Planet Rock - Top 500 - Interesting listeners votes

[SteveXFR]

1 hour ago, cetera said:

with an absolute tw@t of a guitarist.... (spoken from experience)

 

They have a reputation for being terrible people. Even worse than Nickelback. 

[SteveXFR]

14 minutes ago, Maude said:

Sleep Token should be in the top ten. 

 

 

 

 

 

Ghost and Sleep Token in first and second place.

I don't get the hate for them. I find them fairly inoffensive. The main criticism I hear is "they're not real metal" and they're not BUT they've never described themselves as metal. 

[Maude]

37 minutes ago, SteveXFR said:

 

Ghost and Sleep Token in first and second place.

I don't get the hate for them. I find them fairly inoffensive. The main criticism I hear is "they're not real metal" and they're not BUT they've never described themselves as metal. 

I've actually been to see Sleep Token and while not my thing, I can completely see why they are so big, the whole show they put on was fantastic. If you were a fan I can see how you could get so drawn into the whole 'cult' of Sleep Token. 

My daughter was going to see them at London O2 with her partner but they split up, none of her friends wanted to go so I went with her, and thoroughly enjoyed it. 

[tauzero]

2 hours ago, ezbass said:

Oops! I’ve plainly touched a nerve there. I merely mentioned them as a newer rock band (metal or otherwise) who are post ‘60s/‘70s who made an appearance, against the poll’s general grain. FWIW I don’t mind them and wouldn’t try to pigeonhole them stylistically, their version of Bad Company or Black on Blue certainly isn’t metal in my book.

 

Don't worry, Steve saying "X is Y for people who don't like Y" is his standard formula for saying "I don't like X and I don't think anyone else should either".

[SteveXFR]

13 minutes ago, tauzero said:

 

Don't worry, Steve saying "X is Y for people who don't like Y" is his standard formula for saying "I don't like X and I don't think anyone else should either".

 

Not at all. There are people who enjoy Five Finger Death Punch and they are generally not metal fans. Ive never known a metal fan who does like them. They've got riffs and distorted guitars but they're missing anything original or interesting. 

[tauzero]

GnR have popped up with three between 50 and 44, SCOM is still to put in an appearance.

[steantval]

Good to see Joey B has a couple in there 👍

[ezbass]

1 hour ago, SteveXFR said:

but they're missing anything original or interesting. 

Which explains their embracing of the cover perhaps? I really don’t know a great deal about them, just what I hear on PR.

 

Out shopping and just looking at the recently played tracks, looks like Sabbath are making a late run. Won’t Get Fooled Again and Alright Now lower than I would have thought.

[TheBigOz]

Does anyone have an updated list of top entrants. Iron maiden must be up there. Think I counted 15 

[SH73]

5 hours ago, SH73 said:

 I have been listening most of every day to help me get through....I'm hoping Iron Maiden will make top 20 at least. I missed few hours , has Hallowed be thy name been played  yet?

Yep, at no 15

[tauzero]

Number 8 is rather unpredicted.

[ezbass]

Alter Bridge, top 10, nice.

[rwillett]

I've been stuck in a meeting for the last two hours. Highly productive but have missed the top 10 which is annoying....

 

And I've just been told there's two songs left. 

 

Ah heard #2

Rob

  

Edited 10 hours ago by rwillett

[ezbass]

So it appears that what Planet Rock listeners really like is a ballad. Both very similar in construction, but one with a daft novelty section. Only separated by 2 votes allegedly. 
 

In terms of most tracks, I think Sabbath may have taken the crown there and Zep may have even pipped Queen to the punch in that respect too. I await @rwillett’s statistical analysis with bated breath, for confirmation.

[TheBigOz]

I think sabbath was bound to do well considering the past few months. Expected and abit disappointed to see bohemian rhapsody at number 1 

[Merton]

1 hour ago, tauzero said:

Number 8 is rather unpredicted.

It’s my favourite song, and I’m going to insist on it being played in full at my funeral, whenever that may be (hopefully many years from now 😆)

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

More than happy with Bo Rhap at #1, although #1 and #2 could easily be reversed.

How is Thunderstruck the best that AC/DC has to offer?

[PaulWarning]

On 07/01/2026 at 17:04, rwillett said:

 

Thin Lizzy has five entries but not Whisky in the Jar (which they hated)

 

 

 

 

 

 

and also it was a bugger to play live, not many of the post Eric Bell guitarists wanted to make a tit of themselves trying it

 

[Lozz196]

Great to see Rainbow/Stargazer at No.3

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

3 minutes ago, PaulWarning said:

and also it was a bugger to play live, not many of the post Eric Bell guitarists wanted to make a tit of themselves trying it

 

The song is in there, just not by Thin Lizzy 🤷‍♂️

[rwillett]

So the final lists are here, all 500 songs. Its easy to see from the list below that it's all grouped around the 1970's, 1980's and early 1990's.

 

 

This is borne out by the decades table for the whole 500

 

This is the list before the last 70 songs

 

 

and now after the whole 500 songs

 

The 1970's and the 1980's increased their percentage of the songs at the expense of the other decades. Basically more 1970's and 1980's songs in the last 70 songs today.

 

The top band were indeed AC/DC who had the same song recorded 21 times but with different titles (joke joke). Five in the top 50, so 10% of the top 50 were AC/DC. Their average position was 187.

 

 

Second was Led Zepp with 19 and an average position of 203

 

 

Joint third on the list with 18 were Queen (average position 302) and Black Sabbath (average position 229)

 

 

 

The average year of the top 10 was 1981, songs 11-20 average year was 1978, Songs 21-30 average year was 1976, Songs 31-40 average year was 1983 and Songs 41-50 was 1980.

 

The oldest song was Chuck Berry - Johnny B. Goode, 1958, which only came in at 418 (travesty IMHO)

 

The newest song was Shinedown - A Symptom of Being Human, 2022, which came in at 259. 

 

There were only 50 songs this millennium and their average year was 2008. 

 

 

I make no comment on the quality of the songs (apart from Chuck Berry), I am merely your humble scribe and data analytics person.

Enjoy

Rob

Edited 7 hours ago by rwillett

[ezbass]

39 minutes ago, rwillett said:

The top band were indeed AC/DC who had the same song recorded 21 times but with different titles

I often said you probably only need 1 AC/DC album  (dons tin hat).

39 minutes ago, rwillett said:

Second was Led Zepp with 19 and an average position of 203

Get in! Yep, LZ fanboy. Surprising really as I didn’t ’get them’ until ‘76, when they were almost done, I was a Purple guy (whom I now can’t stand, along with other performers from that time in my life that I adored, I'm looking at you EC).

 

39 minutes ago, rwillett said:

Joint third on the list with 18 were Queen (average position 302) and Black Sabbath (average position 229)

PR play sooo much Queen, who, IMO, weren’t particularly ‘rock’ post Sheer Heart Attack. I do wonder if Sabbath would have finished so high, were it not for Ozzy’s demise; we’ll never know.

 

Finally, big thanks to @rwillett for doing the spreadsheet, donkey work on this, most appreciated.

Edited 7 hours ago by ezbass

[LowB_FTW]

Def Leppard had 6 entries (464, 379, 286, 205, 106, and 81) 5 of which were from the '80s, the other from the '90s.

Nothing strange or startling from any of those entries, but it's just nice to see them make an appearance.

 

Mark

[ezbass]

Thought Rush might do better, but that’s exactly what a Rush fan would think.  

[rwillett]

8 minutes ago, ezbass said:

Thought Rush might do better, but that’s exactly what a Rush fan would think.  

As would Darren....