Favorite songs of all-time?!! How does one even begin to compile and order such a list. I like challenges so I took it on. Here’s my best (for now) attempt to whittle down over 30 years of music listening. Fair warning: I only ordered the Top 20. I’m pretty happy and set on the Top 50. Beyond that I decided to group them together in categories called “I Wanna Drink Coffee,” “I Wanna Rock,” “I Wanna Singalong,” and “I Wanna Feel,” respectively.

It’s not perfect, and this list perhaps more than any other aside from Top 100 Favorite Albums of All-Time will likely shift some in the coming years. Lastly, as I always try to do, I included a playlist for you to listen along if you’d like to. Hope you enjoy my 101 Favorite Songs of All-Time!

101. Karma Police” – Radiohead

I Wanna Drink Coffee!

Maybe I want to study, read, write, or just contemplate life…these are the go-to kind of songs I will turn to. It’s the kind of music I like to have playing in the background real low. Not all quite fit the bill but hey…I was running out of ideas. 😀😂

“Creature” – half*alive

“Apparitions” – Seabird

“Good Vibrations” – The Beach Boys

“Stay or Leave” – Dave Matthews

“Falling in Love in a Coffee Shop” – Daniela Andrade

“No Surprises” – Radiohead

“A Change is Gonna Come” – Sam Cooke

“Please Forgive Me” – David Gray

“In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” – Neutral Milk Hotel

“Linger” – The Cranberries

“Everybody’s Changing” – Keane

“No Place Like Home” – Michael Giacchino

I Wanna Rock!

It’s not in a mood I’m in often, but these tracks almost always do the trick when I’m ready to turn the stereo up to unwise levels. Screaming guitars, soaring vocals, and thumping bass all make for glorious Friday-in-the-car-on-the-way-home-from-work-songs.

“Pour Me Out” – PFR

“Within a Room Somewhere” – Sixpence None the Richer

“I So Hate Consequences” – Relient K

“I’m Not the King” – Audio Adrenaline

“In the Valley of the Dying Sun” – House of Heroes

“Oohs and Ahhs” – Neetobreathe

“Caught a Glimpse” – Blindside

“Mouth Like a Magazine” – Showbread

“Sirens” – Attalus

“The Middle” – Jimmy Eat World

“Get Over it” – Ok Go

“Zombie” – The Cranberries

I Wanna Singalong!

Okay, so truth be told these are the tunes I crank up and try my darnedest to sing along with. I could have also called this my karaoke section…if I had the courage that is. A few have notes that make my voice crack or that I just can’t quite reach, while one of them specifically hits the meat of my baritone register and is beautifully weird.

“Harmony Hall” – Vampire Weekend

“More than Words” – Extreme

“Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm” – Crash Test Dummies

“Home” – Brian McKnight

“It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday” – Boyz II Men

“Movin Out (Anthony’s Song)” – Billy Joel

“Glory of Love” – Peter Cetera

“Mrs Robinson” – Simon & Garfunkel

“Death of a Bachelor” – Panic at the Disco

“Hard to Say I’m Sorry” – Chicago

“Paradise” – Coldplay

“Power of Love” – Huey Lewis & the News

I Wanna Feel!

It might be sad, happy, or somewhere in-between but these songs make me feel something. I’m grateful for them all.

“The Rain Keeps Falling” – Andrew Peterson

“Hallelujah” – Jeff Buckley

“Sky Circles” – Falling up

“Hold Me Jesus” – Rich Mullins

“Hard to Get” – Rich Mullins

“I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” – The Beatles

“Somewhere North of Here” – Caedmon’s Call

“When She’s Near” – Fiction Family

“Eleanor Rigby” – The Beatles

“Creep” – Daniela Andrade

“The Mistake” – Manchester Orchestra

“Trees” – Twenty One Pilots

“Make You Feel My Love” – Adele

“The Scientist” – Coldplay

Top 50 Below!

These are the creaminess cream of the crop for my soul. They help me process my doubts, faith, questions and thoughts on life. They remind me who I am, and why I’m here. I’ve been deeply moved and shaped my these songs and I’m so glad to have them in my life.

