"Soul to Squeeze" is execrable. Class it up a notch, fella.

"Yeah! We can invite all our friends, and have soda and pie!"


#235.



The Beastie Boys - "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party)"

Year: 1986

US Chart Position: #7

UK Chart Position: #11

Acclaimed Music Ranking: #4 (year), #34 (decade), #247 (all-time)

Ranked Highest By: Birdistheword (#8)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Licensed to Ill

This love is only gonna break your heart


#234.

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Chris Isaak - "Wicked Game"

Year: 1989

US Chart Position: #6 / #2 Modern Rock (what a weird pre-Nirvana world this must've been)

UK Chart Position: #10

Acclaimed Music Ranking: #14 (year), #113 (decade), #680 (all-time)

AMG Says: "While "Wicked Game" didn't sound like much else on Top 40 radio at the time, it's not hard to see why the song became a hit once people had a chance to hear it. It's a moody, quietly intense ballad full of heavy, shimmering atmospherics and smoky crooning from Isaak. His voice can drop into a hushed baritone or — as on the chorus — break into a quavering, sobbing falsetto that floats over the music like misty night air. The song's opening hook is based on the use of the tremolo bar on a clean-toned electric guitar, swooping into a downward dive and then rising back up on a completely different note. In spite of its simplicity, the result is quite evocative — it's ethereal, even ghostly, and feels like the sonic equivalent of a brief but queasy zero-G drop in the pit of one's stomach, sliding just a little bit farther down than the ear expects before resolving onto stable ground. Spare, ringing electric arpeggios hang in the air over a gently strummed acoustic guitar and whisper-quiet brushwork on a snare drum. The tremolo bar also adds a shaky shimmer to the electric guitar's background chords during some of the verses, underlining its crucial importance to the song's overall effect. But Isaak's brooding, sorrowfully conflicted reading of the song is the real focus, and the reason it delivers emotional weight behind all the atmosphere"

Ranked Highest By: Elcorazon (#14)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Heart-Shaped World

"That's some damn good coffee you got here in Twin Peaks. And damn good cherry pie!"


#233.



Moby - "Go"

Year: 1991

US Chart Position: #16 Dance

UK Chart Position: #10

Acclaimed Music Ranking: #32 (year), #278 (decade), #1672 (all-time)

Rank on Our All-Time Singles List: #445

Ranked Highest By: Nic (#30)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Moby

Here! Here!

Well, actually since they wrote Soul to Squeeze for BSSM, it might not be a true statement, but it's better to mention that then any of the other great songs of of BSSM.

Rave classic?

I wouldn't know since I wasn't there. But I like to think that it was.

Yeah, well, there's a reason they left if off Blood Sugar. Like, uh, it sucks.

Fun Fact: The "Go" ("Go!"? Or am I just thinking of the Tones on Tail song?) single was included as one of Rolling Stone's Top 200 Most Essential Albums or whatever. Pretty sure it was the only single on the list. Why they didn't just include Moby's s/t is totally beyond me.

Moby's "Go" is also on I Like To Score, which I prefer to his s/t.

Everybody's got somebody
to lean on
Put your body next to mine
and dream on


#232.



The Traveling Wilburys - "Handle With Care" / "Margarita"

Year: 1988

US Chart Position: #45 / #2 Mainstream Rock

UK Chart Position: #21

Acclaimed Music Ranking: n/a

AMG Says: "The opening track to the star-studded Traveling Wilburys album puts the group and their attitude in one compact package. The overall tone of the song is about getting out from under the shell of the '60s fallout, along with a strong theme of survival. George Harrison handles the verses, and there are also two excellent bridges featuring Roy Orbison and Bob Dylan. Orbison's section capitalizes on his awesome, operatic vocal pipes, and the effect is wonderful. Musically, the song is built around a descending, folk-rock chord patter and some fine major-key chorus movements. In the end, the joy of camaraderie is what hits the listener the hardest and makes this one of the most memorable records of the 1980s."

