DrogeMiester's Top 20 FAVORITE Hits of All-Time

My first post on this blog for this Billboard project of mine was on May 18, 2015. That's when I posted the top 10 most popular songs of 1958. Since I have a thing for numbers and dates, I thought it would be fitting to reveal the final post in this project on the exact two year anniversary of when I started, May 18, 2017.

If you missed my all-time countdown from this project that I posted during the past two weeks, here's the link to start that countdown. You can also browse through the blog archive on the right to view any post that I've done as a part of this project. After I finished posting the top songs of each decade during this project, I made sure to post of list of my personal favorite songs from that decade. So it's only fitting that after posting my list of the most popular songs of all-time that I would top it off with a list of my favorite songs of all time. Again, I'll still be maintaining this blog moving forward with my weekly Billboard analysis and any other projects that I come up with, but this post is the absolute grand finale of this specific two-year Billboard project.

In the title of this post, I use the word "hits" because my one parameter for this list is that the song had to make the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 in order to be considered. That narrows my pool from every song ever written to a list of 4,718 songs that have made the top 10 from 1958 to 2016. Being that I already created lists of my favorite hits from each decade, I simply took those lists and combined them together, giving me a very manageable pool of about 120 songs considered. Thus this list was a lot less daunting to make than it sounds. While it would be fun to create a list that's more inclusive of every song written or any song that made the Hot 100 at all, that's just too many songs to sift through, thus I wouldn't be comfortable with the final result because of the fear of missing something. That's the same reason I haven't made a list of my all-time favorite movies on my main blog. I haven't seen every movie ever made or even got close to seeing all the movies I want to see.

I have actually created a list like this before. I quickly threw together a list of my favorite songs in March 2012, which was long before this blog existed and towards the beginning of my main blog when I was still experimenting and new to blogging. I was inspired to do that list after creating a list of my favorite Disney songs in February 2012. Just like I recently updated my favorite Disney songs list ahead of the release of Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" remake earlier this year, it's definitely time for an update of my favorite songs, too. My big mistake with my list five years ago was assuming that all my favorite songs were already a part of my iTunes library, which was very small back then. I also didn't put a whole ton of thought into it. Not as much as this time around, anyways, which I have the huge advantage of having just completed this Billboard project. Here's my initial 2012 list if you are curious enough to compare. There is some crossover, actually. But not much. And yes, part of that is due to my current parameters that the songs had to make the top 10.

My final comment before we dive into this list is a quick note that in the parentheses after each song is the year it entered the top 10 followed by the spot it peaked at in the top 10. That being just for fun. Now with all of that out of the way, let's begin!

20- "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" - Eiffel 65 (2000 - No. 6)


19- "Iris" - Goo Goo Dolls (1998 - No. 9)


18- "In the End" - Linkin Park (2002 - No. 2)


17- "Another Night" - Real McCoy (1994 - No. 3) 


16- "Gangsta's Paradise" - Coolio featuring L.V. (1995 - No. 1)


15- "Lose Yourself" - Eminem (2002 - No. 1)


14- "Smells Like Teen Spirit" - Nirvana (1992 - No. 6)


13- "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)" - Journey (1983 - No. 8)


12- "Take on Me" - a-ha (1985 - No. 1)


11- "99 Luftballons" - Nena (1984 - No. 2)


10- "Bring Me to Life" - Evanescence featuring Paul McCoy (2003 - No. 5)


9 - "Stayin' Alive" - Bee Gees (1978 - No. 1)


8- "The Boxer" - Simon & Garfunkel (1969 - No. 7)


7- "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" - Eurythmics (1983 - No. 1)


6- "Titanium" - David Guetta featuring Sia (2012 - No. 7)


5- "Chandelier" - Sia (2014 - No. 8)


4- "Dream On" - Aerosmith (1976 - No. 6)


3- "Bridge Over Troubled Water" - Simon & Garfunkle (1970 - No. 1)


2- "Don't Stop Believin'" - Journey (1981 - No. 9)


1- "My Immortal" - Evanescence (2004 - No. 7)


