The following chronological list comes from "Rock and Roll: The 100 Best Singles".
Published in 1993 by Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc., New York.
The author is Paul Williams, who founded Crawdaddy magazine in 1966.
Plus The 20th Century's Greatest Hits
Many Thanks to Mitchell Kokai mkokai@email.unc.edu for suplying this list.
1. Robert Johnson, Terraplane Blues (1937)
2. Muddy Waters, Rolling Stone (1950)
3. Little Richard, Tutti-Frutti (1955)
4. Elvis Presley, Heartbreak Hotel (1956)
5. Little Willie John, Fever (1956)
6. Five Satins, In the Still of the Nite (1956)
7. Bo Diddley, Mona (1957)
8. Jerry Lee Lewis, Whole Lot of Shakin' Going On (1957)
9. Buddy Holly, Peggy Sue (1957)
10. Danny and the Juniors, At the Hop (1957)
11. Chuck Berry, Johnny B. Goode (1958)
12. Everly Brothers, All I Have to Do Is Dream (1958)
13. Bell Notes, I've Had It (1959)
14. Johnny and the Hurricanes, Crossfire (1959)
15. Chuck Berry, Memphis, Tennessee (1959)
16. Del Shannon, Runaway (1961)
17. Ben E. King, Stand By Me (1961)
18. Miracles, I'll Try Something New (1962)
19. Duprees, You Belong to Me (1962)
20. Beatles, Please Please Me (1963)
21. Jaynetts, Sally Go 'Round the Roses (1963)
22. Kingsmen, Louie Louie (1963)
23. Beach Boys, Fun, Fun, Fun (1964)
24. Beach Boys, I Get Around/Don't Worry Baby (1964)
25. Martha and the Vandellas, Dancing In the Street (1964)
26. Kinks, You Really Got Me (1964)
27. Them, Baby Please Don't Go/Gloria (1964)
28. Sam Cooke, A Change Is Gonna Come (1964)
29. Who, I Can't Explain (1965)
30. Rolling Stones, The Last Time (1965)
31. Bob Dylan, Subterranean Homesick Blues (1965)
32. Beatles, Ticket to Ride (1965)
33. Byrds, Mr. Tambourine Man (1965)
34. Rolling Stones, (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction (1965)
35. Wilson Pickett, In the Midnight Hour (1965)
36. Bob Dylan, Like a Rollin Stone (1965)
37. Beatles, Day Tripper (1965)
38. Miracles, Going to a Go-Go (1965)
39. Shades of Blue, Oh How Happy (1966)
40. Ike and Tina Turner, River Deep, Mountain High (1966)
41. Four Tops, Reach Out I'll Be There (1966)
42. Eddie Floyd, Knock on Wood (1966)
43. Beach Boys, Good Vibrations (1966)
44. Spencer Davis Group, Gimme Some Lovin' (1966)
45. Buffalo Springfield, For What It's Worth (1967)
46. Aretha Franklin, I Never Loved a Man (1967)
47. Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, The Love I Saw in You Was Just a Mirage (1967)
48. Kinks, Waterloo Sunset (1967)
49. Doors, The Crystal Ship (1967)
50. Beach Boys, Heroes and Villains (1967)
51. Van Morrison, Brown Eyed Girl (1967)
52. Jackie Wilson, (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher (1967)
53. Who, I Can See for Miles (1967)
54. Otis Redding, (Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay (1968)
55. Who, Magic Bus (1968)
56. Jimi Hendrix Experience, All Along the Watchtower (1968)
57. Grateful Dead, Dark Star (1968)
58. Beatles, Hey Jude (1968)
59. Marvin Gaye, I Heard It Through the Grapevine (1968)
60. Rolling Stones, Honky Tonk Women/You Can't Always Get What You Want (1969)
61. Creedence Clearwater Revival, Green River (1969)
62. Velvet Underground, Foggy Notion (1969)
63. Sly and the Family Stone, Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) (1969)
64. James Brown, Get Up I Feel Like Being a Sex Machine (Part I) (1970)
65. Joe Simon, Drowning in the Sea of Love (1971)
66. Rolling Stones, All Down the Line (1972)
67. Bob Dylan, Knockin' On Heaven's Door (1973)
68. Bachman-Turner Overdrive, You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet (1974)
69. Bob Marley and the Wailers, No Woman, No Cry (1975)
70. Bob Dylan, Hurricane (1975)
