(Finished December 6th, 2025) Part 2 of Classic Rock's Albums of 2023

Hello,

These are the Top 50 CDs of 2023 as according to Classic Rock magazine. Many of these bands or albums I've never heard of, obviously that doesn't mean they aren't good. I actually own only a few of these CDs. What I'm going to do is to add the song that Classic Rock picked for each CD. If I like that song I'll add another song to the blog. I'll do that until I run out of songs I like, up to 5 songs. I like rock music so it's quite likely I will like a lot of the songs from these 50 CDs.  I have picked most of the songs to be played due to each song's ranking on iTunes.

Other than the Classic Rock rankings I would have had no clue this CD, "Another Door, even existed. 46) Ann Wilson & Tripsitter "Another Door":

"Rain of Hell":

"Ruler of The Night/ Love Alive":

From the CD "Love, Death and In Between". 45) DeWolff "Night Train":

"Rosita":

"Will O' The Wisp":

"Counterfeit Love":

Wow, I'm really loving this CD "Can't Die, Won't Die". That's just from the songs I've heard because of the Classic Rock countdown. 44) Black Spiders "Can't Die, Won't Die":

"Destroyer":

Black Spiders "Alright Alright Alright":

Black Spiders "End of the World":

"It Is What It Is":

From the Royal Thunder CD "Rebuilding The Mountain". 43) "The Knife":

"Fade":

"Nowhere- Now Here":

From the Yes CD "Mirror To The Sky". 42) All Connected":

"Cut From The Stars":

"Luminosity":

themusicaddict

(Finished December 5th, 2025) Part 1 of The Best of Hair Metal

Hello,

This will eventually be a twenty blog series with the best of the best of hair metal music. The first 18 blogs will be covering the entire breadth of hair metal and then the final 2 blogs will be Greatest Hits blogs. 

Obviously there's a great deal of debate about what is and isn't hair metal. I looked at Ranker's Top Three Hair Metal bands and it's 1) Van Halen 2) Guns N' Roses and 3) Def Leppard. I would say that none of those were hair metal bands. Other bands not Hair Metal Bands include Metallica, Megadeth, The Scorpions

Obviously there will never be consensus on who is and who isn't Hair Metal bands. But I suggest the best Hair Metal bands are Warrant, Ratt, Poison, Whitesnake, Skid Row and Motley Crue. There are also some bads that I would consider Hair Metal adjacent, bands such as Bon Jovi, Cinderella and Firehouse.

Also recently I have discovered some hair metal bands that I wasn't really aware of or knew at all back in the day. Bands such as Blue Murder, Savatage, FM and Leatherwolf. Also one of my favorite new unknown, at least to me, bands is the Hair Metal adjacent Thunder.

The main timeframe I'll be using is roughly 1983 to 1991 with a few outliers thrown in. Who knows how long Hair Metal would have been around, but in 1991 Grunge steamrolled Hair Metal back to obscurity. Here are roughly the 300 best hair metal songs. As always I welcome criticisms, compliments and suggestions to make these lists better. 

1) Motley Crue "Live Wire":

2) Whitesnake "Crying In The Rain":

3) Poison "Cry Tough":

4) Skid Row "Rattlesnake Shake":

5) Bon Jovi "Runaway":

6) Cinderella "Night Songs":

7) Skid Row "Big Guns":

8) Warrant "32 Pennies":

9) Twisted Sister "We're Not Gonna Take It":

10) Ratt "Way Cool Jr.":

11) Faster Pussycat "Bathroom Wall":

12) Vixen "Cryin'":

13) Stryper "Honestly":

14) Britny Fox "Girlschool":

15) Enuff Z'Nuff "Fly High Michelle":

16) Kingdom Come "Get It On":

17) Danger Danger "Naughty, Naughty":

themusicaddict

(Finished December 5th, 2025) Part 7 of The Best of New Wave Alphabetically

Hello,

It's again about time to relive that great time of the early to mid 80s of New Wave music. New Wave is a genre that has quirky people, quairly lyrics and quirky music. It doesn't work all the time, but when it work at it's best the songs are great.