Click here to see my favorite hits of the 1960's
Click here to see my favorite hits of the 1970's
Click here to see my favorite hits of the 1980's
Click here to see my favorite hits of the 1990's
Click here to see my favorite hits of the 2000's

Top 100 MOST POPULAR Songs of All-Time: 10 - 1 (as of 2016)

Well friends, family and random citizens reading this post, all good things must eventually come to an end. Two years ago I started a journey to determine what the most popular songs of all-time were based on my own personal system. Today I finally reveal the end results with this list of the top 10 most popular songs of all-time, which spans from the first week of the Billboard Hot 100 in August 1958 through the end of last year, 2016, allowing the songs from last year to finish their runs in the top 10. In the first post in this countdown, I explained this project in depth, so if you missed that, I have that linked right there at the beginning of this sentence. But as a final reminder, this is strictly based on performance in the top 10, with a self-created system in place to adjust things given the constantly changing music scene. If you noticed an all-time classic that didn't make this list, it's worth noting that not every classic song performed well on the Billboard charts and not every song that performed well on the Billboard charts has become an all-time classic. If you missed any part of this countdown, there are links at the bottom that you can follow. You can also use the blog archive on the right to browse through this list or any other post that I've done.

Even though this specific project is now complete, I will still be maintaining this blog, so no worries there. Later this week I will reveal my list of personal favorite all-time Billboard hits and I plan on continuing my weekly analysis of the current Billboard charts for the foreseeable future. Outside that, we'll see what other fun music-related projects I come up with, so I hope you've enjoyed this current project and will continue following me for future projects! With that said, let's check out these top songs!

10- "Eye of the Tiger" - Survivor (1982)


9- "Uptown Funk" - Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars (2014)


8- "Bette Davis Eyes" - Kim Carnes (1981)


7- "Endless Love" - Diana Ross & Lionel Richie (1981)


6- "Physical" - Olivia Newton-John (1981)


5- "You Light Up My Life" - Debby Boone (1977)


4- "How Do I Live" - LeAnn Rimes (1997)


3- "Smooth" - Santana featuring Rob Thomas (1999)


2- "Mack the Knife" - Bobby Darin (1959)


1- "The Twist" - Chubby Checker (1960)


Click here for 20 - 11

Top 100 MOST POPULAR Songs of All-Time: 20 - 11 (as of 2016)

Two years ago I started a journey to determine what the most popular songs of all-time were based on my own personal system. This is that list. In the first post in this countdown, I explained this project in depth, so if you missed that, I have that linked right there at the beginning of this sentence. The short version is that I went back to the very first week of the charts in August 1958 and went week by week giving points to the songs that made the top 10. After finishing that, I posted the top 10 songs of each year one week at a time until we've now arrived at the point where it's time to reveal this final list. If you missed any of this, you can check it out in the blog archive on the right. This may not be the perfect system, but it's taught me a lot about the history of the Billboard charts, so I have no regrets and I hope you've enjoyed the ride. As pertaining to this list, I did do some adjusting because music and the way we listen to it is always changing and thus Billboard is constantly updated their formula. If I didn't adjust, then almost all songs on this list would be post-1991 and that would be lame. With all that out of the way, let's now look at the next 10 entries in this countdown. Links are at the bottom if you missed any previous part of the countdown.

20- "Every Breath You Take" - The Police (1983)


19- "Le Freak" - Chic (1978)


18- "Another One Bites the Dust" - Queen (1980)


17- "Flashdance... What a Feeling" - Irene Cara (1983)


16- "Waiting for a Girl Like You" - Foreigner (1981)


15- "The Battle of New Orleans" - Johnny Horton (1959)


14- "We Belong Together" - Mariah Carey (2005)


13- "Un-Break My Heart" - Toni Braxton (1996) 


12- "Hey Jude" - The Beatles (1968)


11- "Closer" - The Chainsmokers featuring Halsey (2016)



Click here for 30 - 21
Click here for 10 - 1

Top 100 MOST POPULAR Songs of All-Time: 30 - 21 (as of 2016)

