Paul, are the highest voters quoted from the first or second round?

2nd round going by my 'Up the junction' cite here - I didn't allocate placings in 1st round, arranged in tiers of 50.

I'm not that big a fan of the song relative to where it normally places in the Beatles' canon, but I'm still shocked to see Tomorrow Never Knows bow so early. I like the total unpredictability, even if I'm a bit concerned that Montana's Pink Floyd votes mean at some point we're going to get like seven of their songs in a row.

The other thing to remember re:round one voting is that the point system highly favored songs appearing on the most lists. I haven't looked that closely at the songs so far that have had big drops, but they seem to be songs that a lot of people had lower on their lists that might not have made the transition to higher rankings in round two (or even being on the list once we cut the number you could vote for to 100).



Second round. I wanted to add in the ranked highest from round one as well, but there was no easy way for me to do that as not everyone ranked their songs in round one. It didn't seem like giving a list of everyone that voted for a song in their top 50 from round one would be all that informative in the end.

If I ever am required to hear another B52 song for the rest of my life, that would be my choice. Everything else...meh.

I actually have that album, and it is definitely better than Phil Collins' cover.

Blame me, too, I put all but Dogs on my vote list.

Lovely work as always, Paul.

Which would be fine if you hadn't stuffed them at 10, 11, 12, 13, 14.

Big update coming this weekend. Maybe even tomorrow night.

Big up, badman.

So, when's this update a-comin'? Really looking for some procrastination from my 50% paper due tomorrow and some Paul posts would do just the trick.

Tomorrow and Monday. Today was spent getting the mp3s for the next hundred or so in order, which so far has been the biggest use of my time when actually posting the list, so expect a lot over the next two days.

So, you should probably finish your paper before that happens.

“The way Kathie Lee needed Regis”

#275.




Kanye West - Jesus Walks
(895 Points, 8 Votes)

Release Year: 2004

Chart Peak: #11 (US), #16 (UK)

Found On: The College Dropout

Pop Matters Review: West produced, unquestionably, one of the great albums of the year and a flotilla of red-hot 45s but this audacious effort was perhaps the most extraordinary pieces to hit the UK Top 10. An intense piece of gospel rap, the content was out of step, the style was out of kilter, but Kanye's cool and composed talkover was just quite compelling.

Rank in Round One Voting: #221

Ranked Highest By: birdistheword (#9)

“I need a”

#274.




Paul McCartney - Temporary Secretary
(896 Points, 6 Votes)

Release Year: 1980

Chart Peak: n/a

Found On: McCartney II

All Music Review: In retrospect, the record is muddled and confused, nowhere more so than on the frazzled sequencing of "Temporary Secretary," where McCartney spits out ridiculous lyrics with a self-consciously atonal melody over gurgling synths. Things rarely get worse than that [on the album].

Rank in Round One Voting: #491

Ranked Highest By: spirtofeden (#9)

“Make you want to dance”

#273.




Al Green - Love and Happiness
(896 Points, 8 Votes)

Release Year: 1972

Chart Peak: #92 (R&B)

Found On: I'm Still In Love With You

All Music Review: There are many reasons why a popular radio-aired LP track isn't released as a single; the record label may not want to take any attention away from the single. One of Al Green's best recordings, "Love and Happiness," was never issued as a single when it was receiving massive airplay. From a purely business standpoint, it's somewhat understandable. It was included on the sensational 1972 platinum LP I'm Still in Love With You which yielded the gold R&B/ pop chart-topping title track, another gold Top Ten hit, "Look What You've Done for Me," and a tantalizing cover of "For the Good Times." Still, "Love and Happiness" is one of Green's classic recordings. It squarely points back to the singer's gospel roots. Written by Green, producer Willie Mitchell, and Stax Records drummer Al Jackson Jr., it was another great song from the trio who wrote the bulk of Green's hits. The intro is reflective of the climax-building style of black Baptist preachers' sermons, using the sparse interplay of Green's reflective vocal inflections and accenting musical riffs. Then the singer counts off into in a mid-tempo organ-dominated, horn-laced groove which is punctuated with background vocals that recall the call-and-response method of a preacher and a responding church choir. Finally, in the breakdown section, Green "testifies" to the power of love. Just like First Choice's "Let No Man Put Asunder," it was years before (and years after Green's hit-making heyday) "Love and Happiness" was released as a single, where it peaked at number 92 R&B and number 104 pop in summer 1977. No matter, it became a long-standing favorite on radio station play lists for years.

