What was the top rock song of 1997?

Combining 18 year-end radio countdowns, the top rock song of 1997 is "Song 2" by Blur, which appeared on 17 of the lists.

Year-end consensus · All Rock Formats · 18 countdowns combined

The best rock songs of 1997

18 radio stations and charts published year-end countdowns for 1997: KROQ, 91X, Live 105, Q101, WHFS, 107.7 The End, 102.7 WEQX, 105.7 The Point, 97.1 The Eagle, John Peel (BBC Radio 1), KISW, KNRK, Virgin Radio, WBER, X103.9, Triple J, Radio & Records and WRCX Rock 103.5. Combining every list, the top rock song of 1997 is “Song 2” by Blur, which appeared on 17 of the 18 countdowns and was voted number one by one of them. 13 different songs were voted number one somewhere: “The Impression That I Get” by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones (3 stations), “Everlong” by Foo Fighters (3 stations), “Fly” by Sugar Ray (2 stations), “Wrong Way” by Sublime and “Walkin' on the Sun” by Smash Mouth and others. Sublime was the year’s most-charted artist, with five different songs placing 37 times across the countdowns.

18countdowns

549songs charted

13different #1s

Top 100 songs of 1997

All 549 songs →

Ranked by combined points across every 1997 year-end countdown in this format. How it works.

#	Song	Strength	Lists	Best	#1s
1	Song 2 Blur	1,526	17	#1	1
2	Walkin' On The Sun Smash Mouth	1,270	14	#1	1
3	Tubthumping Chumbawamba	1,184	14	#3	–
4	Fly Sugar Ray	1,183	13	#1	2
5	The Impression That I Get The Mighty Mighty Bosstones	1,132	13	#1	3
6	Semi-Charmed Life Third Eye Blind	1,129	13	#1	1
7	Everlong Foo Fighters	1,094	13	#1	3
8	The Freshmen The Verve Pipe	1,051	13	#6	–
9	One Headlight The Wallflowers	1,026	13	#4	–
10	Wrong Way Sublime	974	11	#1	1
11	Everything to Everyone Everclear	971	14	#16	–
12	Gone Away The Offspring	952	13	#3	–
13	If You Could Only See Tonic	923	12	#3	–
14	Push Matchbox 20	916	11	#5	–
15	Sell Out Reel Big Fish	857	12	#4	–
16	6 Underground Sneaker Pimps	854	12	#2	–
17	Your Woman White Town	848	13	#14	–
18	Monkey Wrench Foo Fighters	844	15	#11	–
19	Santeria Sublime	821	10	#5	–
20	Hell Squirrel Nut Zippers	820	12	#10	–
21	Breathe The Prodigy	812	12	#2	–
22	Building a Mystery Sarah McLachlan	773	12	#10	–
23	The New Pollution Beck	771	12	#8	–
24	Sex and Candy Marcy Playground	761	12	#3	–
25	Criminal Fiona Apple	752	11	#8	–
26	The Perfect Drug Nine Inch Nails	733	13	#12	–
27	Volcano Girls Veruca Salt	733	11	#5	–
28	Eye The Smashing Pumpkins	699	10	#9	–
29	Hitchin' A Ride Green Day	688	13	#25	–
30	Greedy Fly Bush	671	10	#20	–
31	Staring At The Sun U2	657	12	#23	–
32	Touch, Peel, and Stand Days of the New	644	12	#1	1
33	Lakini's Juice Live	639	13	#12	–
34	Wrong Number The Cure	629	12	#20	–
35	Not An Addict K's Choice	613	10	#10	–
36	Crash Into Me Dave Matthews Band	607	9	#4	–
37	Dammit blink-182	600	10	#3	–
38	Female of the Species Space	581	12	#22	–
39	It's No Good Depeche Mode	576	9	#13	–
40	Bitch Meredith Brooks	561	9	#12	–
41	Don't Go Away Oasis	553	10	#20	–
42	The Difference The Wallflowers	552	11	#18	–
43	Naked Eye Luscious Jackson	548	10	#15	–
44	Bitter Sweet Symphony The Verve	542	9	#1	1
45	Jack-Ass Beck	536	9	#11	–
46	Turn My Head Live	534	9	#13	–
47	Superman's Dead Our Lady Peace	527	9	#18	–
48	Summertime The Sundays	525	12	#32	–
49	#1 Crush Garbage	510	9	#29	–
50	Graduate Third Eye Blind	484	9	#12	–
51	3 A.M. Matchbox 20	481	10	#27	–
52	Doin' Time Sublime	473	8	#5	–
53	The Rascal King The Mighty Mighty Bosstones	464	10	#10	–
54	Firestarter The Prodigy	440	7	#23	–
55	Karma Police Radiohead	435	7	#5	–
56	Lovefool The Cardigans	434	9	#14	–
57	Block Rockin' Beats The Chemical Brothers	415	9	#19	–
58	Bittersweet Sympthony The Verve	402	6	#4	–
59	D'You Know What I Mean? Oasis	398	9	#29	–
60	A.D.I.D.A.S. Korn	385	5	#4	–
61	Discotheque U2	380	11	#41	–
62	Virtual Insanity Jamiroquai	375	7	#19	–
63	How's It Going To Be Third Eye Blind	373	9	#17	–
64	Mouth Bush	373	9	#22	–
65	Precious Declaration Collective Soul	372	6	#18	–
66	Abuse Me Silverchair	358	7	#21	–
67	My Own Prison Creed	349	6	#5	–
68	A Long December Counting Crows	348	8	#26	–
69	Stinkfist Tool	343	5	#12	–
70	The End Is The Beginning Is The End The Smashing Pumpkins	339	8	#26	–
71	My Town Buck-O-Nine	318	5	#12	–
72	I Will Survive Cake	308	5	#20	–
73	What I Got Sublime	306	6	#24	–
74	Swallowed Bush	306	8	#16	–
75	Sleep To Dream Fiona Apple	303	8	#40	–
76	Brick Ben Folds Five	296	7	#6	–
77	Don't Speak No Doubt	291	6	#3	–
78	I Choose The Offspring	285	8	#23	–
79	Thirty-Three The Smashing Pumpkins	270	6	#39	–
80	Brimful of Asha Cornershop	268	7	#1	1
81	Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) Green Day	267	5	#4	–
82	Da Funk Daft Punk	260	5	#10	–
83	All Mixed Up 311	246	4	#36	–
84	Sunday Morning No Doubt	246	5	#22	–
85	Come On Eileen Save Ferris	238	5	#7	–
86	What Do You Want From Me? Monaco	237	7	#42	–
87	Deadweight Beck	236	7	#32	–
88	Listen Collective Soul	227	5	#47	–
89	Paranoid Android Radiohead	227	3	#7	–
90	You Were Meant For Me Jewel	226	3	#13	–
91	The Beautiful People Marilyn Manson	223	3	#8	–
92	Desperately Wanting Better Than Ezra	222	4	#13	–
93	Sweet Surrender Sarah McLachlan	221	7	#19	–
94	Beautiful Disaster 311	219	6	#13	–
95	Freak Silverchair	217	3	#13	–
96	King Nothing Metallica	209	3	#2	–
97	Hero of the Day Metallica	207	3	#8	–
98	Everyday Is A Winding Road Sheryl Crow	196	5	#41	–
99	Dream Forest For The Trees	196	7	#51	–
100	Pink Aerosmith	194	3	#3	–

