Greatest Songs of All Time

[LizzieMaine]

Almost everybody else capable of compiling a list such as yours is dead. And dead people don’t see the ads appearing in Rolling Stone.

And it's too bad, because "Under the Anheuser Bush" really is a great song.

 

[Fifty150]

this is a magazine that is about the rock and roll era

Is that like reading Popular Mechanics, and complaining that they don't cover fashion and celebrity gossip?

 

[tonyb]

At the risk of sounding like a jerk …

You serve up a fat pitch like that and the temptation is to take a swing at it.

 

[belfastboy]

Is that like reading Popular Mechanics, and complaining that they don't cover fashion and celebrity gossip?

I only buy Popular Mechanics for the adverts for Carhart coveralls.

 

[Fifty150]

I only buy the magazine for the articles. I don't care about the pictures.

 

[LostInTyme]

The rolling stone certainly gathered no moss along it's way.

 

[vitanola]

'Smatter bud, you got something against Cole Porter? Huh? Robin 'n Rainger? Harry Warren? Gordon 'n Revel? GUS FRICKIN' KAHN?

No, nor Hoagy Carmichel, nor Leslie Stuart, or Joe Howard, or Charles K Harris, Stephen Foster, or William Balfe.

 

[crawlinkingsnake]

"Try A Little Tenderness" by Otis Redding 1966

 

[LostInTyme]

Some lines from a song that always takes me to another place, another time, and another life........

"When you knew that it was over you were suddenly aware
That the autumn leaves were turning to the color of her hair........

..............Keys that jingle in your pocket, words that jangle in your head
Why did summer go so quickly, was it something that you said?.....

...........Half remembered names and faces, but do whom do they belong?............"

 

[Turnip]

 

[Edward]

Back in the 70s, this was the theme tune for Van Der Valk, a television show in the UK that centred on the character of an English detective working for the Dutch police, in and around Amsterdam. It was revived later (and remade later again), but the original series ran in 72, 73 and 77. I was born in 74 and don't recall ever really seeing the show, but that theme tune was never quite far away, especially after becoming a surprise UK number one in 1973. In our house it was simply known as 'Van Der Valk', and I'll always associate it with my Dad. He's always been very musical (though never seriously pursued it), and - guitar aside (ironically, my instrument of choice), I've never seen anything he can't lift and get a tune out of pretty quickly. Some time in the early-mid seventies my mother bought him a tin whistle, a branded / endorsed James Galway affair, silver body, black mouthpiece, and he picked up the melody line for this on that. I remember him playing it so much back then, that when I picked up the guitar at seventeen in the early nineties, I pretty quickly figured out how to play it there. A few months ago, I rediscovered it via UK radio station Classic FM. It's just such a joyous piece, and I love the arrangement. It's now track number one on my Desert Island Discs list.

This is another great one.... the first band I really actively listened to was the Beach Boys, discovered through Dad's old cassettes, back around 1986, when I turned twelve. We used to listen to them in the car. This particular recording I love very much. It's not the BBs themselves, but a sort of tribute act, the Fendertones. What I really love about this video is that they have very faithfully reproduced Brian Wilson's original arrangement of this (much older traditional) number. The way they have filmed it beautifully illustrates just how layered and nuanced Wilson's arrangement was, a real illustration of his genius.

Back properly OT, though, for something pre-war, I would reach very quickly for Robert Johnson. If you listen closely, you'll find the prototype of almost all post-1955 guitar music right here - and much else besides. I like to listen to this in any format, but the sheer ritual of putting it on the turntable can't be beaten...

 

[Fifty150]

As far as I know, this was the 1st European rap song to chart.

 

[Turnip]

Raw, loud, fast, pure Rock and Roll classic.