Rank in Round One Voting: #77

Ranked Highest By: velocity (#6)

“I'm the great white hope”

#272.




The National - Mr. November
(898 Points, 12 Votes)

Release Year: 2005

Chart Peak: n/a

Found On: Alligator

SongMeanings.net Comment: "but, one thing: what the hell does an alligator have to do with all of this?" - whj247

Rank in Round One Voting: #425

Ranked Highest By: bunk (#18)

“Gonna use my, my, my imagination”

#271.




The Pretenders - Brass In Pocket
(902 Points, 7 Votes)

Release Year: 1979

Chart Peak: #14 (US), #1 (UK)

Found On: Pretenders

All Music Review: With the Pretenders' self-titled debut album, Chrissie Hynde set new standards for self-assurance among women rockers -- arguably no female artist had come across so tough, so savvy, and so confident since Janis Joplin's heyday. Hynde could project a tender vulnerability too, but as showcased on The Pretenders, it was remarkably free of sentimentalism and marked by the same strength that powered her more aggressive side. Sitting in the middle ground is "Brass in Pocket (I'm Special)," the Pretenders' first hit single, which nearly reached the Top Ten in 1980. The song is about a woman getting ready to approach her object of attraction for the first time, but in this moment of potential vulnerability, Hynde has such total confidence in her appeal -- both in body and personality -- that instead of having to psych herself up, she's already positively celebratory, and the outcome is a foregone conclusion. She takes it for granted that she can make brazen demands simply because she knows she's worth paying attention to: "I'm gonna make you see/There's nobody else here, no one like me/I'm special, so special/I got to have some of your attention/Give it to me!" Sonically, "Brass in Pocket" covers the coming-on softer and mellower than the harder-rocking numbers which dominated the first half of The Pretenders. However, there's a rolling, hip-shaking backbeat whose laid-back swagger meshes very nicely with Hynde's unshakable confidence, and the song never gets aggressive enough to break its charming spell or make her self-assurance seem implausibly idealized. Aside from Hynde's throaty alto, the sonic textures of "Brass in Pocket" rely mostly on clean-toned electric guitars, given a slight chorusing effect for warmth; there's also a falsetto male chorus whose sole purpose is to echo the lyrics "special" and "make you notice." The song sounds fairly simple, but there is a somewhat unorthodox harmonic shift during the section in which Hynde lists all the attributes she can use to capture a man's attention. Put together, it all makes for a coolly understated classic -- an anthem of empowerment that isn't even conscious of any other way to feel.

Rank in Round One Voting: #231

Ranked Highest By: ghostfromthepast (#8)

“It opened up my mind”

#270.




Ace of Base - The Sign
(904 Points, 7 Votes)

Release Year: 1993

Chart Peak: #1 (US), #2 (UK)

Found On: Happy Nation/The Sign

All Music Review: All of their hit singles have exactly the same beat. But that doesn't matter.

Rank in Round One Voting: #392

Ranked Highest By: kiss_the_floor (#3)

“Again and again and again and again”

#269.




Kelly Clarkson - Since U Been Gone
(909 Points, 11 Votes)

Release Year: 2004

Chart Peak: #2 (US), #5 (UK)

Found On: Breakaway

SOMBie Misguided Comment: "how can Pfork promote pretty much exclusively indie artists as the Best New Music but then turn around and make a list that touts Kelly Clarkson as making the 21st top track of the decade? Or more generally, all the inane top 40 garbage that peppers this list?" - lostbikes

Rank in Round One Voting: #101

Ranked Highest By: stphone (#17)

Bump for Temporary Secretary is not surprising. A lot of people probably needed the second round list to remind them of it.

Similarly the fall for Kelly is a given when placed in a list as deep with classics as the second round was.

“I've heard them calling my name ”

#268.




Kermit the Frog - Rainbow Connection
(913 Points, 9 Votes, One #1 Vote)

Release Year: 1979

Chart Peak: #25 (US)

Found On: The Muppet Movie

Paul Williams Comment: "It's one of two favorite songs I've written in my life, and oddly, they're both from The Muppet Movie. (The other is "I'm Going to Go Back There Someday.") When we started working on the film, Kenny and I and Jim and Jerry Juhl all agreed that we had to establish Kermit's soul from the very beginning. And to do that, he has to ponder some big questions. Kenny and I began to write this song -- the song addresses that inner voice that tells Kermit he can try to do these big things. Then Jerry Juhl did this great thing in the script at the end, when the stage explodes and the end of the rainbow appears -- the actual “rainbow connection.” That's the proof of the whole Muppet philosophy."