Two years ago I started a journey to determine what the most popular songs of all-time were based on my own personal system. This is that list. In the first post in this countdown, I explained this project in depth, so if you missed that, I have that linked right there at the beginning of this sentence. The short version is that I went back to the very first week of the charts in August 1958 and went week by week giving points to the songs that made the top 10. After finishing that, I posted the top 10 songs of each year one week at a time until we've now arrived at the point where it's time to reveal this final list. If you missed any of this, you can check it out in the blog archive on the right. This may not be the perfect system, but it's taught me a lot about the history of the Billboard charts, so I have no regrets and I hope you've enjoyed the ride. As pertaining to this list, I did do some adjusting because music and the way we listen to it is always changing and thus Billboard is constantly updated their formula. If I didn't adjust, then almost all songs on this list would be post-1991 and that would be lame. With all that out of the way, let's now look at the next 10 entries in this countdown. Links are at the bottom if you missed any previous part of the countdown.

30- "I Love Rock 'N Roll" - Joan Jett and The Blackhearts (1982)


29- "I Gotta Feeling" - The Black Eyed Peas (2009)


28- "I'll Make Love to You" - Boyz II Men (1994)


27- "The Theme from 'A Summer Place'" - Percy Faith and His Orchestra (1960)


26- "Macarena (Bayside Boys Mix)" - Los del Rio (1996)


25- "Somebody that I Used to Know" - Gotye featuring Kimbra (2012)


24- "Yeah!" - Usher featuring Lil Jon & Ludacris (2004)


23- "Say Say Say" - Paul McCartney & Michael Jackson (1983)


22- "Tossin' and Turnin'" - Bobby Lewis (1961) 


21- "I Want to Hold Your Hand" - The Beatles (1964)


Click here for 40 - 31
Click here for 20 - 11

Top 100 MOST POPULAR Songs of All-Time: 40 - 31 (as of 2016)

Two years ago I started a journey to determine what the most popular songs of all-time were based on my own personal system. This is that list. In the first post in this countdown, I explained this project in depth, so if you missed that, I have that linked right there at the beginning of this sentence. The short version is that I went back to the very first week of the charts in August 1958 and went week by week giving points to the songs that made the top 10. After finishing that, I posted the top 10 songs of each year one week at a time until we've now arrived at the point where it's time to reveal this final list. If you missed any of this, you can check it out in the blog archive on the right. This may not be the perfect system, but it's taught me a lot about the history of the Billboard charts, so I have no regrets and I hope you've enjoyed the ride. As pertaining to this list, I did do some adjusting because music and the way we listen to it is always changing and thus Billboard is constantly updated their formula. If I didn't adjust, then almost all songs on this list would be post-1991 and that would be lame. With all that out of the way, let's now look at the next 10 entries in this countdown. Links are at the bottom if you missed any previous part of the countdown.

40- "Ebony and Ivory" - Paul McCartney & Stevie Wonder (1982)


39- "Call Me" - Blondie (1980)


38- "I'm a Believer" - The Monkees (1966)


37- "Low" - Flo Rida featuring T-Pain (2007)


36- "Apologize" - Timbaland featuring OneRepublic (2007)


35- "Hot Stuff" - Donna Summer (1978)


34- "I Just Want to Be Your Everything" - Andy Gibb (1977)


33- "We Found Love" - Rihanna featuring Calvin Harris (2011)


32- "Party Rock Anthem" - LMFAO featuring Lauren Bennett & GoonRock (2011)


31- "Abracadabra" - The Steve Miller Band (1982)


Click here for 50 - 41
Click here for 30 - 21

Top 100 MOST POPULAR Songs of All-Time: 50 - 41 (as of 2016)

