yov's 100 All-time Favorite Songs

[Lalaith]

I see you violated yov's "no more than 2 songs per artist" rule.

Blatantly and with glee.

[elengil]

Therefore, you will see more songs from the 60s and 70s than I would normally admit to. These are the songs of my childhood, the songs of my parents.

The songs I love from "before my time" I feel are more like a badge of honour! ABBA especially is one group I love which most people likely either wouldn't, or wouldn't admit to. Truth be told I probably missed putting a great deal of older songs on there because (as I repeatedly warned) it was just a list of songs I could think of at the time, which means I know I didn't think of a great deal of them, some of which you reminded me of, actually!

While I know my tastes are broad, I will always have a tendency to skew 80's because that's when I was growing up and the songs are more about the nostalgia of that sometimes than necessarily the song itself.

1. You Oughta Know: Alanis Morissette - 1995
2. What a Wonderful World: Louis Armstrong - 1967
3. Goody Two Shoes: Adam Ant - 1982

7. Let It Be: Beatles - 1970
8. Stand by Me: Ben E. King - 1961

14. Bad Moon Rising: Creedence Clearwater Revival - 1973
15. You Are a Tourist: Death Cab for Cutie - 2011

17. Enjoy the Silence: Depeche Mode - 1990

20. Reflections: Diana Ross & The Supremes - 1968
21. Save a Prayer: Duran Duran - 1982
22. Watermark: Enya - 1988
23. Boadicea: Enya - 1987
24. O Come, O Come Emmanuel: Enya (or any cool version) - 2008

30. Sea of No Cares: Great Big Sea - 2002

31. Something Beautiful: Great Big Sea - 2004
32. Welcome to the Jungle: Guns ‘n’ Roses - 1987
33. Magic Man: Heart - 1975

35. What’s On Your Mind: Information Society - 1988
36. New Sensation: INXS - 1987

38. Annie’s Song: John Denver - 1974
39. Imagine: John Lennon - 1971

41. Rainbow Connection: Kenny Loggins - 1994/1979

45. Dante's Prayer: Loreena McKennitt - 1997

47. I’m the Only One: Melissa Etheridge - 1993
48. I’ll Stop the World & Melt with You: Modern English - 1982
49. Kyrie: Mr. Mister - 1985

52. Sweet Caroline: Neil Diamond - 1969
53. Smells Like Teen Spirit: Nirvana - 1991
54. Spirit in the Sky: Norman Greenbaum - 1969

56. Counting Stars: OneRepublic - 2013
57. Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay: Otis Redding - 1968

60. Love Is a Battlefield: Pat Benatar - 1983
61. We Belong: Pat Benatar - 1984
62. It’s a Sin: Pet Shop Boys - 1987
63. In Your Eyes: Peter Gabriel - 1986
64. Major Tom: Peter Schilling - 1982
65. Bohemian Rhapsody: Queen - 1975

67. Losing My Religion: R.E.M. - 1991
68. Give It Away: Red Hot Chili Peppers - 1991
69. Can’t Get No Satisfaction: Rolling Stones - 1965

71. Sound of Silence: Simon & Garfunkel (also like Disturbed) - 1964
72. Nothing Compares to U: Sinéad O’Connor - 1990

75. Landslide: Stevie Nicks - 1975

I do love this song but as I am apt to prefer the first version of any song I hear, I must admit to loving the Smashing Pumpkins version of it just a teeny bit more.

78. Fortress Around Your Heart: Sting - 1985

81. Rock the Casbah: The Clash - 1982
82. Zombie: The Cranberries - 1993

84. Just Like Heaven: The Cure - 1987
85. Never Enough: The Cure - 1993
86. This Is Why We Fight: The Decemberists - 2011
87. Peaceful Easy Feeling: The Eagles - 1972
88. Take It Easy: The Eagles - 1972
89. I Want to Know What Love Is: Foreigner - 1984
90. California Dreaming: The Mamas & The Papas - 1966
91. De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da: The Police - 1980

93. Synchronicity 2: The Police - 1983
94. Walk on the Ocean: Toad the Wet Sprocket - 1992

God I have this single, way back when those were still a thing! And yes, I *still* have this single!

96. I Still Haven’t Found: U2 - 1987
97. Pride: U2 - 1984
98. Sunday, Bloody Sunday: U2 - 1983
99. Brown Eyed Girl: Van Morrison - 1967

I could easily add any one of these to my favorites!

I think the only group I left off my list deliberately - not to look cool but because I can't ever listen to them anymore without thinking of the fact they apparently were (or are?) some white supremacists or nazis or something - Ace of Base. I used to love their music, but it's just so... yeah, I can't anymore.

But that does remind me of yet another group/song I love - 3rd Bass!

