“Longest song” means different things: the longest released recording, the longest hit, and pieces that are still being played. Here they are, each with its source.
01 · Longest officially released song
138:41:20
The current Guinness record. Dr Pillai sang the whole of Tulsidas’s 16th-century epic poem Shri Ram Charit Manas, more than 15,000 verses in Awadhi, as one track. It took him over four years to record, edit and mix.
Sources: Guinness World Records: Longest officially released song
02 · The record before that
115:45:00
The St Albans band held the Guinness title with a song of 115 hours 45 minutes until the 2023 record replaced it.
Sources: The Times of India, May 2023: “Ramcharitmanas by BHU faculty makes it to Guinness”
03 · Guinness record holder in late 2021
48:39:35
The Guinness record for two months in 2021: a single 48-hour new-age piece, put out in 25 parts of about two hours each.
Sources: Guinness World Records, longest officially released song (archived Nov 2021)Grunge: This is the longest song ever recorded
04 · Guinness record holder 2020 to 2021
35:41:09
Recorded on 18 instruments he played himself during his 10th year of leukaemia, it took the Guinness record in 2021.
Sources: Guinness World Records, longest officially released song (archived mid-2021)Long Island Herald: Freeport “Gangsta Rabbi” Steve Lieberman breaks Guinness record
05 · The 30-hour piano piece
29:40:31
A solo piano piece of almost 30 hours, cut to fit the biggest MP3 file a memory card would hold.
Sources: Comatonse Recordings: Soulnessless
06 · The 24-hour rock song
24:00:00
A single song exactly 24 hours long. It came out in just 13 copies, on flash drives sealed inside real human skulls; a 50-minute cut followed in 2014.
Sources: Wikipedia: 7 Skies H3
07 · Beethoven, stretched to a day
24:00:00
Beethoven’s Ninth slowed to fill a whole day without changing its pitch.
Sources: Wikipedia: 9 Beet Stretch
08 · Longest officially released instrumental
18:00:00
Guinness’s longest officially released instrumental, which the pianist played live in one 18-hour stretch.
Sources: Guinness World Records: Longest officially released instrumental
09 · Guinness record holder 2016 to 2020
13:23:32
One continuous song split into five sections so streaming sites would take it. It is released under Creative Commons, and you can still stream it in full on the Internet Archive.
Sources: Wikipedia: The Rise and Fall of BossanovaInternet Archive: The Rise and Fall of Bossanova (A 13:23:32 Song)
10 · The eight-hour lullaby
8:24:21
An eight-hour lullaby meant to be slept through.
Sources: Wikipedia: Sleep (Max Richter album)Deutsche Grammophon: Max Richter, Sleep (8-hour version)
11 · The six-hour song
6:00:00
A six-hour song sold on a USB stick inside a strobe-light toy.
Sources: Wikipedia: Strobo Trip
12 · The five-hour piano improvisation
5:01:09
One improvised performance on a piano tuned in just intonation, spread over five CDs. It runs about 5 hours 1 minute.
Sources: Wikipedia: The Well-Tuned Piano
13 · The longest album closer
4:44:00
A 4-hour-44 ambient track closing the album Glitch Princess.
Sources: Wikipedia: Glitch Princess
14 · Guinness record holder 2015 to 2016
3:01:50
P C III’s earlier Guinness holder, a year before Bossanova.
Sources: Guinness World Records, longest officially released song (archived 2016)
15 · Guinness record holder 2014 to 2015
1:43:40
A Guinness record song with over 200 contributors and 75 verses.
Sources: Guinness World Records, longest officially released song (archived mid-2015)
16 · Guinness record holder in 2014
1:30:10
Guinness’s longest song in 2014: 482 refrains and 11,588 words.
Sources: Guinness World Records, longest officially released song (archived 2015)
17 · The hour-long pop song
1:16:44
A pop song of over an hour and a quarter, certified by World Record Academy (not Guinness).