Two years ago I started a journey to determine what the most popular songs of all-time were based on my own personal system. This is that list. In the first post in this countdown, I explained this project in depth, so if you missed that, I have that linked right there at the beginning of this sentence. The short version is that I went back to the very first week of the charts in August 1958 and went week by week giving points to the songs that made the top 10. After finishing that, I posted the top 10 songs of each year one week at a time until we've now arrived at the point where it's time to reveal this final list. If you missed any of this, you can check it out in the blog archive on the right. This may not be the perfect system, but it's taught me a lot about the history of the Billboard charts, so I have no regrets and I hope you've enjoyed the ride. As pertaining to this list, I did do some adjusting because music and the way we listen to it is always changing and thus Billboard is constantly updated their formula. If I didn't adjust, then almost all songs on this list would be post-1991 and that would be lame. With all that out of the way, let's now look at the next 10 entries in this countdown. Links are at the bottom if you missed any previous part of the countdown.

50- "We Are Young" - fun. featuring Jannelle Monae (2012)


49- "Sugar, Sugar" - The Archies (1969) 


48- "The Sign" - Ace of Base (1994)


47- "Gangsta's Paradise" - Coolio featuring L.V. (1995)


46- "One Sweet Day" - Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men (1995) 


45- "It's All in the Game" - Tommy Edwards (1958)


44- "Aquarius / Let the Sunshine In" - The 5th Dimension (1969)


43- "Stayin' Alive" - Bee Gees (1978)


42- "How You Remind Me" - Nickelback (2002)


41- "No One" - Alicia Keys (2007)



Click here for 60 - 51
Click here for 40 - 31

Top 100 MOST POPULAR Songs of All-Time: 60 - 51 (as of 2016)

Two years ago I started a journey to determine what the most popular songs of all-time were based on my own personal system. This is that list. In the first post in this countdown, I explained this project in depth, so if you missed that, I have that linked right there at the beginning of this sentence. The short version is that I went back to the very first week of the charts in August 1958 and went week by week giving points to the songs that made the top 10. After finishing that, I posted the top 10 songs of each year one week at a time until we've now arrived at the point where it's time to reveal this final list. If you missed any of this, you can check it out in the blog archive on the right. This may not be the perfect system, but it's taught me a lot about the history of the Billboard charts, so I have no regrets and I hope you've enjoyed the ride. As pertaining to this list, I did do some adjusting because music and the way we listen to it is always changing and thus Billboard is constantly updated their formula. If I didn't adjust, then almost all songs on this list would be post-1991 and that would be lame. With all that out of the way, let's now look at the next 10 entries in this countdown. Links are at the bottom if you missed any previous part of the countdown.

60- "I Can't Stop Loving You" - Ray Charles (1962)


59- "Centerfold" - The J Geils Band (1982)


58- "All Night Long (All Night)" - Lionel Richie (1983)


57- "Are You Lonesome To-Night?" - Elvis Presley with The Jordanaires (1960)


56- "Upside Down" - Diana Ross (1980)


55- "Call Me Maybe" - Carly Rae Jepsen (2012)


54- "Lady" - Kenny Rogers (1980)


53- "Gold Digger" - Kanye West featuring Jamie Foxx (2005)


52- "Shadow Dancing" - Andy Gibb (1978)


51- "Night Fever" - Bee Gees (1978)



Click here for 70 - 61
Click here for 50 - 41

Top 100 MOST POPULAR Songs of All-Time: 70 - 61 (as of 2016)

Two years ago I started a journey to determine what the most popular songs of all-time were based on my own personal system. This is that list. In the first post in this countdown, I explained this project in depth, so if you missed that, I have that linked right there at the beginning of this sentence. The short version is that I went back to the very first week of the charts in August 1958 and went week by week giving points to the songs that made the top 10. After finishing that, I posted the top 10 songs of each year one week at a time until we've now arrived at the point where it's time to reveal this final list. If you missed any of this, you can check it out in the blog archive on the right. This may not be the perfect system, but it's taught me a lot about the history of the Billboard charts, so I have no regrets and I hope you've enjoyed the ride. As pertaining to this list, I did do some adjusting because music and the way we listen to it is always changing and thus Billboard is constantly updated their formula. If I didn't adjust, then almost all songs on this list would be post-1991 and that would be lame. With all that out of the way, let's now look at the next 10 entries in this countdown. Links are at the bottom if you missed any previous part of the countdown.

