NME lists its 500 best songs of all time: Nirvana, The Smiths and The Strokes vie for top spot

"Greatest songs of all time" lists are nothing new, but we admit we're curious to see what the folks at NME have come up with. After all, the magazine emphasizes rock from the U.K., and the U.K. has produced many of the most influential groups of all time. Interestingly, NME opted to shy away from the obvious big names, at least in its top five (only 500-401 and the top five have been released thus far).

Only two of the bands in NME's best five represent Britain, and none of them were The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin or Cream. No. 4 is The Smiths' classic "How Soon Is Now?" and no. 2 is Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart." The others in the upper echelon include "Last Nite" by The Strokes at no. 5, "I Feel Love " by Dona Summer at no. 3 and, perhaps the only "obvious" selection made, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" at the top of the list.

The list was compiled by accumulating votes from both present and past writers for the magazine, each of who submitted a list of their 50 favorite songs. According to NME, this list was "combined with lists of [our] Top 50 tracks of the year to create the definitive list of 500 essential songs published in the magazine," although it seems odd that 50 songs from 2013 would make the list. We suppose we'll find out when the full list becomes available online. For what it's worth, David Bowie was the best represented performer in now. 500-401.

A similar list was released by the magazine during October of last year, listing the greatest albums of all time. The Smiths came in strong for that category as well, topping the list with The Queen Is Dead.

Tags

Nirvana, Joy Division, Donna Summer, The Smiths, The Strokes