The Five Most Overplayed Rock Songs of All Time

Those of us who are 30 years or older have probably spent a lot of time listening to the radio, whether in the car or at home. Over the years, classic rock radio - in particular - has a go-to list of songs, many of which are really, really overplayed. Check out our list of the top five most overplayed songs, and no doubt, some of these will resonate.

Bob Seger rocking in the 70s

1. "Old Time Rock and Roll" by Bob Seger

This song is probably the most played track on FM radio (AM too, for that matter). Released in 1979, it's safe to say "Old Time Rock and Roll" has been played a million times. Plus there's all the weddings, sports events, movie soundtracks, and parties, where it inevitably seems to get played. Again and again. Suffice it to say, it's a station changer when it comes on the radio. And someone should start a petition to get it permanently banned from radio.

2. "Born to be Wild" by Steppenwolf

This is a pretty good song that's just been around way too long and played way too many times. "Born to be Wild" was released as a single back in 1968, and while it coined the term "heavy-metal thunder", its worn out its welcome on radio. Interestingly, the song was written by Mars Bonfire as a ballad. We can credit Steppenwolf for turning it into a riff-rocker, but we can't credit radio stations for continually playing "Born to be Wild" ad nauseam.

3. "American Woman" by The Guess Who

It's bad enough "America Woman" got enough air time to make even the most casual radio listener bored to death. But then Lenny Kravitz decided to cover it in 1999 and it enjoyed a renaissance that really killed any faint luster left on the track, which was first released in 1970. What makes it worse, since the song is written by a Canadian band, it gets extra airplay in Canada, because of the Canadian content laws which state at least 35% of music played between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m Monday-Friday has to be Canadian.

Mick Jagger singing "Satisfaction"?

4. "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by the Rolling Stones

We love the Rolling Stones here at Rock 'n Roll Insight, make no mistake, but "Satisfaction" needs to be taken off the radio. And the Stones need to stop playing it in concert. Mick Jagger famously said he would rather be dead than singing "Satisfaction" at age 45. Well he's 76 and still singing it. "Satisfaction" is a good song and was amazing when it was released in 1965. But we've endured 54 years of it in fairly heavy rotation. And, sadly, the Stones are still using it live, as the final encore to boot.

5. "More Than a Feeling" by Boston

No doubt when you first heard "More Than a Feeling" all those years ago, you probably liked it. But now, 43 years after its release, put your hand up if you change the station when it comes on. Overplayed to Death is the term. Apparently it took Boston guitarist/songwriter Tom Scholz five years to write, which is about the same time it takes to get sick of this song. In addition to more-than-enough airplay, "More Than a Feeling" has been used in countless films and TV shows. When will it end?

Needless to say, there are tons of overplayed songs. Fortunately, with today's Bluetooth technology in most vehicles, we can pick and choose what we listen to and avoid radio altogether. But rest assured, if you tune into an FM station for a day or two, you'll hear one of the above songs.

Check out our look at the five best Rolling Stones albums for people who want to get into the world's greatest rock 'n roll band

Albums that Spent the Most Time on Billboard Charts

Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon

When you think about some of the truly great albums of all time that have spent time on the album charts, it's worth noting Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon is still top dog.Released way back in March, 1973, the record spent an astounding 953 weeks on the Billboard charts, even spending a week at No. 1 in the U.S.

What's really interesting is it fell off the charts in 1988, only to re-appear with the introduction of the Top Pop Catalog Albums chart in May 1991, and has been a perennial feature ever since. It's a testament to the innovation and song writing the Pink Floyd brought to Abbey Road Studio when they created the masterpiece. 

Floyd's bassist and principal songwriter Roger Waters says he knew the band was onto something amazing when he played it for his wife.

"When the record was finished I took a reel-to-reel copy home with me and I remember playing it for my wife then, and I remember her bursting into tears when it was finished. And I thought, 'This has obviously struck a chord somewhere', and I was kinda pleased by that. You know when you've done something, certainly if you create a piece of music, you then hear it with fresh ears when you play it for somebody else. And at that point I thought to myself, 'Wow, this is a pretty complete piece of work,' and I had every confidence that people would respond to it."

Of all the albums that spent the most time on the Billboard 200, only two of the top five are non-compilations - Dark Side of the Moon and Metallica's Black Album, which sits at No. 4 with 542 weeks on the chart. Bob Marley's Legend (No. 2), Journey's Greatest Hits (No. 3), and Johnny Mathis' Greatest hits (No. 5), are all compilations.

The Black Album Shows Longevity

Metallica's Black Album

Metallica's 1991 record marked a massive change for the thrash band. The San Francisco quartet brought in uber producer Bob Rock to help them find a different sound as the band went from the brutally produced ...And Justice For All to a clear, hard-hitting sound that made the band more accessible to a much wider audience. It also helped that "Enter Sandman" became a staple of modern rock radio. The band also made a concerted effort to slow down, going from pure thrash to more grinding metal.

"…And Justice For All album sounds horrible, awful, can't fucking stand it," says Hetfield "That was our fancy stage, showing off too much. We knew we had to move on and the Black Album was the opposite. So when me and Lars got back together after a short break, I said, 'We gotta really try and write some shorter, to-the-point songs.'"

Metallica fans at the time were outraged the band was "selling out", which they were, to a certain extent, but there aren't many artists who don't want their work to be heard or seen. James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, Jason Newsted, and Lars Ulrich can't be faulted for wanting to broaden their horizons and change things up.

Time, the ultimate arbiter of what becomes legendary, has shown how well the Black Album has held up and appealed to multiple generations, much like Dark Side of the Moon.

Check Out: How Pink Floyd created The Wall album