What was the top rock song of 2012?

Combining 23 year-end radio countdowns, the top rock song of 2012 is "I Will Wait" by Mumford & Sons, which appeared on 22 of the lists.

Year-end consensus · All Rock Formats · 23 countdowns combined

The best rock songs of 2012

23 radio stations and charts published year-end countdowns for 2012: KROQ, 91X, CD101, CFNY 102.1 The Edge, The Buzz, 102.7 WEQX, 107.1 The Peak, 88.3 The Sting, 92.3 WTTS, 96.5 The Buzz, 97X, 98KUPD, 99 Rock, ALT 104.5, KFOG, Lightning 100, Studio Brussel, The Current, WBER, WTMD, WXPN, X96 and Triple J. Combining every list, the top rock song of 2012 is “I Will Wait” by Mumford & Sons, which appeared on 22 of the 23 countdowns and was voted number one by two of them. 18 different songs were voted number one somewhere: “Somebody That I Used To Know” by Gotye (3 stations), “We Are Young” by Fun. (2 stations), “I Will Wait” by Mumford & Sons (2 stations), “Ho Hey” by The Lumineers (2 stations) and “Little Talks” by Of Monsters And Men and others. The Black Keys was the year’s most-charted artist, with ten different songs placing 48 times across the countdowns.

23countdowns

858songs charted

18different #1s

Top 100 songs of 2012

All 858 songs →

Ranked by combined points across every 2012 year-end countdown in this format. How it works.

#	Song	Strength	Lists	Best	#1s
1	I Will Wait Mumford & Sons	1,905	22	#1	2
2	Little Talks Of Monsters And Men	1,730	19	#1	1
3	Ho Hey Lumineers	1,643	19	#1	3
4	Madness Muse	1,595	21	#3	–
5	Somebody That I Used To Know Gotye	1,573	17	#1	4
6	Gold On The Ceiling The Black Keys	1,548	18	#1	2
7	Take A Walk Passion Pit	1,361	18	#3	–
8	Simple Song The Shins	1,306	20	#3	–
9	We Are Young fun.	1,301	16	#1	2
10	It's Time Imagine Dragons	1,283	17	#1	2
11	Some Nights fun.	1,131	15	#2	–
12	Hold On Alabama Shakes	1,074	14	#1	1
13	Runaways The Killers	1,036	16	#5	–
14	Little Black Submarines The Black Keys	1,012	14	#5	–
15	Too Close Alex Clare	998	13	#3	–
16	Tongue Tied Grouplove	991	14	#4	–
17	45 The Gaslight Anthem	915	15	#1	1
18	Anna Sun Walk the Moon	819	14	#2	–
19	Mountain Sound Of Monsters And Men	800	18	#7	–
20	Midnight City M83	786	11	#4	–
21	Trojans Atlas Genius	750	14	#5	–
22	Oh Love Green Day	740	15	#8	–
23	Love Interruption Jack White	699	14	#2	–
24	Burn It Down Linkin Park	688	9	#3	–
25	Youth Without Youth Metric	669	12	#7	–
26	Lonely Boy The Black Keys	665	9	#6	–
27	Kill Your Heroes AWOLNATION	659	10	#9	–
28	Live and Die Avett Brothers	646	9	#4	–
29	Sixteen Saltines Jack White	639	12	#13	–
30	Stubborn Love Lumineers	623	9	#9	–
31	Days Go By The Offspring	601	9	#11	–
32	Shake It Out Florence And The Machine	597	9	#9	–
33	Spread Too Thin Dirty Heads	582	11	#6	–
34	Bloody Mary (Nerve Endings) Silversun Pickups	579	9	#7	–
35	Everybody Talks Neon Trees	576	10	#3	–
36	We Come Running Youngblood Hawke	539	11	#18	–
37	Itchin' On A Photograph Grouplove	520	11	#21	–
38	This Head I Hold Electric Guest	517	9	#1	1
39	Radioactive Imagine Dragons	499	10	#11	–
40	Charlie Brown Coldplay	490	9	#12	–
41	I'm Shakin' Jack White	489	8	#7	–
42	The Pit Silversun Pickups	475	11	#32	–
43	Sleep Alone Two Door Cinema Club	471	12	#22	–
44	Default Django Django	454	8	#8	–
45	Paradise Coldplay	442	7	#16	–
46	Headlights Morning Parade	438	9	#17	–
47	Freedom At 21 Jack White	429	10	#12	–
48	These Days Foo Fighters	428	6	#3	–
49	Jump Into The Fog Wombats	421	8	#10	–
50	Let's Go Matt And Kim	413	9	#11	–
51	California Delta Spirit	413	7	#30	–
52	No Light, No Light Florence And The Machine	408	8	#16	–
53	Satellite Rise Against	405	5	#2	–
54	Reboot the Mission The Wallflowers	400	6	#13	–
55	Carry On fun.	394	10	#14	–
56	The House That Heaven Built Japandroids	377	8	#4	–
57	Wait For Me Rise Against	372	6	#23	–
58	That Wasn't Me Brandi Carlile	367	5	#16	–
59	Chained The xx	361	7	#23	–
60	Breathing Underwater Metric	357	8	#21	–
61	North Side Gal JD McPherson	355	5	#11	–
62	Live To Rise Soundgarden	349	5	#14	–
63	Not Your Fault AWOLNATION	347	7	#18	–
64	Do It Anyway Ben Folds Five	345	5	#9	–
65	Breezeblocks Alt J	343	7	#3	–
66	Would That Not Be Nice Divine Fits	341	5	#6	–
67	Queen Of California John Mayer	340	5	#13	–
68	Look Around Red Hot Chili Peppers	337	7	#15	–
69	Happy Pills Norah Jones	329	6	#23	–
70	Blood For Poppies Garbage	326	8	#30	–
71	Disparate Youth Santigold	313	7	#12	–
72	Doom And Gloom The Rolling Stones	312	5	#8	–
73	Hats Off To The Bull Chevelle	311	4	#6	–
74	Silenced by the Night Keane	311	8	#25	–
75	Video Games Lana Del Rey	310	4	#2	–
76	Chalk Outline Three Days Grace	309	6	#17	–
77	Mercy Dave Matthews Band	309	5	#12	–
78	Been Away Too Long Soundgarden	306	8	#24	–
79	Don't Stop (Color On The Walls Foster The People	303	5	#15	–
80	Fire Escape Civil Twilight	301	6	#21	–
81	I'm Getting Ready Michael Kiwanuka	295	5	#14	–
82	Home Phillip Phillips	291	4	#11	–
83	Lost In The Echo Linkin Park	288	6	#35	–
84	Myth Beach House	286	5	#19	–
85	Let Yourself Go Green Day	279	8	#26	–
86	Skyfall Adele	277	4	#1	1
87	Fitzpleasure Alt J	275	6	#18	–
88	It's Only Life The Shins	272	5	#6	–
89	R U Mine? Arctic Monkeys	271	5	#1	1
90	Bully Shinedown	268	3	#9	–
91	Strange Attractor Animal Kingdom	266	5	#12	–
92	Afterlife Switchfoot	265	5	#27	–
93	Babel Mumford & Sons	262	5	#44	–
94	That Old Black Hole Dr. Dog	250	4	#21	–
95	Lost In Forever P.O.D.	250	4	#3	–
96	Shadow Days John Mayer	244	5	#25	–
97	Miss Atomic Bomb The Killers	238	5	#24	–
98	Go Right Ahead The Hives	235	5	#22	–
99	I'm Writing a Novel Father John Misty	234	4	#35	–
100	I Ain't The Same Alabama Shakes	228	7	#18	–