71. Patti Smith Group, Gloria (1976)
72. Sex Pistols, Anarchy in the U.K. (1976)
73. Television, Marquee Moon (1977)
74. James Taylor, Handy Man (1977)
75. Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers, Roadrunner (1977)
76. Sex Pistols, Holidays in the Sun (1977)
77. Queen, We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions (1977)
78. Only Ones, Another Girl, Another Planet (1978)
79. Talking Heads, Take Me to the River (1978)
80. Dire Straits, Sultans of Swing (1979)
81. Anita Ward, Ring My Bell (1979)
82. Lipps, Inc., Funkytown (1980)
83. Joy Division, Love Will Tear Us Apart (1980)
84. Yoko Ono, Walking on Thin Ice (1981)
85. R.E.M., Radio Free Europe (1981)
86. Prince, When You Were Mine (1981)
87. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, The Message (1982)
88. Modern English, I Melt With You (1982)
89. U2, New Year's Day (1983)
90. George Clinton, Atomic Dog (1983)
91. Pretenders, Middle of the Road (1983)
92. Prince, When Doves Cry (1984)
93. U2, Pride (In the Name of Love) (1984)
94. Tears For Fears, Shout (1984)
95. Tramaine, Fall Down (1985)
96. Peter Gabriel, Sledgehammer (1986)
97. R.E.M., The One I Love (1987)
98. Waterboys, Fisherman's Blues (1988)
99. Neil Young, Rockin' in the Free World (1989)
100. Nirvana, Smells Like Teen Spirit (1991)
The 20th Century's Greatest Hits
by Paul Williams
1. "Things We Said Today" The Beatles (1964)
2. "Sister Ray" The Velvet Underground (1968)
3. "Girl before a Mirror" Pablo Picasso (1932)
4. The I Ching or Book of Changes translated by Richard Wilhelm (1923)
5. Ulysses James Joyce (1922)
6. "God Bless the Child" and "I Cover the Waterfront" Billie Holiday (1941)
7. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights Eleanor Roosevelt et al. ( 1948)
8. Winnie-the-Pooh A. A. Milne (1926)
9. Martian Time-Slip Philip K. Dick (1964)
10. "Howl" Allen Ginsberg (1956)
11. Pet Sounds The Beach Boys (1966)
12. Old Path White Clouds: Walking in the Footsteps of the Buddha Thích Nhât Hanh (1991)
13. "The Dance" Henri Matisse (1910)
14. 2001: A Space Oddyssey Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke (1968)
15. concert performance Umm Kulthúm (1942)
16. "The Bear" and "Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech" William Faulkner (1942, 1949)
17. Renaldo & Clara Bob Dylan (1978)
18. Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon (1973)
19. concert performance Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (1995)
20. The Anatomy of Dependence Takeo Doi, M.D. (1971)
21. On the Road Jack Kerouac (1957)
22. For a Few Dollars More Sergio Leone (1965)
23. "Mr. Costello, Hero" and "And Now the News..." Theodore Sturgeon (1953, 1956)
24. Horses Patti Smith (1975)
25. Two-Lane Blacktop Monte Hellman (1971)
26. concert performance Grateful Dead (1969)
27. Krazy Kat Sunday page George Herriman (1920)
28. "Smokestack Lightnin'" Howlin' Wolf (1956)
29. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (1965)
30. Impressions, side one John Coltrane (1963)
31. Stranger in a Strange Land Robert A. Heinlein (1961)
32. "The Lottery in Babylon" and "The Wall and the Books" Jorge Luis Borges (1945, 1950)
33. The Little Prince Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1943)
34. Gandhi Richard Attenborough and Ben Kingsley (1982)
35. The Rolling Stones, Now! The Rolling Stones (1965)
36. Dune Frank Herbert (1965)
37. "Oh Happy Day" The Edwin Hawkins Singers (1969)
38. Kundun Martin Scorcese (1998)
39. A Private Correspondence Henry Miller and Lawrence Durrell (1963)
40. "Lost Highway" Hank Williams (1949)
This list plus in depth analysis can also be found at paulwilliams.com
