise or evade that truth can lead you astray.
I have used the rankings from The Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Songs of All Time as a sort of presentational tie breaker, in order to avoid large numbers of joint 33rds, 64ths, etc; but you will understand that songs obtaining identical numbers of votes really share the same rank.
With five songs in the top 25, the Rolling Stones' claim to being the greatest rock and roll band in the world is vindicated by the entrants to this poll. Still, the Beatles have 11 songs in the top 98 to the Stones' 7, and the Beatles fare better on another index - which I'll get to.
It may be observed - and, being of mature years, I jolly well am going to observe - that where in the Rolling Stone 500 greatest rankings fully 20 per cent of the songs are early rock 'n' roll (which I'm just taking here as pre-Beatles), in this normblog poll there are only 4 songs (of 98!) from that period, and just one of these in the top 25. No Little Richard, no Everly Brothers, no Eddie Cochrane, no Jerry Lee Lewis; only one song from Elvis, one from Buddy Holly, one from Chuck Berry. It must be to do with the age range of the voters. Even so, I admonish you all, people. Go listen to that stuff. It's as good as it comes. Doing what I've had to do for this poll has reminded me just how good.
Right, enough chat. Here are the results: the normblog not quite top hundred greatest songs of rock 'n' roll. I give for each, and in this order: rank, number of votes obtained, title, artist, and ranking in the Rolling Stone extravaganza.
01 (22) - (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction (The Rolling Stones) [2]
02 (19) - Sympathy For The Devil (The Rolling Stones) [32]
03 (17) - Good Vibrations (The Beach Boys) [6]
04 (16) - Stairway to Heaven (Led Zeppelin) [31]
05 (15) - Like A Rolling Stone (Bob Dylan) [1]
06 (15) - All Along The Watchtower (Jimi Hendrix) [48]
07 (14) - Yesterday (The Beatles) [13]
08 (14) - Born To Run (Bruce Springsteen) [21]
09 (14) - Layla (Derek and the Dominos) [27]
10 (14) - The Weight (The Band) [41]
11 (14) - Won't Get Fooled Again (The Who) [133]
12 (13) - Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana) [9]
13 (13) - Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen) [163]
14 (12) - Johnny B. Goode (Chuck Berry) [7]
15 (12) - London Calling (The Clash) [15]
16 (11) - Gimme Shelter (The Rolling Stones) [38]
17 (10) - A Day In The Life (The Beatles) [26]
18 (10) - Ruby Tuesday (The Rolling Stones) [303]
19 (9) - Hey Jude (The Beatles) [8]
20 (9) - Purple Haze (Jimi Hendrix) [17]
21 (9) - Bridge Over Troubled Water (Simon and Garfunkel) [47]
22 (9) - Hotel California (The Eagles) [49]
23 (9) - Thunder Road (Bruce Springsteen) [86]
24 (9) - Jumpin' Jack Flash (The Rolling Stones) [124]
25 (9) - American Pie (Don McLean) [-]
26 (8) - God Only Knows (The Beach Boys) [25]
27 (8) - Sunshine Of Your Love (Cream) [65]
28 (7) - She Loves You (The Beatles) [64]
29 (7) - Tangled Up In Blue (Bob Dylan) [68]
30 (7) - Comfortably Numb (Pink Floyd) [314]
31 (7) - How Soon Is Now? (The Smiths) [486]
32 (7) - Brown Sugar (The Rolling Stones) [490]
33 (6) - River Deep, Mountain High (Ike and Tina Turner) [33]
34 (6) - A Whiter Shade Of Pale (Procol Harum) [57]
35 (6) - Whole Lotta Love (Led Zeppelin) [75]
36 (6) - California Dreamin (The Mamas and The Papas) [89]
37 (6) - Eight Miles High (The Byrds) [150]
38 (6) - Son Of A Preacher Man (Dusty Springfield) [240]
39 (6) - Baba O'Riley (The Who) [340]
40 (6) - Fairytale Of New York (The Pogues and Kirsty McColl) [-]
41 (6) - Riders On The Storm (The Doors) [-]
42 (6) - Sultans Of Swing (Dire Straits) [-]
43 (5) - What'd I Say (Ray Charles) [10]
44 (5) - Let It Be (The Beatles) [20]
45 (5) - Be My Baby (The Ronettes) [22]
46 (5) - (Sittin' on) the Dock of the Bay (Otis Redding) [28]
47 (5) - I Heard It Through the Grapevine (Marvin Gaye) [80]
48 (5) - You Can't Always Get What You Want (The Rolling Stones) [100]
49 (5) - Brown Eyed Girl (Van Morrison) [109]
50 (5) - House Of The Rising Sun (The Animals) [122]
51 (5) - While My Guitar Gently Weeps (The Beatles) [135]
52 (5) - Kashmir (Led Zeppelin) [140]
