These aren't the best songs in my opinion, these are my favorite songs. There aren't a lot of differences between the two lists, but there are differences. For instance I love "We Built This City", but a lot of people don't consider that song as the best. But because the song rocks so hard it's easily one of my all-time favorite songs.
Yes my projected number of favorite songs has doubled and will continue to rise likely. There are just so many great songs out there.
154) Boston "Don't Look Back":
155) The Counting Crows "Rain King":
156) Pearl Jam "Even Flow":
157) Weezer "El Scorcho":
158) Melinda Doolittle "Have A Nice Day":
159) Electric Light Orchestra "Last Train to London":
160) Montell Jordan "This Is How We Do It":
If you ever get a chance to go see Miss Ballerini in concert do it. She has so many amazing songs and is a great performer. 161) Kelsea Ballerini "Miss Me More":
162) Temple of The Dog "Hunger Strike":
163) The White Stripes "Seven Nation Army":
164) Kenny Chesney "All I Need To Know":
165) Royal Bliss "Goodbye Love Song":
166) Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville "All My Life":
167) Jimi Hendrix "Manic Depression":
Words cannot describe how much I love this song. 168) The Human League "Don't You Want Me":
I've started yet another project that has already taken up so much time and will likely take up a lot more time. I'm looking for the best songs to define each year. Some of these songs will be chosen based on how popular, how influential, how omnipresent and how much of an impact it made on culture. As are all of my blogs I reserve the right to change them based on finding new information, new or better music and other attributes. Any suggestions are appreciated.
Some of these songs were released by multiple artists and multiple years. Thus I tried to match the year of the song to the main release of that song. I'm also going to add songs that I call the what the hell songs, songs that are weird, strange or unusual in some other way. But just because it's a what the hell song that doesn't mean it's not a good song.
1945:
18) Woody Guthrie "This Land Is Your Land":
19) Bing Crosby "On The Atchison, Topeka and The Santa Fe":
1946:
20) Nat King Cole "Get Your Kicks on Route 66":
What the hell?: Sammy Kaye "The Ole Lamplighter":
1947:
"Here's a silly diddy", ain't that the truth. What the hell?: Arthur Godfrey "Too Fat Polka":
1948:
21) Dinah Shore "Buttons and Bows":
22) Art Mooney "I'm Looking Over A Four Leaf Clover":
23) Evelyn Knight "A Little Bird Told Me":
24) Nat King Cole "Nature Boy":
Listening to this song I'm going to add it to the what the hell songs. How did this song ever become a hit?This song went up to #6, how did it not become tedious after the first listen. 25) Spike Jones "William Tell Overture":
What the hell? The Andrews Sisters with Vic Schoen "Toolie Oolie Doolie":
1949:
26) Vaughn Monroe "Ghost Riders In The Sky":
What the hell? Jimmy Wakely and Margaret Whiting "Slipping Around":
1950:
11 Weeks at #1 27) Anton Karas "Third Man Theme":
13 weeks at #1 28) Gordon Jenkins "Goodnight Irene":
29) Gene Autry "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer":
I know this was a big hit, but I can't understand why. What the hell? Guy Lombardo "The Third Man Theme":
These aren't the best songs in my opinion, these are my favorite songs. There aren't a lot of differences between the two lists, but there are differences. For instance I love "We Built This City", but a lot of people don't consider that song as the best. But because the song rocks so hard it's easily one of my all-time favorite songs.
Yes my projected number of favorite songs has doubled and will continue to rise likely. There are just so many great songs out there.
137) Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band "My City of Ruins":
138) The Smiths "Panic":
139) Styx "The Best of Times":
140) Barbra Streisand "The Way We Were":
141) Bob Seger and the E Street Band "Main Street":
142) Aerosmith "Hangman Jury":
143) Kelsea Ballerini "Xo":
144) Dua Lipa "Hotter Than Hell":
145) Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash "If I Were A Carpenter":
146) Adele "Rumor Has It":
147) Lauryn Hill "Doo Wop (That Thing)":
148) Band Aid "Do They Know It's Christmas":
149) Neil Sedaka "Calendar Girl":
150) John Anderson "Swingin'":
Yes, I really like this song based on "American Pie". 151) Weird Al Yankovic "The Saga Begins":
These aren't the best songs in my opinion, these are my favorite songs. There aren't a lot of differences between the two lists, but there are differences. For instance I love "We Built This City", but a lot of people don't consider that song as the best. But because the song rocks so hard it's easily one of my all-time favorite songs.
