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Favourite Songs Of All Time Poll

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I’m intending to run a poll of the Afterword Forum’s favourite song of all time in the New Year once the Best Of Polls are finished and everyone has had their say on them.

You’ll be able to vote for your 30 (thirty) faves.

Please don’t vote on this thread, the poll will start in February.

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  4. Going to have to be some ground rules set I think! Does a ‘song’ need to have lyrics or do instrumentals count? Are we talking recorded music only or can we go back to folk songs? Do we choose an individual song or and individual performance of a song?

    Just trying to head off a lot of awkward questions upfront! 😁

  5. Earlier this year I did my top 100 songs which turned out to be top 150 and even now there are songs which I have missed so how the blooming hell am I going to get it down to 30 ( I didn’t put them in order )
    Oh well that’s my Christmas sorted

  6. As we are a very cosmopolitan, online community, I’m sure there will be no restrictions about which language the song is sung in- I’ll be betting some serious money on Francoise Hardy.

    But what about Russian singer, Eduard Kihl and this very catchy number?

    Problem is that it’s not in Russian. It’s in Russian gobbledy gook.

    This is going to be an interesting poll!

  9. As someone that gets paid to analyse data, this looks like being a nightmare & I would think very carefully how you attack it. Giving a free vote to a group of knowledgeable, avid music fans is going to produce such a wide range of answers, across all eras & genres. – there’s unlikely to be much consensus & most will be single responses.
    Unless you set some sort of framework (or run a first wave with a free vote & then make a short list from the. results) the most useful information will be to find which are the most popular, genres, eras etc.
    The favourite album from each year poll a few years ago was quite successful & scrolling through the comments prompted others to add more.
    However: remember that the overall numbers are going to be very small & assigning points (30 down to 1) can easily skew the results if a few people all list Nickleback’s How you remind me as their favourite.

    • Excellent comment @Timbar.

      Finding out which are the most popular, genres, eras etc to my mind, could be a quite useful exercise.

      But I’m a perverse sod who thinks that the most interesting discoveries from the Afterword Album of the Year Poll are often those albums that just get one or two votes.

    • I don’t get exactly what you are getting at @Timbar. Most will be single responses* how do you work that out? Are you telepathic if so just give us the final listing now

      I have lots of experience with polls such as this and the final result will be taken from the free vote

      A comprehensive breakdown will be taken once the poll is over

      I know you mean well and thank you for your advice. The ‘telepathic’ thing was my attempt at humour

      *Many have already said they’ve got their work cut out bringing their list down to 30

      • Well yeah, I could probably come up with my 30 favourite Chuck Berry songs.

        On the definition of ‘song’, I think you would have to stick with recordings, so that a cover version could count as a song. Take for example A Rainy night in Georgia. I doubt whether anyone would consider Tony Joe White’s rather mediocre original as superior to Brook Benton’s classic.

      • @RayX I don’t have telepathic powers, but over 30 years in Market Research, working through the night, having to correct misspellings & poor translation, means I tend to flag things that might be an issue.
        Your data set will be much smaller (and mainly in English) but the issues remain.

        Assuming 100 responses, there will be 3000 items (100 x 30) and with such a music literate crowd, there will be a very diverse list, giving lots of single mentions. Assigning points across so many titles means that 30 thirtieth favourites will count the same as one person’s top pick (This how the maths on Strictly in the early rounds works) Popular artists tend to have several favourites, which splits the vote, rather than the one hit wonder.

        For you, the titles need to be consistent – are brackets used, abbreviations, full alpha or number – so they can be sorted & pivot tabled. Same with artists.
        For folk & classical, more than others, are you looking for the performer or the composer?

        This is why for magazines & online polls, there’s a long precoded list, with an open ended “other” box (which often doesn’t get analysed!) and the same titles appear.. They then use the results and the feedback (“How could you miss…”) to tailor their product.

        It does look like a lot of effort & I’m not sure what it’ll tell you. You do need to get the ground rules in place & not want people changing their minds, choosing fewer than 30 or having joint favourites. Best of luck.

        Anyway, I’m going to code up 5000 questionnaires now!

