My favorite 100 songs of all time? If there's one thing I know, it's that when I finish this list, within two hours I'll remember a song I've always loved that got left out. The one thing that's pretty definite here is that a guy who finished high school in 1967 isn't going to have many post-1990 songs on the list.
I don't know of any new groups that would crack my top 100, but I have seen at least three songs I like. "Road Song" by Fountains of Wayne and "The Good Don't Last" by Spock's Beard are fun for different reasons, but the one that really surprised me in a good way was from the "Chimes of Freedom" project with dozens of artists doing Bob Dylan songs for Amnesty International.
Who would have thought Miley Cyrus could do such a good song?
So there are good songs being made, and not just by people who have been making great music for 40 years. Here's the second quarter of the list:
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75. "I ONLY WANT TO BE WITH YOU," Dusty Springfield -- This is one of my wife's very favorite songs, which caused me to revisit it and realize it really was a pretty terrific song. Dusty had some other great songs -- "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" and "Son of a Preacher Man," but this one was the best.
74. "AMERICAN PIE," Don McLean -- This song ruled the charts in late 1971, giving the history of rock 'n' roll from February 3rd, 1959 -- the Day the Music Died -- to the present, but it hasn't aged well. Now that another 43 years have passed since the song was released, now it's just another look at the Sixties. If you lived through those years, it's a fun song. If you didn't, it's a history class. Worse yet, when you say "American Pie," most people under 40 think of that goofy movie about the kid humping a pie.
73. "WONDERFUL TONIGHT," Eric Clapton -- Clapton is best known as one of the two greatest rock guitarists ever, particularly for his work with Cream and Derek and the Dominoes, but this is a beautiful love song to his wife, maybe one of the nicest marital love songs ever.
72. "TRY TO REMEMBER," Various Artists -- This pretty ballad from the eternally running off-Broadway hit "The Fantasticks" has been done by everyone from Ed Ames to Julie Andrews to Jerry Orbach and others. A lovely song about the memories of youth.
71. "PEGGY SUE," Buddy Holly -- It's nearly impossible to believe someone who died when he was only 22 and had a career that only lasted about 18 months could be seen as one of the giants of early rock 'n' roll, but Holly had at least half a dozen songs that will be remembered as long as there is music in America. "That'll Be the Day," "Everyday," "Maybe Baby," "True Love Ways," "Rave On" and many others still sound new nearly 60 years later.
70. "RUN FOR THE ROSES," Dan Fogelberg -- Fogelberg's songs were called "wimp rock" by some, but this pretty ballad about thoroughbred horses in Kentucky being born and bred to run for the roses in the Kentucky Derby was one of the best songs ever about horse racing. Also: Fogelberg's ode to his father, "The Leader of the Band," and his song about meeting an old lover, "Another Auld Lang Syne," were also pretty good songs.
69. "CARRICKFERGUS," Various Artists -- I first heard the melody in the movie "True Confessions" and I spent a lot of time tracking it down before I found it was this song. Lovely versions by Joan Baez and Charlotte Church, but the Clancy Brothers did the best job of all.
68. "AFTER ALL," Cher and Peter Cetera -- If there's one person I wouldn't have thought would make this list it would have been Cher. But this song from the 1989 movie "Chances Are" used to resonate so much with me when I thought of women I knew for years and thought I might see again.
67. "BEAST OF BURDEN," Bette Midler -- Of course this song originated with the Rolling Stones, and Mick Jagger did a great job with it. But listen to Midler make it her own and you'll find yourself thinking that this might have been what Janis Joplin would have been had she lived another 20-30 years. When she did movies and television, she divided her focus. If Midler had stayed with just music, she might have been one of the greatest ever.
66. "SOMETHING IN THE AIR," Thunderclap Newman" -- It's almost impossible for anyone who wasn't there to understand, but in the late '60s, a lot of us really thought we could change the world. Of course we didn't realize that for every Bill Clinton in our generation, there were five George W. Bushes. Also, it's tough to get people to revolt against the system when working-class people think of themselves as middle class. Still, a great song by a group that never did another one.