Ranked Highest By: Paul (#9)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: The Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 1

Fun Fact #2: Moby used a sample from Angelo Badalamenti's Twin Peaks score as the basis for "Go".

"I do remember a magazine mentioning the line about getting a triple-double, and asking what the hell kind of gangsta keeps track of his assists?" -Ken Munson


#231.



Ice Cube - "It Was a Good Day"

Year: 1993

US Chart Position: #15 / #7 R&B / #1 Rap

UK Chart Position: #27

Acclaimed Music Ranking: #9 (year), #120 (decade), #879 (all-time)

Ranked Highest By: Animals and Men (#15)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: The Predator



well, yeah. Hence the teaser.

I fucking love The Predator.

lol @ "hear in Twin Peaks"

Shit, that reminds me: I forgot to vote for Julee Cruise.

How can I be sure
In a world that's constantly changing


#230.



Tricky - "Aftermath"

Year: 1994

US Chart Position: n/a

UK Chart Position: #69

Acclaimed Music Ranking: #18 (year), #115 (decade), #854 (all-time)

AMG Says: "Recorded in 1992, during the acrimonious fallout from Tricky's split from Massive Attack, "Aftermath" sat for nearly two years until the singer revived the song when Island Records took an interest. Released as a single in January 1994, it would eventually find its way onto Tricky's debut LP the following year. In the meantime, though, "Aftermath" served up a potent teaser for his increasingly anticipated concoction and was a reminder of just how vibrant Tricky's own take on the trip-hop scene was. A slow, spliff-heavy vibe, long at over seven minutes, "Aftermath" combined Martina Topley-Bird's rich blues vocals with a swampy flute. With Tricky himself moving in and out of focus, the song tips from hip-hop to drugged-out psychedelic psychosis in the space of one long, ecstatically drawn-out breath. It's only that punchy guitar riff that pulls "Aftermath" up to vertical. It truly was a stunning introduction to this master of gritty, sexy malaise."

Ranked Highest By: Nic (#12)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Maxinquaye

That reminds me--I need to put "Christiansands" way high on my next list.

Yeah, that's a killer track. Tricky's best.

I listened to Maxinquaye and am uploading it for the next poll now.

Is Tricky the pedo or is it the other Massive Attack guy?

I thought this time I'd keep all of my promises


#229.



The Cure - "A Letter to Elise"

Year: 1992

US Chart Position: #2 Modern Rock

UK Chart Position: #28

Acclaimed Music Ranking: n/a

AMG Says: "A majestic, lush, and dramatic breakup song from the Cure's 1992 LP Wish, "A Letter to Elise" shows a band still near the peak of their game with an ability to blend heart-wrenching vocal performances, melancholy melodies, dance beats, and a combination of organic and synthesized instrumentation. As always, the production features interweaving guitar, bass, and keyboard lines, countermelodies — each a hook unto itself. The dense and anthemic arrangement clearly points the way toward similar directions of such bands as Smashing Pumpkins. And the ballad just plain rocks, with soaring guitar lines, pummeling drum fills, and cymbal crashes, gradually overtaking the vocals."

Ranked Highest By: Slackmo (#16)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Wish



3-D

Originally written with Hall & Oates in mind, believe it or not...


#228.

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Lisa Loeb - "Stay (I Missed You)"

Year: 1994

US Chart Position: #1

UK Chart Position: #6

Acclaimed Music Ranking: #48 (year), #378 (decade), #2217 (all-time)

Rank on Our All-Time Singles List: #406

Ranked Highest By: Paul (#28)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Reality Bites OST

very much not a fan of that song.

very much not a fan of Films Camera





















not really, but the song still >>>> you

Go easy on Meatwad. He's good peoples.

better than "Under the Bridge"?

better than "You Suffer"?

Correct answer is none of them.

I've always like this song, but it's such a blatant rewrite of "Pictures of You."