Sources: World Record Academy: Longest pop song, Apparente Libertà
18 · Longest pop song in the 1997 Guinness book
1:09:00
Listed in the 1997 Guinness book as the longest pop song recording. It runs about 69 minutes.
Sources: Wikipedia: Chris Butler (musician)
19 · The hour-long metal song
1:03:31
The hour-long stoner-metal song about a desert caravan, which split up the band.
Sources: Wikipedia: Dopesmoker
20 · Longest song to hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100
0:10:13
It took the record from Don McLean’s “American Pie”, which runs 8 min 37 s and had held it since January 1972.
Sources: Guinness World Records: Longest song to reach No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100Billboard, Nov 2021: “All Too Well (Taylor’s Version)” tops the Hot 100
21 · The longest performance happening right now
639 years
A 639-year performance on an organ built for it. Sandbags hold the keys down, and the chord changes only every year or so. The latest change was on 5 August 2026, and the next is due on 5 October 2027.
22 · The 1,000-year composition
1,000 years
Composed for singing bowls and played mostly by computers. It began at midnight on 31 December 1999 and will play without repeating for a thousand years, at the lighthouse at Trinity Buoy Wharf in London and on a live stream.
Sources: Longplayer: Overview
23 · The longest music video
177 days 16:10:25
Guinness’s longest music video, live-streamed for 177 days and rebuilt every 3 min 42 s from fans’ clips.
Sources: Guinness World Records: Longest music videoBillboard: Twenty One Pilots’ “Level of Concern” sets a Guinness World Record
24 · The 840-times piano piece
about 18 hours
A one-page piano piece played 840 times. The first full marathon took about 18 hours; a London performance in October 2025 ran 40 hours 16 minutes 50 seconds.
Sources: Wikipedia: Vexations
Every recording of an hour or more, drawn to one linear scale. Shorter famous long songs, like the 10-minute No. 1, are on the records page.
Not record holders, but the epics people usually mean by a long song: prog suites, ambient pieces and one-track albums.
| Song | By | Year | Length | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Whirlwind | Transatlantic | 2009 | 1:17:46 | Wikipedia |
| Thursday Afternoon | Brian Eno | 1985 | 1:00:56 | Wikipedia |
| Light of Day, Day of Darkness | Green Carnation | 2001 | 1:00:06 | Wikipedia |
| Amarok | Mike Oldfield | 1990 | 1:00:02 | Wikipedia |
| A Passion Play | Jethro Tull | 1973 | 45:07 | Wikipedia |
| Thick as a Brick | Jethro Tull | 1972 | 43:46 | Wikipedia |
| Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence | Dream Theater | 2002 | 42:00 | Wikipedia |
| Crimson | Edge of Sanity | 1996 | 40:00 | Wikipedia |
| The Seer | Swans | 2012 | 32:14 | Wikipedia |
| Shine On You Crazy Diamond (all parts) | Pink Floyd | 1975 | 25:57 | Wikipedia |
| Impossible Soul | Sufjan Stevens | 2010 | 25:35 | Wikipedia |
| Tubular Bells, Part One | Mike Oldfield | 1973 | 25:30 | Wikipedia |
| Octavarium | Dream Theater | 2005 | 24:00 | Wikipedia |
| Atom Heart Mother | Pink Floyd | 1970 | 23:44 | Wikipedia |
| Echoes | Pink Floyd | 1971 | 23:29 | Wikipedia |
| A Change of Seasons | Dream Theater | 1995 | 23:09 | Wikipedia |
| Supper’s Ready | Genesis | 1972 | 22:54 | Wikipedia |
| The Gates of Delirium | Yes | 1974 | 21:50 | Wikipedia |
| I | Meshuggah | 2004 | 21:00 | Wikipedia |
| Tarkus | Emerson, Lake & Palmer | 1971 | 20:46 | Wikipedia |
| 2112 | Rush | 1976 | 20:33 | Wikipedia |
Every Purrple Cat song, one after another. Here you can play all 510 songs back to back. Start the 23-hour playlist