What exactly is/ was New Wave music. Well two things New Wave typically is energetic and fun. New Wave never took itself too seriously. The lyrics weren't serious. New Wave is basically just fun upbeat music to dance to. Who were some of the best New Wave musicians? The Thompson Twins, Depeche Mode, The Cure, New Order, Howard Jones and many others have to be considered the best New Wave bands.

You may see this and wonder why I didn't include U2 and The Police- both of who many lumped in with the New Wave movement. However both bands, especially The Police, feel like old fashioned rock bands to me. Other bands that were lumped in with New Wave, that I don't really consider New Wave, include The Talking Heads, Men At Work, Elvis Costello, The Go-Go's, The Eurythmics  and David Bowie. Duran Duran was lumped in with the New Wave crowd and I'm not sure they are truly a New Wave band.

103) The Cure "Lovesong":

104) Joy Division "Love Will Tear Us Apart":

105) Fun Boy Three "Lunatics Have Taken Over The Asylum":

106) Tears For Fears "Mad World":

107) Peter Schilling "Major Tom (Coming Home)":

108) Depeche Mode "Master and Servant":

109) Berlin "The Metro":

110) Wall of Voodoo "Mexican Radio":

111) The Plimsouls "A Million Miles Away":

112) The English Beat "Mirror In The Bathroom":

113) The Human League "Mirror Man":

114) Dollar "Mirror Mirror (Mon Amour)":

115) The Flying Lizards "Money (That's What I Want):

116) Roxy Music "More Than This":

117) The Smiths "Mr. Bigmouth Strikes Again":

118) INXS "Need You Tonight":

119) INXS "New Sensation":

themusicaddict

(Finished December 1st, 2025) Part 2 of October Birthdays for Musicians

Hello,

It only took me thirteen months to finish this blog.

I'm not sure how accurate this is, but according to Wikipedia all of these people were born on October 2nd. I looked for other musicians with birthdays in October, but these were the five best musicians.

This song is so deservedly a classic. He seems to capture every emotion and it's a shot of pure unadulterated nostalgia. Don McLean was born on October 2nd, 1945. These next four songs are all by Don McLean. 18) American Pie":

19) "Crying":

20) "American Boys":

21) "Castles In The Air":

Genesis' Mike Rutherford was born on October 2nd, 1950. He's most well known for his work with Genesis, these next ten songs are all Genesis songs. 

22) "Follow You Follow Me":

This song was after Phil Collins left the band to just Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks. This is from Genesis' last studio CD "Calling All Stations". This CD features Ray Wilson on vocals. 23) "Calling All Stations":

24) "Land of Confusion":

25) "Turn It On Again":

26) "Mama":

27) "Misunderstanding":

28) "Illegal Alien":

29) "Abacab":

30) "Invisible Touch":

31) "That's All":

32) Mike Rutherford "Halfway There":

These next three songs are all by Mike and the Mechanic 33) "Living Years":

34) "Silent Running":

35) "All I Need Is A Miracle":

Tiffany was born on October 2nd, 1971. These next five songs are by Tiffany. 36) "I Think We're Alone Now":

37) "I Saw Him Standing There":

38) "All This Time":

39) "Could've Been":

40) "Feelings of Forever":

themusicaddict

(Finished November 29th, 2025) Part 3 of the Hot 100 Songs of May 17th, 1986: Songs 65-48

Hello,

Thanks to Billboard Magazine these are the Hot 100 Songs for May 17th, 1986. 