Rank in Round One Voting: #422

Ranked Highest By: undo (#1)

“Someone in my dictionary's up to no good”

#267.




Animal Collective - Banshee Beat
(918 Points, 5 Votes)

Release Year: 2005

Chart Peak: n/a

Found On: Feels

SongMeanings.net Comment: "It is definitely the quintessential AC song. It peaks like a fine orgasm." - FiberOpticJesus

Rank in Round One Voting: #395

Ranked Highest By: kiss_the_floor (#4)

“I guess we'll just have to adjust”

#266.




Arcade Fire - Wake Up
(922 Points, 11 Votes)

Release Year: 2004

Chart Peak: #29 (UK)

Found On: Funeral

NME Review: Here we are, then: the gleaming jewel in Arcade Fire’s crown. Few bands in 2005 have proved quite so emotionally affecting as this Montreal-based orchestral rock septet, perhaps because no band has sounded quite so emotionally affected. You see, Arcade Fire deal with The Big Questions. Life. Death. Funeral arrangements. Violin tunings. And on ‘Wake Up’, they channel these questions into a rock symphony – yes, we said ‘symphony’ – that’s simultaneously sonically adventurous, emotionally harrowing and filled with real humanity.

“Something filled up my heart with nothing/Someone told me not to cry”, sings frontman Win Butler. And from thereon in, ‘Wake Up’ enters a masterful slow build, the guitars gaining a little more bite and the swooping violins a little more velocity with every passing verse – until finally, when the emotional ballast threatens to sink the whole vessel, Butler pulls out the devastating lyrical payload: “I guess they’ll just have to adjust!” Hearts swell to bursting. Shooting stars collide. The universe picks up the phone and calls an old flame. And this, bizarrely, is a cue for ‘Wake Up’ to morph into a version of Phil Collins’ ‘You Can’t Hurry Love’, as played by accordion-wielding French buskers on a rickety Normandy pier. And it’s great. They dismantled our defences, and hit us with that sucker-punch? The varmints.

Rank in Round One Voting: #445

Ranked Highest By: Chronodiggity (#22)

“Over and over”

#265.




Tommy James & the Shondells - Crimson and Clover
(926 Points, 10 Votes)

Release Year: 1968

Chart Peak: #1 (US)

Found On: Crimson & Clover

All Music Review: Having participated in the creative process with producers Bo Gentry and Ritchie Cordell, Tommy James & the Shondells were ready to take the recording studio reigns with no outside help and generate psychedelia beyond the subtleties of "Mirage." Recorded and released in 1968 it was the only one of James' 16 additional chart hits to equal the number one position of his first smash, "Hanky Panky." This magical song was covered by Elijah Blue and his mom, Cher, for a 1999 film, A Walk on the Moon, but it was Joan Jett who brought it Top Ten in 1982 -- her second biggest hit following "I Love Rock & Roll." James contemporary Tommy Roe also cut a version, but perhaps the most surprising "cover" is the underground tune the pop star may have inspired. Dave Thompson's book Beyond the Velvet Underground prints a 1976 quote from Lou Reed that he thinks the 1969 live album was the first time the Velvet Underground performed "Sweet Jane." Could it be that Lou Reed's garage rock classic, which influenced hundreds -- maybe thousands -- of bands, was itself derived from Tommy James & the Shondells? Just listen to the riff. The five-minute-and-26-second-long version, written by drummer Peter Lucia and James, often found itself on hit radio without those "amputations" Reed complained about, another amazing achievement by this clever and timeless nugget from the days of Sgt. Pepper and Satanic Majesties. During Christmastime 1968 when this song was topping the charts, some listeners asked if he was singing "Christmas is over" when the tremolo effect kicks in on the voice towards the end of the tune. The guitars, drums, keys, and voices unite and dazzle over a trancelike tempo, resulting in a song and performance for the ages.

Rank in Round One Voting: #306

Ranked Highest By: Agrimorfee (#20)

“There is a wait so long”

#264.




