List of the Best Songs of the Century

[Dixon Carter Lee]

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/entertainment/DailyNews/songsofcentury010308.html

I hate these things. The AFI Top 100 Movies was the dumbest list of its kind ever made, until I saw this list, made up by the NEA and the recording industry.

If you don't want to click I'll just give you number one: Over the Rainbow.

There are great songs like that one here, but nowhere in the Top 30 do I see Gershiwn or Berlin, but I DO See "Dock of the Bay". Uh-huh.

If EVER a subjective list was created to start arguments, this is it...

 

[carini]

How high was any Johnny Mercer song?

(i refuse to click.. those lists piss me off LOL.. like that one in rolling stone of the top rock songs of the post beatle era... BRITNEY SPEARS IN THE TOP 25 WHAT THE @%^&$)

 

[Madame Pandora]

92??? WTF???

I hate lists like these too...and yet I am COMPELLED to look at them.

I usually just shrug them off, but...there was this one thing that hit me...I couldn't believe how far down I had to scroll to find the name I was looking for...

92. "LIKE A ROLLING STONE" BOB DYLAN

NUMBER 92??? DYLAN is #92??? Below GLORIA GAYNOR & THE VILLAGE PEOPLE???

Who makes these lists? Blind, deaf monkeys on mescaline?

MP

 

[Guest]

 

[Ask For More]

How can a Village People song even be allowed in the top 100?

The only Michael Jackson song to appear is Beat it? Billie Jean is much better!

The Righteous Brothers at 9 with one of the most excruciating songs ever made....

And not a single Hip Hop song.....

 

[carini]

Re: 92??? WTF???

Who makes these lists? Blind, deaf monkeys on mescaline?

MP

ROTFLMAO

 

[carini]

they seemed to pick some of the most catchy songs by a performer rather than the best... they always do that.... catchy does not equal good

i mean hell the macarena was catchy i'm suprised it wasn;t in the top ten


they only sane way to do a list like this is to do it by decade

 

[Countess DeWinter]

I read over that list and I found lots of great songs on it. No, not every one of MY favorites are one it but then I can look beyond my own teenage years for good songs.

 

[Purple Haze]

I like a lot of the songs on the list too, but I could easily come up with 500 more that deserve to be in the top 100.

Way too broad, and I don't see a lot of songs before 1950.

Aren't "Yesterday" and "Act Naturally" two songs?

Isn't "West Side Story" a play?

Where is "Inna Gadda Da Vida"?

 

[carini]

top ten of the 90's

anyone wanna spill their list?

(i do have a little spill over and inclue the year 2000)

here's mine

1. Smells like Teen Spirit - Nirvana (This song gave pop music a kick in the ass and brought a whole new sound into the mainstream)
2. November Rain - Guns and Roses (The last of the great metal ballads. It was the last horrah of a dying musical genre and still brings tears to my eyes)
3. Ray of Light - Madonna (This is mostly to do with the evolution and staying power of Madonna. She's gone from a simple "girl" pop singer to a true artist and it has een amazing watching that)
4. Inlaw Josie Wales - Phish (To me this song shows that a good rock band doesn't need an orchestra to do great instumental work. This peice is well crafted and sticks in your head. If you haven't heard it, i really suggest trying to track it down)
5. Me and a Gun - Tori Amos (it's hard to put into words why i chose this song. It has a lot of meaning for me and for a lot of women. It's simple, true, and heartwrenching.)
(From here down i'm leaving the explainations out.. only cause my hands are getting tried.. if you wanna know why ask me)
6. Hard Knock Life - Jayz
7. Bullet with Butterfly Wings - Smashing Pumpkins
8. Possesion - Sarah MacLachlan
9. Breathe - Faith Hill
10. Crazy - Brittney Spears (Yes i know.. i dissed Britney earler.. but when only doing ten i have to include her. Like it or not she did bring back that girlpop sound and prove it could last for more than one hit)

 

[Dillinger]

If you don't want to click I'll just give you number one: Over the Rainbow.

There are a lot of songs I would put on my favorite or "best of" lists but over the years if anyone would ask me what my favorite song was I always reply "Over the Rainbow"... I'm distressed to see that my tastes have turned out to be so plebeian.

 

[Guest]

 

[Thumper]

I'm gonna be sick...

Over the Rainbow???

Over the Rainbow???!!!

The gay community musta been in the majority on this board...see the Village People made the list!

Not that there's anything wrong with that...Just shitty musical taste...

 

[genderbender]

Re: 92??? WTF???

I hate lists like these too...and yet I am COMPELLED to look at them...

Who makes these lists? Blind, deaf monkeys on mescaline?

MP

No, MP, someone over thirty years old!

