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!