“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 · 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
04 · 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)
05 · 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
06 · 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.
07 · 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
Bars are drawn to one linear scale, so the 10-minute No. 1 is barely a sliver next to the record.
Every Purrple Cat song, one after another. Here you can play all 366 Self Release songs back to back. Start the 17-hour playlist
