As owner of three of the top 10 longest-running Hot 100 solo #1 hits of all time (‘Irreplaceable,’ ‘Baby Boy,’ and ‘Crazy in Love‘), it only makes sense that Beyonce – already named Billboard’s “greatest Pop star of the century” – finds her name printed more than any other female act on site’s recently published ‘500 Best Pop Songs’ list.
While top-billed divas like Madonna, Taylor Swift, Janet Jackson, Rihanna, Whitney Houston, Britney Spears, Cher, and Mariah Carey all earned 3 rankings apiece on the coveted list, Queen Bey managed to one up them all.
In addition to holding placements for ‘Single Ladies’ (#135), ‘Savage (Remix)’ with Megan Thee Stallion (#335), and also found at #167 with ‘Love on Top‘ (which Billboard previously crowned as the century’s best love song), the JAY-Z-assisted ‘Crazy’ – which held the Hot 100’s top spot for a whopping 9 weeks at the height of its popularity in 2003 – was listed at #18 on the 500-title tally.
The position makes it the highest rank given to any R&B song released this century.
Among all titles, the only R&B songs to place higher were The Temptations‘ ‘My Girl‘ (#3), Michael Jackson‘s ‘Billie Jean‘ (#7), Prince‘s ‘Kiss‘ (#11), and Carey’s ‘Fantasy.’
The full ‘500 Best Pop Songs’ list, which saw Whitney Houston‘s timeless hit ‘I Wanna Dance with Somebody’ as the overall champion, was unveiled by Billboard on Friday (October 20) in celebration of the magazine’s 65th anniversary and as a toast to Hot 100-charting singles only.