Can I break my list into groups i.e. 1-20, 21-40 and so on? You could then calculate an average number for points for each song in the group. I'm sorry, but this is the only way, otherwise I'll never decide. Either this, or I can just send you an unnumbered list.

Can I break my list into groups i.e. 1-20, 21-40 and so on? You could then calculate an average number for points for each song in the group. I'm sorry, but this is the only way, otherwise I'll never decide. Either this, or I can just send you an unnumbered list.

That will work fine, Jacek. Can't wait to see your list!

It seems that you and Sonofsamiam are tryin' to convince me to make my top 2000 songs ever of all-time. Ok guys, I'm gonna try to do it but it will probably take me a lot of time !

All I want is 200. (Actually, 100 would be fine, too!)

2000 would be an exciting bonus, but no need to go that far!

This is a fine idea, Sonofsamiam, and I'll do my damnedest to find time to make a list. You didn't quite post an unnegotiable deadline yet, right?

This is a fine idea, Sonofsamiam, and I'll do my damnedest to find time to make a list. You didn't quite post an unnegotiable deadline yet, right?

Nothing unnegotiable, yet. Count on at least 3 more weeks, and maybe a little time beyond that. I want to make sure there's decent response for this. And so far a couple lists are extremely oriented toward a few artists, so I'm hoping for a little more diversity.

Just a reminder -- I'm looking for more lists! Only 4 have come my way so far.

No pressure, I know it's quite a task....

Don't worry Sonofsamiam, you'll get your list within' a couple of days !

Sonofsamiam,
I've just finished to make my selection of my 200 favourite songs of all-time of the world ever. It was hard, very hard. But now begin the 2nd part of the work, the hardest part : ranking these songs ! All I can say is that was the first time I made this kind of exercise and seing all these songs listed the ones after the others make me feel dizzy : so much beauty, so much happiness of my life summerized in 200 songs, waouh !!!
I think I'm gonna give each of the 200 songs ONE listen and then trying to rank them. I must admit that I still have no idea of who will be my number 1...
Just some statistics :
My most represented artists are :
15 songs : The Beach Boys
12 songs : Rufus Wainwright
8 songs : Harry Nilsson
6 songs : The Beatles
5 songs : Elliott Smith, Radiohead, The Ronettes, The Flaming Lips
4 songs : Super Furry Animals, The Boo Radleys, Primal Scream

Number of songs by decade :
Before the 50's : 1
50's : 3
60's : 63
70's : 32
80's : 3
90's : 58
00's : 40

My list is guaranteed 100% no hip-hop, no modern R&B, no Missy Elliott, no Prince , no Madonna , no electronic music, no overproduced 80's crap with lots of synthetizers, no return of the comeback of the old fuckin' new wave. There is just good pop, rock, soul, inspired singer-songwriters : maybe my tastes are not diverse but I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I do.

Lookin' forward to it, dumbangel, but: 3 songs from the '80s??? That seems more like you're making a statement, but taste is taste, I spose.

Sonofsam, I've just sent you my list !

expect mine within 24 hours.

Hi everyone! Thanks to all who've sent lists thus far.

Henrik dropped me a line hinting that the deadline on this should probably be extended, and I'm in full agreement. So I'll keep taking submissions until at least mid-October -- I know that a songs list is a tougher proposition than an albums one.

I would like to get at least as many submissions as the albums list got so we can get a "true" reflection of the board's taste. If there aren't many more in (I've received 8 so far) by then, I'll be happy to extend the date again.

Looking forward to more!

I will add a link to this thread on the home page (I can't believe I haven't done this already). I would like to give a deadline for this, could we agree about end of October (I don't think the 8 people so far would like to wait longer than that!)?

I will add a link to this thread on the home page (I can't believe I haven't done this already). I would like to give a deadline for this, could we agree about end of October (I don't think the 8 people so far would like to wait longer than that!)?

That's fine with me. Maybe October 31 should be the "drop-dead" date, in honor of Halloween?

I believed that the deadline was the end of september. I've hurried up for nothing...

