I've started this thread based on a suggestion made by Prettymaid in the Led Zeppelin topic. Basically, feel free to post about what you think are the greatest songs ever written and your personal favourites. You can post lists if you like, or if you are not that way inclined you could just mention your absolute favourite songs, there are several ways of approaching this and I don't want to pressurise anyone into one particular method. There is also the potential to split into favourite songs by genre, era or other subdivisions.
It could be said that this discussion overlaps with the Listography thread and also the Share The Music You Love thread, but I think this is more widely appealing than some of the quirkier subjects that come up in Listography and deserves its own thread, and is more geared towards individual songs than the latter topic, which is somewhat more artist-focused.
I've had a go at this and on a personal level it wasn't easy, but I was able to whittle things down to a top 10 for the 1960s, 80s and 90s, and a top 20 for the 1970s (I would find it very difficult to do just ten from the decade when most of my all-time favourite songs and albums were released), and then made an all-time top 20. I won't list the songs in order of preference, that is a step too far for me right now, it was hard enough reducing it down to this number! My list is probably very predictable, with a certain English progressive rock band featuring prominently alongside several other of my favourites. So here is my top 20 songs at the time of writing in chronological order of release:
Like A Rolling Stone – Bob Dylan (1965)
All Along The Watchtower – The Jimi Hendrix Experience (1968)
Immigrant Song – Led Zeppelin (1970)
Echoes – Pink Floyd (1971)
Stairway To Heaven – Led Zeppelin (1971)
When The Levee Breaks – Led Zeppelin (1971)
Highway Star – Deep Purple (1972)
Take It Easy – Eagles (1972)
Time – Pink Floyd (1973)
Simple Man – Lynyrd Skynyrd (1973)
Tangled Up In Blue – Bob Dylan (1975)
Shine On You Crazy Diamond – Pink Floyd (1975)
Cortez The Killer – Neil Young (1975)
Hotel California – Eagles (1976)
The Last Resort – Eagles (1976)
The Chain – Fleetwood Mac (1977)
Sultans of Swing – Dire Straits (1978)
Comfortably Numb – Pink Floyd (1979)
Telegraph Road – Dire Straits (1982)
What It Is - Mark Knopfler (2000)
There are a lot of songs that I'd have absolutely loved to have included but ended up missing out. With all bar one of the songs on my list being released between 1965 and 1982 (basically covering my favoured era of music), What It Is does stand rather alone, but it's a fantastic song and deserves its place.
I'd be very interested to see what other people think - my list very much revolves around my favourite artists and I'd be curious to see whether I'm common in doing this, or whether other people are very strongly drawn to certain songs even if they are not such big fans of the actual artist.
I do have my 'decade-by-decade' lists as well, if anything I'm more satisfied by those lists than my overall one, so I'll post those up too later.