It was a tough job, tougher than I first thought - you see, it wasn't whether I liked the song or not. It was whether it took the world by storm at the time, whether it crossed generations and whether it is still played and sung today. In no particular order:
Zero Shaddap You Face, Joe Dolce, 1 Stairway-to-Heaven, Led Zeppelin, 2 Hotel California, The Eagles, 3 Good Vibrations, The Beach Boys, 4 Nights in White Satin, Moody Blues, 5 River Deep - Mountain High, Ike and Tina Turner
6 Let It Be, The Beatles, 7 Heartbreak Hotel, Elvis Presley, 8 Bridge Over Troubled Waters, Simon and Garfunkel, 9 Whiter Shade of Pale, Procol Harum, 10 When a Man Loves a Woman, Percy Sledge
11 The Times They Are A-Changin', Bob Dylan, 12 Every Breath You Take, The Police, 13 Bohemian Rhapsody, Queen, 14 Bad, Michael Jackson, 15 Light My Fire, The Doors
16 Gloria, Them, 17 Mama Mia, Abba, 18 Crying, Roy Orbison, 19 Eye of the Tiger, Survivor, 20 The Twist, Chubby Checker
21 Another Brick in the Wall, Pink Floyd, 22 My Generation, The Who, 23 Space Oddity, David Bowie, 24 American Pie, Don McLean, 25 Maggie May, Rod Stewart.
The ones I couldn't squeeze into the list were:
Everything I do [I Do for You], Bryan Adams, Like a Rolling Stone, Bob Dylan, I Will Always Love You, Whitney Houston, I Want It That Way, Backstreet Boys, No Woman, No Cry, Bob Marley and the Wailers, You've Lost That Lovin, Feelin', The Righteous Brothers, All Along the Watchtower, Jimi Hendrix, Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin On, Jerry Lee Lewis
Whole Lotta Love, Led Zeppelin, Mr. Tambourine Man, The Byrds, I Heard It Through the Grapevine, Marvin Gaye, Great Balls of Fire, Jerry Lee Lewis, Blitzkrieg Bop, Ramones, Mr. Tambourine Man, Bob Dylan, House of the Rising Sun, The Animals, Born to Be Wild, Steppenwolf, Dancing Queen, Abba, EMI, The Sex Pistols
Wild Thing, The Troggs, Born in the U.S.A., Bruce Springsteen, The End, The Doors, La Bamba, Ritchie Valens, Unchained Melody, The Righteous Brothers, I Got You Babe, Sonny and Cher, Under the Boardwalk, The Drifters, Papa Don't Preach, Madonna, Everybody's Talking, Harry Nilsson
Respect, Aretha Franklin, Candle in the Wind, Elton John, Hey Jude, The Beatles, Walk Like An Egyptian, The Bangles , Ruby Tuesday, The Rolling Stones, The Joker, Steve Miller Band, Sex and Drugs and Rock 'n Roll, Ian Dury And The Blockheads, Love Hurts, Nazareth.
Interesting list: I've still got my 45rpms of a lot of those! Even more interesting is the "wouldn't fit in" list.
ReplyDeleteYou missed out Shaddap You Face by Joe Dolce.
ReplyDelete(Shome mishtake shurely?)
Great list, but isn't it always difficult to choose with such a fantastic array of musical goodies to pick from?
ReplyDeleteI don't think I could ever choose my favourite song of all time, there are just TOO many.
I vote for Dancing in the Street to be in the top 25. Not the original but the David Bowie Mick Jagger version. It's one of my favourites on my iPod.
ReplyDeleteI've got to relate a story from my days in Ireland.
ReplyDeleteSome mates, well a couple I used to meet in the local, were ex merchant seamen, tramp steamer, that did its business round the eastern med, and through suez, and round the gulf.
Anyway, these mates, heavy drinkers, were fed up with the Imams wailing every a.m., very early, always the same.
One night, after an on-board heavy session, they raised a bet.
Somehow, un-noticed, they scaled the walls of the local minaret, and substituted the Imams tape of wailing, for Deep Purple, ready to go at "Smoke on the Water". Full volume!
Then hurried back to the tramp-steamer
At that point the entire pub collapsed, and I still imagine the scene, and smile.
Guess where my vote goes.
And where is the Tannochbrae Ceilidh Band and the England World Cup Squad?
ReplyDeleteGreat list James. I know some of these. I was just talking to my wife the other day (I do that sometimes) about how many songs people have on their ipod. My daughter has one of those and she has about three songs. We are so behind the times in that area.