53 (5) - The Sound Of Silence (Simon and Garfunkel) [156]
54 (5) - Love Will Tear Us Apart (Joy Division) [179]
55 (5) - Free Bird (Lynyrd Skynyrd) [191]
56 (5) - Oh, Pretty Woman (Roy Orbison) [222]
57 (5) - Hallelujah (Jeff Buckley) [245]
58 (5) - Somebody To Love (Jefferson Airplane) [274]
59 (5) - Penny Lane (The Beatles) [449]
60 (5) - More Than A Feeling (Boston) [500]
61 (5) - Nights in White Satin (The Moody Blues) [-]
62 (5) - This Charming Man (The Smiths) [-]
63 (5) - When The Levee Breaks (Led Zeppelin) [-]
64 (4) - Imagine (John Lennon) [3]
65 (4) - What's Going On (Marvin Gaye) [4]
66 (4) - Respect (Aretha Franklin) [5]
67 (4) - My Generation (The Who) [11]
68 (4) - I Want To Hold Your Hand (The Beatles) [16]
69 (4) - Light My Fire (The Doors) [35]
70 (4) - That'll Be The Day (Buddy Holly) [39]
71 (4) - Waterloo Sunset (The Kinks) [42]
72 (4) - Heroes (David Bowie) [46]
73 (4) - Anarchy In The UK (The Sex Pistols) [53]
74 (4) - Jailhouse Rock (Elvis Presley) [67]
75 (4) - California Girls (The Beach Boys) [71]
76 (4) - You Really Got Me (The Kinks) [82]
77 (4) - Blitzkrieg Bop (The Ramones) [92]
78 (4) - The Boxer (Simon and Garfunkel) [105]
79 (4) - Mr Tambourine Man (Bob Dylan) [106]
80 (4) - Eleanor Rigby (The Beatles) [137]
81 (4) - Me and Bobby McGee (Janis Joplin) [148]
82 (4) - A Hard Day's Night (The Beatles) [153]
83 (4) - Losing My Religion (REM) [169]
84 (4) - Ziggy Stardust (David Bowie) [277]
85 (4) - Black Dog (Led Zeppelin) [294]
86 (4) - Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd) [316]
87 (4) - Subterranean Homesick Blues (Bob Dylan) [332]
88 (4) - Piece Of My Heart (Janis Joplin) [344]
89 (4) - Marquee Moon (Television) [372]
90 (4) - Crossroads (Cream) [409]
91 (4) - White Man In Hammersmith Palais (The Clash) [430]
92 (4) - Come As You Are (Nirvana) [445]
93 (4) - Here Comes The Sun (The Beatles) [-]
94 (4) - Madam George (Van Morrison) [-]
95 (4) - Move On Up (Curtis Mayfield) [-]
96 (4) - Rock And Roll (Led Zeppelin) [-]
97 (4) - Tears Of A Clown (Smokey Robinson) [-]
98 (4) - Teenage Kicks (The Undertones) [-]
Here, finally, is a list of groups and musicians you chose, ranked in order of how many of their songs secured a vote. No question of who is out front on that score.
The Beatles (49), Bob Dylan (29), Led Zeppelin (27), The Rolling Stones (24), Jimi Hendrix (18), Elvis Presley (17), David Bowie (14), Van Morrison (11), U2 (11), The Who (11), The Beach Boys (10), The Clash (10), Radiohead (10), REM (10), Aretha Franklin (9), Pink Floyd (9), Simon and Garfunkel (9), The Band (8), Elvis Costello (8), Creedence Clearwater Revival (8), Deep Purple (8), The Kinks (8), The Police (8), Bruce Springsteen (8), AC/DC (7), Allman Brothers (7), Cream (7), Dire Straits (7), The Doors (7), The Ramones (7), The Smiths (7), Steely Dan (7), Abba (6), Chuck Berry (6), Blondie (6), Buddy Holly (6), Elton John (6), Jethro Tull (6), Little Richard (6), The Talking Heads (6), Johnny Cash (5), Ray Charles (5), The Jam (5), Janis Joplin (5), Pixies (5), Rush (5), Frank Sinatra (5).Thanks to everyone who entered. Here is the 68-strong blogger contingent (their choices under some of these links):
Douglas Bass, Ian Bertram, Alan Brain, Chris Brooke, Andrew Brown, Jeremy Brown, Brownie, Michele Catalano, Sarah Cotterill, Anthony Cox, Jackie D, Marc Danziger, Clive Davis, Jonathan Derbyshire, Chris Dillow, Andrew Ian Dodge, Matt Drachenberg, Stuart Elliott, Dr Frank, Gahrie, Norman Geras, David Gerstman, Giacomo, Geoffrey MG, John Green, Michael Greenspan, Tom Grey, Dave VH, Tim Hall, Ian Hamet, James Hamilton, Mick Hartley, Ben Hunt, Bill 'Industrial', Tamar Jacobson, Jim K, Lewy Katorz, Steve Kingston, Kevin Lang, John Lanius, Graham Lester, Don McClane, David McDuff, Hak Mao, Sophie Masson, Meaders, Tim Newman, Darren O'Neil, Roberto Piccoli, Rob Port, Mike Power, Rick Rasmusson, Cara Remal, Gareth Api Richards, Lisa Rullsenberg, Paul Sand, Richard Schwartz, Scott, Jeremy Stangroom, Chan Stroman, David T, Laban Tall, Doctor Vee, Ben Weasel, Dave Weeden, Wilson, Tim Worstall, Kara Youngs.Particular thanks to Scott Johnson for sending many Power Line readers over to the poll.