Our no. 1 songs: 2016

All Songs Considered

NPR

Music

4.4 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 3 November 2025

⏱️ 22 minutes

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Summary

It was a year of staggering losses, from David Bowie and Prince to Leonard Cohen and George Michael. But it was also a year of monumental new music, including Beyonce’s 'Lemonade' and a mountain-sized rock anthem from Mitski.

Note: This is a recurring series in celebration of All Songs Considered’s 25th anniversary. A shorter version of this episode ran earlier in the year.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	It's all songs considered.
0:01.2	I'm Robin Hilton.
0:02.0	We're looking back at our number one songs from the past 25 years as part of the show's anniversary, our quarter century anniversary, doing a different year each week.
0:11.6	Stephen Thompson here, as always.
0:13.6	It's great to be here, Robin.
0:15.1	You know, the whole time we've been doing this series, looking back at each year, I've let you go first every single time, but I'm going to go first this time.
0:22.9	Wow. Wow. Okay, fine.
0:25.1	Yeah, because there
0:26.5	was nothing greater from
0:28.7	2016 than
0:30.7	basically... There's only one correct answer.
0:32.7	So you're probably stealing my pick
0:34.4	because there is only one correct answer.
0:36.2	Well, okay, let's just hit it and you're going to know it immediately, I think.
0:40.3	Nope, not the correct answer.
0:44.5	Come on, you know what this is, though.
0:46.5	Is this Beyonce?
0:47.4	Yeah.
0:51.3	Oh, is this Don't Hurt Yourself with Jack White? This isn't one of my go-toes from this record.
0:56.0	I mean, this is a great record.
0:57.0	Oh, oh, don't let yourself. Do you hurt yourself
1:11.6	Who the fuck do you think I hear?
	...

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