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MY 50 FAVORITE GREAT ROCK -N-ROLL SONGS : Part 2

Nov 24 '04 Write an essay on this topic.

The Bottom Line The top 25 of my favorite Greatest Rock N Roll Records. Part 2 of 2.

I am not trying to surprise anyone with my choices here. These are songs I have listened to over and over again. I consider these to be the greatest Rock n Roll records of them all. Thankfully we don't actually ever have to choose just 50 or just 25... we can enjoy all of them and I have a thousand favorites. Some of your favorites will not be here, but many of them were probably considered and just missed. Perhaps you agree with most of my choices and even better maybe I reminded you that it is time to listen to a few old friends, I mean songs, once again.

Note: Be sure to check out numbers 26 to 50 in Part 1 : http://www.epinions.com/content_4158431364

So here they are with a touch of imagined pomp and circumstance or at least a low budget hand-on-edge-of-the-coffee-table/desk drum roll. the top 25 are:

#25 Yesterday - The Beatles McCartney's very best. His version with just a little help from the Beatles remains the best. Lennon complimented him on the vocals over and over again.

#24 Light My Fire --The Doors The three minute single derived from the seven minute album cut that had the extended Krieger and keyboardist Manzarek's solos on it catapulted the Doors into the red-hot commercial success Jim Morrison craved. The song written mostly by Krieger with additional lyrics by Morrison was the breakthrough the band needed. Yeah Jose Feliciano's version is quite a good record too.

#23 Layla -- Derek and the Dominoes Eric Clapton with members of Delaney and Bonnie and Duane Allman and that piano solo created an epic classic song that seemed to rise off the ground and ascend into heaven. Somehow it came out of the messy love affair that Clapton was having with George Harrison's wife Patti mixed with a Persian love story. This is THE version of the song, but I like the various ways Clapton has arranged and played the song over the years. Room for them all.

#22 You Really Got Me - The Kinks Ray and Dave Davies were after a raw hard sound in 1964. Their first two releases were slicker songs and they wanted it gutter style. Ray wrote it, Dave got it to sound right by supposedly cutting the speaker cone of his amp with a razor blade and recording the dirty sound. It sure worked.

#21 In My Life - Beatles Mostly a John song from the Rubber Soul album. It is one of the first songs he wrote without worrying about it commercial value. It was more serious than glib and is one of the Beatle's best ballads.

#20 London Calling -- The Clash sing and shout about the walls falling in on them. Britain was falling apart as unemployment, poverty and restlessness were rising, it seemed like the world was going to end AND the band might fall apart too. You can HEAR all of that on this desperate punk-rock battle hymn.

#19 Be My Baby --The Ronnettes Ground-breaking 1963 song. The full wall of sound that producer Phil Spector created with an orchestra and a little echo on Ronnie Bennett's voice would create a sensation and inspire artists like Brian Wilson, Lennon and McCartney, producer George Martin and so many others. It is easy to understand why when you listen to it today.

#18. Summer Time Blues -- Eddie Cochran's rockabilly guitar sound and his refusal to be molded into a teen-idol crooner assured him a place as one of the greats. This song about summer angst is nothing short of a classic anthem. There may not be a cure for them but it sure helps to have this song to deal with them.

#17. What's Going On -- Marvin Gaye You could almost go with Gaye's incredible version of I Heard it Through the Grapevine or a few of the duets he did with Tammy or Let's Get it On or Sexual Healing It has be to be What's Goin On because of what it asks.

#16 Superstition -- Stevie Wonder Not easy to choose just one from Stevie but forcing myself to do it, it is this one.

#15 Respect -- Aretha Queen of Soul Franklin. She sang about it, she spelled it out, she got it and nothing more needs to be said.

#14 (I Got You) I FEEL GOOD James good foot Brown came up with the groove funk to start and finish all funkiness. George Clinton got it right many times but it takes more than wild outfits, spaceships and synthesizers to top the Godfather of Soul in his finest moment.

#13. Let's Stay Together or Tired of Being Alone --Al Green I just cannot choose my all time fave Al Green song. Did I mention Love and Happiness and Take Me to the River ? Oh Don't Get Me Started ! Let us just say the Rev DOES have the chops to save your soul and leave it at that.