Pixies - Here Comes Your Man
(926 Points, 13 Votes)

Release Year: 1989

Chart Peak: #3 (Modern Rock), #54 (UK)

Found On: Doolittle

All Music Review: One of the purest pop songs in the Pixies' oeuvre, "Here Comes Your Man" was one of the anchors of the band's 1989 masterpiece Doolittle. In contrast with the fractured compositional style the band became known for, "Here Comes Your Man" follows a straightforward verse/pre-chorus/chorus structure, with a short instrumental break in the middle -- the very definition of a perfect three-and-a-half-minute pop single. Although it sounds simple, the arrangement is actually quite layered, usually featuring three to four guitar parts -- the fat-toned, slightly twangy electric that plays the song's main riff; another clean-toned electric that plays chiming arpeggios; a heavily distorted guitar used to add the band's trademark noisy texture, although in this song it's relegated mostly to the background; and a strummed acoustic guitar that sticks to fully voiced chord progressions. The overall effect, though, is light, almost even airy, and each guitar moves in and out of the song enough to leave plenty of space for the others. There are flashes of typical Pixies dissonance here and there, but overall, the song isn't really as angular or spiky as much of the material that built the band's reputation. It's almost impossible to decipher what the song is about (hopping a train?), but it isn't really necessary to do so. For one, the music is so tightly constructed and catchy that the song would work almost regardless, and for another, the lyrics are so full of quirky images that the abstract playfulness is more than enough to endow the song with a particular feeling or mood. "Here Comes Your Man" epitomizes everything that was great about the best late-'80s alternative rock: utterly unique in personality, creating musical worlds of its own, yet still eminently melodic and accessible.

Rank in Round One Voting: #330

Ranked Highest By: The Gram (#19)

“Smooth her, soothe her
Move her
Love her
Rub her”

#263.




Otis Redding - Try a Little Tenderness
(926 Points, 12 Votes)

Release Year: 1966

Chart Peak: #25 (US), #46 (UK)

Found On: Complete & Unbelievable: The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul

All Music Review: Very possibly one of Otis Redding's defining moments on record. Going Top 20 on both the R&B and pop charts, it's also the real breakthrough record to the white rock marketplace that Redding was looking for. The song itself is a bit of a Tin Pan Alley chestnut (dating back to the 1930s, when it was introduced to the public by horn player Ted Lewis). Redding probably first heard it when Sam Cooke cut in on his Live at the Copa album in 1962, but Aretha Franklin also cut it around then. Starting with a down-tempo, soulful melody, the song moves through several melodic changes before culminating into a power and fury that is capped by an absolutely intense modulation on the choruses. It's precisely here that Redding turns to interpreting the song to commanding it. It's positively spellbinding. If the studio version isn't enough, the fabulous live version from the Monterey Pop Festival (included on that box set) is rightfully on the Dreams to Remember anthology on Rhino.

Rank in Round One Voting: #154

Ranked Highest By: Duff. (#14)

“So won't you smile for the camera ”

#262.




Steely Dan - Peg
(931 Points, 6 Votes)

Release Year: 1977

Chart Peak: #11 (US)

Found On: Aja

All Music Review: "Peg" was one of Steely Dan's biggest hits, but it's also commonly dismissed by some of the band's hardcore fans, who consider it a lightweight pop song less challenging than the likes of "Deacon Blues" or "Pretzel Logic." On the other hand, it can certainly be argued that the song's seeming effortlessness is due to the amount of work that went into its recording. One of the standing legends of Steely Dan is that anywhere from six to two dozen of the world's best studio musicians, including heavyweights like Larry Carlton and Robben Ford, were called in to play the 12-bar guitar solo and summarily dismissed before Jay Graydon finally nailed it with a trebly solo that alternates between flurrying clusters of notes and sustained chords while avoiding any show-off tendencies that would break the easy glide of Chuck Rainey's slap bass line and Rick Marotta's casually flashy drumming. (During a British television documentary on the making of Aja, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker play some of the rejected solos over the Rainey-Marotta groove; all of them, including one of Becker's, sound entirely wrong, proving that the duo's perfectionism, at least in this case, paid off.) The song's other distinctive elements, including Michael McDonald's backing vocals and a perfectly placed horn section hook that first appears in the second verse, are equally perfectly placed, yet the song doesn't have the stiffness or sterile feel that plagued Steely Dan's next album, Gaucho, and their reunion work 20 years later.

Rank in Round One Voting: #238

Ranked Highest By: Tracy Jacks (#6)

“So I broke into the Palace
with a sponge and a rusty spanner”

#261.