65. "LILI MARLEEN," Marlene Dietrich -- It's ironic that one of the most haunting love songs of World War II was a German song about a young man going off to war singing to the girl he is leaving behind. Dietrich's version is the most famous, although it was something of a stunner to me to learn that Connie Stevens recorded a version of it in 1962 -- in German.
64. "SURF CITY," Jan and Dean -- What young surfer wouldn't want to go to a city where there were "two girls for every boy." Brian Wilson wrote it and a couple of Beach Boys sang backup on it. There are three U.S. cities that claim the title, but it was fairly obvious these two Angelenos weren't singing about Surf City, NC, or Santa Cruz, CA, but about Huntington Beach, CA. Six months after "Surf City" reached No. 1 on the pop charts, Jan and Dean released "Drag City" with the same melody.
63. "UNIVERSAL SOLDIER," Buffy Sainte-Marie -- One of the best of all the anti-war songs, and certainly not one the "support the troops" crowd would admire. Sainte-Marie says that all the great generals in history couldn't fight at all if the men in the rank and file refused. "He's the universal soldier and he really is to blame ..." Covered by many, during the height of the Vietnam War, Jan Berry of Jan and Dean wrote an answer song called "The Universal Coward."
62. "THIS OLD HEART OF MINE (IS WEAK FOR YOU)," The Isley Brothers -- One of the really great Motown songs from the '60s, there was a great remake of it by Rod Stewart singing with the Isleys. One of the more overlooked of the Motown groups, the Isleys were also the first group to record "Twist and Shout."
61. "I'LL BE SEEING YOU," Various Artists -- One of the great love songs of World War II, its theme of separated lovers -- one at home, one at war -- resonated with Americans from coast to coast and border to border. It wasn't quite as romantic as all that, but it's pretty to remember it that way.
60. "COME DANCING," the Kinks -- Seventeen years after "You Really Got Me" and 13 after "Lola," this 1983 effort was my favorite song by the most underrated band of the British Invasion. They had one more hit -- "Don't Forget to Dance" -- and that was it. Also: The aforementioned "Lola" was a hit when the barriers began falling. Along with Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side" and Rod Stewart's "The Killing of Georgie," it was a song about boys who went clubbing and weren't necessarily looking for girls."
59. "EVERYBODY'S TALKIN'," Nilsson -- Harry Nilsson was asked to write a song for the movie "Midnight Cowboy," but "I Guess the Lord Must be in New York City" was rejected, maybe for being a little too much on the nose. The producers used Fred Neil's "Everybody's Talkin'" instead, but paid Nilsson to sing it. The song and the movie both won Oscars. Also: Another song for which Nilsson will be remembered is "Without You," which reached No. 1 for four weeks in 1972.
58. "BABY'S GOTTEN GOOD AT GOODBYE," George Strait -- Along with Jones, one of the two great Georges in country music. So many great songs, but this one might be the best, a song about a man who realizes he has lost his love when they fight and she says goodbye without tears in her eyes. Also: "The Cowboy Rides Away," "Famous Last Words of a Fool," "The Best Day" and "I Can Still Make Cheyenne" are all songs I've loved since discovering Strait's music during my summer in Texas in 2010.
57. "WHAT DOES IT TAKE," Junior Walker & the All-Stars -- One reason the summer of 1969 is so vivid to me. I remember tanning on the beach at Rehobeth, Del., and listening to this song booming down from WABC in New York City in everybody's portable radio. Maybe the best saxophone riff of anyone before Clarence Clemons came along. There were some awful songs that summer, songs like "In the Year 2525," but this one made up for a lot of them.
56. "THE DUTCHMAN," Various Artists -- Along with Paul Simon's "Old Friends" and John Prine's "Hello in There," one of the prettiest songs about the indignities of aging. I used to think it was a Steve Goodman song, but it wasn't. The best versions I've heard were by Goodman, Jerry Jeff Walker, and most of all, the great Liam Clancy. Also: In a related vein, Jerry Jeff Walker's lovely "Mister Bojangles," also done very nicely by Sammy Davis Jr.
55. "SAIL ON," the Commodores -- The summer of 1979 was one of the saddest in my life, and this song fit the mood perfectly. "I know it's a shame, but I'm giving you back your name ..." My marriage was dying, and every time I heard this song, I felt like I was never going to be happy again. Also: "Three Times a Lady" was the Commodores' biggest hit, and Lionel Richie's solo "Stuck On You" was also wonderful.