Yes my projected number of favorite songs has doubled and will continue to rise likely. There are just so many great songs out there.
120) Led Zeppelin "Living Loving Maid (She's Just A Woman)":
121) Trombone Shorty "Lifted":
122) The Pretty Reckless "Death By Rock and Roll":
123) Van Halen "Black and Blue":
124) Muddy Waters "Hoochie Coochie Man":
125) Against Me! "White Crosses":
126) Belouis Some "Round Round":
127) David Bowie "Suffragette City":
One of the many amazing songs from one of the greatest soundtracks of the last 40 years. That would be the soundtrack to "Twisters". 128) Kane Brown "Country Classic":
129) Garth Brooks "The Thunder Rolls":
130) Halsey "Castle":
131) Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash "There Ain't No Good Chain Gang":
This is the third of a few blogs about songs with an animal or animal related song title. I may or may not add songs by bands with animal or animal related names, but I haven't decided yet.
41) Pink Floyd "When The Tigers Broke Free":
42) Owl City "Fireflies":
43) Prince "When Doves Cry":
44) Ozzy Osbourne "Bark At The Moon":
45) The Rolling Stones "Wild Horses":
46) The Smashing Pumpkins "Fireflies":
47) Peter Gabriel "Shock The Monkey":
48) Metallica "Of Wolf and Man":
49) Cake "Sheep Go To Heaven":
50) Janet Jackson "Black Cat":
51) The Walkmen "The Rat":
52) The Beatles "Blackbird":
53) Rage Against The Machine "Bulls on Parade":
54) Vera Lynn "(There'll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover":
These blogs are out of order because I have two different blog series. The first is the definitive songs of the 80s and the second is the best songs of each year 1980-1989.
I have nothing to do with this Kickstarter project, I'm not even a backer. Of course I would love to see this movie but it's not important enough to me that I'll contribute to it.
What does it take to have the most and best representative music of the 80s? There are several groups that need to be represented. We need at least one song by Madonna, Michael Jackson, Duran Duran, Cyndi Lauper, Def Leppard, INXS, U2, Elton John, Billy Joel, Journey, Styx, Billy Idol, REO Speedwagon, The Smiths, The Police, Sheena Easton, The Thompson Twins, Motley Crue, Poison, Warrant, Guns N' Roses, ZZ Top, David Bowie, Tears For Fears, Lionel Richie, Whitney Houston, Foreigner, Heart, Bon Jovi, Bob Marley and the Wailers, The Bangles, The Go-Go's, Bryan Adams, The Pointer Sisters
We need at least one song from from the genres of rock, pop. hair metal, rap, soul, new wave, also needed a quirky or goofy song or two, at least a smattering of one hit wonders
We also have to have a representative sample of the best 80s CDs: the much underappreciated INXS with "Kick", AC/DC's "Back In Black", ZZ Top's "Eliminator" and "Afterburner", Billy Joel's "Glass Houses", Bruce Springsteen's "Born In The USA", Dire Straits "Brothers In Arms", Def Leppard's "Pyromania" and "Hysteria", Foreigner "4", Peter Gabriel's "So",
We also have to have a representative sample of the best 80s soundtracks "Pretty In Pink", "Purple Rain", "Footloose", "Top Gun", "Flashdance", "Breakin'", "Less Than Zero", "Dirty Dancing", "Fame", "Urban Cowboy", "The Last Boys", Batman the Prince soundtrack, Batman the Danny Elfman score, "Urban Cowboy",
The musicians will be covered while discussing everything else. These 30 songs are from September, 2023's Classic Rock magazine's 80's issue. These 30 Songs are 80s Mixtapes from Lzzy Hale, Phil Collen and Neil Fallon in that issue. I have ranked them from #30 to # 1 based on how much I like these songs. The first name is who's mixtape it is, the name of the artist and the song.
