A review of experimental and theoretical studies of radiative lifetimes of excited states of the hydrogen atom, of atoms of alkali metals, and atoms of the copper subgroup is presented. A complete compilation of all published values of radiative lifetimes of all excited states with a critical analysis for every atom is given. The regularities in the variation of radiative lifetimes in spectral series of excited states are brought out and constants of the power-law dependences on the effective principal quantum number are determined. A correlation between the behavior of lifetimes and the effective orbital parameter is established and it is proposed to use this correlation for the determination of the application limits of the power-law constants for evaluation of lifetimes of uninvestigated states. On the basis of a critical analysis of published sources, of the regularities in the variation of lifetimes and of a statistical treatment of values available in the literature, a table of recommended values of radiative lifetimes of excited states of all atoms of the first group is compiled.