Top 10 Songs (2004 - present) was created in response to the growing popularity of paid song downloads and the lack of global digital song charts in the early 2000s. The first top 10 songs of the year chart in 2005 was topped by “Hollaback Girl” by Gwen Stefani. In 2005, "Hollaback Girl" was the first song ever to sell over one million downloads in the United States. From July 2004 to December 2013, the 10 most popular songs were ranked based on the top downloaded songs from online music retailers. Top 10 Songs began including streaming to determine weekly, monthly and yearly chart rankings from January 2014 to 9 August 2018. From 16 August 2018 to February 2019, the top 10 songs were ranked based on the 10 most influential songs of the week. The popularity of the site led to interest in using our charts on other media. Brian Carroll - on behalf of “Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest” - contacted top10songs.com about the use of our end year chart for their TV Special.

Top 10 Songs now ranks the top songs of the week and year 50 years ago, beginning in 1969. A song may be great for any number of reasons; emotion, melody and longevity can all make a great song. A song may be popular at one time and not at another – likes and preferences in music change throughout the lifetime of songs, and throughout the lifetime of people. Popular songs are vast and diverse, and tastes are subjective. You know when you hear a song for the first time and the sights, sounds, and feelings of that moment stay with you? The songs may or may not have been popular hits – but all have elements that make them great songs. Most songs included here that were not popular hits have been critically acclaimed or highly sampled in later years. Each song is researched to determine its true first release date by year (single, album, or country of first release). This is reflected in the song's first weekly chart entry date. The artist’s name on the first official release of a song is the artist name that appears here. Artist name variations are grouped with their most popular name on their respective artist pages e.g. 10 C.C. is 10cc, Chicago Transit Authority is Chicago, and Lennon/Ono With The Plastic Ono Band is John Lennon. Promotional, bootleg and disc jockey releases are not considered as official releases. Charts have been compiled using global data since 2004.

#ChartsDoneRight

Beginning October 2022, voting has changed. From December 2012 to February 2020, songs that made the weekly charts were eligible for one year of voting, regardless of their year of entry into the charts. For example, a song that debuted on the weekly charts on 31 July 2014 could be voted on until 30 July 2015. Therefore, the song could have made both the 2014 and 2015 end year charts. Now, the weekly chart debut date of a song determines which end year chart the song is voted upon. Voting begins after December 31 of each year. Vote for the top songs of 1970, 1971 and 1972. All votes also count towards Top 100 Songs by Vote. Voting ended for 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 songs on 31 January 2025.