If you’re the type of classic-rock fan who gets mad at listicles, you may not want to click this link. Because Rolling Stone magazine’s new 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list makes some bold choices.
For example, Missy Elliott’s 2001 rap lark “Get Ur Freak On” checks in at number eight, higher than any Stevie Wonder song. “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” the 1991 Nirvana grunge anthem, is at number five, ahead of anything by The Beatles.
Robyn’s 2010 club banger “Dancing on My Own” is at number 20, outpacing the entire combined catalogs of David Bowie, Joni Mitchell, Michael Jackson, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, The Who and Bruce Springsteen. At number 30, “Royals,” Lorde’s 2011 art-pop hit, eclipses what many consider rock’s ultimate track, The Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” at 31.
The list’s summit is more difficult to find fault with. “Respect,” soul singer Aretha Franklin’s hot 1967 cover of Otis Redding’s song, is ranked as the number-one song of all-time. To construct their list, Rolling Stone polled approximately 250 artists, musicians and producers, ranging from rap star Megan Thee Stallion to original Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward.
“Respect” has a strong Alabama connection too. Muscle Shoals musicians including guitarist Jimmy Johnson, organist Spooner Oldham and drummer Roger Hawkins played on the track. Johnson died in 2019 at age 76. Hawkins passed away this May at 75.
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During our 2018 interview, Johnson told me about recording the song in New York at Atlantic Records Studios. “I remember we were there with (Atlantic producer/exec) Jerry Wexler, who invited Otis Redding. He was standing close to me and (songwriter) Dan Penn and after (Aretha) got through doing the vocal, what (Redding) said was, ‘Well, she took my song from me.’ And did she ever.”
Speaking with me in 2019, Hawkins recalled after cutting his drum track for “Respect,” he watched Aretha and her sisters overdub the song’s “sock it to me” backing vocals. “At the time I thought, ‘This is really cooking,’” Hawkins said. “I never realized what kind of history was being made, but I knew that I liked it a lot.”
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In our 2015 interview, keyboardist Oldham said he felt his job during Aretha’s New York sessions was “keeping time and try to make it feel good.”
Memphis saxophonist Charles Chalmers, who played on many sessions at Muscle Shoals’ storied FAME Studios, played tenor sax on “Respect.” In 2019, when asked about the enduring appeal of that era’s music, Chalmers told me, “We had great artists coming at us, but at the same time we knew how to approach those artists and just make this groove. I wish I could grasp onto the words that would really explain it right.”
Johnson and Hawkins were original members of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, a studio musician collective famously nicknamed The Swampers in Lynyrd Skynyrd’s ‘70s Southern rock hit “Sweet Home Alabama.” Along with Swampers bassist David Hood and keyboardist Barry Beckett, Johnson and Hawkins founded Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Sheffield, Ala. in 1969, after years of working for FAME mastermind/producer Rick Hall. Muscle Shoals, FAME and Swampers musicians are all depicted in the recent Jennifer Hudson starring Aretha Franklin biopic, which is also “Respect.”
RELATED: A Swamper, a brother: David Hood talks Jimmy Johnson
Rolling Stone last published a 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list in 2003. As the new list’s intro paragraph notes, “a lot has changed since 2004; back then the iPod was relatively new, and Billie Eilish was three years old. So we’ve decided to give the list a total reboot.” Nearly 4,000 songs received votes, according to Rolling Stone.
The new list, while not beholden to sacred vintage tunes, is dotted with interesting factoids within blurbs corresponding to each song. Despite any eyerolls it induces, the piece should be read as a road map through the music shaping pop right now. More than half the songs on Rolling Stone’s new 500 greatest songs list weren’t on their 2004 list.
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