The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead
(932 Points, 7 Votes)

Release Year: 1986

Chart Peak: n/a

Found On: The Queen is Dead

All Music Review: The brilliant opening track to the Smiths' finest album kicks off with a snippet of the traditional pub knees-up "Take Me Back To Dear Old Blighty," taken from an obscure 1962 kitchen-sink drama called The L-Shaped Room; in this context, it sounds Fellini-like in its strangeness, especially when cross-faded with an increasingly loud wail of feedback that eventually crashes into Mike Joyce's manic, tribal drumming. The song seems to get ever louder, noisier and more desperate as it goes on, eventually culminating in the same sort of apocalyptic buzz as the Clash's "London Calling." Over this, Morrissey delivers a lyric that's both savage and hilarious, ripping apart the state of England in the mid-'80s while puncturing the song's tendencies towards self-importance with a brilliantly timed verse that finds the singer breaking into the Queen's private chambers (playing off of a notorious real-life event that had happened in 1982, when a mental patient named Michael Fagan not only slipped into Buckingham Palace but spent over 10 minutes in conversation with the Queen in her bedroom) only to be rebuked with a dismissive "Oh, I know you and you cannot sing," to which he cheerfully replies "That's nothing, you should hear me play piano." One of the band's masterpieces, "The Queen is Dead" is an epic opening to a classic proto-Britpop album.

Rank in Round One Voting: #265

Ranked Highest By: The Anti-Ringo Monster (#6)

“You're different, girl”

#260.




Todd Rundgren - I Saw the Light
(934 Points, 10 Votes)

Release Year: 1972

Chart Peak: #16 (US), #36 (UK)

Found On: Something/Anything?

Amazon customer review: "This is a all time classic,I had the single on colored vinyl on Bearsville back in the day,they used this in the film Kingpin!" - Jason Pumphrey

Rank in Round One Voting: #508

Ranked Highest By: the (#4)

“Must be seven seven months or more”

#259.




Creedence Clearwater Revival - Lodi
(935 Points, 7 Votes)

Release Year: 1969

Chart Peak: #52 (US)

Found On: Green River

All Music Review: During the alt-country trend of the late '90s/early '00s, fans of country-rock would often speak in reverential tones about Gram Parsons and his various groups -- sometimes the Byrds and sometimes the Flying Burrito Brothers -- as the foundation of the genre. It was not even unusual to hear that the early Eagles records were coming back into vogue. Not as often mentioned, however, were the contributions that Creedence Clearwater Revival made to the forging of country and rock. Yet, CCR had far more commercial success with such country-rock chestnuts as "Lodi" -- and thus a farther-reaching impact -- than the music of the criminally overlooked (by commercial forces, anyway) Parsons. CCR also had great mainstream success while exemplifying what Parsons termed "cosmic American music": an amalgam of rock, soul, gospel, country, rockabilly, etc. "Lodi" was the B-side to another country/ rockabilly-informed tune, "Bad Moon Rising," the single selling gold. From their Top Ten record Green River (1969), "Lodi" is a melancholy tune with a rockabilly-inspired guitar riff. John Fogerty's lyric is about a singer trapped in a nightclub/bar purgatory in small-town Lodi, after running out of money while on the road doing one-night stands. The pathos of the lyric is convincing, Fogerty obviously having done his time playing "while people sat there drunk" and wanting to "catch the next train" back home. It is evident that, before he and his band struck gold with repetitive hit singles, Fogerty wondered if he would ever be trapped in his own private hell, reliving the same night over and over again like a rock & roll Groundhog Day. The song's bouncing tempo does not mask the heavy-hearted tenor of the melody and lyric. Even Stu Cook's bass line veers off from its standard country fifths to walk down half-steps, three or four notes that alone are heartbreaking. Fogerty abandons his Little Richard-inspired howls and screams for a wistful, mournful approach, his voice periodically cracking vulnerably during the bittersweet melody. The arrangement throws in the curveball key change during the last verse, a classic pop trick that heightens the drama: "If I only had a dollar for every song I sung...."

Rank in Round One Voting: #457

Ranked Highest By: Ramona (#4)

Helluva list so far, most of the oddballs included.

“And I will sing a lullaby”

#258.