54. "SHALL WE GATHER AT THE RIVER," Traditional Hymn -- There are so many great worship songs, and most of my favorites are the traditional ones that have been around American churches for nearly a century. When I was a kid, my favorite was "Holy Holy Holy," which was No. 1 in our hymnal. "Leanin' On the Everlasting Arms" is another favorite, and what's fascinating about that song is it shows how much our culture has changed. In the wonderful 1943 movie "The Human Comedy," all the soldiers in one car of a troop train join in and sing it together.
53. "MRS. BROWN YOU'VE GOT A LOVELY DAUGHTER," Herman's Hermits -- I was 15 when I first heard this song, and Peter Noone was 17 when he sang it. A winsome song about a boy talking to the mother of the girl he loves who broke up with him. "Don't let on, don't say she broke my heart ..." The Hermits had a bundle of hits, including a reworking of an old music hall number, "I'm Henry the Eighth, I Am." Also: Other Brits with similar sounds were Peter and Gordon ("I Go to Pieces," "Lady Godiva") and Chad and Jeremy ("Summer Song").
52. "STILL THE SAME," Bob Seger -- Most of Seger's fans prefer "Night Moves," "Hollywood Nights" or "Old Time Rock 'n' Roll," and while I don't have any problem with those songs, I much prefer "Still the Same" or the later "Against the Wind." Seger started out playing in bars and went all the way to the top, a real Rust Belt success story. I remember that in 1978, TV sports started taking a popular song and adding film of a sports theme to it. The first one was Vince Lombardi and the Green Bay Packers set to "The Way We Were," and the second was 37-year-old Pete Rose and his 44-game hitting streak set to, you guessed it, "Still the Same."
51. "TIME IN A BOTTLE," Jim Croce -- A nice song, a really nice song, but what made it really special for me in 1974 and '75 was that it was the song my first wife and I called Our Song. That said, when the marriage faded and died, there were other Croce songs I liked more -- "I Got A Name," "One Less Set of Footsteps," "Operator," and his Christmas song, "It Doesn't Have to Be This Way." If Croce had lived past age 30, I'm sure there would have been more great songs.
65. "LILI MARLEEN," Marlene Dietrich -- It's ironic that one of the most haunting love songs of World War II was a German song about a young man going off to war singing to the girl he is leaving behind. Dietrich's version is the most famous, although it was something of a stunner to me to learn that Connie Stevens recorded a version of it in 1962 -- in German.
64. "SURF CITY," Jan and Dean -- What young surfer wouldn't want to go to a city where there were "two girls for every boy." Brian Wilson wrote it and a couple of Beach Boys sang backup on it. There are three U.S. cities that claim the title, but it was fairly obvious these two Angelenos weren't singing about Surf City, NC, or Santa Cruz, CA, but about Huntington Beach, CA. Six months after "Surf City" reached No. 1 on the pop charts, Jan and Dean released "Drag City" with the same melody.63. "UNIVERSAL SOLDIER," Buffy Sainte-Marie -- One of the best of all the anti-war songs, and certainly not one the "support the troops" crowd would admire. Sainte-Marie says that all the great generals in history couldn't fight at all if the men in the rank and file refused. "He's the universal soldier and he really is to blame ..." Covered by many, during the height of the Vietnam War, Jan Berry of Jan and Dean wrote an answer song called "The Universal Coward."
62. "THIS OLD HEART OF MINE (IS WEAK FOR YOU)," The Isley Brothers -- One of the really great Motown songs from the '60s, there was a great remake of it by Rod Stewart singing with the Isleys. One of the more overlooked of the Motown groups, the Isleys were also the first group to record "Twist and Shout."
61. "I'LL BE SEEING YOU," Various Artists -- One of the great love songs of World War II, its theme of separated lovers -- one at home, one at war -- resonated with Americans from coast to coast and border to border. It wasn't quite as romantic as all that, but it's pretty to remember it that way.