Derelicts of Dialect

also,
Wonderwall - Oasis
Everything Counts - Depeche Mode

[elengil]

I weigh in at 38 female groups/artists/leads but two of them are duplicates. Yes yes, just counting my initial list. Only an additional 2 on my second list.

I am going to walk back on my original statement that there are more male artists. There may be more male artists, but I don't think that's why. I think when it comes to current/modern popular music, I tend to like the songs that male artists/groups produce more than female artists/groups. That may have more to do with the filter at the record labels with regard to who gets signed and what music they will produce.

When I consider music as a whole and especially international music, I feel more balanced.

[yovargas]

My brain is not cooperating on how to get Excel to cooperate on creating the kind of year chart that yovi created. I will keep working on it. (The new version is less familiar to me. )

Your per-year chart:

Capture.JPG (49.04 KiB) Viewed 13460 times

Because I have a weirdly nerdy love of spreadsheets.

[Alatar]

This would simply not work for me. 90% of my favourite music comes from about 10 bands.

[yovargas]

I wanted to look up the claim that men make more music than women as I was a bit skeptical about that. It's hard to prove one way or another but I thought one very rough way to check would be to count the number of songs by women in the top 100 billboards. I checked four years - 1980, 90, 00, & 10 - and each year there were less than 40 songs by women on the charts, roughly averaging out to about a third. Of course, this doesn't prove that women make less music as it could be that we have a general cultural bias towards men. Either way, it does show men are going to be more prominent on most people's lists.

(I also think this can depend enormously on your tastes. There are definitely more men in rock bands. For some reason very few women form rock bands.)

This would simply not work for me. 90% of my favourite music comes from about 10 bands.

So? That just means you need to list your 80 favorite songs from acts not amongst those 10.

[Primula Baggins]

Historically the rock scene has generally not been a culture where women are respected much. . . .

[elengil]

Because I have a weirdly nerdy love of spreadsheets.

Oh yes, there's another one. White & Nerdy Weird Al

And yes, spreadsheets are da bomb!

[Alatar]

So? That just means you need to list your 80 favorite songs from acts not amongst those 10.

But then it wouldn't be my 100 All-time Favourite songs. It would be "My 20 All-time Favourites songs... and 80 other ones that didn't make the cut"

[yovargas]

Do I need to pull out the salmon?

I'm sure we all have the same problem but limiting it to 2 per band shows the range of your tastes better than a list filled with a bunch of Grateful Dead or Radiohead songs would.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I actually found the restriction freeing because I wasn't even remotely trying to come up with my 100 favorite songs, but just 100 songs that I really like, many of which people here probably haven't heard before.

[elengil]

I actually found the restriction freeing because I wasn't even remotely trying to come up with my 100 favorite songs, but just 100 songs that I really like, many of which people here probably haven't heard before.

[Lalaith]

I thought your list was intriguing, Voronwë. I need to listen through it.

elen, when I looked at your list, I smiled. We have a lot in common!

yovi, thank you! It is still bugging the heck out of me that I couldn't get this chart to work for me. Looking at that, I'm surprised by how evenly spread out the majority of my songs are. There are a few clusters, but it's mostly spread out. I do see that you left my outlier 1630 song out of the mix, though.

Al, I'd be interested in seeing your list, even if you did a list of your top 10 bands. Get the salmon ready, yovi.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

There's nothing that says you have to follow yov's rule, Al. After all, there is already precedent!

[elengil]

There's nothing that says you have to follow yov's rule, Al. After all, there is already precedent!

Oh yeah, I totally blew off the 100 rule

Here's One - Apocalyptica

[elengil]

Bleed-over from another thread -
Good Morning Starshine and Incense and Peppermints - Strawberry Alarm Clock

Which got me thinking about this record my mom owned... I several years ago trying to remember the name of the album, and just remembering the shrunken heads on the cover. *eek* But thanks to the internet I did track it down.

Here is a youtube list of the whole album -
Taboo Tu - Arthur Lyman

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I'm going to put this here since this is certainly a song that could have - maybe should have - been included in my list (I included "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" instead), and this is pretty amazing. I just saw this today; Al, have you seen it? This was a gathering at Heuston railway station in Dublin for World Suicide Prevention Day - 10 September 2018, “Working together to prevent suicide”.

[elengil]

I'm going to put this here since this is certainly a song that could have - maybe should have - been included in my list

Wish You Were Here came so close to being my #1 as well. I think On the Turning Away should have been what I put on my list, though. It slipped my mind at the time but that probably really is my all-time favorite Pink Floyd song.

[Alatar]

Yeah I saw that V!

[elengil]

Okay, new favorite song just discovered

I'd suggest not listening to this too loud at work unless you're certain your co-workers also have No More F***s To Give (also, in case that wasn't obviously, totally NSFW.)