Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list features artists with Croatian heritage
- by croatiaweek
- in Entertainment
Rolling Stone magazine on Wednesday released a new list of the 500 greatest songs in history, the first time it has done it in 17 years.
The list was created with the help of more than 250 artists, writers, and industry figures who were asked to rank their personal top 50s, before the results were combined to form the top 500. The new list features artists with Croatian heritage.
Making the list at number 30 was New Zealand-Croatian Lorde with her 2011 hit Royals. She was just 15 at the time.
Lorde, who’s real name is Ella Maria Lani Yelich-O’Connor, claims Croatian heritage on her mother’s side and has both Croatian and New Zealand citizenship.
Royals, which carries a message criticising the materialism of the pop music scene, spent nine weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart and won two Grammy Awards in 2014 for Song of the Year and for Best Pop Solo Performance.
Lorde currently has sold over 12 million albums worldwide, as well as 10 billion streams. Her debut album “Pure Heroine” went triple platinum. Time magazine named her one of the most influential teenagers in the world, she was on the Forbes list of the 30 most influential under-30s, on the cover of Rolling Stone, and she performed with Nirvana at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony in 2014.
Lorde is set to perform in Croatia for the first time next summer with two shows.
Aretha Franklin’s 1967 smash hit “Respect” topped the new list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.
Number two on the list went to Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” with Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna Come” coming in third on the list.
Nirvana, who’s bassist was American-Croatian Krist Novoselic, came in 5th on the list.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Novoselic was also the co-founder of the legendary grunge band. Born in California to Croatian parents Marija and Krsto Novoselić, Krist spent time in school in Zadar on Croatia’s Dalmatian coast in the 1980s. His mother Marija is from Privlaka, near Zadar and father Krsto is from Iž.
Krist Novoselic Kristina Novoselic (Photo credit: David Lee (davidjlee)/CC BY-SA 2.0)
He met Kurt Cobain through his brother and the two discovered they had a similar taste in music and decided to form the band Nirvana.
Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone”, the Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields Forever”, Missy Elliott’s “Get Ur Freak On”, Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” and Outkast’s “Hey Ya!” also made the top 10.
At number 452 on the list was “Africa” by Toto, a group American-Croatian David Paich co-founded. Paich was the principal songwriter, keyboardist, and occasional singer of Toto and he co-wrote much “Africa”.
David Paich Photo credit: CC BY-SA 3.0 licenceCreative Commons)
The new top 10
1. Aretha Franklin — Respect (1967)
2. Public Enemy — Fight The Power (1989)
3. Sam Cooke — A Change Is Gonna Come (1964)
4. Bob Dylan — Like A Rolling Stone (1965)
5. Nirvana — Smells Like Teen Spirit (1991)
6. Marvin Gaye — What’s Going On (1971)
7. The Beatles — Strawberry Fields Forever (1967)
8. Missy Elliott — Get Ur Freak On (2001)
9. Fleetwood Mac — Dreams (1977)
10. OutKast — Hey Ya! (2003)
The old top 10
1. Bob Dylan — Like A Rolling Stone (1965)
2. The Rolling Stones — (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction (1965)
3. John Lennon — Imagine (1971)
4. Marvin Gaye — What’s Going On (1971)
5. Aretha Franklin — Respect (1967)
6. The Beach Boys — Good Vibrations (1966)
7. Chuck Berry — Johnny B. Goode (1958)
8. The Beatles — Hey Jude (1968)
9. Nirvana — Smells Like Teen Spirit (1991)
10. Ray Charles — What’d I Say (1959)
You can see the complete list of the top 500 here.