60. "COME DANCING," the Kinks -- Seventeen years after "You Really Got Me" and 13 after "Lola," this 1983 effort was my favorite song by the most underrated band of the British Invasion. They had one more hit -- "Don't Forget to Dance" -- and that was it. Also: The aforementioned "Lola" was a hit when the barriers began falling. Along with Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side" and Rod Stewart's "The Killing of Georgie," it was a song about boys who went clubbing and weren't necessarily looking for girls."
59. "EVERYBODY'S TALKIN'," Nilsson -- Harry Nilsson was asked to write a song for the movie "Midnight Cowboy," but "I Guess the Lord Must be in New York City" was rejected, maybe for being a little too much on the nose. The producers used Fred Neil's "Everybody's Talkin'" instead, but paid Nilsson to sing it. The song and the movie both won Oscars. Also: Another song for which Nilsson will be remembered is "Without You," which reached No. 1 for four weeks in 1972.
57. "WHAT DOES IT TAKE," Junior Walker & the All-Stars -- One reason the summer of 1969 is so vivid to me. I remember tanning on the beach at Rehobeth, Del., and listening to this song booming down from WABC in New York City in everybody's portable radio. Maybe the best saxophone riff of anyone before Clarence Clemons came along. There were some awful songs that summer, songs like "In the Year 2525," but this one made up for a lot of them.
56. "THE DUTCHMAN," Various Artists -- Along with Paul Simon's "Old Friends" and John Prine's "Hello in There," one of the prettiest songs about the indignities of aging. I used to think it was a Steve Goodman song, but it wasn't. The best versions I've heard were by Goodman, Jerry Jeff Walker, and most of all, the great Liam Clancy. Also: In a related vein, Jerry Jeff Walker's lovely "Mister Bojangles," also done very nicely by Sammy Davis Jr.
55. "SAIL ON," the Commodores -- The summer of 1979 was one of the saddest in my life, and this song fit the mood perfectly. "I know it's a shame, but I'm giving you back your name ..." My marriage was dying, and every time I heard this song, I felt like I was never going to be happy again. Also: "Three Times a Lady" was the Commodores' biggest hit, and Lionel Richie's solo "Stuck On You" was also wonderful.
54. "SHALL WE GATHER AT THE RIVER," Traditional Hymn -- There are so many great worship songs, and most of my favorites are the traditional ones that have been around American churches for nearly a century. When I was a kid, my favorite was "Holy Holy Holy," which was No. 1 in our hymnal. "Leanin' On the Everlasting Arms" is another favorite, and what's fascinating about that song is it shows how much our culture has changed. In the wonderful 1943 movie "The Human Comedy," all the soldiers in one car of a troop train join in and sing it together.
53. "MRS. BROWN YOU'VE GOT A LOVELY DAUGHTER," Herman's Hermits -- I was 15 when I first heard this song, and Peter Noone was 17 when he sang it. A winsome song about a boy talking to the mother of the girl he loves who broke up with him. "Don't let on, don't say she broke my heart ..." The Hermits had a bundle of hits, including a reworking of an old music hall number, "I'm Henry the Eighth, I Am." Also: Other Brits with similar sounds were Peter and Gordon ("I Go to Pieces," "Lady Godiva") and Chad and Jeremy ("Summer Song").
52. "STILL THE SAME," Bob Seger -- Most of Seger's fans prefer "Night Moves," "Hollywood Nights" or "Old Time Rock 'n' Roll," and while I don't have any problem with those songs, I much prefer "Still the Same" or the later "Against the Wind." Seger started out playing in bars and went all the way to the top, a real Rust Belt success story. I remember that in 1978, TV sports started taking a popular song and adding film of a sports theme to it. The first one was Vince Lombardi and the Green Bay Packers set to "The Way We Were," and the second was 37-year-old Pete Rose and his 44-game hitting streak set to, you guessed it, "Still the Same."
51. "TIME IN A BOTTLE," Jim Croce -- A nice song, a really nice song, but what made it really special for me in 1974 and '75 was that it was the song my first wife and I called Our Song. That said, when the marriage faded and died, there were other Croce songs I liked more -- "I Got A Name," "One Less Set of Footsteps," "Operator," and his Christmas song, "It Doesn't Have to Be This Way." If Croce had lived past age 30, I'm sure there would have been more great songs.
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