What was the top rock song of 1997?

Combining 11 year-end radio countdowns, the top rock song of 1997 is "Song 2" by Blur, which appeared on 10 of the lists.

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

The best rock songs of 1997

Eleven radio stations and charts published year-end countdowns for 1997: KROQ, 91X, Live 105, Q101, WHFS, 107.7 The End, John Peel (BBC Radio 1), Virgin Radio, 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 ten of the eleven countdowns. Ten different songs were voted number one somewhere: “The Impression That I Get” by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones (2 stations), “Wrong Way” by Sublime, “Walkin' on the Sun” by Smash Mouth, “Fly” by Sugar Ray and “Everlong” by Foo Fighters and others. Sublime was the year’s most-charted artist, with five different songs placing 23 times across the countdowns.

11countdowns

399songs charted

10different #1s

Top 100 songs of 1997

All 399 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	900	10	#2	–
2	Tubthumping Chumbawamba	760	9	#3	–
3	Semi-Charmed Life Third Eye Blind	746	8	#1	1
4	Everlong Foo Fighters	733	8	#1	1
5	The Impression That I Get The Mighty Mighty Bosstones	725	8	#1	2
6	Fly Sugar Ray	679	7	#1	1
7	One Headlight The Wallflowers	662	8	#7	–
8	Everything to Everyone Everclear	642	9	#16	–
9	Wrong Way Sublime	611	7	#1	1
10	Gone Away The Offspring	577	8	#5	–
11	6 Underground Sneaker Pimps	572	8	#6	–
12	The Freshmen The Verve Pipe	568	7	#6	–
13	The New Pollution Beck	557	7	#8	–
14	Push Matchbox 20	543	7	#6	–
15	Breathe The Prodigy	531	7	#11	–
16	Building a Mystery Sarah McLachlan	526	7	#10	–
17	Santeria Sublime	524	6	#5	–
18	Eye The Smashing Pumpkins	514	7	#9	–
19	Monkey Wrench Foo Fighters	512	9	#11	–
20	Hitchin' A Ride Green Day	500	9	#25	–
21	Crash Into Me Dave Matthews Band	499	6	#4	–
22	Sell Out Reel Big Fish	494	7	#12	–
23	Your Woman White Town	493	8	#21	–
24	Greedy Fly Bush	491	7	#20	–
25	Hell Squirrel Nut Zippers	489	7	#10	–
26	If You Could Only See Tonic	486	7	#3	–
27	Walkin' On The Sun Smash Mouth	481	5	#1	1
28	The Perfect Drug Nine Inch Nails	477	9	#12	–
29	Volcano Girls Veruca Salt	474	7	#5	–
30	Naked Eye Luscious Jackson	470	8	#15	–
31	Sex and Candy Marcy Playground	461	8	#3	–
32	Jack-Ass Beck	460	7	#11	–
33	Wrong Number The Cure	457	8	#20	–
34	Criminal Fiona Apple	455	6	#8	–
35	Staring At The Sun U2	442	8	#23	–
36	Lakini's Juice Live	414	8	#12	–
37	It's No Good Depeche Mode	414	7	#18	–
38	Bittersweet Sympthony The Verve	402	6	#4	–
39	Doin' Time Sublime	397	6	#5	–
40	#1 Crush Garbage	378	6	#29	–
41	The Difference The Wallflowers	366	7	#18	–
42	Lovefool The Cardigans	361	7	#14	–
43	Turn My Head Live	356	6	#13	–
44	Block Rockin' Beats The Chemical Brothers	353	7	#19	–
45	Female of the Species Space	347	8	#33	–
46	Dammit blink-182	346	6	#4	–
47	Don't Go Away Oasis	328	6	#30	–
48	Touch, Peel, and Stand Days of the New	325	7	#1	1
49	D'You Know What I Mean? Oasis	319	7	#29	–
50	3 A.M. Matchbox 20	314	7	#30	–
51	Graduate Third Eye Blind	310	6	#14	–
52	Summertime The Sundays	301	7	#32	–
53	Not An Addict K's Choice	297	6	#15	–
54	Karma Police Radiohead	296	5	#5	–
55	Walking on the Sun Smash Mouth	291	3	#3	–
56	Mouth Bush	289	7	#22	–
57	Discotheque U2	284	8	#41	–
58	A Long December Counting Crows	280	6	#26	–
59	Superman's Dead Our Lady Peace	276	5	#38	–
60	Bitch Meredith Brooks	265	5	#28	–
61	Brimful of Asha Cornershop	259	5	#1	1
62	Bitter Sweet Symphony The Verve	254	3	#1	1
63	Virtual Insanity Jamiroquai	250	5	#38	–
64	My Town Buck-O-Nine	245	4	#12	–
65	Sleep To Dream Fiona Apple	241	6	#40	–
66	The End Is The Beginning Is The End The Smashing Pumpkins	233	5	#26	–
67	Abuse Me Silverchair	231	5	#32	–
68	Deadweight Beck	227	6	#32	–
69	You Were Meant For Me Jewel	226	3	#13	–
70	Firestarter The Prodigy	222	4	#29	–
71	The Rascal King The Mighty Mighty Bosstones	221	5	#39	–
72	How's It Gonna Be Third Eye Blind	213	4	#17	–
73	Sweet Surrender Sarah McLachlan	209	6	#19	–
74	Thirty-Three The Smashing Pumpkins	195	4	#39	–
75	I Choose The Offspring	195	6	#23	–
76	Sunday Morning No Doubt	195	4	#22	–
77	Beautiful Disaster 311	192	4	#13	–
78	Don't Speak No Doubt	188	4	#3	–
79	Da Funk Daft Punk	186	4	#10	–
80	Precious Declaration Collective Soul	184	3	#18	–
81	Swallowed Bush	181	5	#35	–
82	The End is the Beginning of the End The Smashing Pumpkins	179	4	#37	–
83	Stinkfist Tool	165	2	#15	–
84	A.D.I.D.A.S. Korn	158	2	#18	–
85	I Will Survive Cake	151	2	#20	–
86	Freak Silverchair	149	2	#13	–
87	Dream Forest For The Trees	145	5	#51	–
88	Come On Eileen Save Ferris	144	4	#45	–
89	What Do You Want From Me? Monaco	140	4	#42	–
90	What I Got Sublime	138	3	#24	–
91	Paranoid Android Radiohead	136	2	#7	–
92	I'm Afraid of Americans David Bowie	133	4	#42	–
93	Desperately Wanting Better Than Ezra	133	3	#44	–
94	Brick Ben Folds Five	130	4	#41	–
95	H. Tool	126	2	#23	–
96	High Jimmie's Chicken Shack	121	2	#27	–
97	Freaks Live	119	3	#46	–
98	Prisoner 311	115	2	#26	–
99	All Mixed Up 311	114	2	#36	–
100	Cold Contagious Bush	112	5	#59	–

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
John Peel (BBC Radio 1)	Brimful Of Asha Cornershop	John Peel's 'Pretty' Festive Thirty-One of 1997
Virgin Radio	Bitter Sweet Symphony The Verve	Virgin Radio Top 10 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 eleven qualifying countdowns. This ranking combines every rock format on the site. Read the full methodology.