In no particular order, here's a list of rock and pop songs I consider to be among the greatest ever written that are also personal favorites. (Jazz would require another list.) Some if not most of you may disagree with the choices—but that's part of the fun of it.
My listening over the past few years has been heavily influenced by Internet radio station www.3wk.com. Their Underground Radio stream is an oasis in a world of mass-market offal masquerading as music.
Best new songs I heard in 2010: Underworld, "Always Loved A Film" and Belle and Sebastian, "Come On Sister"
Best new songs I heard in 2009: Sondre Lerche, "I Cannot Let You Go" and The William Blakes, "Science Is Religion"
Genesis: "Watcher of the Skies"
Genesis: "The Musical Box"
Genesis: "Return of the Giant Hogweed"
Genesis: "Firth of Fifth"
Blue Öyster Cult: "(Don't Fear) the Reaper"
Blue Öyster Cult: "I Love the Night"
Blue Öyster Cult: "Then Came the Last Days of May"
Blue Öyster Cult: "Astronomy"
Love: "You Set the Scene"
Love: "andmoreagain"
Kraftwerk: "Computer Liebe"
Kraftwerk: "Die Mensch Maschine"
Kraftwerk: "Die Roboter"
Kraftwerk: "Heimcomputer"
Sondre Lerche: "I Cannot Let You Go"
Cloud Cult: "Alien Christ"
Reverie Sound Revue: "You Don't Exist If I Don't See You"
The William Blakes: "Science Is Religion"
Oxygen Ponies: "Fevered Cyclone"
Doves: "Catch the Sun"
The Long Winters: "Everything Is Talking"
John Vanderslice, "Everything Changed"
Underworld, "Always Loved a Film"
Black Kids, "Hurricane Jane"
Shonen Knife: "Fruits and Vegetables"
The Call: "I Don't Wanna"
Pavlov's Dog: "Mersey"
Pavlov's Dog: "Valkyrie"
Gary Wilson: "6.4 = Make Out"
Gary Wilson: "Electric Depression"
Gary Wilson: "Chromium Bitch"
Talking Heads: "No Compassion"
Talking Heads: "Artists Only"
Talking Heads: "Heaven"
Talking Heads: "This Must Be the Place (Naïve Melody)"
Roxy Music: "Mother of Pearl"
Roxy Music: "A Song for Europe"
Was/Not Was: "Anything Can Happen"
The Kinks: "Waterloo Sunset"
The Kinks: "Shangri-La"
The Kinks: "Sitting In My Hotel"
The Kinks: "Big Sky"
The Kinks: "Get Back In Line"
The Kinks: "Celluloid Heroes"
Todd Rundgren: "A Dream Goes On Forever"
Todd Rundgren: "Love of the Common Man"
Roy Orbison: "In Dreams"
Roy Orbison: "Crying"
Roy Orbison: "Only the Lonely"
Depeche Mode: "Dreaming of Me"
Dead Boys: "Sonic Reducer"
Matthew Sweet: "Sick of Myself"
Pink Floyd: "Echoes"
Moenia: "En Que Momento?"
Johnny Cash: "Folsom Prison Blues"
Johnny Cash: "Get Rhythm"
Spirit: "Nature's Way"
Daryl Hall and John Oates: "You're Much Too Soon"
Peter Gabriel: "Solisbury Hill"
Steely Dan: "Deacon Blues"
Steely Dan: "Doctor Wu"
Steely Dan: "Any Major Dude Will Tell You"
Steely Dan" Pearl of the Quarter"
Jane Siberry: "The White Tent the Raft"
Jane Siberry: "Love Is Everywhere"
Laura Nyro: "Stoned Soul Picnic"
Lee Feldman: "Williamsburg Bridge"
Jim Dawson: "City Song/Simple Song"
The Beatles: "For No One"
The Beatles: "Eleanor Rigby"
The Beatles: "No Reply"
The Decemberists: "Here I Dreamt I Was An Architect"
The Rolling Stones: "Time Waits For No One"
Joni Mitchell: "The Circle Game"
Tom Rush: "Child's Song"
Phil Ochs: "Outside Of A Small Circle of Friends"
Leonard Cohen: "Hallelujah"
Leonard Cohen: "First We'll Take Manhattan"
Leonard Cohen: "Joan of Arc"
The Guess Who: "Guns, Guns, Guns"
The Guess Who: "All Hashed Out"
The Guess Who: "Glamour Boy"
Les Paul and Mary Ford: "How High the Moon"
The Grateful Dead: "Eyes of the World"
The Association: "Time For Living"
The Beach Boys: "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times"
Cream: "Deserted Cities of the Heart"
Anthony Philips: "God If I Saw Her Now"
Quill: "Thumbnail Screwdriver"
Frank Zappa: "Peaches En Regalia"
Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention: "Oh No/Orange County Lumber Truck"
Dionne Warwick: "Walk On By"
John Entwistle: "Apron Strings"
Iron Butterfly: "Fields of Sun"
Patti Smith Group: "Frederick"
Television: "Marquee Moon"
Madonna: "Holiday"
Lou Christie: "Lightnin' Strikes"
Bob Dylan: "Ballad of a Thin Man"
Bob Dylan: "Queen Jane Approximately"
Bob Dylan: "Positively 4th Street"
Lou Reed: "Satellite of Love"
Lou Reed: "Men of Good Fortune"
Lou Reed: "Sad Song"
New Order: "Bizarre Love Triangle"
The Ramones: "I Just Want to Have Something to Do"
Elvis Presley: "Kentucky Rain"
James Gang: "It's All the Same"
Merle Haggard: "Misery and Gin"
Merle Haggard: "I Am A Lonesome Fugitive"
Simon and Garfunkel: "America"
Ray Charles: "Busted"
Jack Bruce: "Theme for an Imaginary Western"
The Jimi Hendrix Experience: "Purple Haze"
Fever Tree: "Run Past My Window"
Neil Young: "After the Gold Rush"
Neil Young: "Sugar Mountain"
Carnivore: "SMD"
Unit 4 + 2: "Concrete and Clay"
David Bowie: "Life on Mars"
Nick Lowe: "Cruel to be Kind"
Gang of Four: "Damaged Goods"
Iggy and the Stooges: "Search and Destroy"
Muddy Waters: "Mannish Boy"
Carole King: "So Far Away"
XTC: "Ten Feet Tall"
Hampton Grease Band: "Halifax"
McKendree Spring: "I Should've Known"
The Spinners: "I'll Be Around"
Wilson Pickett: "Don't Let the Green Grass Fool You"