April 2008
58 posts
Artist: Bill Withers Song: Lovely Day Year: 1977 Highest Chart Position: #30 (Billboard Hot 100) A few of Bill Withers’ songs had seeped into my consciousness before I knew who sang them or how old they were; specifically “Lean on Me” and “Ain’t No Sunshine”. Mostly, they came by way of movie soundtracks or easy listening radio. But then, in 1999, The Gap...
Artist: Weezer Song: Undone—The Sweater Song Year: 1994 Highest Chart Position: #6 (Billboard Modern Rock) Even in 1994, after I’d started paying attention to the US indie rock scene with a greater amount of detail and recognized a lot of the bands that were being snapped up by major labels in the post-Nirvana boom, Weezer just kind of fell from the sky. As far as I know, there were...
Artist: The Graces Song: Lay Down Your Arms Year: 1989 Highest Chart Position: #56 (Billboard Hot 100) The Graces were an all-girl trio featuring former Go-Go guitarist Charlotte Caffey and future “Bitch” Meredith Brooks (and Gia Ciambotti too). They only hung around long enough to record a single album, ’89s Perfect View, but it included the rather wonderful single “Lay...
Artist: Split Enz Song: Message to My Girl Year: 1984 Highest Chart Position: #12 (AUS Singles Chart) Split Enz produced a lot of great pop songs after Neil Finn joined and was given the lion’s share of creative control, “I Got You” and “History Never Repeats” among them. But “Message to My Girl” was really the first indicator that there was something...
Artist: Def Leppard Song: Foolin’ Year: 1983 Highest Chart Position: #28 (Billboard Hot 100) Trying to decide which Def Leppard single from the ’80s you like the most is a terrible headache waiting to happen. What’s always impressed me about “Foolin’” the most is how it takes all the facets of Def Leppard’s songwriting styles and packages them in one...
Artist: Robert Plant Song: In the Mood Year: 1983 Highest Chart Position: #39 (Billboard Hot 100) “In the Mood”, together with “Big Log”, made Robert Plant’s second solo album The Prinicipal of Moments the one that really solidified his post-Zeppelin career. “In the Mood” in particular works in odd ways. It’s dirgey, but bright and shining. That...
Artist: 2Pac featuring Dr. Dre Song: California Love Year: 1996 Highest Chart Position: #1 (Billboard Hot 100) I only found out recently that Roger Troutman didn’t just guest on this song, providing the vocoder bits (as was his trademark), but actually recorded it himself years earlier. Basically, the only original parts of the 2Pac version are the verses laid down by him and Dr. Dre. No...
Artist: Thompson Twins Song: Lay Your Hands on Me Year: 1984 Highest Chart Position: #13 (UK Singles Chart) There are two different versions of this song, and the one I’m writing about is the single version released only in the UK in late 1984. The one that appears on the album Here’s to Future Days and was released as a single worldwide in 1985 takes the skeleton of the original and...
Artist: Wham! Song: Freedom Year: 1984 Highest Chart Position: #3 (Billboard Hot 100) This was the first of about 15 variations (and counting) on the theme “Freedom” George Michael has utilized as a songwriter, and arguably still the best. It’s light and carefree and the closest 1984 radio ever got to reliving the Motown heyday of The Supremes and Martha & The Vandellas. ...
Artist: Gerry Rafferty Song: Baker Street Year: 1978 Highest Chart Position: #2 (Billboard Hot 100) After taking a short hiatus during the legal kerfuffle that surrounded the breakup of Stealers Wheel, Gerry Rafferty returned solo with City to City in 1978 and the single “Baker Street”. It contains perhaps the most recognizable saxophone riff in all of pop music history, or at least...
Artist: Georgia Satellites Song: Keep Your Hands to Yourself Year: 1986 Highest Chart Position: #2 (Billboard Hot 100) Few songs more odd have ever nearly topped the Hot 100, especially in the grandiose pop terrain of 1986. “Keep Your Hands to Yourself” tells its story so well lyrically, though, that I can go several years without hearing it and then sing along without missing a single...
Artist: Joy Division Song: Love Will Tear Us Apart Year: 1980 Highest Chart Position: #13 (UK Singles Chart) I’m not sure whether “Love Will Tear Us Apart” is more enjoyed or more revered for me. As far as the Joy Division catalogue goes, it’s easily the most commercially-viable song they recorded in their brief existence, though it may not be the best. Still, I’m...