The Beatles - Golden Slumbers
(939 Points, 7 Votes, One #1 Vote)

Release Year: 1969

Chart Peak: n/a

Found On: Abbey Road

All Music Review: "Golden Slumbers" is the song that starts the second section of the "medley" portion of Abbey Road that drives the album to its conclusion. (As an aside, much of what's written about Abbey Road seems to view the medley section of songs seguing into each other as an uninterrupted one, starting with either "You Never Give Me Your Money" or "Mean Mr. Mustard," and ending with the end of "The End." In fact, however, there is a brief but definite gap of silence between "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" and "Golden Slumbers.") "Golden Slumbers" is an example of something Paul McCartney, the principal composer, might have done better than anyone in rock: write and sing a song that in the hands of almost anyone else might have been viewed as gushing sentimentalism, but make it effectively powerful instead of dripping sap. There's a slightly bittersweet nostalgic feel to this brief, piano-based ballad, as if the singer's remembering the more secure times of childhood. This yields, though, to a reassurance of almost parental security as McCartney promises to sing a lullaby, leading into an almost anthemic, earthy section (bolstered by subtle orchestration) in which he exhorts us to smile away our tears. The slightly nursery rhyme or folk- hymn feel of the lyrics is not a coincidence. The words came from a traditional lullaby, "Golden Slumbers," by Thomas Dekker, first published in 1603. McCartney came across it in a songbook when visiting his father's house, and as he was unable to read the music, he made up his own tune to the words, adding some new ones as well. Though some might be tempted to stretch things and view "Golden Slumbers" as a plea to his chums in the Beatles to remember better times and steer homeward as they began to break up, it in fact was begun a good while before it was recorded, as bootleg recordings of early versions played during the Let It Be film rehearsals in January 1969 reveal. Some of the more famous singers to cover "Golden Slumbers" include Lou Rawls, John Denver, and Jackson Browne. It was also covered by a band on the Beatles' Apple label, Trash, on a 1969 single.

Rank in Round One Voting: #448

Ranked Highest By: spiritofeden (#1)

“Sleep is the cousin of death”

#257.




Nas - NY State of Mind
(943 Points, 8 Votes)

Release Year: 1994

Chart Peak: n/a

Found On: Illmatic

YouTube Comment: "damn everytime i hear those high pitched beeps at the start, i allways think of cars for some reason. it kinda sounds like an old car horn, makes me think of a traffic jam in n.y.

just like the sample from "represent" kinda sounds like a train, some kinda real old steam engine.

nas all day" - halizbladex

Rank in Round One Voting: #228

Ranked Highest By: kiss_the_floor (#12)

“Heal her soul”

#256.




Sun Kil Moon - Carry Me Ohio
(951 Points, 7 Votes)

Release Year: 2003

Chart Peak: n/a

Found On: Ghost of the Great Highway

Amazon Customer Comment: "I heard this song in the movie, Shopgirl...I've been renting the movie again and again to hear this song. It is the aura of the movie. What a beautiful voice and melody! I am very glad to be able to purchase this song, thank you for such beautiful music!" - Valli Peck "Eya"

Rank in Round One Voting: #303

Ranked Highest By: Chronodiggity (#8)

“I don't wanna kiss you. I don't wanna touch”

#255.




Elvis Costello and the Attractions - No Action
(952 Points, 7 Votes)

Release Year: 1978

Chart Peak: n/a

Found On: This Year's Model

YouTube Comment: "Elvis Costello is a cool rock star." - reasonformirrors

Rank in Round One Voting: #466

Ranked Highest By: Chicken Invaders! (#10)

“Define and refine my altitude”

#254.




Wire - Map Ref. 41°N 93°W
(953 Points, 7 Votes)

Release Year: 1979

Chart Peak: n/a

Found On: 154

YouTube Comment: "This is honestly one of the best pop songs ever and I'm not inclined to get all hyperbolic about songs. I've probably listened to this over 500 times in the last 1-2 years and it's absolutely perfect. I feel about this song the way John Peel felt about Teenage Kicks" - ftwelve12

Rank in Round One Voting: #209

Ranked Highest By: undo (#6)

Very readable list so far. Paul, you're doing a magnificent job pulling together the comments.

Yep. About to go hand in my paper too.

Given all the rabble in the voting thread that went on for Rainbow Connection, it's funny to see it where it's ended up. Can't say I'm too cut up about it.

Also, "Golden Slumbers" is lovely but, obviously, it's nothing without "Carry That Weight" to back it up.

Probably should've chucked that Otis song higher. Pure genius.

EDIT: And speaking of Wire, did "Outdoor Miner" make the final list? I forget.

“And it keeps coming”

#253.




