'Stairway to Heaven' tops listener-voted WDVE Memorial Day 500

If you’re mad that Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” kept its title at No. 1 on WDVE’s Memorial Day 500 for the third year running, take it up with your fellow yinzers.

Over the weekend, classic rock radio station WDVE counted down the top 500 rock songs of all time — but this year, the list was generated from listener votes.

The 500 kicked off at 10 a.m. Friday with “Life During Wartime” by the Talking Heads at No. 500 (it was No. 256 last year and was the only time the band appeared in 2025’s list).

The top 10 was full of top-of-the-list mainstays, with the order mixed up a bit.

1. “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin

2. “Freebird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd

3. “Kashmir” by Led Zeppelin

4. “Hotel California” by the Eagles

5. “Comfortably Numb” by Pink Floyd

6. “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen

7. “Back in Black” by AC/DC

8. “Sympathy for the Devil” by The Rolling Stones

9. “Layla” by Derek and the Dominoes

10. “Baba O’Riley” by The Who

As predictable as the top of the countdown was, there were plenty of surprises along the four-day journey from No. 500 to No. 1 — and one of those surprises was, in fact, Journey.

A total of 183 different acts played over the weekend, adding a little extra variety — last year, 161 different artists had songs in the 500.

One of the year’s biggest shockers came at No. 47, when Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall” played. Since 2019, the tune has only fallen out of the top 10 once (to No. 13 last year) and was No. 1 in 2019, when the Memorial Day 500 returned after a more-than-two-decade hiatus.

Speaking of falling off, the highest song from last year’s list that didn’t appear at all this year is “Breakdown” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, which was No. 29 in 2024. A moment of silence, please.

But what about the opposite direction? The three highest debuts this year — songs that haven’t been on the list and showed up in 2025 for the first time — were “Thunder Road” by Bruce Springsteen at No. 31; “Master of Puppets” by Metallica at No. 36; and “Stone in Love” by Journey at No. 43.

The list saw many brand new songs, in fact, especially on Friday and Saturday. From ’90s songs that have moved into the classic rock canon (“Basket Case” by Green Day, at No. 462) to deeper-than-your-average cuts by popular artists (“Statesboro Blues” by the Allman Brothers Band at No. 388), Pittsburghers brought plenty of fresh songs with their votes.

Which artists had the most songs on the list this year? Zeppelin pummeled the competition — and even broke their own record. They previously dominated with 26 songs in 2019 and 2020, but improved to 27 this year. Following them were The Beatles (15 songs) The Rolling Stones (13 songs), Pink Floyd (13 songs), Journey (12 songs) and AC/DC (12 songs).

Let’s pause and talk about Journey for a second — it turns out that WDVE listeners absolutely love Journey. They previously never had more than seven songs on one year’s countdown. Out of their 12 songs this year, eight were in the top 100, capping off with “Don’t Stop Believin’” at No. 24.

There was also plenty of local love over the weekend. Donnie Iris had a whopping five songs on the list: “Do You Compute?” at 425; “Love Is Like A Rock” at 281; “That’s The Way Love Ought To Be” at 274; “Agnes” at 223; and an impressive “Ah! Leah!” cruising up to No. 42. That’s not to mention The Jaggerz’ hit “The Rapper,” which Iris wrote, making its list debut this year at No. 442.

The Clarks also had three songs on the list, with “Penny on the Floor” at 450; “Born Too Late” at 153; and “Cigarette” at 147. The Iron City Houserockers represented with “Pumping Iron” at 209, and Rusted Root showed up for the first time with “Send Me On My Way” at 427.

And, of course, “Renegade” by Styx was No. 49.

We also saw some songs from the 2000s sneaking their way onto the countdown this year. Previously, the 500 only dipped into the new millennium for The Clarks’ most popular album, “Let It Go.” This year, however, saw “Seven Nation Army” from The White Stripes at 343; “Kryptonite” by 3 Doors Down at 271; and “I Am The Highway” by Audioslave at 259.

Ending on a high note, there were some songs that countdown followers were shocked to learn had never appeared before that the fans voted in this year. Some examples? “Mr. Blue Sky” by Electric Light Orchestra, at 254; “Don’t Stop Me Now” by Queen, at 257; and “London Calling” by the Clash, at 244.

It turned out that classic rock fans love long songs! WDVE predicted that they’d hit No. 1 around dinnertime on Monday, but after a plethora of lengthy tunes such as “Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding” by Elton John (11 minutes long) and “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” by Pink Floyd (13 and a half minutes), “Stairway to Heaven” (itself eight minutes long) didn’t come over the airwaves until almost exactly 11 p.m.

To see this year’s full list, check out dve.iheart.com.