The Best of the Awesome A's, the Best Song(s) of Artists Whose Name Starts With A: AC/DC, Asia, ABC etc. (Updated June 13th, 2015)

Hello,

I was only going to pick 10 artists to find their best songs, but after going through my iTunes I realized I hadn't written down Aerosmith and Arcade Fire. Here are the best songs for 17 artists whose names begins with the letter A. I may or may not add other A artists as I go through this process. This blog is  in alphabetical order, why the heck not?

For some of these artists my favorite of their songs came immediately to mind. For instance, I'm not a big Aerosmith fan, but I added them because I love the song I picked for them so much. For ABC, it could have been "Poison Arrow", "How To Be A Millionaire" or "The Look of Love". For them I just had to pick one song.

Abba "Gimme, Gimme, Gimme "A Man After Midnight":

ABC:

AC/DC:

Adele:

Aerosmith:

Airbourne "Too Much, Too Young, Too Fast":

Air Supply:

Alabama "Angels Among Us: (I'm a sucker for a good sappy song.)

Alabama "Hats Off" (I love this sappy song also.):

Aqua, No not THAT song, but "Doctor Jones":

Aquabats "Martian Girl:

Arcade Fire "Sprawl 2: (Mountains Beyond Mountains)":

Asia "Heat of the Moment":

Now that the rapidly changing iTunes countdown is done for another year, I can resume writing my so called alphabet blogs. As this series has blogged, I try for each blog to have at least 17 artists. I spent a few more minutes this morning on June 12th, 2015 finding 5 more artists for this blog. I also did more work for the second, third and fourth A blogs, which will be coming eventually. 

As always if you have any suggestions for blog, please contact me. You can send me an e-mail at the e-mail listed or just make a comment. Either way your thoughts and suggestions go directly to me. I do have a "real" job so I'm not always available to see those comments and e-mails. If you've discovered this blog, thanks for stopping to take a look.

Anyway on with the 5 additional A artists, I hope you enjoy. If your favorite A band wasn't listed, they will probably be listed in an upcoming A blog. But if you would like to suggest a band or artist you know what to do.

A.F.I. "This Celluloid Dream":

The All-American Rejects "Swing, Swing":

The Atari's "In This Diary":

From the ain't that the truth department:

"Being grown up isn't half as much fun
as growing up
These are the best days of our lives
The only thing that matters is just following your heart
and eventually you'll finally get it right"

Not only one of the best videos of all-time, but one of my all-time favorite videos ever. a-ha's "Take On Me":

and a three play by Bryan Adams:

"Cuts Like A Knife":

"This Time":

"Straight From The Heart":

themusicaddict

themusicaddict's Greatest Songs of All-TIme, Eventually! (Updated May 4th, 2015)

Hello,

This is the first and a very rough draft of what will eventually my list of greatest songs of all-time. Today's blog goes along with my blog from November 23rd, 2014. On that blog I'm cataloguing the great songs that I have loved for so many years. Needless to say that blog contains thousands of songs and I'm constantly adding to that blog. This blog will only contain the songs that I think are the greatest songs of all-time. I don't anticipate this blog to be complete for at least a year or two.

1) Led Zeppelin "Whole Lotta Love"
2) Don McLean's "American Pie"
3) Prince's "When Doves Cry"
4) Prince's "Let's Go Crazy"
5) Poison's "Every Rose Has It's Throne"
6) U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday"
7) Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody"
8) Steely Dan's "Hey 19" ("She don't know the queen of soul.")
9) Keith Whitley's "When You Say Nothing At All"
10 Wham's "Careless Whisper"
11) Bee Gees "Tragedy"
12) Bee Gees "Stayin' Alive"
13) Def Leppard "Pour Some Sugar On Me"
14) The Platters "Smoke Gets In Your Eye"
15) The Commodores "Still"
16) Lady Gaga "Bad Romance"
17)
18)
19)
20)

I'm just barely scratching the surface.

themusicaddict

What Are The Greatest One Hit Wonders Ever? Here Are A Few.

Hello,

Number in parenthesis is a song's peak position according to Billboard.

My criteria for a themusicaddict one hit wonder isn't if an artist only had one hit, but that it has to be a truly great song also. For instance, Led Zeppelin didn't have a lot of "hits", however they have dozens of amazing songs. Led Zeppelin most definitely doesn't qualify. Grateful Dead only had one "hit", I do like "Touch of Grey" (#9), but I just never got the whole Dead vibe. So they qualify by my criteria. According to Billboard.com Sinead O'Connor only had two hits "Nothing Compares 2U"(#1) and "Emperor's New Clothes" (#60). don't even count a song that only hit #60 as a hit. So by my criteria she would qualify, but I just can't include her here. Miss O'Connor has just too many great songs.

