em.. errm .. give me a moment .. hang on ... I'll be with you in a second ... No, you're right, it's Dark End of the Street. (The Richard and Linda Thompson version for preference, but the song's the important point.)

Dark End Of The Street. A definite contender. As is this:

It is Dark End of the Street. This is my favourite version, by Ry Cooder and a host of sensational singers and musicians.

I'll go with Dark End of the Street. I came to it through the Flying Burrito Brothers and then Ry Cooder, Aretha, and the version by Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham, before finding James Carr. There's a good piece about the song by Barney Hoskyns in 'Lives of the great songs' edited by Tim de Lisle.

Nothing comes close to "Rabbit"-Chas N' Dave

For some reason I doubt if many/any will agree with me, but I'd go for Talking Heads. I find the song simple, memorable and endlessly unknowable.

I only have one.
I suppose there are hundreds with a valid claim to the title. But this is certainly one of them.

Chalk up another vote for "Dark End Of The Street".

wrote the brilliant Pancho and Lefty.

for the perhaps the most famous rendition.

Maybe I'll have to listen to a couple more versions of Dark End Of The Street, but its magic so far has passed me by.

this thread would have had a touch more traffic...

However, the greatest song ever is "My Funny Valentine" by Rogers and Hart. For evidence, find a recording by Ella Fitzgerald. Couldn't find one on Youtube, so maybe that site isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Without question, one of the better achievements of the twentieth century.

John Prine's favourite of his own songs - at least that's what he says here - is surely a contender. About the ineffable sadness of growing old. At least as sad and beautiful as Dark End Of The Street.

John Martyn stops the world for four minutes and ten seconds.

Is this thread about the best song ever written or the best song ever recorded? If a song is truly well crafted by its writer then perhaps it should be amenable to many different interpretations in different forms by different people, so I guess you could make an argument for House of the Rising Sun, or some other song that has been covered to good effect a large number of times. But then I can't think of another version of Superstition by Stevie Wonder that wasn't instantly forgettable, and that is probably my favourite song.

.....for whom, I am told, it was originally written (for Jeff Beck) Mrs Path, who is a Steviephile, thinks it an abhorrent travesty.

Sam Cooke - A Change is Gonna Come

No explanation needed.

Wichita Lineman has got to be in contention. I also have a soft spot for I Say A Little Prayer

Everlasting Love - The Love Affair
Without You - Nilsson
MacArthur Park - Richard Harris
Tinsel Town - The Blue Nile
Life's What You Make It - Talk Talk
Reach Out I'll Be There - The Four Tops

Here Is Ten (well more actually)

Do Right Woman-Aretha
First Time Ever I Saw Your Face-Roberta Flack
Saturday Night-the Blue Nile
Change is Gonna Come-Otis
My Old Man-Ian Dury
I Think I Understand-Jone Mitchell
Shorley Wall-Ooberman
Sea Song-Robert Wyatt
Spencer The Rover-John Martyb
In My Room_the Beach Boys
Witchita Lineman-Glen Campbell
Willin-Little Feat
Boulder To Birmingham-Emmylou
Walk On By-Berty Bacharach
You Can Make Me Dance-Faces
Janie Jones -The Clash
Ride On-Christy Moore
Breakfast On Pluto-Don Partridge
Inner City Blues-Marvin Gaye
Call Me -Al Green
Clean Up Woman-Betty Wright
Ballrooms of Mars-T Rex
Poncho and Lefty-Townes

Ok Ok I know ENOUGH ALREADY!!!!

Songs tend to take a while to grow on me but People Get Ready is one of the very, very few songs that on the first listen I thought "Wow, that's good" and still like years later.

...Strangers in the Night by Frank Sinatra
A bit of a tangent, this. I have a theory that everyone has a personal default song that they carry around with them and habitually hum or sing when their minds are otherwise blank or preoccupied with some mundane task. I used to share a flat with a bloke who, years after it was a hit, still CONSTANTLY hummed the chorus of Don't You Want Me by Human League when moving about the place. Joe Simpson (?) in Touching the Void talked about how he couldn't get Brown Girl in the Ring by Boney M out of his head when stuck on the mountainside with his leg broken in two. Well, if I was in a similar situation I suspect it would be Strangers in the Night - a good song of it's kind, but not particularly representative of my musical tastes.

the greatest song ever writeen would have to be God only knows
if not then something else Brian Wilson wrote

but God only know probably takes them all
none of the elements of the song make any sense without the rest of the instruments / voices there
but it sounds so effortlessly beautiful that you'd never notice that

actually, I can't explain why
but it is the greatest song