I'm agonizing over my list, but it will come in due time. :D

I believed that the deadline was the end of september. I've hurried up for nothing...

The deadline's sort of been a moving target, and I apologize to all those that got lists in early. But it's critical that enough lists get in for the results to be meaningful.

I was already thinking about this, and maybe October 31 is too far down the line. Would October 17 be an agreeable date for everyone? If not, speak now or forever hold your peace.

Hi. I'm new here (in the forum), coming from Spain. I just missed the opportunity to participate in the albums poll, but I won't this time. So please wait for my list. And thanx!

Here's the breakdown of my list;
1950's 2
1960's 38
1970's 48
1980's 39
1990's 42
2000's 31

Most per artist
The Beatles 9
The Smiths 6
Bob Dylan 5
David Bowie 5
Radiohead 5
Blur 4
Oasis 4

the 10/17 date.

...and now I have finally updated the info (October 17) on the home page.

Remember people, a valid list must have at least 4 Pixies songs.

Damn, I've had only two on mine :/

I'm enjoying seeing the breakdown of lists by decade and by artist - here's mine.


By decade:

50s - 4
60s - 54
70s - 65
80s - 39
90s - 29
00s - 9

Artists:

Beatles - 24
Dylan - 13
Stones - 7
The Fall - 6
Randy Newman - 5
Go-Betweens - 4
Wire - 4

Four songs by The Go-Betweens and I've had five, it seems like Robert and Grant have serious chances for some solid presence on the list.

OK, here's my breakdown:

By decade:

1930s: 2
1950s: 7
1960s: 47
1970s: 85
1980s: 26
1990s: 21
2000s: 12

By artist:

The Beatles: 6
Bob Dylan: 5
John Coltrane: 4
Curtis Mayfield: 4
The Velvet Underground: 4
The Beach Boys: 3
David Bowie: 3
James Brown: 3
Elvis Costello: 3
Miles Davis: 3
Funkadelic: 3
Charles Mingus: 3
Radiohead: 3
Stevie Wonder: 3
The Boredoms: 2
Can: 2
Johnny Cash: 2
Leonard Cohen: 2
Nick Drake: 2
Faust: 2
The Flaming Lips: 2
Marvin Gaye: 2
Fela Kuti: 2
Led Zeppelin: 2
Love: 2
Joni Mitchell: 2
Os Mutantes: 2
Prince: 2
Public Enemy: 2
The Rolling Stones: 2
Gil Scott-Heron: 2
Nina Simone: 2
Sly and the Family Stone: 2
The Stooges: 2
Talk Talk: 2
Tom Waits: 2
Scott Walker: 2
The Who: 2
Wire: 2
The Zombies: 2

By the way, I've still received only 9 lists. Since there are only 12 days left, I'm hoping to receive at least 1 a day to get a list that's fairly representative.

I'm presuming some of the obvious usual suspects are still honing their masterpieces!

Boy, this was headache-producing. Ten times more difficult than chosing 100 fave albums.

The breakdown is:
30'es - 3
50'es - 7
60'es - 45
70'es - 65
80'es - 52
90'es - 20
00'es - 8

which comes as a surpise to myself - I'd thought it would be more 60'es and 90'es and less 80'es.

Most represented artists:
9 - Bob Dylan
8 - Leonard Cohen
7 - Warren Zevon
6 - Neil Young (+ 1 CSNY), Beatles, Bowie, R.E.M.
5 - Nick Cave, Creedence C.R., John Hiatt
4 - John Cale, Velvet Underground (+ 2 Lou Reed), The Deam Syndicate (+ 1 Steve Wynn), Doors, Presley, Stones, Patti Smith.

Looks terribly conservative, I'm afraid, although there are 3 Pixies and 2 Prince sings in there too :-)

60's - 25
70's - 38
80's - 62
90's - 65
00's - 20

I tried not to have more than 5 songs by an artist, so this rank goes like this:

5 - Oasis, The Beatles, The Go-Betweens, The Stone Roses, The Triffids, XTC.
4 - Bob Dylan, R.E.M., The Clash, The Smiths.
3 - Blondie, Blur, British Sea Power, David Bowie, Joy Division, Radiohead, The Beach Boys, The Jam, The Rolling Stones.

