The Best New Year's Eve Party Songs
Magazines and music sites keep naming some of the same New Year's Eve party songs year after year, so rank the best of them with your vote. At least 4 of the 18 counted New Year's Eve song lists have to include a song, and a list printed before the song's release is left out of its count. The 18, printed between December 2012 and May 2026, are Time Out, SiriusXM, GRAMMY.com, Diffuser, Maxim, Fox News, Marie Claire, American Songwriter, Top40weekly, Mic, NPR, the Dallas Morning News, Newsweek, Parade, Billboard, Good Housekeeping, Country Living and Deezer's newsroom. I Gotta Feeling, on 3, misses by one, and any song that mentions the Nativity, Santa or Christmas in its title or lyric stays off. Where lists credit different singers, the most-credited version gets the link, higher RIAA certification breaks a tie, and a tie still standing, or a recording Spotify doesn't carry, means no seat. Songs on 7 or more eligible lists form the top tier, every other seat forms the second, and the vote sets the order inside each.
Ella Fitzgerald — What Are You Doing New Year's Eve? (1960) is #1 on “The Best New Year's Eve Party Songs”.
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Ella Fitzgerald — What Are You Doing New Year's Eve? (1960)
Frank Loesser wrote it in 1947 as a song in its own right, Margaret Whiting cut it first, and his daughter Susan later wrote that holiday performances annoyed him. Fitzgerald's 1960 take, track 4 of Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas, is the one 7 of the naming lists credit, against 4 for the Rod Stewart duet that also bills her, and two lists credit more than one version; it appears on 10 of the 18 eligible lists.
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U2 — New Year's Day (1983)
Bono began it as a love song to his wife before Poland's Solidarity movement reshaped it, and Adam Clayton found the bass line while trying to work out Visage's Fade to Grey at a soundcheck. It was War's lead single, out on 10 January 1983, reaching 10 in Britain and 53 on the Hot 100, and 9 of the 18 eligible lists include it, linked here through Spotify's 2008 remaster of the album cut.
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ABBA — Happy New Year (1980)
Agnetha Fältskog sings lead on a song that carried a working title about a father getting drunk on Christmas Day, which the finished title dropped. It opens side two of Super Trouper, its first single came out in December 1980 in Portugal, Argentina, Peru and El Salvador, and a 2008 reissue reached 4 in Sweden. It appears on 12 of the 18 eligible lists; Spotify's Super Trouper runs to 12 tracks against the 10 of the 1980 LP.
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Mariah Carey — Auld Lang Syne (The New Year's Anthem) (2010)
Robert Burns wrote the poem in 1788, and Carey reworked it as a house track with Randy Jackson and Johnny Severin producing, placing it at track 13 of Merry Christmas II You on 2 November 2010. A single and a nine-song remix EP followed on 14 December, and it peaked at 9 on the US holiday songs chart. The song appears on 11 of the 18 eligible lists, and 8 of the 9 that credit a singer credit hers.
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Otis Redding & Carla Thomas — New Year's Resolution (1967)
GRAMMY.com describes a horn-driven duet in which the two singers trade verses as a couple trying to make amends and keep their promises. Spotify dates King & Queen, the album the pair made together, to 16 March 1967 under an Atlantic copyright, with this as the seventh of its 11 tracks. Camera Obscura's song of the same name is a different one that 2 lists name, while 9 of the 18 eligible lists include this duet.
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Prince — 1999 (1982)
A 1982 television special about the year 1999 set it off, and Prince wanted to write something hopeful, sharing lead vocals with Dez Dickerson, Lisa Coleman and Jill Jones. Its single arrived on 24 September 1982 and stalled at 44 on the Hot 100 before a 1983 reissue reached 12. It appears on 9 of the 18 eligible lists; the link plays the six-minute album cut from Spotify's 2019 remaster, not the 3:36 single edit.
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P!nk — Raise Your Glass (2010)
A thank you to fans for the first decade since her 2000 debut, it was produced by Max Martin and Shellback, who wrote it with her, and LaFace issued it on 5 October 2010 as the lead single from Greatest Hits... So Far!!!. It held the Hot 100's top spot for a week, is certified 5 times platinum and appears on 9 of the 18 eligible lists, with the two-track single as the carrier behind the link.
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Bing Crosby — Let's Start the New Year Right (1942)
Holiday Inn reached cinemas on 4 August 1942 with Crosby singing it, and GRAMMY.com treats it as a companion to White Christmas from the same picture while printing a 1943 date. Spotify's soundtrack copy, the one linked, also credits Bob Crosby & His Orchestra and dates it 1942, while every list naming it credits Bing, which leaves no version to settle for a song that 9 of the 18 eligible lists include.
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Barry Manilow — It's Just Another New Year's Eve (1977)
Marty Panzer wrote it with Manilow, and the linked take is the Uris Theatre performance as Spotify carries it on Live (Legacy Edition), taped in New York between 21 December 1976 and 2 January 1977 for Live, his first album to top the Billboard 200. It also came out as a single in 1977, GRAMMY.com calls it piano-led, and it appears on 7 of the 18 eligible lists.
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The Zombies — This Will Be Our Year (1968)
Chris White wrote it, and producer Ken Jones dubbed the horns live onto the mono mix in August 1967, so the stereo Odessey and Oracle carried a rechanneled copy of that master. CBS issued the album in Britain on 19 April 1968, and the link comes from Spotify's 12-track copy of that album; 7 of the 18 eligible lists include the song.
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Taylor Swift — New Year's Day (2017)
Jack Antonoff and Swift wrote and produced it together as the closing track of reputation, out 10 November 2017, a stripped piano ballad about tidying a shared home with a partner the morning after a New Year's Eve party. She sang it on Jimmy Fallon's show three days after release. Four counted lists predate it, so 6 of the 14 eligible lists include it, with the 2017 album track as the link.
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Eagles — Funky New Year (1978)
Glenn Frey and Don Henley wrote it for the flip side of the band's 1978 Please Come Home for Christmas single, which reached 18 on the Hot 100. Tina Benitez-Eves of American Songwriter reads it as the morning after the party, regrets and hangover included. Spotify's copy of the two-song single labels it a 2013 remaster, and 6 of the 18 eligible lists include it.
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Death Cab for Cutie — The New Year (2003)
Transatlanticism opens with it, a look back at a gloomy party on the year's last night whose central character Ben Gibbard drew from traits of several women he had met. Barsuk released the album on 7 October 2003 and the song as a single on 16 February 2004, and it appears on 6 of the 18 eligible lists, with the album's opening track as the link.
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Europe — The Final Countdown (1986)
Joey Tempest wrote the keyboard riff in 1981 or 1982 on a Korg Polysix borrowed from Mic Michaeli, and David Bowie's Space Oddity inspired the words. Released in the UK on 14 February 1986, it went top of the charts in 25 countries and peaked at 8 in the US; it appears on 6 of the 18 eligible lists, linked as the opener of Spotify's expanded edition of the album.
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Charles Brown — Bringing In a Brand New Year (1961)
Brown recorded it for the 1961 King LP Charles Brown Sings Christmas Songs, and in 1964 it also turned up on the flip of Christmas Comes but Once a Year. Country Living hears a boppy jazz number with a catchy beat. All 6 lists that name it credit Brown's recording, Country Living adding B.B. King's as well, so it appears on 6 of the 18 eligible lists; Spotify's copy sits on a 1976 Gusto edition of that LP.
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Bon Jovi — New Year's Day (2016)
This House Is Not for Sale, out on Island on 4 November 2016, has it at track 7 of 12, a song Billy Falcon wrote with Jon Bon Jovi. Spotify carries the 2018 reissue, which adds When We Were Us and Walls and moves it to track 9. Three counted lists came out before it, and 5 of the 15 eligible lists include it.
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Kool & the Gang — Celebration (1980)
Ronald Bell traced it to a Quran passage about angels celebrating the creation of Adam, while his brother Robert credits a line from Ladies' Night. De-Lite issued it in October 1980, it began a two-week run atop Billboard's pop chart on 7 February 1981, the band's sole Billboard number one, and that year radio played it to mark the US hostages' release from Iran. The five-minute album cut plays, and the song appears on 5 of the 18 eligible lists.
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Journey — Don't Stop Believin' (1981)
Jonathan Cain, Steve Perry and Neal Schon wrote it for Escape, and the real chorus waits until about 50 seconds from the end. A single in October 1981 that stopped at 9 on the Hot 100, it got a second life when The Sopranos ended on it in 2007 and is certified 18 times platinum, and it appears on 5 of the 18 eligible lists; Spotify's Escape is a 2022 remaster.
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Brad Paisley — Welcome to the Future (2009)
Barack Obama's election prompted it, Paisley has said, and he wrote it with Chris DuBois about changes the narrator has lived through, technology and interracial relationships among them. Sent out on 13 July 2009 as the second single from American Saturday Night, it climbed to 2 on Hot Country Songs. The 5:52 album cut is the copy linked, and 5 of the 18 eligible lists include it.
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Pentatonix — New Year's Day (2015)
Scott Hoying, Mitch Grassi and Kevin Olusola wrote it with Martin Johnson and Sam Hollander for the group's self-titled album of 16 October 2015, where it is track 12, and those credits make it a different song from the U2, Taylor Swift and Bon Jovi tracks of the same title. Two counted lists predate it; it appears on 4 of the 16 eligible lists, linked from Spotify's deluxe edition.
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A Great Big World — This Is the New Year (2013)
Ian Axel self-released it in 2010, MTV made it the theme of I Used to Be Fat, and Glee's cast closed the episode Naked with it on 31 January 2013. A Great Big World, his duo with Chad King, issued their recording as a 2013 single, and the link plays it from their debut album, Is There Anybody Out There?, of 21 January 2014; every counted list postdates 2010, so 4 of the 18 eligible lists include it.
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Dua Lipa — Dance the Night (2023)
Barbie the Album was still to come when it arrived on 25 May 2023, written by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt with Lipa and Caroline Ailin. It topped the UK chart, peaked at 6 in the US and drew Grammy nominations for Song of the Year and for visual media. Lists printed before 25 May 2023 could not have named it; 4 of the 10 eligible lists include it, and Spotify titles the linked single From Barbie The Album.
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Lizzo — About Damn Time (2022)
Ricky Reed and Blake Slatkin produced it, it led off Special as a single on 14 April 2022, and after a viral TikTok routine by Jaeden Gomez it took the Hot 100 summit in its 14th week on the chart. Record of the Year at the 2023 Grammys followed, and with the 7 counted lists printed before April 2022 left out, it appears on 4 of the 11 eligible lists.
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Regina Spektor — My Dear Acquaintance (A Happy New Year) (2007)
Billboard, American Songwriter and Country Living credit Regina Spektor's recording and Parade credits Peggy Lee's, so the link goes to Spektor's, a one-track single that Spotify dates 27 December 2007 and labels Live. A later compilation carries the same take with a 2009 date. With that 3 to 1 split settled, 4 of the 18 eligible lists include the song.
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Beyoncé — Countdown (2011)
Built on a sample of Boyz II Men's 1991 single Uhh Ahh, it counts down the ways the narrator loves her partner, a song about loyalty rather than the clock. Beyoncé produced it with Shea Taylor and Cainon Lamb for 4, radio got it on 4 October 2011, and it topped the dance club chart while reaching 71 on the Hot 100; 4 of the 18 eligible lists include it, with the album 4 as the carrier.
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Katy Perry — Firework (2010)
Stargate and Sandy Vee produced it, Ester Dean co-wrote it, and Perry has said Jack Kerouac's On the Road influenced it. The third single from Teenage Dream, out 26 October 2010, it logged four weeks atop the Hot 100 and has since been certified Diamond. The 2010 album copy is the one linked, and it appears on 4 of the 18 eligible lists.
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R.E.M. — It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine) (1987)
Michael Stipe described it as a string of streams of consciousness, and its run of people with the initials L.B., Leonard Bernstein and Lester Bangs among them, came from a dream about a party. Peter Buck placed it in the line of Subterranean Homesick Blues. The second Document single, from November 1987, peaked at 69 in America, and 4 of the 18 eligible lists include it.
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