Year-end consensus · Hard Rock & Metal · three countdowns combined

The best hard rock songs of 1997

Q: What was the top hard rock song of 1997?

Combining 3 year-end radio countdowns, the top hard rock song of 1997 is "Touch, Peel, and Stand" by Days of the New, which appeared on 3 of the lists.

Three radio stations and charts published year-end countdowns for 1997: 97.1 The Eagle, KISW and WRCX Rock 103.5. Combining every list, the top hard rock song of 1997 is “Touch, Peel, and Stand” by Days of the New, which appeared on three of the three countdowns and was voted number one by one of them. Three different songs were voted number one somewhere: “Everlong” by Foo Fighters, “Du Hast” by Rammstein and “Touch, Peel, and Stand” by Days of the New. Metallica was the year’s most-charted artist, with 13 different songs placing 19 times across the countdowns.

3countdowns

183songs charted

3different #1s

Top 100 songs of 1997

All 183 songs →

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

#	Song	Strength	Lists	Best	#1s
1	Touch, Peel, and Stand Days of the New	252	3	#1	1
2	My Own Prison Creed	238	3	#5	–
3	Gone Away The Offspring	225	3	#3	–
4	Pink Aerosmith	194	3	#3	–
5	Trust Megadeth	193	2	#3	–
6	Everlong Foo Fighters	179	3	#1	1
7	Stinkfist Tool	175	2	#12	–
8	Hero of the Day Metallica	171	2	#8	–
9	King Nothing Metallica	170	2	#2	–
10	Monkey Wrench Foo Fighters	166	3	#11	–
11	Song 2 Blur	164	2	#6	–
12	Fuel Metallica	162	3	#2	–
13	Cemetery Gates Pantera	157	2	#16	–
14	Little White Lies Sammy Hagar	148	2	#16	–
15	If You Could Only See Tonic	148	2	#11	–
16	One Headlight The Wallflowers	147	2	#27	–
17	Almost Honest Megadeth	138	2	#17	–
18	Back on Earth Ozzy Osbourne	118	2	#39	–
19	Volcano Girls Veruca Salt	115	2	#14	–
20	Superman's Dead Our Lady Peace	114	2	#30	–
21	Lakini's Juice Live	108	2	#12	–
22	Jungle Kiss	106	2	#33	–
23	The Impression That I Get The Mighty Mighty Bosstones	106	2	#11	–
24	Me Wise Magic Van Halen	105	2	#30	–
25	Last Cup of Sorrow Faith No More	103	2	#19	–
26	Cowboys from Hell Pantera	100	1	#1	1
27	Beautiful Marilyn Manson	99	1	#2	–
28	Bleeding Me Metallica	97	1	#4	–
29	Blind Korn	97	1	#4	–
30	The Memory Remains Metallica	96	3	#22	–
31	One Metallica	96	1	#5	–
32	Would? Alice In Chains	95	1	#6	–
33	Devil Boy Seven Mary Three	94	1	#7	–
34	Bullet The Smashing Pumpkins	94	1	#7	–
35	Grey Flap Piston	93	1	#8	–
36	Fritz's Corner Local H	92	1	#9	–
37	High Jimmie's Chicken Shack	92	2	#54	–
38	Aint My Bitch Metallica	92	1	#9	–
39	Rhinosaur Soundgarden	91	1	#10	–
40	More Human Than Human White Zombie	91	1	#10	–
41	Driven Rush	88	1	#13	–
42	Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) Green Day	88	1	#4	–
43	Fly Sugar Ray	88	1	#13	–
44	Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) Marilyn Manson	87	1	#14	–
45	Down 311	85	2	#47	–
46	Precious Declaration Collective Soul	84	1	#18	–
47	Clean My Wounds Corrosion of Conformity	82	1	#18	–
48	Marching to Mars Sammy Hagar	82	1	#20	–
49	Perry Mason Ozzy Osbourne	81	1	#19	–
50	A Taste of India Aerosmith	81	1	#21	–
51	Eddie Vedder Local H	80	1	#22	–
52	A.D.I.D.A.S. Korn	79	1	#21	–
53	I Choose The Offspring	79	1	#23	–
54	Been Caught Stealing Jane's Addiction	78	1	#22	–
55	Sex and Candy Marcy Playground	77	2	#7	–
56	Falling in Love (is Hard on the Knees) Aerosmith	77	1	#25	–
57	Back in Black AC/DC	76	1	#24	–
58	Anybody Seen My Baby? The Rolling Stones	76	1	#26	–
59	Glycerine Bush	75	1	#25	–
60	Man in the Box Alice In Chains	74	1	#26	–
61	Hole in My Soul Aerosmith	74	2	#49	–
62	Greedy Fly Bush	74	1	#28	–
63	Bulls on Parade Rage Against the Machine	73	1	#27	–
64	My Own Summer (Shove It) Deftones	72	2	#20	–
65	Burden in My Hand Soundgarden	71	1	#31	–
66	My Hero Foo Fighters	70	2	#9	–
67	Dirty Eyes AC/DC	70	1	#32	–
68	Walk Pantera	69	1	#31	–
69	Walkin' On The Sun Smash Mouth	68	1	#32	–
70	Down in a Hole Alice In Chains	67	1	#35	–
71	Trippin' Through a Hole in a Paper Heart Stone Temple Pilots	66	1	#36	–
72	Crazy Train Ozzy Osbourne	66	1	#34	–
73	The Beautiful People Marilyn Manson	65	1	#37	–
74	Big Balls AC/DC	65	1	#35	–
75	Blow Up the Outside World Soundgarden	64	1	#38	–
76	Karma Police Radiohead	64	1	#10	–
77	1979 The Smashing Pumpkins	64	1	#36	–
78	Muzzle The Smashing Pumpkins	62	1	#40	–
79	No Place to Hide Korn	62	1	#38	–
80	Discotheque U2	61	1	#41	–
81	Fell On Black Days Soundgarden	61	1	#39	–
82	Cumbersome Seven Mary Three	60	1	#40	–
83	Sign o' the Times Queensryche	59	1	#43	–
84	Aenema Tool	59	1	#41	–
85	Planet Caravan Pantera	58	1	#42	–
86	The Freshmen The Verve Pipe	57	1	#45	–
87	Open Up Your Eyes Tonic	57	1	#43	–
88	Flip the Switch The Rolling Stones	56	1	#46	–
89	Blue On Black Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band	56	1	#12	–
90	Thunderkiss White Zombie	56	1	#44	–
91	The Girl I Love Led Zeppelin	55	1	#47	–
92	Until It Sleeps Metallica	54	1	#48	–
93	Shelf in the Room Days of the New	52	1	#50	–
94	Dammit blink-182	52	1	#13	–
95	Fallin' In Love Is Hard Aerosmith	52	1	#48	–
96	Listen Collective Soul	51	1	#51	–
97	Loser Beck	51	1	#49	–
98	Everything to Everyone Everclear	50	1	#52	–
99	The Difference The Wallflowers	50	1	#53	–
100	What I Got Sublime	49	1	#50	–

Every station’s number one of 1997

Station	Number one song	Countdown
97.1 The Eagle	Everlong Foo Fighters	KEGL The Eagle's Top 97 Songs of 1997
KISW	Du Hast Rammstein	KISW Top 25 Songs from 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 three qualifying countdowns. Each radio format is ranked separately, so classic rock and hard rock countdowns never shift the hard rock results; use the tabs above to switch formats. Read the full methodology.