You Voted and Chose The Top 5 Rock Songs Of All Time

Published September 8, 2026

It's become a Labour Day tradition to countdown the Top 500 rock songs of all time based on your votes. Now that the weekend has come and gone, the 2026 results are in.

Here are the Top 5 rock songs from this year's Top 500 Countdown, as voted by you!

5. Lynyrd Skynyrd – "Free Bird"

"Free Bird" by Lynyrd Skynyrd slid two spots this year, landing at #5 after sitting at #3 in 2025.

While the radio edit of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird" is usually 4:41, the full track runs over 9 minutes. The back half is entirely instrumental, with Allen Collins, Ed King and Gary Rossington jamming for extended stretches. Some have argued it's the most famous instrumental in rock and roll history.

The opening line, "If I leave here tomorrow, would you still remember me?" came from something Allen Collins' girlfriend, and later wife, once asked him.

According to Ronnie Van Zant, the song is about what it means to be free, in that a bird can fly wherever it wants to go. Everyone wants that kind of freedom, and he saw the song as tied to what the country stood for.

The track appeared on the album Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd, even though the band's label didn't want it included because of its length. No one had any idea it would go on to help launch them into stardom.

4. Tragically Hip – "Wheat Kings"

The Tragically Hip's "Wheat Kings" dropped two spots this year, from #2 down to #4.

Released in 1992 on their Fully Completely album, the song was inspired by the wrongful imprisonment of David Milgaard in Canada. Gord Downie's lyrics combine storytelling with a reflective melody, capturing a sense of injustice and a longing for redemption.

Musically, the track blends jangly guitars with a melodic rhythm section, creating a sound that's instantly recognizable as the Tragically Hip. "Wheat Kings" has endured as one of the band's most iconic songs, celebrated for both its social commentary and its emotional weight.

3. Led Zeppelin – "Stairway To Heaven"

"Stairway To Heaven" climbed four spots this year, moving from #7 up to #3.

The song appears on Led Zeppelin's fourth studio album, often referred to as Led Zeppelin IV, Untitled, or Four Symbols, released in 1971. No singles were pulled from the record, but "Stairway To Heaven" still became the most played and requested song on US radio throughout the 1970s.

The band recorded much of the album's more acoustic, folk-leaning material after Jimmy Page and Robert Plant spent time at Bron-Yr-Aur, a remote cottage in Wales that Plant's family had used as a holiday home. That stretch of writing helped shape the record's sound, and "Stairway To Heaven" carries that acoustic-to-electric build all the way through, opening on a gentle guitar figure and closing in full electric force.

Decades on, it remains one of the most analyzed and debated songs in rock history, from its lyrics to the guitar solo, and it's a staple of classic rock radio to this day.

2. Eagles – "Hotel California"

"Hotel California" by the Eagles rose two spots in 2026, moving from #4 up to #2.

The song was written by Don Felder, Glenn Frey and Don Henley, and speaks to materialism and excess in LA, though it could apply to plenty of other places too. In 2007, Henley explained that some of the wilder interpretations of the song surprised him. He said it was really about the excesses of American culture and certain people they knew, along with the uneasy balance between art and commerce.

Felder came up with the song while playing at the beach. He later worked out the chord progression and a basic guitar track, then brought it to Henley and Frey, who helped finish it. The band recorded the song the following year.

1. Queen – "Bohemian Rhapsody"

Topping this year's countdown is Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody", jumping an incredible 23 spots after sitting at #24 in 2025.

Released in 1975 on A Night at the Opera, "Bohemian Rhapsody" almost never made it out as a single at all. At close to six minutes long, EMI and much of the industry balked at the idea of a single that ran that long for radio. Even bassist John Deacon privately worried that releasing it would be a mistake for the band. It took a BBC DJ, Kenny Everett, playing the song over a dozen times on his show to force the label's hand.

Once it was out, the song spent nine weeks at #1 in the UK and still ranks as one of the best selling singles in UK chart history. It reached #9 on the Billboard Top 40 in the US, then charted again in 1992 after Wayne's World and once more in 2018 following the release of the band's biopic of the same name. Freddie Mercury won an Ivor Novello Award for the song, and its lyrics remain one of rock's great mysteries, with fans still debating whether they touch on Mercury's sexuality, his childhood, or something else entirely. Mercury himself preferred to leave it open, saying he liked fans to draw their own conclusions.

Nearly 50 years later, it's still one of the most recognizable songs ever recorded, and this year, Rock 95 listeners voted it to the very top of the Top 500.

This is just a small taste of the iconic rock songs that appear on this year's Top 500 listing. We can't wait to see what next year brings!

See the full list of Top 500 Rock songs ...

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