Every station’s number one of 2012

Station	Number one song	Countdown
KROQ	We Are Young Fun.	KROQ Top 50 Songs of 2012
91X	Somebody That I Used To Know Gotye	91X Top 91 Songs of 2012
CD101	Little Talks Of Monsters And Men	CD101 Top 102.5 Songs of 2012
CFNY 102.1 The Edge	I Will Wait Mumford & Sons	102.1 The Edge Top 50 New Rock Songs of 2012
The Buzz	Thrift Shop Macklemore with Ryan Lewis	The Buzz Top 99 Songs of 2012
102.7 WEQX	I Will Wait Mumford & Sons	WEQX Top 102.7 of 2012
107.1 The Peak	Somebody That I Used To Know Gotye	WXPK Top 107 Songs of 2012
88.3 The Sting	The Grand Optimist City and Colour	88.3 The Sting WBWC Top 88 Songs of 2012
92.3 WTTS	Gold On The Ceiling The Black Keys	WTTS Top 50 Songs of 2012
96.5 The Buzz	This Head I Hold Electric Guest	96.5 The Buzz Top 96 Songs of 2012
97X	We Are Young fun. feat. Janelle Monae	97X Top 97 Songs of 2012
98KUPD	45 The Gaslight Anthem	98KUPD Top 98 of 2012
99 Rock	Dance All Night Dirty Heads/Matisyahu	99Rock WFRD Top 99 of 2012
ALT 104.5	Fitzpleasure Alt-J	Radio 104.5 Top 50.5 Songs of 2012
KFOG	Skyfall Adele	KFOG Foghead Favorites 2012
Lightning 100	Hold On Alabama Shakes	Lightning 100 Top 100.1 Songs of 2012
Studio Brussel	R U Mine ? Arctic Monkeys	Studio Brussel De Eindafrekening 2012
The Current	Old Friend Sea Wolf	The Current Top 89 Songs of 2012
WBER	Somebody That I Used To Know Gotye	WBER Listener Countdown 2012
WTMD	Ho Hey The Lumineers	WTMD Top 89 Songs of 2012
WXPN	Ho Hey The Lumineers	WXPN Year in Review: Top 200 Songs of 2012
X96	It's Time Imagine Dragons	X96 Top 50 Songs of 2012
Triple J	Thrift Shop Macklemore & Ryan Lewis featuring Wanz	Triple J Hottest 100 of 2012

All 2012 countdowns in this ranking

About the 2012 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 2012 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 23 qualifying countdowns. This ranking combines every rock format on the site. Read the full methodology.