Hi all:

Well, a couple more lists have come in, and the list is starting to take shape. However, just a few votes one way or another can really make waves, so don't be shy about joining in, and doing your favorite songs justice!

On another note, I have a question for debate -- how do you all think I should handle multiple votes for the same song, but different artists? Some typical examples include:

- All Along the Watchtower (Hendrix and Dylan)
- Mr. Tambourine Man (Byrds and Dylan)
- Hallelujah (Buckley, Cohen, Wainwright)
- Always on My Mind (Elvis, Willie Nelson, Pet Shop Boys)

It's my inclination to count votes from multiple artists to the 1 song, rather than split out by artist. Mojo did this in their Top 100 songs several years ago, and it made some sense to me. For example, it seems unfair to dilute the impact of All Along the Watchtower, just because Dylan wrote a great original that many love, and Hendrix did an incredible cover that many love.

Then again, some people may love only a specific version of a song, and might hate another that gets votes. So there's my dilemma.

In any case, let me know what you think....

I think you should count the votes for each version of a song separately. As the Romans said Divide et impera. After the offspring of Dylan lapse into fratricidal war Pixies will rule supreme.

Whoof, at last I’ve got the list! When I did my albums list I thought that compiling a list of songs would be much more easier, but I was completely wrong. In fact I have not been able to compile 200 songs and I’ve decided to send a list of 250 songs (but if you want to use the first 200 there’s no problem for me). I came up with more than 300 songs, I began to remove and was left with 217 songs. Being unable to remove any more song, I extended the list to 250.

Here's the breakdown of my list:
XVIII-XIX Century: 4
20s-40s: 8
50s: 10
60s: 53
70s: 67
80s: 44
90s: 40
00s: 24

I agree with Sonfosamiam to count the votes of a song regardless of the different covers. I even think that what makes a song really GOOD is the existence of a good version from other artist different that the writer.

I agree with Jacek, votes for each version should be summed separately. I didn't vote for composition or melodies but clearly specificated tracks from particular albums. The second point is that this versions differ very much - e.g. I love "Hallelujah" by Buckley, but Cohen's performance leaves me cold and I'd never vote for the song if Buckley didn't record it.

Based on the comments so far, I'll go ahead and split the votes by artist.

The only conundrum this creates for me is which version of "The Mercy Seat" to finally vote for, as both Nick Cave's original and Johnny Cash's cover leave me awestruck. I vacillate daily between the two...

Why not list both?

Well I do understand your concern of leaving out something else. This actually leads me to another question.

Will you present all the individual lists like Jacek did for the albums? I know we all would love to see each others lists! In this case I hope it would be OK for us to mention other versions outside of the poll.

Examples:
xx. Julee Cruise "Falling" (also recommended: "Twin Peaks Theme")
xx. Scissor Sisters "Comfortably Numb" (also recommended: Pink Floyd's original version)

I'll definitely be listing everyone's individual lists -- never fear!

Also, a reminder to all -- just 4 more days for submissions....

Just another reminder -- Monday is the last day I'm accepting lists! In the interests of peer pressure, here are some people I've not gotten lists from, that I hope to:

Alex Santee
Dan O'Brien
Denis Filion
Giuseppe
Harold Wexler
Henrik (!!!)
Howlin' Andrew
JR
Mauricio Cadena
Michel Floch
Moonbeam
Nescio
Tremolo

Hope some more come in soon -- I'm looking forward to unveiling this next week!

I'm working on it for a few hours a day. I've narrowed it down to about 450 songs now. It's really tough!

A few hours a day? Gasp! I made mine in an hour. Of course I did miss one or two songs as a result, but none of them would be very high anyway.

I started to get songs down, but nowhere near 200. Ans then the rankings. a whole 'nother thing.

Working midnight- 8.5 a.m. doesn't help in matters such as this.

It was very difficult, but I finally finished my list of top 300 songs. I couldn't limit it to 200. I eventually hope to extend the list to at least 1000.