        • Once again I have experience in this sort of thing, the last one I did had a choice of 50 recommendations and over 450 voters, 20,000+ selections

          Your point regarding a song that gets 30 thirtieth favourites counting the same as one person’s top pick means what exactly?

          Regarding composers, this is a ‘song’ poll not a classical music/opera poll. Those who wish those genres to be included are out of luck and can always organise a poll for those genres. All this will be covered prior to the poll starting and the rules will be displayed and time allowed for common sense to be applied prior to the start of voting

          Regarding it being a lot of effort, that is my choice, you seem to be throwing a lot of spanner’s into the works of what to me is a simple
          undertaking. Yes a simple undertaking that involves setting aside a few hours. This is a FUN project not intended to be a definitive mirror of Afterworder’s musical tastes

          Obviously there will be lots of conflicting opinions, many pedantic views (it is the Afterword) and ‘why oh why didn’t you cloth eared numpties choose this song’

          @Timbar, of course I know you don’t have telepathic powers, I did point out it was a jest and you make some valid points some of which I will take on board, thank you

          Oh, I enjoy this kind of thing

          • @Ray.X. If you enjoy it & it’s fun, that’s great. I’ve been thinking in “work mode”where any extra effort needs to be billed & you try to keep things simple. – The 30 vs 1st is if you’re making a definitive ranking & not spotting that the aggregate will be the same. 2 people said it was their all time fave – but it’s still only 2 people.

            It’s hard for me to switch off whenever polls are suggested, but I’ll think of my 30, avoid 18th century composers – or Nickleback – and see what comes up. Cheers!

      • I agree with @RayX and I think it is a great idea.
        Frankly I don’t care if all my choices only have my vote I don’t have any intention of choosing any obvious ones although I will pick one from the same album that RayX chose from. You will just have to wait and see.

  10. I have a playlist called ‘Flawless Songs’ which currently contains 145 tracks, so I will work on picking my 30 top flawless ones from this. I am very strict with this playlist, if i ever skip a track then it is deleted, so it is quite a fresh list!

  11. @RayX and @Timbar I have a question about polls in general.

    I’m curious about the names of the different voting systems.

    I’ll take the example of my book circle which my friend @DuCool01 administrates very efficiently.

    We have a list of 12 books to choose from and each of us has 5 votes. One vote is worth five points, the next 4 points and so on.
    Eurovision has a similar system.

    Another way of voting would be one where each of the five votes was worth only one point.

    Is there a technical name for these two alternatives?

    If Eurovision went over to a system where all votes had the same value, I can imagine the results would be very different, but not so exciting.

    Land yourself a few Douze Points and you are quids in.

    Abba were good at explaining this kind of thing: THE WINNER TAKES IT ALL.

    As a footnote, I should point out that our book circle has succeeded very well with our current system. We’ve had a wonderful variety of different novels.

    Ok, there have been occasions when envelopes crammed with used notes have changed hands under tha table. But that’s democracy for you!

    • I can’t help you with names given to different systems KFD, I’m just an amateur with this kind of thing, Timbar is probably your best bet

      The most popular voting system on various forums for best book, song, album, movie, etc that I’ve come across is the same number of points for the first selection as there are nominations, then on a descending scale down to one. There are polls were it’s just one point for each selection but it’s thought the first one is more accurate: 10 nominations, 10 points for the first

      No matter the system you won’t please everyone

    • There are 3 systems that are commonly used, often within the same study.
      A holecount is just adding the number of replies (from the days of punch cards)
      Rating – How do you score this on a scale of 1-5
      Ranking – first choice gets most points, final choice gets fewest.

      Each of them have advantages. – in a music setting.
      Which artists do you listen to (holecount)
      How important are the following formats (rating)
      How would you rank ***’s albums from best to worst.

      Ratings will usually have mean scores attached, but it’s important to look at the distribution, as lots of 1 & 5s will produce a similar mean to all 3s
      With Ranking (as I was annoying earlier) you need to look at the base as 2 people choosing something as their first choice (40 points) will out weigh 19 giving it as their 20th.(38 points)
      I usually add a ranking mean (where lowest will be best) but put in a zero (did not rank) so that you’re getting an average based on everybody.