LCD Soundsystem - Someone Great
(955 Points, 7 Votes)

Release Year: 2007

Chart Peak: n/a

Found On: Sound of Silver

Pitchfork Review: Faced with the mortality of a relationship, James Murphy's artistic burden changed: After the fateful morning of "Someone Great", it no longer seemed enough to coolly dissect how sensations form scenes; it became time to consider the fragile emotions of the people within them. His voice, faced with a set of circumstances he avoided in the past, sheds its cool façade and betrays a boyish frailty in the face of sheer confusion. The glockenspiel chimes that accompany each word Murphy sings help pierce the bleary warble that hounds him, and suspends him within that frozen moment. As he re-situates himself using the only constants that remain-- coffee, the weather-- he triggers a fresh sense of self-awareness, resigning to the everyday responsibilities of adulthood, which seem liberating in this context. It's cold comfort, though; in Sound of Silver 's next song, we learn that growing up, too, is a form of anxiety that keeps coming till the day it stops.

Rank in Round One Voting: #95

Ranked Highest By: andystripes (#7)

“It's a-gettin' closer”

#252.




Buddy Holly - Everyday
(957 Points, 13 Votes)

Release Year: 1957

Chart Peak: n/a

Found On: Buddy Holly

RateYourMusic User Review: "Buddy Holly or "The tardy Elvis" as he was sometimes known was a superstar until he got run over by an out of control ice cream van driven by the Big Bopper. Today he is best known as being the grandfather of Elvis Costello (who inherited his tardy wobbles and glasses) and Jarvis Cocker (so that means he is father in law to Joe Cocker).
Buddy Holly and his band the Baseballs had many hits and this is maybe the most famous of them (although maybe the least covered one). It was revealed in an episode of "Quantum Leap" starring Scott Drakula and one of Dennis Hopper's creepy mates from Blue Velvet that the song "Peggy Sue" was originally about a friend of Buddy Holly's who was a pig. Well if Michael Jackson can sing a love song to a rat then this must be ok too.
They later made a film about the pig getting married (not to Holly though).
The b-side ["Everyday"] is a happy morning breakfast type song which has been used to sell everything from detergent to cereal to bananas to toilet paper to hemorrhoid cream, so most bases are covered really." - King_Fahtah

Rank in Round One Voting: #177

Ranked Highest By: Bruegel (#10)

Awesome review.

“There are no words”

#251.




The Stone Roses - She Bangs The Drums
(961 Points, 10 Votes)

Release Year: 1989

Chart Peak: #9 (US Modern Rock), #36 (UK)

Found On: The Stone Roses

RateYourMusic User Review: "The single remix of "She Bangs the Drums" is wicked, wicked stuff. A perfect pop song about perfect pop songs, first love, and anything else I want it to be about. Squire coaxes some understated magic from his guitar during the break; funky squiggles he would only better twice, both times on songs twice the length of this one." - SimonTheSignGuy

Rank in Round One Voting: #207

Ranked Highest By: Saskadelphia (#14)

“September's coming soon”

#250.




R.E.M. - Nightswimming
(963 Points, 8 Votes)

Release Year: 1992

Chart Peak: #27 (UK)

Found On: Automatic For The People

All Music Review: Ostensibly about teenage skinny-dipping, the penultimate song from R.E.M.'s Automatic for the People, "Nightswimming," is actually a bittersweet ode to nostalgia and the freedom and innocence of youth. This theme and musical mood had already been explored on "Hairshirt" and "You Are the Everything" from 1988's Green, and once again the band evokes melancholy without being maudlin. Besides piano, Michael Stipe's voice and some strings are the only things heard, a sound not typically embraced by so-called alternative artists. This makes sense, for R.E.M.'s interest has always lied in transcending the confines of that meaningless label. As such, the song's almost chamber pop atmosphere has more to do with the Beatles than the guitar-heavy groups that originally influenced the band. John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin fame arranged the strings, and it shows another link between two seemingly disparate groups who actually shared not only pushing the boundaries of their craft but also the ability to make not less than a good record as common pursuits. Along with album-closer "Find the River," "Nightswimming" somehow makes sadness feel hopeful, as did most of 1992's Automatic for the People, perhaps R.E.M.'s last undisputed masterpiece.

Rank in Round One Voting: #52

Ranked Highest By: Ramona (#6)

“Time may change me”

#249.