In any case, here's my predictable breakdown by decade and artist:

Songs from each decade in my top 300 (Top 200 in Parentheses):

60s: 5 (1)
70s: 29 (16)
80s: 144 (108)
90s: 67 (47)
00s: 55 (28)

Artists with at least 3 songs in my top 300 (Top 200 in parentheses):

Prince 83 (59)
Eurythmics 20 (15)
Björk 17 (11)
Madonna 17 (11)
The Cure 16 (14)
Janet Jackson 15 (12)
David Bowie 14 (8)
Kylie Minogue 11 (7)
Blondie 9 (7)
New Order 8 (6)
The Smiths 6 (4)
Roxy Music 6 (3)
Annie Lennox 5 (4)
Depeche Mode 5 (3)
Michael Jackson 5 (2)
Stevie Wonder 4 (3)
The Doors 4 (1)
Lou Reed 3 (3)
Aaliyah 3 (2)
Franz Ferdinand 3 (2)
Roxette 3 (2)
Busta Rhymes 3 (1)

I'm surprised by the dominance of the 80s and the poor showing of the 70s. I think it's due to the fact that I know a lot more songs from the 80s on than from the 60s and 70s. That said, the albums I do own from the 60s and 70s I adore, so those decades are much more represented in an albums list.

I'll send my list in the morning, sonofsamiam

I saw your post...

It was very difficult, but I finally finished my list of top 300 songs.

...but haven't gotten the list yet. Did you send it? I just want to be sure yours gets tallied.

I got my list up past 1000, too.

I'll probably end up posting my Top 500, and I'll be certain to post your Top 300. Maybe I'll just post peoples' runners-up at the end of the thread, after all the 200s.

Just a reminder that today's the last day I'll be accepting lists! I'll actually probably take submissions for the next 20 hours or so, so never fear.

I still need Henrik's list, especially!

Expect mine at 23:59!

Not much time left now!!!

And Moonbeam, I still haven't gotten your list....

I finally made it!

Here's my breakdown by decade.

40s and earlier: 17
50s: 16
60s: 43
70s: 50
80s: 35
90s: 28
00s: 11

Hi everyone!

I received 4 more lists late yesterday (whoo!) and the list-taking window is now closed.

I just have some more tabulation to do, and then I'll start the roll-out. Hopefully today I'll be able to post the runners-up to the Top 100, at the very least. And the whole thing should be unveiled (in overly dramatic "countdown" fashion, of course), plus individual lists, by the end of the week.

overly dramatic = 1 song a day

I'm very curious how this turns out. I hope it will completely unpredictable and hopefully match my own top 100 song for song.

I'm pretty close to done now -- just some double-checking left to do. Here are some numbers for the early returns (all high-level stats, nothing revealed yet):

- 20 lists were sent and tallied
- 2,429 different songs received votes
- 521 songs received multiple votes
- 417 songs received more than 200 points (200 points being the maximum any song can get from 1 voter)

Just something to chew on in the meantime. The unveiling of the list will get a new thread all for itself!

Also, one last thing (and I hope everyone agrees with this methodology):

I'm sort of a numbers purist with lists, and I hate to see ties in things like this. However, there were quite a few songs with the same number of points. As a result, I came up with a couple tiebreakers:

1. If 2 songs are tied, the one with more votes gets higher placement.
2. If the 2 songs have the same number of votes, the one with the highest ranking in an individual list gets higher placement.

This gives weight in the first place to consensus and then, barring that, gives weight to the stronger feelings by 1 contributor. Hopefully that makes sense.

It looks like there will still be some ties, even using this method, but I can live with that.

These methods sound excellent.

I can't wait to see the results!!!

Any second now...

It appears in my yahoo outbox that it was sent to dcal9@allstate.com. I hope my list counts as I worked over 15 hours on it!

It appears in my yahoo outbox that it was sent to dcal9@allstate.com. I hope my list counts as I worked over 15 hours on it!

No worries, Moonbeam, it was counted.

And the list is already being unveiled -- see the separate thread!