50-41

“I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For – U2

“While My Guitar Gently Weeps” – The Beatles

“Jumpsuit” – Twenty One Pilots

“Nothing Stands Between Us” – John Mark McMillan

“One Headlight” – The Wallflowers

“Yesterday” – The Beatles

“Love in the Hard Times” – Jars of Clay

“Meant to Live” – Switchfoot

“What if I Stumble” – Dctalk

“Dreams” – The Cranberries

40-31

“Abundance” – Future of Forestry

“Fix You” – Coldplay

“Worlds Apart” – Jars of Clay

“Keep Forgiving” – Levi the Poet

“Sunday Morning” – Tyson Motsenbocker

“Great Are You” – Downhere

“Hold Still” – Taylor Leonhardt

“I’ll Find You There” – The Kry

“Lost the Plot” – Newsboys

“Frail” – Jars of Clay

30-21

“Oh Sweetest Name” – John Van Deusen

“Letter to the Editor” – J Lind

“Hosanna” – Brooke Fraser

“My Story” – Big Daddy Weave

“Entertaining Angels” – Newsboys

“La La Land” – Allstar United

“E G B D F” – Ben Shive

“Shine” – Newsboys

“Look at Me” – The Waiting

“Jesus Freak” – Dctalk

20. “We Will Feast in the House of Zion” – Sandra McCracken

Picture one long table as far as the eye can see, and the variety of people all bearing the imago dei from every tribe, tongue and nation, eating together in the presence of Jesus. No more sadness. Fear. War. Brokenness. Tears. (This side of heaven of course)

19. “No One Knows My Heart” – Susan Ashton

That voice and its warmth alongside killer lyrics just draws you in and keeps me coming back.

18. “All Will Be Well” – Gabe Dixon

The “fight can be as frustrating as hell” but truly all will be well. I need this reminder regularly.

17. “Nothing to Say” – Andrew Peterson

Stand before the grandeur of what God has created and we should rightly be speechless.

16. “Lead of Love” – Caedmon’s Call

Another world-class lyric from Aaron Tate and Caedmon’s Call.

15. “A Million Parachutes” – Sixpence None the Richer

It’s beautiful. Listen in headphones in a dark room.

14. “How to Be Yours” – Chris Renzema

I struggle to be called a child of God. I don’t feel deserving. He knows this and reminds me He’s not going anywhere. Thank you Jesus!

13. “Is He Worthy?” – Andrew Peterson

Is He Worthy? He is. Gorgeous and moving.

12. “Jesus, I Have My Doubts” – Jon Foreman

Raw and authentic, just like I like em. Foreman has been foundational for me for 26 years now.

11. “Citizens” – Jon Guerra

A musical gut-punch and a call to love and live the gospel.

10. “Luv is a Verb” – Dctalk

My feel-good nostalgia pick of the Top 10. Hard to be in a bad mood when this one comes on. I still know most of the rap by heart.

9. “Faithful” – Brooke Fraser

Boy has this one soaked deep. A gentle and sweet reminder to reach out to God even when you can’t “feel” Him present. I need it often.

8. “This World” – Caedmon’s Call

“This world has nothing for me, and this world has everything, all that I could want, and nothing that I need.” Thank you Aaron Tate for this treasure of a lyric and Danielle Young for breathing sound into it with your voice.

7. “If I Stand” – Rich Mullins

My favorite lyricist and my favorite overall song of his. “If I weep let it be as a man who is longing for…home.” Rich understood heavenly longing and wrote about it often, perhaps better than most.

6. “The Longest Time” – Billy Joel

C’mon…how do you not immediately being singing finger-snapping and toe-tapping?!

5. “Dare You to Move” – Switchfoot

“Maybe Redemption is stories to tell, maybe forgiveness is right where you fell, where can you run to escape from yourself, where you gonna go, where you gonna go, salvation is here.”

4. “Liquid” – Jars of Clay

Acoustic guitars? monks chanting? drum machines? Uh…it shouldn’t work but it does. It’s seared into my mind and heart at this point.

3. “God Only Knows” – The Beach Boys

If you ask me what the perfect pop song is this is my answer. I almost had this as my #1.

2. “Friend in You” – Jon Gibson

I cannot tell you how engrained into my brain this song is…it pops into my head almost daily, and of course then I’m required to sing it. With an opening line like, “Life has got you down…” it’s hard for me to resist.

1. “Claire De Lune” – Claude DeBussey

Yes, my favorite song of all-time is an instrumental. There’s just something about it that calms me. Or inspires me. It moves me in new ways each time I hear it. I’d like to learn how to play this on the piano. #Goals.

That’s it! Hope you enjoyed the ride. Please enjoy the playlist below if you’d like to tune in. Also, I’d love to hear your favorites and if you have a list, I’d love to read it, so please share!

101 Favorite Songs of All-Time Playlist

Other Posts You Might Enjoy: 100 Favorite 90s Pop Songs, 100 Great Alt-Rock Songs of the 90s, 100 Greatest Christian Songs of the 90s Full List

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