Better than "Under The Bridge." Not by much. Both are great.

Very few songs are better than "You Suffer." This is not one of them.

amended.

Geez, what's with Mitchell defending peple just because they were cleared of any wrongdoing? Sounds like a GUILTY PERSON to me.

Don't get me started on how shite Operation Ore was and how much of a co-incidence it was that Del Naja was arrested after some very barbed cristisms against the assault on Iraq in 2003.

and hey, mine's research for my book.

You take a mortal man
And put him in control


#227.



Megadeth - "Symphony of Destruction"

Year: 1992

US Chart Position: #71 / #29 Mainstream Rock (The 'Deth's only Hot 100 hit)

UK Chart Position: #15

Acclaimed Music Ranking: n/a

Ranked Highest By: Velocity (#17)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Countdown to Extinction

Ok, Pete.

Seriously, though. Worst excuse ever.

"He delicately fingered what looked like dried moss to me, and it struck me then that I liked Sean because he looked, well, slutty. A boy who'd been around. A boy who couldn't tell whether he was catholic or not."


#226.



Love & Rockets - "So Alive"

Year: 1989

US Chart Position: #3 / #1 Modern Rock

UK Chart Position: #79

Acclaimed Music Ranking: #31 (year), #286 (decade), #1558 (all-time)

Rank on Our All-Time Singles List: #400

AMG Says: "Love and Rockets' best known number, its biggest hit, and, ultimately, the all-consuming albatross that triggered the band's graceless decline, "So Alive" was released in spring 1989, and hurled itself straight towards the top of the U.S. charts, peaking at an absolutely unbelievable number three. According to David J, the song was written and arranged as the band's own tip-of-the-hat to Lou Reed — listen closely, and the backing vocals do stray towards "Walk on the Wild Side," while the song's effortlessly lazy lope shadows "Goodnight Ladies." At the same time, however, J insisted that "the whole production of that track was instantaneous. We recorded it all in one day, even the backing vocals." That spontaneity, too, surely assisted the song's success — just like its title says, "So Alive" sounds so alive, and Love and Rockets would never be so healthy again."

Ranked Highest By: The Good Dr. Bill (#10)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Express

now, ian somerhalder, there's a hairline tragedy

The quintessential Love and Rockets song for non-fans.

yup. Though they do a mean "Ball of Confusion" as well.

Nice teaser for L&R. Despicable movie, but good teaser.

awesome

i don't necessarily think that "so alive" is the same for love & rockets as "friday i'm in love" is for the cure, but i suppose i could see someone making that argument. i guess i just know more people who like that song and love & rockets as a whole than with the other.

Ah-wah Ah-wah


#225.



Paul Simon - "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes" / "All Around the World Or; The Myth of Fingerprints"

Year: 1987

US Chart Position: n/a

UK Chart Position: #77

Acclaimed Music Ranking: n/a

Ranked Highest By: Velocity (#16)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Graceland

Eh, count me in as those who don't know L&R for anything else, besides that they were also part of Bauhaus and Tones On Tail...which is more than can be said for anyone who usually listens to adult contemporary radio and think "Wow, what a great tune, whatever happened to that band?"

"So Alive" getting to #3 (!!!!) is indeed one of the great US chart coups of the last 20 years. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "Losing My Religion" didn't even get that high.

Like myself. And a real shame that Seventh Dream didn't make the album list.

Jesus, enough with the Paul Simon.

Call me-ow.

Not that it really matters, but this isn't the cover of the single, it's the cover to a later best-of with the same name.

Here's the single:

For the record, I'm pretty sure I have never heard those songs before. I hate Paul Simon.

"Diamonds" is great. The African a capella group Ladysmith Black Mambozo performs on the track.

"All Around" is OK, but it stinks that allegedly Los Lobos wrote most of it, and Simon took the credit...somebody here mentioned it a few weeks back, is there proof?