I really love reliving these charts from back in the day. Instead of picking and choosing the subjective best of these lists I'm going to break them down into two blogs and posts videos for all the songs. So many of these songs I know and love so much, but so many of these songs I've never heard of!!
All thanks to Billboard for all the great memories and song information.
15) Thrashing Doves "Angel Visit":
14) Edie Brickell & New Bohemians "Little Miss S.":
How many obscure songs are there out there? I don't know the answer to that but what might be obscure to you may not be obscure to me and vice versa. I picked songs that I thought would be the most obscure to the most people. I wasn't aware of how many obscure songs I had on my iPod until now. All the songs on my iPod have one trait in common they're all great. Just because a song is obscure doesn't mean it's not great. I only have great songs on my iPod.
52) JD McPherson "Nite Owls":
53) Trombone Shorty "Here Come The Girls":
54) Michael Penn "No Myth":
55) The B-52's "Strobe Light":
56) Baby Bee "High Heeled Leather Boots":
57) Royal Bliss "Burn It Down":
58) Aquabats "Martian Girl":
59) Green Day "21 Guns":
60) Lindsey Stirling featuring Elle King "The Upside":
The only reason I know about this song is because she opened for Wynonna and Little Big Town last year on tour. Obviously she's not the first person to sing this song, but I think her version is fantastic. Sadly she didn't sing this song at her concert. 64) Shelby Lynne "Don't Get Around Much Anymore":
Let's hope they perform this song on their upcoming tour, it's too bad Geddy Lee has lost his voice. 65) Rush "Red Barchetta":
Songs that mention or are about real or imaginary people. I will let you guess or actually find out who the song is about when it's not obvious.
35) The Knack "My Sharona":
36) James Taylor "Fire and Rain":
37) The Chordettes "Mr. Sandman":
38) Falco "Rock Me Amadeus":
This song may or may not be about the original J Lo, Jennifer Love Hewitt. It's just too good of a song not to include here. 39) John Mayer "Your Body Is A Wonderful":
Previously I watched the first Beverly Hills Cop with my son. While watching that movie I realized that it came out 40 years ago- now 41 years ago- this year . I told my son that this movie was when Eddie Murphy was the hottest comedian in the whole world. It still holds up pretty well, but as usual each sequel is a bit worse than any original movie. I've seen the trailer for the fourth "Beverly Hills Cop" movie and it looks like it has some funny moments, but one of the bits was in the original "Beverly Hills Cop". It's amazing how many of these franchises are making appearances in 2024.
1984 likely was the best year for pop music of the 80s. The songs from that year's soundtracks were also pretty amazing. I'm starting with that first "Beverly Hills Cop" movie.
35) Carol Lynn Townes "99 1/2":
36) 3V "Heart of The Beat":
37) Re-Flex "Cut It":
38) Rufus and Chaka Khan "Ain't Nobody":
Such a beautiful song. 39) Stevie Wonder "I Just Called To Say I Love You":
40 Stevie Wonder "Love Light In Flight":
41) .38 Special "Teacher Teacher":
42) Jenny Burton and Patrick Jude "Strangers In A Strange World":
43) Phil Collins "Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)":
From the second The Big Chill soundtrack, which was released in 1984. I love these "Playing For Change" videos. 44) The Band "The Weight":
45) Martha and the Vandellas "Dancing In The Street":
46) The Spencer Davis Group "Gimme Some Lovin":
47) The Four Tops "It's The Same Old Song":
I'm still surprised they made a sequel to this movie. Some movies are meant to not have sequels. These next two songs are from "This Is Spinal Tap". 48) Spinal Tap "Big Bottom":
49) "Stonehenge":
From "Electric Dreams" 50) Philip Oakley and Giorgio Moroder "Together In Electric Dreams":
These two songs are from "Ghostbusters". 51) Ray Parker Jr. "Ghostbusters":
Let's go back to the 50s and 60s. I'll share two, three or more of the best songs from every year of every decade. That will go all the way to 2026. Billboard started keeping track of this in 1946 and that's the year I started with.
1960)
69) This song was nine weeks at #1 Percy Faith "Theme From A Summer Place':
This song was five weeks at #1 70) The Everly Brothers "Cathy's Clown":
It feels like such a dark time in our country. It's never a good feeling when an oligarchy is in charge and trying to destroy this country. The best way to destroy anything is from within and that's exactly what's going on now. Here's a bunch of songs that can serve as a soundtrack to the possible end of America. I'm really trying to be optimistic but it's so hard.
I updated and republished this blog on February 26th, 2026. A couple of videos had expired so I replaced those. Also it's been over a year since I first published this blog, things continue to get scarier with the Trump Regime in power.
35) The Verve Pipe "The Freshman":
36) Ben Folds "Song For The Dumped":
37) Shawn Colvin "Sunny Came Home":
38) Silverchair "Tomorrow":
39) Nine Inch Nails "Terrible Lie":
40) 311 "Down":
41) Monster Magnet "Rocket Freak":
42) Creed "My Own Prison":
43) Royal Bliss featuring Simm "Medication":
44) John Parr "St. Elmo's Fire (Man In Motion)":
45) Alice In Chains "Angry Chair":
46) Muse "Uprising":
47) Rage Against The Machine "Killing In The Name":
How many obscure songs are there out there? I don't know the answer to that but what might be obscure to you may not be obscure to me and vice versa. I picked songs that I thought would be the most obscure to the most people. I wasn't aware of how many obscure songs I had on my iPod until now. All the songs on my iPod have one trait in common they're all great. Just because a song is obscure doesn't mean it's not great. I only have great songs on my iPod.
35) Trombone Shorty featuring the amazing Lauren Daigle "What It Takes":
36) The Knack "Oh Tara":
37) Raye "Environmental Anxiety":
38) H.E.A.T. "One By One":
39) Against Me! "White Crosses":
40) Thundermother "Original Sin":
I'm afraid this song is obscure to most people and that's a shame. This is a great song by a Blues master. 41) Muddy Waters "Hoochie Coochie Man":
42) Collateral "Mr. Big Shot":
43) AC/DC "Shot In The Dark":
44) Squeeze "Hourglass":
45) Demi Lovato "Freak":
46) The Wonder Stuff "Give, Give, Give Me More More More":
47) Redlight King "Underground":
48) Parker Millsap "Hades Pleads":
49) CSS "Music Is My Hot Hot Sex":
50) Those Damn Crows "Go Get It":
51) Men of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir "The Morning Trumpet":