16) Lzzy Hale Pat Benatar "Fire and Ice":
17) Lzzy Hale Cinderella "Push Push":
18) Neil Fallon Devo "Whip It":
19) Neil Fallon Blondie "Rapture":
20) Neil Fallon Metallica "Battery":
I had forgotten how much this song rocks. 21) Phil Collen Prince "Computer Blue":
22) Lzzy Hale Van Halen "Top Jimmy":
23) Lzzy Hale Alice Cooper "Hell Is Living Without You":
24) Lzzy Hale Divinyls "Back To The Wall":
25) Neil Fallon Nirvana "Mr. Moustache":
26) This was a Lzzy Hale bonus track. Petra "I Am Available":
27) Neil Fallon CRO-MAGS "Show You No Mercy":
28) Neil Fallon Fugazi "Give Me The Cure":
29) Neil Fallon's Bonus Pick Bad Brains "1 Against 1":
30) Neil Fallon Eric B and Rakim "Microphone Fiend":
These blogs are out of order because I have two different blog series. The first is the definitive songs of the 80s and the second is the best songs of each year 1980-1989.
I have nothing to do with this Kickstarter project, I'm not even a backer. Of course I would love to see this movie but it's not important enough to me that I'll contribute to it.
What does it take to have the most and best representative music of the 80s? There are several groups that need to be represented. We need at least one song by Madonna, Michael Jackson, Duran Duran, Cyndi Lauper, Def Leppard, INXS, U2, Elton John, Billy Joel, Journey, Styx, Billy Idol, REO Speedwagon, The Smiths, The Police, Sheena Easton, The Thompson Twins, Motley Crue, Poison, Warrant, Guns N' Roses, ZZ Top, David Bowie, Tears For Fears, Lionel Richie, Whitney Houston, Foreigner, Heart, Bon Jovi, Bob Marley and the Wailers, The Bangles, The Go-Go's, Bryan Adams, The Pointer Sisters
We need at least one song from from the genres of rock, pop. hair metal, rap, soul, new wave, also needed a quirky or goofy song or two, at least a smattering of one hit wonders
We also have to have a representative sample of the best 80s CDs: the much underappreciated INXS with "Kick", AC/DC's "Back In Black", ZZ Top's "Eliminator" and "Afterburner", Billy Joel's "Glass Houses", Bruce Springsteen's "Born In The USA", Dire Straits "Brothers In Arms", Def Leppard's "Pyromania" and "Hysteria", Foreigner "4", Peter Gabriel's "So",
We also have to have a representative sample of the best 80s soundtracks "Pretty In Pink", "Purple Rain", "Footloose", "Top Gun", "Flashdance", "Breakin'", "Less Than Zero", "Dirty Dancing", "Fame", "Urban Cowboy", "The Last Boys", Batman the Prince soundtrack, Batman the Danny Elfman score, "Urban Cowboy",
The musicians will be covered while discussing everything else.
52) The Pet Shop Boys "West End Girls":
53) A Flock of Seagulls "I Ran (So Far Away)":
54) Animotion "Obsession":
55) John Parr "Man In Motion":
56) Bobby Brown "Every Little Step":
57) Ray Parker Jr. "Ghostbusters":
58) Boz Scaggs "Breakdown Dead Ahead":
59) Motley Crue "Girls Girls Girls":
60) Frankie Goes To Hollywood "The Power of Love":
61) Samantha Fox "Love House":
62) Manfred Mann's Earth Band "Runner":
63) Pretty Poison (Catch Me, I'm Falling)":
64) Stacey Q "We Connect":
65) Fun Boy Three "The Lunatics Have Taken Over The Asylum":
Let's go back and check on the best songs from 70, 60, 50, 40, 30, 20 and 10 years. Hey and maybe even some of the best songs from 2025. 1955 was a hard year for me to find 17 songs for this blog. However 1965 is a much easier year for me to find a bunch of great songs.
1) The Ad Libs "The Boy From New York City":
2) Roger Miller "King of the Road":
3) The Strangeloves "I Want Candy":
4) The Lovin' Spoonful "Do You Believe In Magic":
5) The Four Tops "It's The Same Old Song":
6) The Statler Brothers "Flowers On The Wall":
7) The Miracles "Tracks Of My Tears":
8) The Zombies "Tell Her No":
9) The Searchers "Love Potion No. 9":
10) Martha and the Vandella "Nowhere To Run":
11) Herman's Hermits "Wonderful World":
12) Tom Jones "It's Not Unusual":
13) Buck Owens and the Buckaroos "I've Got A Tiger By The Tail":
It was the end of one decade and about to be the 90s. Looking back 40 years later- wow, that's hard to believe- the 80s are still my favorite decade. That's especially for culture and music. I still say the music of the 80s is the best music ever made.