70- "(Just Like) Starting Over" - John Lennon (1980)


69- "Boom Boom Pow" - The Black Eyed Peas (2009)


68- "Mr. Blue" - The Fleetwoods (1959) 


67- "I Heard it Through the Grapevine" - Marvin Gaye (1968)


66- "How Deep is Your Love" - Bee Gees (1977)


65- "One More Night" - Maroon 5 (2012)


64- "Dilemma" - Nelly featuring Kelly Rowland (2002)


63- "End of the Road" - Boyz II Men (1992)


62- "Let Me Love You" - Mario (2004) 


61- "You're Still the One" - Shania Twain (1998)


Click here for 80 - 71
Click here for 60 - 51

Top 100 MOST POPULAR Songs of All-Time: 80 - 71 (as of 2016)

Two years ago I started a journey to determine what the most popular songs of all-time were based on my own personal system. This is that list. In the first post in this countdown, I explained this project in depth, so if you missed that, I have that linked right there at the beginning of this sentence. The short version is that I went back to the very first week of the charts in August 1958 and went week by week giving points to the songs that made the top 10. After finishing that, I posted the top 10 songs of each year one week at a time until we've now arrived at the point where it's time to reveal this final list. If you missed any of this, you can check it out in the blog archive on the right. This may not be the perfect system, but it's taught me a lot about the history of the Billboard charts, so I have no regrets and I hope you've enjoyed the ride. As pertaining to this list, I did do some adjusting because music and the way we listen to it is always changing and thus Billboard is constantly updated their formula. If I didn't adjust, then almost all songs on this list would be post-1991 and that would be lame. With all that out of the way, let's now look at the next 10 entries in this countdown. Links are at the bottom if you missed any previous part of the countdown.

80- "U Got it Bad" - Usher (2002)


79- "My Sharona" - The Knack (1979)


78- "Candle in the Wind 1997 / Something About the Way You Look Tonight" - Elton John (1997)


77- "I'm Sorry" - Brenda Lee (1960)


76- "Whoomp! (There it Is)" - Tag Team (1993)


75- "The Boy is Mine" - Brandy & Monica (1998)


74- "I Will Survive" - Gloria Gaynor (1979)


73- "Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu (Volare)" - Domencio Modungo (1958)


72- "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" - BJ Thomas (1969)


71- "Hurts So Good" - John Cougar (1982) 



Click here for 90 - 81
Click here for 70 - 61

Top 100 MOST POPULAR Songs of All-Time: 90 - 81 (as of 2016)

Two years ago I started a journey to determine what the most popular songs of all-time were based on my own personal system. This is that list. In the first post in this countdown, I explained this project in depth, so if you missed that, I have that linked right there at the beginning of this sentence. The short version is that I went back to the very first week of the charts in August 1958 and went week by week giving points to the songs that made the top 10. After finishing that, I posted the top 10 songs of each year one week at a time until we've now arrived at the point where it's time to reveal this final list. If you missed any of this, you can check it out in the blog archive on the right. This may not be the perfect system, but it's taught me a lot about the history of the Billboard charts, so I have no regrets and I hope you've enjoyed the ride. As pertaining to this list, I did do some adjusting because music and the way we listen to it is always changing and thus Billboard is constantly updated their formula. If I didn't adjust, then almost all songs on this list would be post-1991 and that would be lame. With all that out of the way, let's now look at the next 10 entries in this countdown. Links are at the bottom if you missed any previous part of the countdown.

