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Song · Lou Reed

“Rock 'n' Roll” by Lou Reed

Released 1974

“Rock 'n' Roll” by Lou Reed appears on 16 radio countdowns from 2 stations between 1999 and 2014. It was first released in 1974. Its best result is #438 on the Fred XM Top 2044 Songs of All-Time (July 2003). In the combined RockLists rankings it is #2,266 alternative song of all time.

16countdowns

2stations

#438best position

0#1 finishes

0top 10 finishes

1999–2014years charted

Watch

Lou Reed - Rock 'N' Roll - 9/25/1984 - Capitol Theatre (Official)

Video from YouTube (Lou Reed on MV). Pressing play loads YouTube's player. Watch on YouTube

Lou Reed wrote "Rock 'n' Roll" for the Velvet Underground, who first cut it for Loaded in 1970, and he never let it go: long after going solo he kept hauling it back out onstage, and this version of his surfaced in 1974. It's his origin story told through a girl named Jenny who finds her rescue in rock and roll.

Reed owned up to that in the liner notes of the Velvets' box set Peel Slowly and See: the song, he wrote, was about himself. If he hadn't heard rock and roll on the radio, he'd have assumed the whole world was like the place he came from. Movies and TV never got through to him; the radio did.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.

RockLists rankings

Alternative & Modern Rock

#2,266 of all time

All Rock Formats

#3,900 of all time

All-time and decade countdowns

Year	#	Station	Countdown	of
1999	1585	CD101	CD101 Top 2000 Songs of All-Time (December 1999)	2000
2000	1585	CD101	CD101 Top 2001 Songs of All-Time (December 2000)	2001
2001	1585	CD101	CD101 Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (December 2001)	2002
2002	1577	CD101	CD101 Top 2003 Songs of All-Time (December 2002)	2003
2002	499	Fred (XM 44)	Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002)	2002
2003	1578	CD101	CD101 Top 2004 Songs of All-Time (December 2003)	2004
2003	438	Fred (XM 44)	Fred XM Top 2044 Songs of All-Time (July 2003)	2044
2004	1578	CD101	CD101 Top 2005 Songs of All-Time (December 2004)	2005
2005	1576	CD101	CD101 Top 2006 Songs of All-Time (December 2005)	1994
2007	1708	CD101	CD101 Top 2008 Songs of All-Time (December 2007)	2008
2008	1686	CD101	CD101 Top 2009 Songs of All-Time (December 2008)	2009
2009	1706	CD101	CD101 Top 2010 Songs of All-Time (December 2009)	2010
2010	1743	CD101	CD101 Top 2011 Songs of All-Time (December 2010)	2011
2011	1817	CD101	CD101 Top 2012 Songs of All-Time (December 2011)	2011
2013	1877	CD101	CD101 Top 2013 Songs of All-Time (December 2013)	2012
2014	1954	CD101	CD101 Top 2014 Songs of All-Time (2014)	2013

Also listed as: Rock And Roll; Rock and Roll.

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