Just off of the top of my head some of the amazing musicians of the 80s- in no particular order- include Madonna, ZZ Top, Cyndi Lauper, Billy Joel, Elton John, Def Leppard, Boston, Motley Crue, Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, Journey, REO Speedwagon, Styx, Lita Ford, the Jackson siblings, Billy Ocean, INXS, Erasure, U2, Also don't forget all the great country musicians Randy Travis, Alabama, George Strait, Reba McEntire, Conway Twitty, John Anderson and many others.
Some of the best movies of 1989 include "Batman", "Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade" (In a James Earl Jones like voiceover "although it wasn't really the last crusade, now was it?"), "Dead Poets Society", "When Harry Met Sally", one of my personal favorites "The Abyss", "Lethal Weapon 2", "Field of Dreams", "Major League", the not as good as I thought it was going to be "Born on the 4th of July", "Lean On Me", "Glory" and "When Harry Met Sally".
I've started yet another project that has already taken up so much time and will likely take up a lot more time. I'm looking for the best songs to define each year. Some of these songs will be chosen based on how popular, how influential, how omnipresent and how much of an impact it made on culture. As are all of my blogs I reserve the right to change them based on finding new information, new or better music and other attributes. Any suggestions are appreciated.
Some of these songs were released by multiple artists and multiple years. Thus I tried to match the year of the song to the main release of that song.
The 1930s:
1) The Ink Spots "If I Didn't Care":
2) The Glenn Miller Orchestra "Sing Sing Sing":
3) The Glenn Miller Orchestra "In The Mood":
4) Gene Autry "Back In The Saddle":
5) Judy Garland "Somewhere Over The Rainbow":
1940:
6) Cliff Edwards and Chorus "When You Wish Upon A Star":
1941:
7) The Andrews Sisters "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy":
8) The Glenn Miller Orchestra "Chattanooga Choo Choo":
9) The Sons of the Pioneers "Cool Water":
1942:
10) Bing Crosby "White Christmas":
11) The Andrews Sisters "Don't Sit Under The Apple Tree":
12) Dooley Wilson "As Time Goes By":
13) Vera Lynn "There'll Be BlueBirds (Over The White Cliffs of Dover)":
14) Ky Kyser Orchestra featuring Harry Babbitt "(I Got Spurs That) Jingle, Jangle, Jingle":
1943: I haven't found any songs so far.
1944:
15) Johnny Mercer and the Pied Pipers "Ac-cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive":
It was the end of one decade and about to be the 90s. Looking back 40 years later- wow, that's hard to believe- the 80s are still my favorite decade. That's especially for culture and music. I still say the music of the 80s is the best music ever made.
Just off of the top of my head some of the amazing musicians of the 80s- in no particular order- include Madonna, ZZ Top, Cyndi Lauper, Billy Joel, Elton John, Def Leppard, Boston, Motley Crue, Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, Journey, REO Speedwagon, Styx, Lita Ford, the Jackson siblings, Billy Ocean, INXS, Erasure, U2, Also don't forget all the great country musicians Randy Travis, Alabama, George Strait, Reba McEntire, Conway Twitty, John Anderson and many others.
Some of the best movies of 1989 include "Batman", "Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade" (In a James Earl Jones like voiceover "although it wasn't really the last crusade, now was it?"), "Dead Poets Society", "When Harry Met Sally", one of my personal favorites "The Abyss", "Lethal Weapon 2", "Field of Dreams", "Major League", the not as good as I thought it was going to be "Born on the 4th of July", "Lean On Me", "Glory" and "When Harry Met Sally".
1) Peter Cetera and Cher "After All":
Not intentionally starting off with a one two Peter Cetera twofer. 2) Chicago "Look Away":
The best songs from the Top 20 CDs of August 2nd, 1986. There are some classic CDs and songs here. Number of songs featured according to the quality of the CD. Thanks to Charlie's Attic Radio Station, Billboard magazine and Wikipedia.org.
This is probably my favorite Journey CD. 20) Journey "Raised On Radio":
1) "Girl Can't Help It":
2) "Positive Touch":
3) "Suzanne":
4) "Be Good To Yourself":
5) "Once You Love Somebody":
Yes, this is the same Randy Jackson that called everyone "dawg" on "American Idol". He has since lost a lot of weight and looks incredibly bizarre now. 6) "Raised On Radio":