90- "Joy to the World" - Three Dog Night (1971)


89- "Let's Get it On" - Marvin Gaye (1973)


88- "She Loves You" - The Beatles (1964)


87- "I Will Always Love You" - Whitney Houston (1992)


86- "Run It!" - Chris Brown (2005)


85- "Whatever You Like" - T.I. (2008)


84- "Tonight's the Night (Gonna Be Alright)" - Rod Stewart (1976)


83- "Tom Dooley" - The Kingston Trio (1958)


82- "Bleeding Love" - Leona Lewis (2008)


81- "Billie Jean" - Michael Jackson (1983)



Click here for 100 - 91
Click here for 80 - 71

Top 100 MOST POPULAR Songs of All-Time: 100 - 91 (as of 2016)

Two years ago I started a journey to determine what the most popular songs of all-time were based on a system that I created to keep track of the Billboard charts. I began at the very first week of the Billboard Hot 100, which was August 1958, and went week by week giving points to the songs that made the top 10. I gave ten points to the No. 1 song, nine points to the No. 2 song and so on down to giving one point to the No. 10 song. Every week. Every year. Every decade. From 1958 to the present day. These are the final results. And this list is through 2016 as I let each song from 2016 finish out its time in the top 10 before creating the final list.

Is this the absolute perfect system? Probably not. Were there faster and more efficient ways of finding out the top songs of all-time? Probably. For one, I could've gone and looked at Billboard's own list at Billboard.com and been satisfied. But that's not what I wanted to do. I wanted to figure out how things would turn out if I did it my way. And I'm glad I did because this whole process has helped educate me on the history of music and now I have Excel charts for each year and each decade in Billboard history that are fun to look through. No regrets.

I will also be the first to admit that this may not be the most accurate list ever done. For one, I don't have access to actual chart points from Billboard that determined their positioning in the first place. Two, I only kept track of the top 10 instead of the whole Hot 100 because I decided the latter would take up too much time. If you want to go to Billboard.com and look at their official list, you are more than welcome to do so. But I hope you'll have fun look through my version as well.

It's also worth noting that once I came up with the final list, I did a bit of adjusting to make things fair. Music is always changing and evolving as is the way we listen to and purchase music. As such, Billboard is always doing their best to adjust to the times as they are always changing and updating their own formula for the Hot 100. Because of these factors, it would be unfair to do an apples-to-apples comparison with this final list. The most notable example of these changes came in 1991 with the formation of the Nielsen SoundScan, which was a much more accurate and effective way of keeping track of sales and what not. This resulted in songs staying on the charts longer. Before 1991, only two songs in Billboard history were No. 1 for 10 or more weeks. From 1992 to today, there's been 32. This is because the average number of weeks that a song spent in the top 10 from 1958 to 1991 was only 5.3 weeks, while from 1992 to 2012 that increased to 8.9 weeks. From 2013 through 2016 that increased 11 weeks with the addition of YouTube and other streaming services to the formula starting in 2013.

Thus it's less impressive in my mind when someone like Ed Sheeran accomplishes this feat today as compared to when Debby Boone accomplished this for the first time in 1977 or Olivia Newton-John a few years later. So I did some adjusting. Essentially I did some Excel formulas that compared each song to its own time period. Again, perhaps not the perfect system. But it's a lot better than revealing the non-adjusted list wherein almost every entry would be post-1991.

With all that out of the way, it's time to finally reveal this list that I've been building up to these past two years. As I've done with my decades lists, I will be revealing this 10 songs at a time over the next week and a half or so. Links are at the bottom for you to browse through each section of the list. Or you can simply use the blog archive on the right. Let's begin!

100- "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" - The Platters (1958) 


99- "Honky Tonk Women" - The Rolling Stones (1969)


98- "Sugar Shack" - Jimmy Gilmer and The Fireballs (1963)


97- "Maria Maria" - Santana featuring The Product G&B (2000)


96- "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" - Queen (1980)


95- "When Doves Cry" - Prince and The Revolution (1984)

(Note: This video is a cover since it's still hard to find genuine Prince music on YouTube due to copyright, even though his music has finally shown up on streaming services like Apple Music and Spotify following his death. It's a pretty good cover, though)

94- "(Everything I Do) I Do it For You" - Bryan Adams (1991)


93- "Another Night" - Real McCoy (1994)


92- "All About that Bass" - Meghan Trainor (2014)


91- "Do that to Me One More Time" - Captain & Tennille (1979)



Click here for 90 - 81