      For your book club,, you’’ve got a list of 12 and are giving them points, so by implication, those not ranked score “nul points” (see what I did there)

  13. Blimey! A post flagging a future post has already got 63 replies, 64 including this one. Going to be mayhem. I’ll lob my top 30 in for sure, but I don’t suppose they’ll affect the results…

  15. I remember when I was running one of the end of year polls, I considered using the Formula 1 system (25 points to the winner, 18 to second and a sliding scale after that). I held a private and exhaustive mathematical survey using the previous year’s poll and was somewhat surprised to find the results were not that much different compared to using our now accepted 20 for 1st choice and 1 for 20th choice or even the give every choice 1 point. I might just have got that Wrong

  16. Seems like a lot of unnecessary faff and discussion about what is or should be a fun poll for all and sundry to enjoy whilst munching their mince pies and quaffing their mulled wine.
    A great diversion from the festivities.

  18. Love this thread. If Martians landed tomorrow and asked “What is this Afterword?” I’d point them in the direction of this thread and tell them “THAT is The Afterword…”

    30 favourite songs? Where I place We Are Detective will clearly be pivotal in the final standings…

  20. I’m thinking about only doing B-sides apart, of course, from ‘Beeside’.

    If I could think of 29 others, I’d do mainland-Europe only B-sides, apart, of course, from ‘Beeside’.

  23. I’m up for it.

    The criteria I’ll use for selection is a simple one and will get right to the top end of things easily I reckon – if I play the song/track during my normal listening habits, do I (or at least do I think) of replaying it immediately a second or third time afterwards? If I do, then it’s in.

  25. For me, there’s three lists going on here.
    There’s the list of all those worthy winners, which we all know and respect. We actually may not play/hear them that often, but we will all nod sagely when they are listed here. The River Deep Mountain High list, if you will.
    Then there’s a list of songs that you personally adore, turn to at specific moments, that you like to shout about. These are songs by artists not as widely known, or the so-called ‘deep cuts’ by well known artists. These are the ones that you would like to introduce to your fellow Afterworders. This list would be a lot more interesting than the first.
    Very specifically and personally, I have a list of songs that I enjoy singing the most. Believe me, this is also a very good list.

    • Number three would be a really excellent thread @thecheshirecat!

      You probably sing more than anyone else here, but there must be a few others who sing a bit. I can think of at least one karaoke enthusiast.

      But even if it’s only community singing or a pub sing-song, there must be certain songs that we feel keen about joining in with.

      It’ll be a far shorter list, but an interesting one!

    • This. I have a Desert Island Discs playlist but also a Singalong playlist – there’s some crossover but not entirely.

      You’ll be relieved to know that the Singalong list is exclusively for use in the car when alone.

  26. Well I had a go last night using my criteria which basically ChesireCat’s 2nd list and got to about 100 songs by the time I got to artists beginning with D. So my own idea doesn’t really work and I’ve no idea how I’d even begin to whittle that down as by the time I get to Z there would be thousands.
    I’m not messing about with it again now, but if it does become an actual poll then I might have another bash

  27. Song seems an inadequate term to refer to all the music I listen to. I mean some seem pieces I would say are not much of a song but are great anyway. Eno said that about Tomorrow Never Knows. Not much of a song but his favourite production. A lot of music is like that. Not so much about being a song but successful as a track on an album, or even single.

    • I think I don’t really like songs, with all those meaningful lyrics to listen to and contemplate. I like tunes, and non-tunes, melodies and harsh screeches, rhythms and hours of beatless ambience. Sure, I don’t mind a few words thrown in for good measure, a catchily-repeated title, a chorus to sing along to, but songs? Not really my thing.

      • I think I like a range of pieces of music from the song to the non-song, with variations in between. To talk of songs is limiting. The bit of the song that’s instrumental, and maybe a bit discordant or jazzy is often the best bit. The vocal part with chorus can seem a bit crude or banal and just get in the way before you get to the soloing and interesting sounds and textures.

      • Excellent comment @salwarpe. It looks like we’ll need a separate poll for your ” anti-songs.”

        And that was a great comment from you too @Diddley Farquar.

        Akin to saying; I love sandwiches – I’m just not too keen about the bread.

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