Bohemian Rhapsody tops MAX 1000 Greatest Songs of All Time

Queen’s legendary opus Bohemian Rhapsody has been voted the Greatest Song of All Time according to MAX channel.

The music channel ran its Molly Meldrum-hosted 1000 Greatest Songs of All Time special across Easter based on viewer votes, industry experts, chart ratings and song popularity (whatever that means).

Guns N Roses Sweet Child O’ Mine was voted second and Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Sprit ranked third.

U2 drew the most entries with 14 songs with I Still Haven’t Found What I’m looking for at #19, while INXS, Michael Jackson, George Michael, Queen and David Bowie, also dominated. You’re the Voice was the top Aussie entry at #5.

The Max 1000 Greatest Songs Of All Time Top 10:

1. “Bohemian Rhapsody” Queen
2. “Sweet Child O’ Mine” Guns N’ Roses
3. “Smells Like Teen Spirit” Nirvana
4. “Imagine” John Lennon
5. “You’re The Voice” John Farnham
6. “Stairway To Heaven” Led Zeppelin
7. “Purple Rain” Prince & The Revolution
8. “It’s A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll)” AC/DC
9. “Thriller” Michael Jackson
10. “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” The Rolling Stones

Music from the 1980s amounted to 37 percent of the songs, followed by the 1990s with 24 percent.

But the title of All Time is a bit of a misnomer.

All songs eligible had to have a licensed broadcast quality music video available, meaning The Beatles are not featured in the countdown because they do not grant permission for their videos to be broadcast on television, and it’s not clear if songs outside of MAX’s preferred genres were ranked (Over the Rainbow, I’ve Got You Under My Skin, Mr. Bojangles, I Dreamed a Dream, Waltzing Matilda, Happy Birthday, Auld Lang Syne?).

No complaints about #1 though!

MAX has now published the full list here.