Every station’s number one of 1997

Station	Number one song	Countdown
KROQ	Wrong Way Sublime	KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1997
91X	Walkin' on the Sun Smash Mouth	91X Top 91 Songs of 1997
Live 105	The Impression That I Get The Mighty Mighty Bosstones	Live 105 Top 105.3 Songs of 1997
Q101	Fly Sugar Ray	Q101 Top 101 Songs of 1997
WHFS	The Impression That I Get The Mighty Mighty Bosstones	WHFS Top 99.1 Songs of 1997
107.7 The End	Everlong Foo Fighters	The End Top 107 Songs of 1997
102.7 WEQX	The Impression That I Get The Mighty Mighty Bosstones	WEQX Top 102.7 of 1997
105.7 The Point	Baker Street The Foo Fighters	105.7 The Point Top 105.7 of 1997
97.1 The Eagle	Everlong Foo Fighters	KEGL The Eagle's Top 97 Songs of 1997
John Peel (BBC Radio 1)	Brimful Of Asha Cornershop	John Peel's 'Pretty' Festive Thirty-One of 1997
KISW	Du Hast Rammstein	KISW Top 25 Songs from 1997
KNRK	Everlong Foo Fighters	KNRK Top 94 Songs of 1997
Virgin Radio	Bitter Sweet Symphony The Verve	Virgin Radio Top 10 Songs of 1997
WBER	Halls Of Illusions Insane Clown Posse	WBER Listener Countdown 1997
X103.9	Fly Sugar Ray	X103.9 Top 103.9 Songs of 1997
Triple J	No Aphrodisiac The Whitlams	Triple J Hottest 100 of 1997
Radio & Records	Semi-Charmed Life Third Eye Blind	Radio & Records Top 97 Songs of 1997
WRCX Rock 103.5	Touch, Peel, and Stand Days of the New	WRCX Top 103 Songs of 1997

All 1997 countdowns in this ranking

About the 1997 ranking

Radio stations count down their listeners’ favorite songs at the end of every year. Each station’s list reflects its own audience, so a song that ruled Los Angeles could miss the top ten in Chicago. To find the songs that defined 1997 everywhere, RockLists gives every appearance percentile-based points (a number one earns 100, the last position earns close to zero) and adds them up across all 18 qualifying countdowns. This ranking combines every rock format on the site. Read the full methodology.