Yeah, trying not to think about these too hard. And also not to include more than one song per artist. We'll see how those goals hold together as we roll along.
It was rough leaving Ben E King off my list, and if I was going to put Dylan on, it would have been North Country.
I can already tell you I’ll have two Bruce in my 10 from the ‘70s, though at least not from the same album
There are so many songs this decade that like…I can’t imagine a time before they existed. Imagine a world before Stand By Me
i was thinking about that yesterday when i saw see how they run, which is set in '53. i was thinking "oh, duh, that's why there's barely any music in this."
Are we lumping the same song by different artists into one vote? “I Will Always Love You” came to mind, but a lot of really great covers exist in some eras of music
i figured we'd treat them individually. it's not like all along the watchtower - hendrix and all along the watchtower - dylan are the same
Impossibly hard. I'd waste hours if I tried to do it for real, but these 10 would certainly be up there for me. Also tried to keep it to one per artist. 1. The Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter 2. The Beach Boys - God Only Knows 3. Bob Dylan - It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) 4. The Band - The Weight 5. The Beatles - Eleanor Rigby 6. Creedence Clearwater Revival - Fortunate Son 7. The Velvet Underground - Heroin 8. Etta James - At Last 9. Ray Charles - Georgia On My Mind 10. Sam Cooke - A Change is Gonna Come
10. Simon & Garfunkel - America 9. Love Affair - Everlasting Love 8. Aretha Franklin - (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman 7. Ben E King - Stand By Me 6. Elvis Presley - Suspicious Minds 5. Bob Dylan - Like A Rolling Stone 4. Otis Redding - Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay 3. The Beatles - While My Guitar Gently Weeps 2. Etta James - At Last 1. The Beach Boys - God Only Knows
Why no 50s? I actually could have made a nice list for that decade too, I think. Anyway, here's my 60s list: 01. The Jackson 5 - I Want You Back 02. Percy Sledge - When A Man Loves A Woman 03. Aretha Franklin - (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman 04. Elvis - If I Can Dream 05. Dean Martin - Ain't That A Kick In The Head 06. Wilson Pickett - I’m In Love 07. Frank Sinatra - I've Got You Under My Skin (Live At The Sands Hotel and Casino, 1966) 08. Ben E. King - Stand By Me 09. John Coltrane - A Love Supreme, Pt. I - Acknowledgement 10. Rolling Stones - Paint It Black I gotta say this made my brain hurt way more than coming up with an album list. There's so much more to forget. So in the end I just winged it. I did stick to one song per artist too though. EDIT: Can't believe I completely forgot At Last This is hard.
So far the artists with the most different songs mentioned: 8 - The Beatles 6 - Bob Dylan 4 - The Jimi Hendrix Experience 3 - The Beach Boys, Elvis Presley, The Rolling Stones, The Velvet Underground 2 - The Band, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, The Doors, Etta James, The Kinks, Led Zeppelin, Van Morrison, Oris Redding, The Ronettes, Nina Simone
Always going to be an issue with a song list, unless we get loads more participants / loads bigger lists, it’ll be much harder to get a consensus popular choice. However, same as with the album threads, the consensus pick isn’t as interesting, it’s the individual lists that are much more interesting to me, anyway.
1. Etta James - At Last 2. Elvis Presley - If I Can Dream 3. Aretha Franklin - (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman 4. Percy Sledge - When A Man Loves A Woman 5. Miles Davis - Concierto de Aranjuez (Adagio) 6. Ben E. King - Stand By Me 7. The Supremes - You Can't Hurry Love 8. The Temptations - My Girl 9. Marvin Gaye - How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) 10. The Righteous Brothers - You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' This list here has the top 100 hits of every year of the 60s (I'm assuming it's correct; but if a song of mine is listed incorrectly here, let me know and I'll switch it out). A lot of monster classics that I haven't seen brought up here yet, but also get that's also how this exercise will probably go (and that makes it more fun). I narrowed it down to 17, then had my guaranteed 5, then went with my gut for the other 5. So excited my favorite Miles Davis record just made the cut to include the first track.
I'm glad we have some time to put this together because I have a few songs I love that have already been mentioned on others' lists, but I'm doing some deep diving into 60s music on Spotify today to make sure I snag songs I'm forgetting or simply didn't realize came out in that decade.
1 The Rolling Stones - "Gimme Shelter" (my pick for GOAT, fwiw) 2 Nina Simone - "Strange Fruit" 3 Ben E. King - "Stand By Me" 4 Sam Cooke - "A Change Is Gonna Come" 5 Otis Redding - "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" 6 Jackson 5 - "I Want You Back" 7 The Beatles - "Something" 8 The Jimi Hendrix Experience - "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" 9 Aretha Franklin - "Think" 10 Bob Dylan - "Masters of War" HMs: Creedence Clearwater Revival - "Sinister Purpose" Etta James - "At Last" John Lee Hooker - "Boom Boom" Muddy Waters - "My Home Is in the Delta" Simon & Garfunkel - "I Am a Rock" Stevie Wonder - "For Once In My Life" The Temptations - "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" Van Morrison - "The Way Young Lovers Do" The Velvet Underground & Nico - "Venus In Furs"
I’ve had a lot of favourite Aretha songs over the years. Think was probably my first favourite song, of any artist.
Percy Sledge was my dad's favourite artist (Wilson Pickett was number two) and I'm pretty sure When A Man Loves A Woman is the first song I ever consciously heard because of that. I've always loved the song and Percy, but now that my dad is gone it means so much more to me. I feel like sometimes people (nobody here) act like it is not up to par with other soul classics and it always pisses me off.
That's foolishness (on their part). That song is amazing. I mostly think he just suffers from not having a holy-shit knockout album to put on a top 100 list or whatever, like Pickett, Gaye, Wonder, etc. do.