Generational bellwether … New Zealand singer Lorde, AKA Ella Yelich-O’Connor, in 2013. Rock Around the Clock patently isn’t it, but it was, incontrovertibly, the record that brought rock’n’roll to mainstream attention in the UK: two minutes of music that sounded infinitely more feral than its avuncular artist looked and that changed pop music for ever. You could spend years arguing about what constitutes the first rock’n’roll record. Also, note that dates listed are the dates the songs reached No 1.īen Beaumont-Thomas, music editor 100 Bill Haley and His Comets – Rock Around the Clock (1955) After we’ve reached No 1, we’ll ask what you think we unforgivably missed out from the overall list, and then publish highlights from your selections. We’d love to hear what you think of our choices – whether in agreement or outrage – and hear your fond or not-so-fond memories of these singles. The only rule was that an artist could only feature once.Īs such, it is very much open to discussion, which we heartily encourage in the comments section. The ranking isn’t based on sales or longevity, it’s the fruit of that discussion: what we as critics, fans and lifetime listeners think are the most brilliant songs to top the UK charts, and, of those, which are more brilliant than others. This list, and the songs’ order, was compiled via a politely raging video call between me, chief rock and pop critic Alexis Petridis and deputy music editor Laura Snapes. That takes us up to the Top 20, and from Monday to Friday for four weeks we’ll have standalone celebrations of each remaining song by our team of critics. We’ll be counting this down over six weeks – for the first two weeks, we’ll spend Monday to Thursday counting down 10 at a time. We present to you a ranking of the 100 greatest UK No 1 singles since the charts began in 1952. A s the coronavirus lockdown continues, the Guardian’s music desk thought you might be in need of a distraction – something to send you down memory lane, or to divert the annoyance at your housemates or children on to us.

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