#12 Born to Be Wild --Steppenwolf Sure it became the anthem for Bikers and you probably cannot think of it without visions of Hopper and Fonda and Easy Rider or some stupid t.v. commercial that used it over and over and over again. But no song has ever been played so damn much and STILL managed to sound so gooood. The term/label . moniker Heavy Metal was derived from the phrase in this song: "heavy metal thunder" by the way.

#11. Norwegian Wood --The Beatles It is a deceptively simple little PERFECT song. When I was a kid I did not get it and it was years later when I heard it and really listened to it that I realized THIS is poetry. Short, sweet, perfect.

#10 Sittin on the Dock of the Bay -- Otis Redding's performance on this song can not be duplicated. Why? Because it is just about THE perfect marriage of song and vocal you could ever hope to have. The performance locks it up and throws away the key. Oh they try so hard to duplicate what has been done but everything else is a pale imitation to what we have right here. Yep I let this one take the place of Percy's When a Man Loves A Woman but you know they can both be there for you.

#9 California Girls - Beach Boys Brian Wilson and company created a unique sound that many copied. Here it is at it's very best and they knew it.

#8 Sympathy for the Devil --The Rolling Stones If you have to ask why I put this Stones classic here, you do not know Rock n Roll. The Kinks, Stones and Who were trouble compared to the Beatles. As it should be. Jump ahead of classic stuff like the incredible (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction and Time is on Your Side and you leap into a Sympathy for the Devil that becomes an instant reflecting mirror of its time but because it is completely authentic, does not get OLD.

#7. Like a Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan Folk as Rock N Roll? When the lyrics are this good and revolutionary and the performance this loose and subversive, you bet your backside it is.

#6 What'd I Say -- Ray Charles really opened it up when he fused gospel and r &b on several songs and then he took it further when he improvised this party song mix of blues, gospel and jazz that you might as well call Rock-N-Roll. I hear a little Cab Calloway in its inspiration and I know where a lot songs we know and love branch out from this one. Bless Brother Ray.

#5. Hound Dog Elvis drives it home with his singing Pelvis. The devil's music could never ever be stopped once white boys started singing it this good. Music was in revolution and Elvis was the cross-over fast fuse. KABOOM. It was all over. Besides I looked up Rock-N-Roll in the dictionary and there was a picture of Elvis and the RCA dog.

#4 Purple Haze - Jimi Hendrix Strong, powerful FUZZ. You MUST play it loud. It was written back in December of 1966, scuse me while I kiss the sky. Hendrix teaching the world how to play the guitar hard. Even as we take it for granted it is as good as it gets.

#3. Imagine -John Lennon The ultimate message song, delivered with a perfect simple melody. Arranged on record with subtle echoes and quiet strings by Phil Spector to bring out Lennon's twenty two lines of sung lyrics in a powerful restrained wishful manner. Can you even Imagine not having this song as part of the soundtrack of your life? We thankfully do not have to.

#2 Johnny B. Goode - Chuck Berry The essence of Rock N Roll is in Chuck Berry's incredible song. The music speaks for itself: loud, passionate and almost out of control. We could talk about Maybeline , Sweet Little Sixteen and Little Richard's Tutti Frutti or Good Golly Miss Molly and several others as well, but Johnny B. Goode lit the trail on fire and keeps it burning even today. Even taking it for granted, calling it old school, watching it become a sit-com like cute joke in Back to the Future , it still earns its respect.

#1. A Day in the Life - The Beatles A true collaboration between Lennon and McCartney that could have easily gone on for 10 minutes but instead is a masterpiece of lyric, styling, melody, and studio experimental sound. What Brian Wilson envisioned in his most inspired moments, George Martin, John and Paul brought to life in the greatest rock n roll song of all time. Rock N Roll? Yeah, it re-invents what Rock N Roll is mixing it with classical music elements and creating a mini-rock opera. It did it first and best. It is not the least bit pretentious, its simply perfect. Hail Hail Rock-N-Roll.

Remember, It's only Rock and Roll and that is enough.

Part 1 is here: http://www.epinions.com/content_4158431364

Copyright© Christopher J. Jarmick 2004. All rights reserved.

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