David Bowie - Changes
(963 Points, 9 Votes)

Release Year: 1971

Chart Peak: #41 (US)

Found On: Hunk Dory

All Music Review: David Bowie once explained "Changes" like so: "[It] started out as a parody of a nightclub song, a kind of throwaway." Which is part of the fun joy of the track -- it manages to work completely straight-faced while also having some laughs as well. For all of the lyrical references to "these children that you spit on" and "how every time I'd got it made, the taste was not so sweet," "Changes" doesn't pretend to be the voice of a generation or rampant angst gone crazy. It's upbeat, entertaining, and, but of course, has that brilliant knack of Bowie's -- an absolutely wonderful chorus. With Rick Wakeman's piano providing the introduction and conclusion for the song, not to mention helping to form said chorus, Bowie leads the incipient Spiders From Mars in a sly romp mixing semi-spoken verse and his delicious delivery of the title, "Ch-ch-ch-changes!" The descending chords of the bass hint at that particular glam rock element's incipient dominance, while Ken Scott's production and Mick Ronson's excellent string arrangement -- not to mention Bowie's own winning sax part -- complete the package.

Rank in Round One Voting: #196

Ranked Highest By: thresholdofrevelation (#18)

“I think I'd like to go back home”

#248.




Neil Young and Crazy Horse - Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
(964 Points, 8 Votes)

Release Year: 1969

Chart Peak: n/a

Found On: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere

All Music Review: Like several of Neil Young's songs from this period, the title song from Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere is clearly a cry from a man that is in need of settling down after a hair-raising experience. In the author's case, it was obviously the entire Buffalo Springfield period. Young is celebrating a simple life in the country here, and, musically, the Western-influenced melody and backing from Crazy Horse reflect this perfectly.

Rank in Round One Voting: #426

Ranked Highest By: elcorazon (#13)

“Bite my style, I'll bite your motherfuckin ass!”

#247.




Wu-Tang Clan - Protect Ya Neck
(968 Points, 8 Votes)

Release Year: 1993

Chart Peak: n/a

Found On: Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)

RateYourMusic User Review: "Absolutely the single best rap song I've ever heard (not that I've heard nearly enough to make such a claim, but if I hear anything substantially better than this, than I have no idea what I'd do. Pass out?). I've owned this song for less than 2 weeks, and it's already climbed the ranks to become one of my favorites songs ever.

Probably the best examlpe of the skill and individuality of each member, Protect Ya Neck contains some the absolute best verses any of the members ever laid down. RZAs "Wu Tang Clan comin at'cha!" rivals "Bring the motherfuckin' ruckus!" as his most iconic and repeatable background mantras on 36 Chambers. "Movin' on your left, AH!" might be the single most enjoyable line on 36 Chambers. The four bursts of sound at the end of ODB's verse are a perfect, energetic way to lead into Ghostface's "FOR CRYIN' OUT LOUD...". There's just so much to like here, it's incredible that all these little intracacies came to be." - TheIdioteque

Rank in Round One Voting: #443

Ranked Highest By: undo (#11)

“Give me a reason to love you”

#246.




Portishead - Glory Box
(969 Points, 8 Votes)

Release Year: 1994

Chart Peak: (US), #13 (UK)

Found On: Dummy

RateYourMusic User Review: "Counting PJ Harvey's often psychotic warblings, the best new blues hitting my ears in the mid-nineties came from female voices. Few, if any, hit me harder than this Portishead stunner. Creeping in along a crackly sample, the song is one long, weary, confused plea. About four minutes in Beth Gibbons halts her address and belts out "this is the beginning ... of forever ... and EVEEEEEER!" The filtered final phrase drops into a heavy drum loop, and drops me off on the corner of Cold and Alone. Absolutely chilling stuff." - SimonTheSignGuy

Rank in Round One Voting: #142

Ranked Highest By: andystripes (#14)

Can't really complain about any of these, all pretty great this weekend. Seems like a cooler list when it's not in A-Z order.

“How's that song?”

#245.




Animal Collective - Fireworks
(969 Points, 8 Votes)

Release Year: 2007

Chart Peak: n/a

Found On: Strawberry Jam

Pitchfork Review: It's a song about self-doubt, distance, and the desire to reclaim that sublime but fleeting moment when everything made sense. "That sacred night where we watched the fireworks" is the place to return to here, and the song paints a vivid picture: The scratchy rhythm pulse and ringing guitars bring to mind open sky; Avey Tare sings loud and clear, like he wants to make sure he's heard above the din; and then the melody, which sticks in my head like nothing the band has written, tumbles down like a still-glowing ember. Animal Collective made their name by bending familiar music-- rustic folk, Beach Boys harmony, swirly psych-rock-- into unfamiliar new shapes; with "Fireworks", they sound weary of abstraction. The goal here is simply to connect, and they succeed mightily.

Rank in Round One Voting: #444

Ranked Highest By: Chronodiggity (#15)