The 50 greatest Welsh songs ever (2024)

Here they are, in order, counting down from 50 to our choice for the greatest song to ever come from these shores.

50. Shakin' Stevens: Merry Christmas Everyone

The song was originally planned to be released in 1984, but it was held back a year to avoid clashing with Band Aid's charity single Do They Know It's Christmas. Shakin' Stevens' hit was released in November 1985 and was the Christmas number one for that year.

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49. Goldie Lookin' Chain: Guns Don't Kill People, Rappers Do

The Newport band filmed the video for the single, which featured the band on mobility scooters being chased by the police, in Watford.

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48. The Joy Formidable: Whirring

Whirring was released twice, once in 2009 on the mini-album A Balloon Called Moaning in 2009 and on the band's debut album in 2011 The Big Roar.

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47. Donna Lewis: I Love You Always Forever

The single reached No. 2 in the US Billboard charts in 1996 - missing out on the top spot to Los Del Rio's Macarena.

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46. Marina & The Diamonds: I am Not A Robot

This stand-out cut from the Abergavenny diva’s debut album The Family Jewels was a caustic note-to-self not to get affected by the pressure of fame. Hollywood was the big hit everyone remembers, but this self-deprecating reminder to always be yourself is arguably the stand-out track.

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45. Y Cyrff: Cymru, Lloegr a Llanrwst

Mark Roberts and Paul Jones went on to form Catatonia after Y Cyrff split up.

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44. Dave Edmunds: Girls Talk

Written by Elvis Costello, the Dave Edmunds' single reached No. 4 in the UK chart.

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43. Manic Street Preachers: Faster

Any of the songs off the Blackwood boys’ tour de force 1994 record The Holy Bible would stand up among the best songs of the last two decades, let alone exclusively Welsh one. Their third album was a morose navel-gazing study imbued with Richey Edwards’ personal problems, but this song undoubtedly stands the test of time as a jagged, storming slice of alt rock which is probably best remembered for James Dean Bradfield’s balaclava-sporting moment on Top of the Pops.

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42. The Automatic: Monster

The Cowbridge band's flame burnt briefly but brightly in the mid noughties. This was the bands biggest single, reaching No. 4 in the UK charts, and has featured in both Doctor Who and Torchwood.

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41. The Teardrop Explodes: Reward

Caerphilly-bord Julian Cope fronted the band and Reward reached No. 6 in the charts.

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40. Budgie: Breadfan

The single from Budgie's 1973 album Never Turn Your Back On A Friend was covered by Metallic in 1988.

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39. Yr Anhrefn: Cornel

The band played in the Channel 4 show The Tube and John Peel was a huge fan of the band championing them on his radio show.

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38. Tom Jones: Delilah

The song won the 1968 Ivor Novello award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically and reached No. 2 in the UK charts.

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37. Feeder: Buck Rogers

The song was inspired by the TV show from the late 1970s, early 1980s. The band originally were not going to record the song, but their producer persuaded them.

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36. Joseph Parry and Richard Davies: Myfanwy

The popular song was used in two films set in Wales, but are very different: How Green Was My Valley and Twin Town.

Watch the heart-warming moment a Welsh workingmen's club falls silent as a punter puts down his pint and sings Myfanwy

35. Duffy: Mercy

Despite only being seven years old the song has been covered numerous times, from The Fratellis to the cast of Glee, and featured in a plethora of TV shows, from Smallville to ER, Entourage to Being Human.

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34. Racing Cars: They Shoot Horses Don't They?

They Shoot Horses Don't They was the only hit single for the Rhondda Valley band, reaching number 14 in the UK singles chart in 1977, inspired by the film, They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

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33. Ricky Valance: Tell Laura I Love Her

Ricky Valance started his musical career after a stint with the RAF. And Valance's cover of Tell Laura I Love Her meant he was the first Welshman to achieve a No. 1 spot - Shirley Bassey was the first Welsh woman.

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32. The Pooh Sticks: I know Someone Who Knows Someone Who Knows Someone Who Knows Alan McGee Quite Well

Swansea’s cool indie kids were Welsh rock’s biggest inside joke, a monumental yet affectionate prank on the very mythology of pop itself. This paean to the late 80s’ indie cognoscenti is twee jangle-pop in excelsis.

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31. Bonnie Tyler: Total Eclipse Of The Heart

The single has been translated and covered by Italian, Mexican and Norwegian singers. And in a poll for an ITV show to find the UK's favourite 1980s No. 1 single Tyler's hit came third.

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30. Y Niwl: Undegpedwar

this Snowdonian four-piece’s 2010 debut album, Y Niwl, delivered a selection of psychedelic 60s twang that not only paid homage to likes of Dick Dale, Link Wray and The Ventures but added something unique of its own too. This song was used as the theme tune for Football Focus.

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29. Super Furry Animals: Northern Lights

Inspired by the El Nino climate phenomenon, Gruff Rhys’ decision to make it a calypso is a stunning piece of wizardry. The resultant ditty is both warming and cool, and became the band’s highest charting single, reaching a heady 11th position before its glow was snuffed out.

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28. Stereophonics: Local Boy In The Photograph

The Phonics' first single, it was an anthem for any Welsh teenager in the late 1990s, despite only reaching No51 in the charts on its release in March 1997.

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27. Shirley Bassey: History Repeating

Shirley Bassey celebrated her 60th birthday by hooking up with cult British big beat act Propellerheads for this funky little dance floor filler, guaranteeing herself no small career rebirth in the process.

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26. Daniel James & John Hughes: Calon Lan

The words were written in the 19th century by Daniel James to a tune by John Hughes. The hymn's title translates as 'Pure Heart'. Only Boys Aloud sang Calon Lan in the final of Britain's Got Talent in 2012, they finished third.

