B-Side Hit and Posthumous Single Earn All-Time Song Rankings

Several classic rock songs have endured through chart success and later acclaim. Sanford-Townsend Band’s “Smoke From a Distant Fire” reached No. 9 in 1977 and became the group’s only Top 40 hit, while Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” released after Ian Curtis’s death, became the band’s signature song and earned a high ranking on Rolling Stone’s greatest-songs list despite never charting on the U.S. Hot 100. Rod Stewart’s “Maggie May,” initially released as a B-side, became a transatlantic No. 1 and helped establish him as a solo star. The Allman Brothers Band’s “Whipping Post,” written by Gregg Allman as a young musician, remains celebrated for its blues-driven intensity, especially in its extended live performance.