Every December, British music magazine NME compiles a list of what it considers the best single or track of the year. It was started in 1975. The list is usually published in one of the issues sold before Christmas – in 2006 it was published in the issue for 9 December. The companion list is NME album of the year
The NME Single of the Year list is compiled by the music reviewers and independent journalists who work for the magazine and for NME.com. Each picks his or her top 20 singles of the year and hands them in to the editor. An album marked at Number One gets 20 points, Number Two gets 19 points and so on until the 20th, which gets one point. All of the points from the various top 20s are then gathered together and the overall favourites are worked out and ranked for publication in the official list. The single or track with the most points overall is Number One in the list, the one with the second most points is Number Two and so on. There have been, to date, four artists who have won Album and Single of the Year in the same year: Joy Division in 1980, Klaxons in 2007, MGMT in 2008 and Lorde in 2017. Cecil Womack and Bobby Womack also won Single & Album of the Year respectively in 1984.
| scope=col | Year | scope=col | Artist | scope=col | Single | scope=col class=unsortable | Top five |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 1975 | "No Woman No Cry" | |||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 1976 | Thin Lizzy | "" | ||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 1977 | Sex Pistols | "Pretty Vacant" | ||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 1978 | Buzzcocks | "Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)" | ||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 1979 | "Eton Rifles" | |||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 1980 | Joy Division | "Love Will Tear Us Apart" | ||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 1981 | "Ghost Town" | |||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 1982 | Grandmaster Flash | "" | ||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 1983 | "Billie Jean" | |||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 1984 | Womack and Womack | "Love Wars" | ||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 1985 | "Never Understand" | |||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 1986 | Prince | "Kiss" | ||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 1987 | Prince | "Sign o' the Times" | ||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 1988 | "" | |||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 1989 | "She Bangs the Drums" | |||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 1990 | Deee-Lite | "Groove Is in the Heart" | ||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 1991 | Primal Scream | "Higher than the Sun" | ||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 1992 | Suede | "" | ||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 1993 | "Cannonball" | |||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 1994 | Blur | "Girls & Boys" | ||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 1995 | Black Grape | "Reverend Black Grape" | ||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 1996 | Underworld | "Born Slippy" | ||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 1997 | "Bitter Sweet Symphony" | |||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 1998 | Beastie Boys | "Intergalactic" | ||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 1999 | Aphex Twin | "Windowlicker" | ||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 2000 | Eminem | "" | ||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 2001 | Missy Elliott | "Get Ur Freak On" | ||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 2002 | Doves | "There Goes the Fear" | ||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 2003 | Beyoncé | "Crazy in Love" | ||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 2004 | "Can't Stand Me Now" | |||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 2005 | "Hounds of Love" | |||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 2006 | Hot Chip | "Over and Over" | ||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 2007 | Klaxons | "Golden Skans" | ||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 2008 | MGMT | "Kids" | ||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 2009 | Yeah Yeah Yeahs | "Zero" | ||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 2010 | Foals | "Spanish Sahara" | ||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 2011 | "Video Games" | |||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 2012 | Palma Violets | "Best of Friends" | ||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 2013 | Daft Punk | "Get Lucky" | ||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 2014 | Future Islands | "Seasons (Waiting on You)" | ||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 2015 | Skepta | "Shutdown" | ||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 2016 | Rihanna | "Work" | ||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 2017 | Lorde | "Green Light" | ||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 2018 | Ariana Grande | "No Tears Left to Cry" | ||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 2019 | Mura Masa featuring Slowthai | "Deal Wiv It" | ||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 2020 | Cardi B featuring Megan Thee Stallion | "WAP" | ||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 2021 | Olivia Rodrigo | "Good 4 U" | ||||
| 2022 | Beyoncé | "Cuff It" |