The Greatest Song of All Time

[Syt]

Moonlight Sonata

Does it qualify as song? Doesn't seem to have any lyrics. 

[Caliga]

Greatest of all time, of any genre?

Hmmm.... if symphonies count I'd say either Beethoven's Ninth or The Planets by Holst.

[celedhring]

Greatest of all time, of any genre?

Hmmm.... if symphonies count I'd say either Beethoven's Ninth or The Planets by Holst.

Those are not songs.

I suppose classical music with sung lyrics would qualify? But I guess Monk meant pop stuff.

[PDH]

Greatest Orchestral Piece - Danse Macabre (Saint-Saëns)
Greatest Rock Song - Pibroch/Cap in Hand (Jethro Tull)
Greatest Punk Song - Pay to Cum (Bad Brains)
Greatest Post-Punk Song - Clampdown (The Clash)
Greatest Grunge Song - Mmmama Hey Djichamama Waaa [It says Yellow Ledbetter on the Liner] (Pear Jam)

Ask me again tomorrow, they will all change.

[Jacob]

O Fortuna ~ Carmina Burana (Carl Orff)

[Sheilbh]

Actually having thought about it I think my favourite song and favourite vocal performance is probably Heard It On The Grapevine which I love - I think everything about it is really good.

[Pedrito]

Impossible question.

I have a list of 5-star songs that, in one way or the other, I consider absolute masterpieces, but to choose a single one is impossible.
*Right now* my go-to song is Portishead's Roads, but in a matter of three hours it could become All Along the Watchtower (the Hendrix version), or Viet Cong's Continental Shelf.

Impossible.

L.

[Barrister]

Moonlight Sonata

Does it qualify as song? Doesn't seem to have any lyrics. 

I pulled up some dictionary definitions ready to go but turns out you're right - a "song" is intended to be sung.



I'm just hit by the "of all time" part of the question though.  It seems unlikely that the best song of all time was written in the last 50 years in north america / europe.

I dunno...

Greensleeves?  You've heard it so many times it's trite, but it's a hell of a song when well done.

Or for much of history songs were deeply connected with church and faith, and some absolute bangers are actually hymns.  Amazing Grace is incredibly moving and popular, but I'm always touched by How Great Thou Art.

Yeah screw it.  How Great Thou Art is the greatest song of all time.  Come fight me.

[Barrister]

I'm not saying it's the greatest song of all time, but driving home the other day Smells Like Teen Spirit came on the radio.  It's a song I've heard approximately eleventy-billion times.  Yet even after arriving home I stayed in the car until the song finished.

I was just transported back to when I first heard the song (multiple times).  It was 1991-1992.  I had track practice, and then I would get a ride home together with some of the other kids in the back of coach's small honda.  Coach would have the local rock station on, and they would play the "top 7 at 7" most requested songs of the day.  And of course day after day, week after week, month after month, Smells Like Teen Spirit was in the top 7.

But I couldn't possibly separate out that memory/nostalgia from any objective analysis of how good that song is.

[Admiral Yi]

Take It To The Limit by The Eagles.

Magical falsetto, great melody, great lyrics.

You can spend all your time making money
You can spend all your love making time
If it all goes to pieces tomorrow
Would you still be mine?

Obviously an impossible question.

[Zanza]

Greatest of all time, of any genre?

Hmmm.... if symphonies count I'd say either Beethoven's Ninth or The Planets by Holst.

Those are not songs.

I suppose classical music with sung lyrics would qualify? But I guess Monk meant pop stuff.

Beethoven's Ninth has lyrics: The Ode to Joy by Friedrich Schiller.

[Josquius]

Bohemian Rhapsody.
It has it all.
Except a rap.