To be considered a hit is to at least reach the Top 20 and be memorable. So although they have two top ten hits, The Cutting Crew qualify as a one hit wonder. Their first number one hit is "I've Been In Love Before" (#9), but did you remember that song before seeing it here? Either did I. But I do remember "I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight" (#1).

I'm using my iPod, my memory, Wayne Jancik's Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders and Billboard's official website to compile this blog. As of now these songs are in no particular order, but I may go back and change that later.

Joan Osborne's "One Of Us" (#4):

Dexys Midnight Runner's "Come On Eileen" (#1):

The non-hit one hit wonders:

According to Billboard The Proclaimers had no hits, but when "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" (NR) first came out it was all over the place. themusicaddict has decided, this is a hit:

Modern English's "I Melt With You" (#76):



Natalie Imbruglia's "Torn" (#46):

Guess what decade? Waitresses "I Know What Boys Like" (#62) (I'd forgotten how quickly this song becomes annoying.):



Back to the one hit wonders.

Ennio Morricone's "The Good The Bad and The Ugly"(#2):

Zager and Evans "In The Year 2525" (#1):

After The Fire "Der Kommissar"(#5):

The Grateful Dead's "Touch of Grey (#9)":

Truly a one hit wonder, but the same song was a hit twice. Got that? It peaked at #11 in 1980 and #20 in 1989. I'm pretty sure he released the song at least a third time. Benny Mardones'  "Into The Night":

One of the 80's sexiest songs, Gregory Abbott's "Shake You Down" (#1):



Tommy Tutone's "867-5309/Jenny"(#4):



Georgia Satelites "Keep Your Hands To Yourself" (#2):



Daniel Powter's "Bad Day" (#1):



Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians "What I Am" (#7):



Guess the decade! Starland Vocal Band "Afternoon Delight" (#1):



Haddaway's "What Is Love": (#11):



Tom Cochrane's "Life Is A Highway" (#6):

themusicaddict

themusicaddict's Fantastic Fourteen More Discovered, Rediscovered Songs Part 8

Hello,

Songs that have attracted my interest of late: classics, intriguing covers and other interesting songs. First up, I'll start with some new twists on some old classic songs.

1) Dead On TV's "Pale Shelter":

2) Karen O (featuring Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross) "Immigrant Song":

3) Roger Waters (featuring Sinead O' Connor) "Mother" and (featuring Joni Mitchell) "Goodbye Blue Sky":

4) One of my favorite covers of all-time, Sinead O'Connor's cover of "Success Has Made A Failure of Our Home":

5) Digital Daggers "Aquarius":

Here are some classic songs:

6) One of the greatest songs of all-time: "Styx's "Best of Times":

Bonus video: Full Styx "Back To Paradise" concert:

7) Lulu "To Sir With Love":

8) Guns N' Roses "Better":

Bonus: My favorite G N' R cover, "Live and Let Die":

9) "Sprawl 2 (Mountains Beyond Mountains)":

10) I considered this song for my Rock and Roll Scripture Chase blog, but the lyrics have nothing to do with original sin.  INXS' "Original Sin":



11) Rooney's "Sorry Sorry":

12) Ok Go's "Invincible (Live)":

13) They are famous for singing about "Venus", "I Heard A Rumor" and "Cruel Summer". However Bananarama have a lot of other great songs including "I Want You Back":

14) Less than three months from today, I'll be rocking out to a Motley Crue concert just like the good old days. This is "Girls Girls Girls":

themusicaddict

themusicaddict's 40 Greatest and Best Songs of U2 Part 3: 12-1

Hello,

Here's a cool video someone put together of the concert that never happened. This is over 2 hours of music if you just want to push play and relax. Enjoy:

Without further adieu, here's U2's Top 12 songs according to me. Comments, compliments and complaints always requested and encouraged. In the parenthesis is the rankings of the song on the scale from 1 to 10 and the CD the song comes from.