Artist: No Doubt Song: Ex-Girlfriend Year: 2000 Highest Chart Position: #2 (Billboard Modern Rock) Four long years after Tragic Kingdom made them giants in the post-grunge radio funhouse, No Doubt returned with “Ex-Girlfriend”. It’s really a much more clever song than the band’s ever gotten credit for, what with its weird phrasing and chord progressions. I guess...
Artist: Keith Sweat Song: I Want Her Year: 1988 Highest Chart Position: #5 (Billboard Hot 100) How many songs from the short-lived “New Jack Swing” phenomenon do you think are going to make this list? If you guessed one, you win a prize. My reluctance to embrace it originally was due to the fact I was bombarded with it during car rides with many of my friends while it was going on,...
Artist: Scandal Song: The Warrior Year: 1984 Highest Chart Position: #7 (Billboard Hot 100) Anyone know why Patty Smyth got special billing for this? I don’t. Not that it really matters, because it was actually their only full-length album (their sole other release came the year before in the form of the 5-song EP, including “Goodbye to You”). So, “The Warrior”. ...
Artist: Kylie Minogue Song: Can’t Get You Out of My Head Year: 2002 Highest Chart Position: #7 (Billboard Hot 100) Kylie Minogue had all but disappeared from US shelves for years before her massive return in 2002. “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” was just another in a long line of singles that had been hits around the rest of the world, and it even went to #1 in just about...
Artist: Sarah McLachlan Song: Possession Year: 1993 Highest Chart Position: #4 (Billboard Modern Rock) I’ll likely never forgive Sarah McLachlan for what her fame hath wrought. After Fumbling Towards Ecstasy built a head of steam, the rest of the ’90s became a mine field for women in pop. Unless your music was dead serious and stiflingly feminine, you got branded as irrelevant and a...
Artist: Daryl Hall & John Oates Song: Method of Modern Love Year: 1985 Highest Chart Position: #5 (Billboard Hot 100) I don’t so much love this song as I deal with this song. Everyone has earworms, and this is one of mine. Don’t get me wrong, though. I love a good 90% of the entire Hall & Oates discography, but this song grabs ahold of me and won’t turn loose for days. ...
Artist: The Goo Goo Dolls Song: Slide Year: 1998 Highest Chart Position: #8 (Billboard Hot 100) By the time The Goo Goo Dolls released Dizzy Up the Girl, they bared absolutely no resemblance at all to the noisy punk metal band who made those records for the Metal Blade label a decade previous. So what! There’s always room in pop music for rock that’s been santized for your...
Artist: Neneh Cherry Song: Buffalo Stance Year: 1989 Highest Chart Position: #3 (Billboard Hot 100) It’s hard to believe in retrospect that hip hop still hadn’t fully made its mainstream crossover even by 1989, but through a string of more pop-heavy songs like “Buffalo Stance” progress was being made. The fusion of about 14 different things really made an impression on me...
Artist: Inspiral Carpets Song: Two Worlds Collide Year: 1992 Highest Chart Position: #32 (UK Singles Chart) “Two Worlds Collide” came at exactly the moment in time when UK music was making the shift between focusing on the baggy-style “Madchester” bands and the more metropolitan sound of bands like Suede and Blur. Before this single, Inspiral Carpets were known best for...
Artist: Sparks Song: The Number One Song in Heaven Year: 1979 Highest Chart Position: #14 (UK Singles Chart) Never as appreciated anywhere on the planet as they should have been, Sparks have at least charted a few singles in the UK. “The Number One Song in Heaven” is as aptly named as a song could be, for it’s a collaboration between the brothers Mael and electronic disco...
Artist: Bryan Adams Song: Run to You Year: 1984 Highest Chart Position: #6 (Billboard Hot 100) Even before I ever touched a guitar, this was one of the songs I wanted to learn to play. It was such a solid, four-cornered piece of music. Anecdotal story: Years after it came out and long after all the singles had disappeared from the charts, I got my cassette copy of Reckless from K-mart after a...
Artist: Iron Maiden Song: The Number of the Beast Year: 1982 Highest Chart Position: #18 (UK Singles Chart) This song once scared the bejesus out of me, having been a good boy raised in evangelical churches. Still, I found the dark side pretty appealing. As I got older, I developed the ability to contextualize things and realized that Bruce Dickinson wasn’t really trying to rot my soul by...
Artist: The Flaming Lips Song: Do You Realize?? Year: 2002 Highest Chart Position: #32 (UK Singles Chart) Unlike, it seems, every other person in internet land, I could never wrap my head around The Soft Bulletin or any of its singles. That’s why I was so relieved in 2002 when they released the Yoshimi album. It was packed with songs way more to my liking, and especially the...