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25. Gorky's Zygotic Mynci: Patio Song

This 1996 single is a testament to the untapped genius of the Carmarthenshire group. Featured on the Barafundle album, its changing tempo – and language – makes it all the more otherworldly.

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24. Nomad: (I wanna Give You) Devotion

Dance anthems don’t come much bigger than this 1991 house monster courtesy of Cardiff’s Damon Rochefort. A worldwide number one, its soulful repetitive rhythms and electronic loops were the perfect fit for the burgeoning rave culture of the day.

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23. 60ft Dolls: Stay

The 60 Ft. Dolls supported Oasis and Elastica, and it was Elastica guitarist Donna Matthews who introduced Richard J. Parfitt and Michael Cole.

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22. The Darling Buds: Burst

Named after the HE Bates novel and Shakespeare Sonnet, the formation of the band preceded the Catherine Zeta Jones TV show by five years.

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21. Scritti Politti: Absolute

Absolute was one of three top 20 hits for the band fronted by Cardiff born Green Gartside.

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20. Visage: Fade to Grey

The second single by the band was the most successful by the band led by the late Steve Strange.

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19. Stereophonics: Dakota

The first Stereophonics single to reach No. 1 in the UK, spending 44 weeks in the charts.

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18. Dave Edmunds: I hear You Knocking

A Christmas number one in 1970 for the Cardiff rock 'n' roller, whose gritty interpretation of the rhythm and blues song written by Dave Bartholomew and Earl King, swept all before it, putting the Welsh ace firmly on the rock map.

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17. Amen Corner: (If Paradise Is) Half as Nice

The band was named after The Amen Corner, a weekly disc spin at the Victoria Ballroom - later to become The Scene Club - in Cardiff. This was the most successful of the band's six singles, reaching the top spot in the UK charts for two weeks.

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16. John Roberts: Gwahoddiad

Incredibly, this was originally an English-language hymn, I Hear Thy Welcome Voice, the words and tune of which were written in 1872. The Welsh version, Gwahoddiad, written by Calvinistic Methodist minister and musician Rev John Roberts, has become so well known in translation that many people believe it to be a traditional Welsh hymn. And that's why it is included here. Cerys Matthews also does a stunning version.

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15. Manic Street Preachers: Motorcycle Emptiness

It could have been Motown Junk or You Love Us, but perhaps no song better sums up the early Manics' furious ideology than James Dean Bradfield's epic guitar riff that is veined through this stately piece of fretwork – an attack on the hollowness of the consumer lifestyle offered by capitalism - at a point in the Blackwood firebrands' career when they were full of righteous indignation and furious anger.

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14. Mary Hopkin: Those Were The Days

Model Twiggy saw Mary Hopkin on the TV show Opportunity Knocks, she recommended her to Paul McCartney and the Welsh singer became the first artist to sign for The Beatles' Apple Records.

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13. John Cale: A Child's Christmas In Wales

A Child's Christmas in Wales is the title of a prose work by Dylan Thomas, and the song recalls the Carmarthenshire artists memories of growing up in Wales.

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12. Meic Stevens: Y Brawd Houdini

As the iconic folk hero often referred to as ‘the Welsh Dylan’, Stevens’ songs have a mystical flavour, and are mostly sung in his native tongue. This bright and breezy 1968 ramshackle pop classic remains the troubadour’s defining moment.

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11. Max Boyce: Hymns and Arias

The Max Boyce classic coincided with one of the great eras of Welsh rugby. The song is now synonymous with rugby, but has also been adopted by Swansea City.

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10. Super Furry Animals: Fire In My Heart

The track was originally called Heartburn and Rhys has described the track as a piece of country and western “soul advice”. The song, which reached No. 25 in the charts, was the second single from the 1999 album Guerrila.

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9. The Flying Pickets: Only You

The Band's cover of the Yazoo track was the Christmas No. 1 in 1983.

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8. Tom Jones: Green, Green Grass Of Home

Another Christmas No. 1 in 1966, the song had originally been recorded the previous year by a country singer but Sir Tom made it his own.

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7. Shirley Bassey: Goldfinger

Composed by John Barry, and with lyrics by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley, Shirley Bassey recorded the vocals for the James Bond theme.

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6. The Alarm: A New South Wales

This thunderous homage to the people of the Valleys features the spine-tingling accompaniment of the massed voices of the The Morriston Orpheus Choir. The single reached No. 31 in the UK charts.

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5. John Hughes and William Williams: Cwm Rhondda

The tune Cwm Rhondda was written by John Hughes, an organist at Capel Rhondda in Hopkinstown, near Pontypridd in the early 1900s. He took an earlier set of Welsh words written by William Williams and arranged a tune to them. But it is through its English translation that it is more commonly known, with, of course, the rousing 'Bread of Heaven' chorus.

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4. Evan and James James: Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau

The father and son duo wrote the Welsh national anthem. A memorial to them stands in Pontypridd's Ynysangharad Park.

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3. Catatonia: International Velvet

The bilingual song on the album of the same name, which produced hits Mulder and Scully and Road Rage, contains the line Everyday when I wake up. I thank the lord I'm Welsh and was memorably performed as part of the opening ceremony for the 1999 Rugby World Cup at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

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2. Manic Street Preachers: A Design For Life

The song was the first to be written and released by the band following the disappearance of Richey Edwards. A Design For Life reached No. 2 in the UK charts.

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1. Badfinger: Without You

As close as anyone’s ever managed to capture the true sound of heartbreak. Recorded by more than 180 artists, notably Harry Nilsson and Mariah Carey, the song won the 1972 Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically.