The 10 Best Linkin Park Songs Of All Time
Linkin Park became instant stars when their debut album Hybrid Theory released in 2000. Over the next 17 years, the band became one of the largest rock bands in the world, selling over 100 million albums worldwide. Unfortunately, lead singer Chester Bennington passed away in 2017, putting an end to the band. Here are the top 10 best Linkin Park songs of all time.
10. Crawling
Earning the band a Grammy in 2002 for “Best Hard Rock Performance”, Crawling was the third single from the band’s debut album Hybrid Theory. Despite being incredibly popular in most countries, reaching top 30 or 40 in the charts, the song peaked at number 79 in the US Billboard 100 charts, but it did manage to spend 20 weeks in the charts.
9. Somewhere I Belong
The first single from the bands follow up to Hybrid Theory, Somewhere I Belong features an underrated music video, with MTV’s James Montgomery saying that “it’s the minimal touches that make it one of their all-time best”
8. Points Of Authority
It could be argued that Points Of Authority is perhaps the most underrated song in Linkin Park’s entire catalogue. Originally scheduled to be a single, it was later cut in favour of Papercut, with the remixed version from the album REANIMATION receiving a music video in 2002. This is potentially the reason that the song never received the attention it deserved, but the music video we got was fantastic, with the CGI battles inspired by 2001s Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.
7. Bleed It Out
Minutes To Midnight saw the band ditch their Nu-Metal roots for a much more mainstream sounding album, the second single Bleed It Out has the sad honour of being the final song played live by the band before Chester’s tragic passing in 2017.
6. Given Up
One of the heavier Linkin Park songs from the post-Nu Metal era, Given Up feels like a throwback to their older music, while still retaining the more modern sound of their later albums. This is a song that doesn’t get talked about enough and it really should.
5. Papercut
The fourth single from Hybrid Theory, Chester Bennington has stated in the past that Papercut is one of his favourite songs. While not charting as well as some of the band’s other singles, it did peak at 32 in the US Modern Rock Charts, as well as 14th in the UK Singles Chart. The song was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America in 2017, for reaching 500,000 digital sales.
4. Breaking The Habit
The fifth and final single from Meteora, Breaking The Habit became the fifth consecutive single from the album to reach number one on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart, something no other artist in history has done. Breaking The Habit also performed well in the charts, peaking at 20 in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, as well as 39th in the UK Singles Chart. The music video is in an anime style, with the video supervised by Kazuto Nakazawa, who had previously directed the animated segment of Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill: Volume 1.
3. One Step Closer
One Step Closer is one of Linkin Park’s most popular songs, being a key part in any of their live sets, as well as being the first single from Hybrid Theory, which certainly played a part in the success of the album and band. The song is often regarded as one of the best songs from the early 2000s. Despite being their first-ever single, the song performed well in the charts, peaking at 75th in the US Billboard Hot 100, and 24th in the UK Singles Chart. One Step Closer has also been certified Platinum in the US.
2. Numb
Recent years has seen Numb gain a new lease of life as the track has reached a new generation of listeners. Currently at over 1.6 billion views on YouTube, the song has long been among the most popular songs by Linkin Park and is one of the best modern ballad songs.
1. In The End
Finally at number 1 is In The End, the final single from Hybrid Theory, recently becoming the first Nu-Metal song to reach 1 billion streams on Spotify. The song became the band’s best performing song in the charts, peaking at number 2 in the Billboard Hot 100 Chart, later being certified 4x Platinum, which goes to show the long term impact that the song has had. With the song becoming one of Linkin Park’s most popular songs, it is interesting to note that Chester Bennington didn’t like the song and wanted it to be left off Hybrid Theory. I think we can all agree that it was the right choice to include the song.