BMI Announces Top 100 Songs of the Century
'You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' ' Is Number One
BMI today announced the Top 100 Songs of the Century, listing the most played songs on American radio and television. Leading the list is the anthemic "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'," written by Barry Mann, Phil Spector and Cynthia Weil, which recently passed the historic 8 million performance plateau. It was originally recorded by The Righteous Brothers and produced by Spector.
The second, third and fourth place songs have all attained more than 7 million airplays. They are: "Never My Love," written by Donald and Richard Addrisi; "Yesterday" by John Lennon and Sir Paul McCartney; and "Stand By Me" by Ben E. King, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Rounding out the Top 10 are the six-million-plateau performers: "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You" by Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio; "Sitting On the Dock Of the Bay" by Otis Redding and Steve Cropper; Paul Simon's "Mrs. Robinson"; "Baby I Need Your Loving" by the legendary Motown writers Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland; John Gummoe's "Rhythm Of The Rain"; and the evergreen "Georgia On My Mind" written by Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell.
John Lennon and Paul Simon each have four songs in the Top 100. Lennon's contributions are his Beatles's classics "Yesterday," "Michelle" (#42), and "Let It Be" (#89), all co-written by McCartney, as well as his solo outing "Imagine" (#96). In addition to "Mrs. Robinson," Simon is represented on the list with "The Sound of Silence" (# 18), "Bridge Over Troubled Water" (#19), and "Scarborough Fair" (#31), co-written by his long-time partner Art Garfunkel. Other songwriters with multiple listings include, with three songs each, Norman Gimbel, Mark James, Barry Mann, McCartney and Roy Orbison, as well as the teams of Holland-Dozier-Holland and Sir Elton John-Bernie Taupin (PRS). Mann, co-writer of the #1 song, is also co-writer (with Dan Hill-SOCAN) of the #100 song, "Sometimes When We Touch." With two songs each, Sam Cooke, Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Kris Kristofferson, Joe Melson, J.D. Souther, Jimmy Webb and Cynthia Weil made the list, along with the teams of Leiber-Stoller and Bert Kaempfert (GEMA)-Eddie Snyder-Charles Singleton.
Most of the songs became hits several times over when they were "covered" by various artists. However, as performers of the Top 100, The Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel scored the most spots with four original versions of the songs. The Association was responsible for three ("Never My Love," "Cherish" #22 and "Windy" #61), as were The Drifters ("On Broadway" #45, "Save the Last Dance for Me" #49 and "Up On the Roof" #92), Elton John ("Your Song" #37, "Daniel" #66 and "Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me" #76), and Roy Orbison ("Oh Pretty Woman" #26, "Crying" #74 and "Blue Bayou" #85).
BMI is a performing rights organization that represents more than 250,000 songwriters, composers and publishers with a repertoire of more than 3 million songs and compositions from around the world and in all genres of music. The company annually monitors approximately 450,000 hours of commercial and non-commercial radio airplay and more than 6,000,000 hours of television programming. BMI collects license fees from the commercial users of music and, after deducting operating costs, distributes those fees to its affiliates as royalties.
One million continuous performances of a song of the average length of 3 minutes represents 5.7 years of continuous airplay. The 8 million performances of "You've Lost that Lovin' Feeling' " equals more than 45 years of back-to-back play.
| 1. | You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ | Barry Mann, Phil Spector, Cynthia Weil |
| 2. | Never My Love | Donald & Richard Addrisi |
| 3. | Yesterday | John Lennon & Paul McCartney |
| 4. | Stand By Me | Ben E. King, Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller |
| 5. | Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You | Bob Crewe & Bob Gaudio |
| 6. | Sitting on the Dock of the Bay | Steve Cropper & Otis Redding |
| 7. | Mrs. Robinson | Paul Simon |
| 8. | Baby, I Need Your Loving | Lamont Dozier, Brian Holland & Eddie Holland |
| 9. | Rhythm of the Rain | John Gummoe |
| 10. | Georgia on My Mind | Hoagy Carmichael & Stuart Gorrell |
| 11. | Killing Me Softly with His Song | Charles Fox & Norman Gimbel |
| 12. | More | Marcello Ciorciolini, Norman Newell, Nino Oliviero, Riz Ortolani |
| 13. | I Will Always Love You | Dolly Parton |
| 14. | When A Man Loves A Woman | Calvin Lewis & Andrew J. Wright |
| 15. | Every Breath You Take | Sting |
