This blog series is every original song by Boston from their six CDs across the years. Those CDs are 1976's "Boston", 1978's "Don't Look Back", 1986's "Third Stage", 1994's "Walk On", 2002's "Corporate America" and 2013's "Life, Love and Hope".
Sadly Boston's last two CDs aren't that good, but maybe we'll discover some good songs together.
"Corporate America":
R.I.P. Tommy DeCarlo. He died just a few days ago at the way too young age of 60. 41) "I Had A Good Time":
Since I've been sharing countdowns from 1984 and listening to all those great songs again, I thought I would post a series of blogs with the greatest songs of 1984.
Notable events of 1984 include the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, Steve Jobs launches the Mac in a world of primitive PCs, this commercial:
"Purple Rain"- all that incredible music and a dopey movie- Geraldine Ferraro, Tetris, "Footloose", "Sixteen Candles" (which also means the lovely Molly Ringwald, "Ghostbusters", Eddie Murphy, the first MTV Video Music Awards, "Do They Know It's Christmas" and Marvin Gaye is killed.
Best movies of 1984 include those mentioned above, "The Terminator", "Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom", "Gremlins", "Beverly Hills Cop", "The Karate Kid", "1984" (of course), "Top Secret", "The Natural" (still a great movie), "Revenge of the Nerds" and "Splash".
171) Dio "Last In Line":
172) Murray Head "One Night In Bangkok":
173) Dio "Egypt (The Chains Are On)":
174) Sheena Easton "Sugar Walls":
175) Steve Perry "Foolish Heart":
176) Klymaxx "I Miss You":
177) Survivor "The Search Is Over":
178) Rush "Red Sector A":
179) The Thompson Twins "Doctor Doctor":
180) Depeche Mode "People Are People":
181) The Thompson Twins "The Gap":
182) Iron Maiden "Powerslave":
183) Billy Idol "Catch My Fall":
184) Roger Waters "5:01A.M. The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking":
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":
This is the first of I don't know how blogs featuring the greatest albums of all-time. These are studio CDs, Broadway and movie soundtracks and anything else in that vein. I won't be including greatest hits or live CDs except for in an unusual situation. So far the only unusual situation I can think of is Bob Marley and the Wailers "Legend".
For most CDs I'll include every song. But for some CDs I'll not included spoken word or very brief tracks.
The first AC/DC album with Brian Johnson on vocals after the death of Bon Scott. "Back In Black" was released on November 5th, 1980.
1) "Hells Bells":
2) "Shoot To Thrill":
3) "What Do You For Money Honey":
AC/DC has never been known for their subtle lyrics. 4) "Givin The Dog A Bone":
AC/DC has never been known for their subtle lyrics, part 2. 5) "Let Me Put My Love Into You":
6) "Back In Black":
7) "You Shook Me All Night Long":
8) "Have A Drink On Me":
9) "Shake A Leg":
10) "Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution":
This is the fourth CD by Adams, this CD was loaded with hits. Although he had many great songs before and after this CD "Reckless" is his peak. There's no shame in that. Bryan Adams "Reckless":
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.
120) Romeo Void "Never Say Never":
121) Berlin "No More Words":
122) Howard Jones "No One Is To Blame":
123) Oingo Boingo "Not My Slave":
124) Oingo Boingo "Nothing Bad Ever Happens To Me":
125) Animotion "Obsession":
126) Yello "Oh Yeah":
127) The Talking Heads "Once In A Lifetime":
128) Murray Head "One Night in Bangkok"
129) The Fixx "One Things Leads To Another":
130) Blondie "One Way Or Another":
131) Oingo Boingo "Only A Lad":
132) The Motels "Only The Lonely":
133) Yaz "Only You":
134) The Human League "Open Your Heart":
135) The Pet Shop Boys "Opportunities (Let's Make A Lot of Money)":
Let's go back and check on the best songs from 70, 60, 50, 40, 30, 20 and 10 years. Hey and maybe some of the best songs from 2025. 1955 was a hard year for me to find 17 songs for this blog. However 1965 was a much easier year for me to find a bunch of great songs. Then 1975 was even easier, some of the greatest songs of all-time.
18) Abba "Mamma Mia":
19) Glen Campbell "Rhinestone Cowboy":
20) Frankie Valli "My Eyes Adored You":
21) Bob Marley and the Wailers "No Woman, No Cry" (Live):
22) Earth, Wind and Fire "Shining Star":
23) David Bowie "Fame":
24) Bay City Rollers "Saturday Night":
25) Crystal Gayle "Wrong Road Again":
26) Styx "Lady":
27) Grand Funk Railroad "Bad Time":
28) Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds "Fallin' In Love":
These are my 17 most played 70s songs. That's except for "What Is And What Should Never Be" from the "BBC Sessions". The show was recorded in the early 70s, but it wasn't released until 1997. Other than the Dolly Parton song, most of these songs are rock songs. I'm surprised my most played Disco song isn't until number 19. The 70s were such a rich amd amazing time for music.
Again these aren't my favorite 70s songs, they're the most played 70s songs on my iTunes.
17) Led Zeppelin "Fool In The Rain":
16) Foreigner "Double Vision":
From "How The West Was Won" 15) Led Zeppelin "Immigrant Song":
From "BBC Sessions" 14) Led Zeppelin "What Is And What Should Never Be":
13) ELO "Last Train To London":
12) Boston "Peace of Mind":
11) Supertramp "Breakfast In America":
10) The Temptations "Ball of Confusion":
If you've never heard this song before, prepare to have your heart broken. 9) Dolly Parton "Me and Little Andy":
8) America "Sister Golden Hair":
Guess what my all-time favorite movie is? 7) John Williams "Main Title/ Rebel Blockade Runner":
6) AC/DC "TNT":
5) Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young "Ohio":
4) The Commodores "Brick House":
3) April Wine "Roller":
2) Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers "Don't Do Me Like That":
If you haven't guessed what my all-time favorite movie is, here's another hint. 1) John Williams Main Title from "Star Wars":
These are my 17 most played 70s songs. That's except for "What Is And What Should Never Be" from the "BBC Sessions". The show was recorded in the early 70s, but it wasn't released until 1997. Other than the Dolly Parton song, most of these songs are rock songs. I'm surprised my most played Disco song isn't until number 19. The 70s were such a rich amd amazing time for music.
Again these aren't my favorite 70s songs, they're the most played 70s songs on my iTunes.
34) The Eagles "Heartache Tonight":
33) Paul Revere and The Raiders "Indian Reservation":
32) Queen "Bohemian Rhapsody":
31) Neil Diamond "Cracklin' Rosie":
30) Led Zeppelin "Over The Hills and Far Away":
29) Kenny Loggins "This Is It":
28) The Clash "Train In Vain":
27) Queen "Killer Queen":
26) The Clash "I Fought The Law":
25) Bad Company "Bad Company":
24) AC/DC "Girls Got Rhythm":
23) Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers "Refugee":
22) The Four Seasons "December 1963 (Oh What A Night)":
21) Frankie Valli "Grease":
20) Chicago "Alive Again":
19) The Bee Gees "Stayin' Alive":
18) Waylon Jennings "Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way":
