Top 100 Classic Rock Songs

The "supergroup" label has been wrung dry of most of its original value nowadays, after decades of being attached with overblown record label fanfare to ad-hoc assemblies of B-list talent.

In the years leading up to the release of their classic self-titled record in 1991, Metallica achieved massive success on their own terms. 'Enter Sandman' opened the door to something even bigger.

While some of rock and roll’s greatest storytelling songs require you to listen at least a bit of suspended reality, Deep Purple’s entry on our Top 100 Classic Rock Songs list operates nearly completely on truth.

Although they were only together for two years, the impact that British power trio Cream had upon the world is truly remarkable. No song illustrates this better than 'Sunshine of Your Love,' which mixed hard rock with aspects of psychedelia to wonderful effect.

Do politics belong in rock 'n' roll? When you've got Ted Nugent making vaguely threatening statements about a sitting President...eh, maybe not so much. But when the result is a barnburner like Neil Young's 'Rockin' in the Free World,' it's hard to deny the value of self-righteous rage when it comes to penning a classic rock tune...

The Cars set the bar rather high for themselves with their 1978 self-titled debut: Out of the album’s nine songs, seven of them remain AOR staples to this day. Perhaps the most indelible of those tunes, however, is ‘Just What I Needed.’

Until the time of their 1973 smash 'Ramblin' Man', the Allman Brothers Band had largely been centered around siblings Duane and Gregg Allman.

"She packed my bags last night, pre-flight..." Elton John's 'Rocket Man' is not the first classic rock song about a lonely dude drifting through space. Hell, it may not even be the best, although a debate on the merits of this track versus David Bowie's 'Space Oddity' (which, hint-hint, we just might see later on in the Top 100 Classic Rock Songs list) is a conversation for another day.

1973 was a busy year for former Beatle Paul McCartney. April 1973 saw the release of his album 'Red Rose Speedway.' But it was the song 'Live and Let Die' -- written for the James Bond movie of the same name -- that would garner McCartney one of his biggest hits ever, and earn him the No. 38 position in our Top 100 Classic Rock Songs countdown.

‘Sultans Of Swing’ was Dire Straits’ debut single. Let that sink in -- the fully-formed, blues-drenched tune was the first song many heard from the British act. However, its appeal was evident long before it hit No. 4 on the Billboard singles chart in 1979, or our Top 100 Classic Rock Songs list: A 1977 demo version of the song reportedly earned the band a record deal.