| 16. | Gentle on My Mind | John Hartford |
| 17. | Something | George Harrison |
| 18. | Sounds of Silence | Paul Simon |
| 19. | Bridge Over Troubled Water | Paul Simon |
| 20. | By the Time I Get to Phoenix | Jimmy Webb |
| 21. | Angel of the Morning | Chip Taylor |
| 22. | Cherish | Terry Kirkman |
| 23. | You Can’t Hurry Love | Lamont Dozier, Brian Holland & Eddie Holland |
| 24. | Proud Mary | John Fogerty |
| 25. | Sunny | Bobby Hebb |
| 26. | Oh Pretty Woman | William Dees & Roy Orbison |
| 27. | Everybody’s Talkin’ | Fred Neil |
| 28. | I Heard It Through the Grapevine | Barrett Strong & Norman Whitfield |
| 29. | Goin’ Out of My Head | Teddy Randazzo & Bobby Weinstein |
| 30. | Suspicious Minds | Mark James |
| 31. | Scarborough Fair | Art Garfunkel & Paul Simon |
| 32. | Traces | Buddy Buie, J.R. Cobb, Emory Gordy |
| 33. | All I Have to Do Is Dream | Boudleaux Bryant |
| 34. | Only You | Ande Rand & Buck Ram |
| 35. | Canadian Sunset | Norman Gimbel & Eddie Heywood |
| 36. | Oh Girl | Eugene Record |
| 37. | Your Song | Elton John & Bernie Taupin |
| 38. | How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) | Lamont Dozier, Brian Holland & Eddie Holland |
| 39. | (Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher | Gary Jackson, Raynard Miner & Carl William Smith |
| 40. | I Can’t Stop Loving You | Don Gibson |
| 41. | Wind Beneath My Wings | Larry Henley & Jeff Silbar |
| 42. | Michelle | John Lennon & Paul McCartney |
| 43. | Up, Up and Away | Jimmy Webb |
| 44. | Happy Together | Garry Bonner & Alan Gordon |
| 45. | On Broadway | Jerry Leiber, Barry Mann, Mike Stoller & Cynthia Weil |
| 46. | Twilight Time | Al Nevins, Morty Nevins & Buck Ram |
| 47. | Strangers in the Night | Bert Kaempfert, Charles Singleton & Eddie Snyder |
| 48. | Breaking Up Is Hard to Do | Howard Greenfield & Neil Sedaka |
| 49. | Save the Last Dance for Me | Doc Pomus & Mort Shuman |
| 50. | For the Good Times | Kris Kristofferson |
| 51. | We’ve Only Just Begun | Roger Nichols & Paul Williams |
| 52. | What a Wonderful World | Lou Adler, Herb Alpert & Sam Cooke |
| 53. | Snowbird | Gene MacLellan |
| 54. | Everlasting Love | Buzz Cason & Mac Gayden |
| 55. | My Special Angel | Jimmy Duncan |
| 56. | The Most Beautiful Girl | Rory Bourke, Billy Sherrill & Norro Wilson |
| 57. | Brown Eyed Girl | Van Morrison |
| 58. | Girl From Ipanema | Vinicius DeMoraes, Norman Gimbel & Antonio Carlos Jobim |
| 59. | My Cherie Amour | Sylvia Moy, Henry Cosby & Stevie Wonder |
| 60. | Always on My Mind | Wayne Carson, Johnny Christopher & Mark James |
| 61. | Windy | Ruthann Friedman |
| 62. | If You Don’t Know Me by Now | Kenneth Gamble & Leon Huff |
| 63. | Margaritaville | Jimmy Buffett |
| 64. | Spanish Eyes | Bert Kaempfert, Charles Singleton & Eddie Snyder |
| 65. | Daydream Believer | John Stewart |
| 66. | Daniel | Elton John and Bernie Taupin |
| 67. | Take It Easy | Glenn Frey & Jackson Browne |
| 68. | Let Your Love Flow | Larry Williams |
| 69. | The Rose | Amanda McBroom |
| 70. | The Heart of the Matter | Don Henley, J.D. Souther & Mike Campbell |
| 71. | Don’t Be Cruel | Otis Blackwell & Elvis Presley |
| 72. | Listen to the Music | Tom Johnston |
| 73. | A Groovy Kind of Love | Carole Bayer Sager & Toni Wine |
| 74. | Crying | Joe Melson & Roy Orbison |
| 75. | Put A Little Love In Your Heart | Jackie DeShannon, Jimmy Holiday & Randy Myers |
| 76. | Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me | Elton John & Bernie Taupin |
| 77. | Help Me Make It Through the Night | Kris Kristofferson |
| 78. | Best of My Love | Glenn Frey, Don Henley & J.D. Souther |
| 79. | The Letter | Wayne Carson |
| 80. | Dreams | Stevie Nicks |
| 81. | Mr. Bojangles | Jerry Jeff Walker |
| 82. | Fire and Rain | James Taylor |
| 83. | Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye | John D. Loudermilk |
| 84. | Hooked on a Feeling | Mark James |
| 85. | Blue Bayou | Joe Melson & Roy Orbison |
| 86. | Born Free | John Barry & Don Black |
| 87. | Release Me | Eddie Miller, Dub Williams & Robert Yount |
| 88. | It’s Just a Matter of Time | Brook Benton, Belford Hendricks & Clyde Otis |
| 89. | Let It Be | John Lennon & Paul McCartney |
| 90. | I’d Really Love to See You Tonight | Parker McGee |
| 91. | (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction | Mick Jagger & Keith Richards |
| 92. | Up on the Roof | Gerry Goffin & Carole King |
| 93. | Layla | Eric Clapton & Jim Gordon |
| 94. | I Honestly Love You | Peter Allen & Jeff Barry |
| 95. | California Girls | Mike Love & Brian Wilson |
| 96. | Imagine | John Lennon |
| 97. | You Send Me | Sam Cooke |
| 98. | How Deep Is Your Love | Barry, Maurice & Robin Gibb |
| 99. | I Never Promised You a Rose Garden | Joe South |
| 100. | Sometimes When We Touch | Barry Mann & Dan Hill |
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