The 100 greatest singles of all time: Our critic ranks the classics, from 1960s chart-toppers to new pop bangers... so does YOUR favourite song make the cut?

Pop classics, soulful ballads and 80s smash hits all feature in pop critic Tim de Lisle's pick of the 100 greatest singles. 96 …Baby One More Time - Britney Spears 1998, No 1 These days the words masked by those dots wouldn’t get past the censors, but a pop song, like a cartoon, should have some licence. He came up with something even sharper, a nonchalant blues that contains one of the great couplets – ‘Well she’s faster than most / And she lives on the coast.’ 51 I Will Survive - Gloria Gaynor 1979, No 1 Pop in the golden age, from Like a Rolling Stone to Under My Thumb, was sometimes tarnished by the dismal sound of powerful men sneering at women. 29 The Sound Of Silence - Simon & Garfunkel 1965, did not chart Of all the lines from all the hits in the golden age of pop, the one that speaks to us most clearly today, nearly 60 years later, may be the first few words of this modest marvel: ‘Hello darkness, my old friend.’ 28 Ashes To Ashes - David Bowie 1980, No 1 Bowie did love an alter ego. 2 I Feel Love - Donna Summer 1977, No 1 The record-buying public of 1977 may have underestimated ‘Heroes’, but they were spot-on with this, the most sensual piece of dance music ever made.