65) Voices of America "Hands Across America":

64) The Blow Monkeys "Digging Your Scene":

63) The Bangles "If She Knew What She Wants":

62) Bourgeois Tagg "Mutual Surrender (What A Wonderful World)":

61) Patti Austin "The Heat of Heat":

60) Kenny Loggins "Danger Zone":

59) John Taylor "I Do What I Do (Theme For 9 1/2 Weeks)":

58) Atlantic Starr "If You're Heart Isn't In It":

57) Dire Straits "So Far Away":

56) Vanity "Under The Influence":

55) Starpoint "Restless":

54) Models "Out of Sight, Out of Mind":

53) GTR "When The Heart Rules The Mind":

52) Atlantic Starr "Secret Lovers":

51) Cherrelle with Alexander O'Neal "Saturday Love":

50) Jermaine Jackson "I Think It's Love":

49) The Moody Blues "Your Wildest Dreams":

48) The Dream Academy "The Love Parade":

themusicaddict

(Finished November 27th, 2025) Part 3 of The Best Cover Songs Since 2000

 Hello,

This list isn't as strong as I thought it would be. Many of these songs are available on iTunes if you are interested in buying them.

35) Fitz and the Tantrums "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)":

36) Halocene "Driver's License":

37) First To Eleven "Over The Rainbow":

38) Brooks and Dunn featuring Halestorm "Boot Scootin' Boogie":

39) New Year's Day "Sleep":

40) First Aid Kit "America":

41) Streetlight Manifesto "Punk Rock Girl":

It takes about two and a half minutes to get to the actual song. This is a fantastic cover. 42) Five Finger Death Punch "House of the Rising Sun":

43) First To Eleven with Addie from Halocene "New Rules":

44) Halestorm "Heathens":

Not even in the same league as Lady Gaga, but still an interesting take. 45) Lissie "Bad Romance":

46) Max Schneider and Hannah Trigwell "Stay":

This is the way to make a cover song your own!! 47) Kelly Clarkson "It's Quiet Uptown":

48) First To Eleven "Lover":

49) The Highwomen "The Highwomen":

50) Halocene with Lauren Babic and Alanna Sterling "Bang Bang":

This is another great cover. 51) t.a.t.u "How Soon Is Now":

themusicaddict 

(Finished November 27th, 2025) Part 3 of Fun and Joyous Songs of the 80s

Hello,

When I'm just watching TV, watching a show set in space in the 23rd century I don't think I'm about to hear a song from the 80s. That would be the 1980s. Out of nowhere comes Wham!'s "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go". But sure enough there it was and I was reminded of the universality of 80s music. Even when I try I can't escape it. Here are some great and fun songs from the 80s. 

This show was Season 3, episode 2 "Wedding Bell Blues" and I hate to say how boring that episode was. Also the end of the episode suggested what the next episode would be about. I have no desire to see that episode. I've pretty much given up on that show.

There are so few sci-fi shows that are great. So far I've been enjoying the bizarre "Pluribus". It's bizarre in a very entertaining way though. I also have been enjoying "Welcome To Derry". I need a good show to watch with about 50 episodes I can just watch without spending time looking for something to watch.

35) Deniece Williams "Let's Hear It For The Boy":

36) Chaka Khan featuring Grandmaster Melle Mel  "I Feel For You":

37) The Thompson Twins "You Take Me Up":

38) David Bowie "Let's Dance":

39) Robert Palmer "Simply Irresistible":

40) Sly Fox "Let's Go All The Way":

41) Sawyer Brown "Betty's Bein' Bad":

42) Jellybean Benitez "Sidewalk Talk":

43) Jermaine Stewart "We Don't Have To Take Our Clothes Off":

44) Mel McDaniel "Baby's Got Her Blue Jeans On":

45) Europe "The Final Countdown":

46) Prince "Raspberry Beret":

47) Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam "Lost In Emotion":

48) Motley Crue "Looks That Kill":

49) ABC "How To Be A Millionaire":

50 Toni Basil "Mickey":

51) Ray Parker Jr. "Ghostbusters":

themusicaddict