Since the subject is best songs of the century, one might expect that many of the songs chosen wouldn't satisfy contemporary taste. Music has been an important part of our culture for a lot longer than rock and roll has been around. Its fun to take pot shots at lists like these, so have a good time everyone. As I look at the list as both a student of history and one who appreciates all kinds of music, I really don't have a problem.

 

[Dillinger]

Shitty musical taste? *lol*

Taste is taste. I like spicy food. I know someone who doesn't. Am I better than them? Worse then them?

I have a graduate degree in music composition... my tastes MUST be better than anyone else's... yes? (You do recognize sarcasm don't you?)

Oh hey... forgot - gay people's tastes... can't count them - they're gay - how could their tastes matter?

Personally I don't like country music. But I don't knock anyone else for liking it. I happen to very much like Opera - does that make me a snob?

And while I think "Over the Rainbow" is the best song of the century (for reasons having to do with song writing, melody, emotion and maybe just the fact that I saw the movie dozen's of times when I was a kid and its nostalgic) - that's my opinion. Does that tell you everything about my musical tastes?

Does it tell you that my favorite bands include King Crimson and Frank Zappa? That in general I like bands that can ACTUALLY play rather then strum a few chords on a guitar and sing over the song with lots of reverb so they sound like they really can sing?

I took song to mean "song" in the popular sense. Should I have instead picked the orchestral piece "Threnody for The Victims of Hiroshima" by Pendereski - if you told me that "songs" included "modern classical" music I may have had a different answer.

I don't agree with the people on the panel in lots of ways - but I'm not going to knock someone's tastes anymore than I would like them to belittle mine...

 

[Ask For More]

If you want to be even more pendantic all the songs are english language songs....

although it would be impossible to compile a multi lingual top 100 ;op

 

[Graymouse]

Well, it's not as bad as I thought it would be. I raised my eyebrow at a few of those, but all in all, it could have been a lot worse. Given that it covers popular music for an entire century, it's bound to piss some people off. The nice thing about listening to ridiculously obscure music, as I tend to do, is that you can tell yourself lists like these are based solely on popularity. Then you don't have to get offended when your favorite songs don't make the list .

Oh, but one thing . . . "Sweet Baby James" is way the cooler song than "Fire and Rain." I can't BELIEVE they would make such an oversight . . . bunch of freaking morons . . . sigh . . .

 

[Svedish_Chef]

I have to say DCL that the list was a lot better than I thought

If you put most of them on 50 years from now they would still mean something and not offend.

Songs i haven't heard in years there but would love to again

Could have been A LOT worse

 

[Dillinger]

Never thought I'd see Krystof Pendereski mentioned in a Lit thread.

Never thought I'd ever meet anyone in Lit who knew who Pendereski was! *lol*

 

[Jade]

Leave it to DCL to start a thread like this and not come back a reply... yet... he is letting it stew a bit first I'll bet. ;-)


Hehe... I would like to know the demographical contexts from which these "judges" arise... who gives them the authority to put it in stone like that... top 100 my ass... whatever.

Over the Rainbow kicks ass and I was a mega Judy Garland fan as a little girl but... WTF?

 

[Silverlily]

How in the seven hells did "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" make the list (#9!?!?! you know SOMEBODY got paid) but "Unchained Melody" did not.

And "Take Me Out to the Ball Game"? So much for people over thirty compiling the list, my seven year old loves that song.

Personally, I would like concrete evidence real humans made this list. Until then, I'll go with the monkey theory.

 

[Jade]

Personally, I would like concrete evidence real humans made this list. Until then, I'll go with the monkey theory.

Hehe

 

[Mark Singer]

I wrote a song recently, called: "Get Your Tongue Out Of My Mouth Because I'm Kissing You Goodbye", but it never even got airplay, let alone the top whatever.
Maybe I should just give up on this songwriting thing...

Beyond that, you NEVER hear Chuck Pyle on the radio. The industry has it's head in it's wallet covered ass.
(IMOHO of course...)

 

[Madame Pandora]

Re: Re: 92??? WTF???

Who makes these lists? Blind, deaf monkeys on mescaline

No, MP, someone over thirty years old!

As I look at the list as both a student of history and one who appreciates all kinds of music, I really don't have a problem.

So...how's the mescaline addiction coming along, gender, honey?

I don't care who or what made #1. I don't care who made the list and who didn't. Hell - I like Judy Garland just fine!

All I'm saying is that THE VILLAGE PEOPLE rated higer than BOB DYLAN!!!

Monkeys! Monkeys! Monkeys!

MP

[Edited by Madame Pandora on 03-09-2001 at 04:45 AM]

 

[Ask For More]

What's mescaline?

I can't believe they had Village People on the list but none of the Grease songs ;op