Top 20 favorite Steve Harris songs

Which are your favorite Steve Harris songs?

  • Total voters
    47
Number 6

Number 6

Ancient Mariner
So, I've been wanting to do this for a while now and hope you'll join in and vote. I spent some time looking up some old posts here to see if anything like this had been posted before, and besides a poll posted by @Forostar about Steve's '90s output, I got nothing. And so, I decided to do it myself.

In the poll are listed all 57 Iron Maiden songs which are credited solely to Steve Harris (let me know if I missed any), and as the title implies, I would like to have an idea of a Top 20 here at the forum. Obviously, you may select up to 20 songs from the list. The poll will remain open. Let's see what comes out of this!

Current list to be found in post #67.
 
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Steve did 59:

Steve Harris (by himself)

1. Burning Ambition (Harris)
2. Prowler (Harris)
3. Phantom Of The Opera (Harris)
4. Transylvania (Harris)
5. Strange World (Harris)
6. Iron Maiden (Harris)
7. Invasion (Harris)
8. The Ides Of March (Harris)
9. Wrathchild (Harris)
10. Murders In The Rue Morgue (Harris)
11. Another Life (Harris)
12. Genghis Khan (Harris)
13. Innocent Exile (Harris)
14. Killers (Di’Anno, Harris)
15. Prodigal Son (Harris)
16. Purgatory (Harris)
17. Drifter (Harris)
18. Invaders (Harris)
19. Children Of The Damned (Harris)
20. The Number Of The Beast (Harris)
21. Run to the Hills (Harris)
22. Hallowed Be Thy Name (Harris)
23. Where Eagles Dare (Harris)
24. The Trooper (Harris)
25. Quest For Fire (Harris)
26. To Tame A land (Harris)
27. Aces High (Harris)
28. Losfer Words (Big ‘Orra) (Harris)
29. The Duellists (Harris)
30. Rime Of The Ancient Mariner (Harris)
31. Caught Somewhere In Time (Harris)
32. Heaven Can Wait (Harris)
33. The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner (Harris)
34. Deja-Vu (Murray, Harris)
35. Alexander The Great (Harris)
36. Infinite Dreams (Harris)
37. Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son (Harris)
38. The Clairvoyant (Harris)
39. No Prayer For The Dying (Harris)
40. The Assassin (Harris)
41. Mother Russia (Harris)
42. From Here To Eternity (Harris)
43. Afraid To Shoot Strangers (Harris)
44. Childhood’s End (Harris)
45. The Fugitive (Harris)
46. Fear Of The Dark (Harris)
47. Sign Of The Cross (Harris)
48. Fortunes Of War (Harris)
49. Judgment Of Heaven (Harris)
50. Blood On The World’s Hands (Harris)
51. The Angel And The Gambler (Harris)
52. The Clansman (Harris)
53. The Educated Fool (Harris)
54. Don’t Look To The Eyes Of A Stranger (Harris)
55. Blood Brothers (Harris)
56. No More Lies (Harris)
57. For The Greater Good of God (Harris)
58. When the Wild Wind Blows (Harris)
59. The Red and the Black (Harris)
 
Tough, but I'm going with:

Run To The Hills
Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Aces High
Sign of the Cross
Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
Alexander the Great
Hallowed Be Thy Name
Infinite Dreams
The Clansman
Fear of the Dark
Children of the Damned
Afraid To Shoot Strangers
The Red and the Black
Where Eagles Dare
The Trooper
The Number of the Beast
Murders in the Rue Morgue
Heaven Can Wait
Mother Russia
Don't Look To The Eyes of A Stranger
 
I have:

15 from the eighties (12 Bruce era, 3 Paul era).
5 from the nineties (3 Bruce era, 2 Blaze era).
Nothing from this century, nothing from the last 23 years (1996-2018), nothing from the last six albums.

Albums represented the most: Powerslave, Somewhere in Time, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (3 songs each).
Instrumentals: 2 (Paul era).

