The Jason 540 Part II of XI (#51-100)
54 Years of Music Since My Birth--November 16, 1970
For Part 1 of what I intend to be an 11 part series, look here:
This is the preamble from the original post:
“Birthday week for me as you can see. There is nothing milestoney about age 54 but I’ve had some time on my hands (ahem) and have been kind of fooling around with this for a few weeks. My original intent was to rank the best songs since I was born. You find out pretty quick that is next to impossible. Song #391 and song #43 are practically interchangeable. You could make a list today and then again a year from now getting wildly disparate results. So other than the first 30 or so, I would advise not paying much attention at all to the number assigned to each song.
I don’t know if I’ll finish this or not. If I do, it will consist of 11 volumes. The problem is I keep thinking of stuff I’ve left out. Then you realize something is too high or too low and it creates anxiety. I finally settled in my mind that the rank doesn’t matter as alluded to above. I had initially titled this “Greatest Songs Since My Birth” but realized that is pretentious. Who is to say what is “great”? I wouldn’t even say these are necessarily my favorite 540 songs. If I did that it would consist of 15-20 bands entire catalogs. I would say almost all I greatly enjoyed at least for a spell, are memorable for one reason or another, or were enormously impactful culturally. It’s fair to call it the Soundtrack of my life and the lives of many Gen Xers.
The vast, vast majority is lifted from the 80’s understandably. The 70’s and 90’s are probably represented about equally. There is next to nothing here from the ‘00’s and ‘10’s and I think only one from the ‘20’s that is a pretty obscure country song I stumbled into.
What you won’t see: Queen. Not my deal. Don’t like anything about them. I do include the one song with David Bowie somewhere in here. Also Rolling Stones. Most of their best stuff is before my time and I’m not wild about them anyway. Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd are contained to their best known work (since 1970 keep in mind). I have avoided most deep track gems for not just them but my favorite bands too. Finally if an artist has morphed into over the top political crap (Springsteen and the Dixie Twats come to mind) they won’t be found much here at all without a very compelling case.
I have no idea what I think I’m accomplishing here. As stated, there will be a lot of stuff I’ve omitted. Feel free to let me know about it. But if nothing else, I bet I’ll remind you of music you’ve long forgotten and maybe give you reason to refresh your playlists. Off we go!”
51) Foreplay/Long Time—Boston, from Boston 1976
52) Wish You Were Here—Pink Floyd, from Wish You Were Here 1975
53) For Whom the Bell Tolls—Metallica, from Ride the Lightning 1984
54) Take On Me—a-ha, from Hunting High and Low 1985
55) Don’t You Know What the Night Can Do—Steve Winwood from Roll with It 1988
56) More Than a Woman—Bee Gees, from Saturday Night Fever (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack 1977
57) Shot at the Night—The Killers, from Direct Hits 2013
58) The Promise—When in Rome, from When in Rome 1988
59) Shadow Dancing—Andy Gibb, from Shadow Dancing 1978
60) Little Suzi—Tesla, from Mechanical Resonance 1986
61) Call Me—Blondie, from American Gigolo (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) 1980
62) Run Like Hell—Pink Floyd, from The Wall 1979
63) Rocket Man—Elton John, from Honky Chateau 1972
64) Night Owls—Little River Band, from Time Exposure 1981
65) Dream Police—Cheap Trick, from Dream Police 1979
66) Kyrie—Mr. Mister, from Welcome to the Real World 1985
67) Who Made Who—AC/DC, from Who Made Who 1986
68) Cruel Summer—Bananarama, from Bananarama 1984
69) Want to Want Me—Jason Derulo, from Everything is 4 2015
70) Let’s Go Crazy—Prince and the Revolution, from Purple Rain (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) 1984
71) All I Want Is You—U2, from Rattle and Hum 1988
72) Cherish—Madonna, from Like a Prayer 1989
73) Never—Heart, from Heart 1985
74) More Than a Feeling—Boston, from Boston 1976
75) Space Age Love Song—A Flock of Seagulls, from A Flock of Seagulls 1982
76) Wild Horses—The Sundays, from Blind 1992
77) Immigrant Song—Led Zeppelin, from Led Zeppelin III 1970
78) Sexual Healing—Marvin Gaye, from Midnight Love 1982
79) Rock of Ages—Def Leppard, from Pyromania 1983
80) Wasted Years—Iron Maiden, from Somewhere in Time 1986
81) On the Loose—Saga, from Worlds Apart 1981
82) How Can You Mend a Broken Heart—Bee Gees, from Trafalgar 1971
83) Heart of Glass—Blondie, from Parallel Lines 1978
84) Faithfully—Journey, from Frontiers 1983
85) Shining Star—The Manhattans, from After Midnight 1980
86) Go Your Own Way—Fleetwood Mac, from Rumours 1977
87) Little Jeannie—Elton John, from 21 at 33 1980
88) Grease—Frankie Valli, from Grease (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) 1978
89) Rime of the Ancient Mariner—Iron Maiden, from Powerslave 1984
90) Crazy Train—Ozzy Osbourne, from Blizzard of Ozz 1980
91) Angel of the Morning—Juice Newton, from Juice 1981
92) Flirtin’ with Disaster—Molly Hatchet, from Flirtin’ with Disaster 1979
93) Big Log—Robert Plant, from The Principle of Moments 1983
94) Do You Feel Like We Do—Peter Frampton, from Frampton Comes Alive! 1976
95) Kashmir—Led Zeppelin, from Physical Graffiti 1975
96) Love Gun—KISS, from Love Gun 1977
97) Let There Be Rock—AC/DC, from Let There Be Rock 1977
98) Human Nature—Michael Jackson, from Thriller 1982
99) Nutshell—Alice in Chains, from Jar of Flies 1994
100) Uncle Tom’s Cabin—Warrant, from Cherry Pie 1990