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Rolling Stone 500 greatest songs: Aretha Franklin overtakes Bob Dylan

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Simon CollinsThe West Australian
Aretha Franklin.
Camera IconAretha Franklin. Credit: Anthony Barboza/Getty Images

Bob Dylan has lost respect, while soul icon Aretha Franklin’s song of the same name now takes top billing.

Rolling Stone magazine has given its 2004 list of the greatest 500 songs of all time what some detractors are describing as a “woke” makeover to include a more diverse sample of artists and genres.

While the previous list was topped by the old white guard of Dylan, the Rolling Stones and John Lennon, the new order is led by three legendary African-American acts — Franklin, Public Enemy and Sam Cooke.

“A lot has changed since 2004,” the music publication wrote in the introduction to the updated list.

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Public Enemy
Camera IconPublic Enemy Credit: Robert Downs photography/Supplied

“Back then the iPod was relatively new, and Billie Eilish was three years old.

“So we’ve decided to give the list a total reboot.

“The result is a more expansive, inclusive vision of pop, music that keeps rewriting its history with every beat.”

The rock-leaning magazine shifted Dylan’s anthem Like a Rolling Stone down to fourth, sandwiched between Cooke’s A Change is Gonna Come, which placed 12th in 2004, and grunge rockers Nirvana’s era-defining Smells Like Teen Spirit. Seventeen years ago, Franklin’s 1967 rendition of Respect, written by fellow soul legend Otis Redding, was fifth.

Sam Cooke.
Camera IconSam Cooke. Credit: Michael Ochs Archives

The new list features many first-timers, most notably hip-hop outfit Public Enemy’s Fight the Power, which was written as the theme song for Spike Lee’s 1989 film Do the Right Thing.

Rolling Stone now ranks the incendiary track, written by Chuck D with producers The Bomb Squad, as the second-greatest song in the history of contemporary music.

Other eyebrow-raising debuts include the Beatles’ Strawberry Fields Forever in seventh place, rapper Missy Elliott’s Get Ur Freak On, and OutKast’s irresistible banger Hey Ya.

Fleetwood Mac’s classic Dreams also appears on Rolling Stone’s countdown for the first time, perhaps propelled to ninth by the song’s renewed popularity thanks to TikTok creator Nathan Apodaca’s viral skateboarding video.

Bob Dylan
Camera IconBob Dylan Credit: unknown/supplied

While classic rock and pop acts such as the Beach Boys, the Kinks, Queen, Prince and David Bowie still feature in the upper echelons of the list, relatively recent arrivals such as Swedish electro-pop queen Robyn (Dancing On My Own), controversial rapper Kanye West (Runaway) and influential New Zealand indie artist Lorde (Royals) have jostled their way into the freshened-up list.

Rolling Stone asked 250 musicians, journalists and producers to vote for their top 50 songs of all time.

More than 4000 songs received at least one vote, and more than half of the 500 songs did not feature in the 2004 list. The judges ranged from 1980s pop icons Cyndi Lauper and Annie Lennox, and rock legends Don Henley, Jackson Browne, ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons and U2 guitarist The Edge to current day chart-busters such as English singer Sam Smith and rapper Megan Thee Stallion.

The Beatles
Camera IconThe Beatles Credit: UNKNOWN/SUPPLIED

Australian artists Tash Sultana and Hiatus Kaiyote bassist Paul Bender also contributed to the poll.

While the new top 10 features four songs that did not make the cut in 2004, some of the old top 10 songs did not even make the cut.

The Beach Boys’ Good Vibrations, the Beatles’ Hey Jude and Ray Charles’ What’d I Say all vanished without a trace.

When Rolling Stone updated the list in 2010, only 26 songs were added, and the top 25 remained unchanged.

Despite the new-look list, more than half of the songs were released in the 1960s and 70s.

Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Songs (2021) Top 10

  1. R-E-S-P-E-C-T - Aretha Franklin
  2. Fight the Power - Public Enemy
  3. A Change is Gonna Come - Sam Cooke
  4. Like a Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan
  5. Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
  6. What’s Going On - Marvin Gaye
  7. Strawberry Fields Forever - The Beatles
  8. Get Ur Freak On - Missy Elliott
  9. Dreams - Fleetwood Mac
  10. Hey Ya - Outkast

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