My top 20 in order:

01. Rime of the Ancient Mariner
02. Infinite Dreams
03. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
04. The Trooper
05. The Duellists
06. Genghis Khan
07. Alexander the Great
08. Caught Somewhere in Time
09. Mother Russia
10. Afraid to Shoot Strangers
11. Prowler
12. Blood on the World's Hands
13. To Tame a Land
14. Transylvania
15. The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
16. The Clairvoyant
17. Hallowed Be Thy Name
18. The Fugitive
19. Aces High
20. Judgement of Heaven
 
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This thing is already going better than I expected (7 voters so far, hope for more), so I made a "first draft" of the definitive list, which I edited into my original post.

The list is ordered by the amount of votes each song has received. However, it's obvious some (most) are going to be tied with one another, so I had to come up with some sort of criteria to differentiate them. I chose to go for the weighted average ratings of each song on their respective individual threads. For instance, "Rime..." has received 7 (100% of the) votes so far, but so did "Seventh Son...". However, "Rime..."'s weighted score on its individual thread is somewhere around 9.79, whilst "Seventh Son..."'s is 9.34. The same process was (and is going to be) used for the rest of the songs.

I'll be rather frequently checking the poll for changes so I can keep the list updated. That's it, for now. :p
 
We've reached 10 voters, so I thought it was time for an update. Already edited my first post. Let's see how this keeps up, I'll try to check the poll and update the list once a week, to keep it consistent. Keep voting!
 
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A lot of the results so far are unexpected for me. "Mother Russia", for example; never would've thought it would make a Top 20 list ahead of, say, "Fear of the Dark", "Children of the Damned", "The Number of the Beast". Let's see how long it stays that way!
 
My 2 cents: However big his relative downfall in the last decades (he never reached his top level again when writing alone), and despite him ripping off other songs, Steve Harris remains the best songwriter in the world. Ever.

Steve Harris-song fans like deeper Maiden stuff (at least written by Harris) a lot. You would not expect such results because you hear other opinions in discussions involving people who are more into Dickinson/Smith.
 
When it comes to Maiden, I like them all as songwriters. I couldn’t pick a favorite. For instance, I’d say Bruce and I remember Steve lol, and vice versa.
 
Diesel 11 said:
When it comes to Maiden, I like them all as songwriters. I couldn’t pick a favorite. For instance, I’d say Bruce and I remember Steve lol, and vice versa.
Click to expand...
I do like them all as songwriters (even Nicko; “New Frontier” is better than it had any right to be), but I’d say my favorite, is Steve. Cliché, I know, but his songs (either as writer or co-writer) are the best IMO. A quick look at my Top 10 proves that: apart from “Empire...” at no. 2, all the rest is written or co-written by Steve. C’mon, you’ve got “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”. “Phantom of the Opera”. “Alexander the Great”. The big ones are nearly all his. Plus, he started the whole thing, so bonus points for that.
 
As stated, I've updated the list (last one until next Saturday, I promise). "Mother Russia" dropped a few positions, almost got cut off, while "The Duellists" entered right above it at slot 18 (replacing "When the Wild Wind Blows", which fell off). This is fun! :D
 
Had to update as I like Genghis Khan very much. And Purgatory too.
Prowler
Phantom of the Opera
Strange World
Genghis Khan (replaces Lonelinnes of...)
Purgatory (replaces Fugitive)
Children of the Damned
Hallowed Be Thy Name
Where Eagles Dare
The Trooper
To Tame a Land
Aces High
The Duellists
Rime...
Caught Somewhere in Time
Alexander
Infinite Dreams
Seventh Son...
The Clairvoyant
No Prayer...
Mother Russia

I find his 80s material and the two 90s picks stronger than anything he did since. I would gladly have picked at lest five more songs.

I couldn’t pick anything from the last two decades as the other stuff is so marvelous.

The last five songs he has written alone shows me how much I have lost appreciation for his songs.
 
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