12) "Vertigo" (10, "How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb"):

11) "One" (10, "Achtung Baby"):

10) "New Year's Day" (10, "War"):

"New Year's Day" (Live):

9) "With or Without You" (10, "The Joshua Tree"):

8) "Elevation" (10, "All That You Can't Leave Behind)":

7) "Red Hill Mining Town" (10, "The Joshua Tree")

6) "Desire" (10, "Rattle and Hum"):

Band Introductions, "Desire" (Live):

5) "Pride (10, "In The Name of Love)":

4) "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" (10, "Batman Forever" Soundtrack):

"Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" (Live):

3) "Until The End of The World" (10, "Achtung Baby"):

2) "Bullet The Blue Sky" (10, "The Joshua Tree"/ "Rattle and Hum"):

1) "Sunday Bloody Sunday" (10, "War"):



From "Red Rocks", audio of U2's very famous concert:



What Rolling Stone says about this CD:

"A live recording that features real danger. When U2 played Red Rocks Amphitheatre outside Denver on June 5, 1983, the weather was so terrible that less than half the sold out crowd showed up, and both opening acts (the Alarm and Divinyls) canceled over safety concerns. That did nothing to deter U2 and especially Bono. In 2004, guitarist The Edge told Rolling Stone that Bono "scared the shit out of me" by climbing a lighting rig to wave a white flag during "The Electric Co.," coming close to live wires. But the real lightning came from this live album, concert film and the fog-shrouded "Sunday Bloody Sunday" music video. Even though most of Under a Blood Red Sky's album tracks came from shows in Boston and Germany, the Red Rocks visuals stand as U2's last moment of young, ragged glory before mega-stardom set in. "It was a benchmark," said Adam Clayton. "We could say now: 'Right, we've got to a point where we're contenders. We're at the starting gate." David Menconi

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/50-greatest-live-albums-of-all-time-20150429#ixzz3YlnTv4kr

themusicaddict

themusicaddict's 40 Greatest and Best Songs of U2 Part 2: 27-13

Hello,

Because I'm anal and like to figure out these sort of things, I figured out which CD these songs came from. I stuck with the original CD which the song came from.

"Rattle and Hum": 9 songs
"Achtung Baby": 7 songs
"All That You Can't Leave Behind": 7
"The Joshua Tree": 4
"War": 3
"Pop": 2
"Unforgettable Fire": 2
"How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb": 2
"Batman Forever" Soundtrack: 1
"Boy": 1
"Best of 1980-1990": 1
"No Line On The Horizon": 1
"October": 0
"Zooropa": 0
"Songs of Innocence": 0

Without further adieu, part 2 of my Top 40 U2 songs. Enjoy. Again the number in the parenthesis is my rating on a scale from 1 to 10 and the CD each song comes from.

27) "Beautiful Day" (8, "All That You Can't Leave Behind"):

26) "I Will Follow" From their historic Red Rocks performance (8, "Boy"):

25) "The Fly" (8, "Achtung Baby"):

"The Fly" (Live In Boston):

24) "Angel of Harlem" (8.5, "Rattle and Hum"):

23) "Discotheque" (8.5, "Pop"):

22) "Trip Through Your Wires" (8.5, "The Joshua Tree"):

21) "Where The Streets Have No Name" (9, "The Joshua Tree"):

20) "Walk On" (9, "All That You Can't Leave Behind"):

19) "Helter Skelter" (9, "Rattle and Hum"):

18) "When Love Comes To Town" (featuring B.B. King) (9, "Rattle and Hum"):



"When Love Comes To Town (Non "Rattle and Hum" Version)":

17) "Mysterious Ways" (9, "Achtung Baby"):

16) "Silver and Gold" (9.5, "Rattle and Hum"):

15) "Two Hearts Beat As One" (9.5, "War"):

14) "Even Better Than The Real Thing" (10, "Achtung Baby"):



"Even Better Than The Real Thing" (Live):

13) "Kite" (10, "All That You Can't Leave Behind"):



"Kite" (lyrics video) I love the lyrics of this song.

themusicaddict

themusicaddict's 40 Greatest and Best Songs of U2 Part 1: 40-28

Hello,

I spent way more time on this than I should have, but it's now complete. Over the course of 3 blogs I'm going to countdown what I think U2's Top 40 songs of all-time. Comments from people agreeing and disagreeing with me, as always, are welcome. Number in parenthesis is my grade for that song on a scale from 1-10. As it was all those years ago with Bo Derek, 10s are the best. Also in parenthesis the CD each song came from.

40) "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses" (6, "Achtung Baby"):

39) "Love Rescue Me" (6):

38) "God, Part 2" (6.5, "Rattle and Hum"):

37) "Gone" (6.5, "Pop")

36) "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight": (6.5, "No Line On The Horizon"):

35) "Acrobat" (6.5, "Achtung Baby"):

34) "The Sweetest Thing" (7, "Best of 1980-1990"):

33) "Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of" (7, "All That You Can't Leave Behind"):

32) "In A Little While" (7, "All That You Can't Leave Behind"):

31) "New York" (7.5, "All That You Can't Leave Behind")

30) "All I Want Is You" (8, "Rattle and Hum"):

29) "All Because of You" (8, "How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb"):

28) "Bad" (Live at Live Aid) (8, "Unforgettable Fire"):

themusicaddict