MY FAVORITE SONGS
Just call them "blasts from the past"
When I mentioned Joni Mitchell's wonderful song, "The Circle Game," as the inspiration for the name of this site, several readers let me
know how much that song meant to them.
One friend, another baby boomer, said I should post a list - or even burn a CD and offer it for sale - of my favorite songs. I'm not in the CD business, and there are certainly copyright issues involved, but as with most boomers, music has been a big part of my life.
Before I give you my list of favorites, let me qualify it. I'm not including music I have come to appreciate as I've gotten older - music like big bands and Frank Sinatra - and I'm not going to include songs that were basically album cuts.
That rules out some of my favorite artists, like Phil Ochs, Harry Chapin and Joni Mitchell, not to mention most of Jackson Browne, but the top 20 I'll give you were all hit records I first heard on the radio when I was coming of age.
I'm sure you'll notice the absence of anything by the Beatles. I love them, but I couldn't think of one song that really made my list.
So here they are, with a brief explanation of what each one meant to me:
20. California Girls, the Beach Boys, 1965 -- I wasn't the only high school sophomore in Virginia who dreamed of surf, sunshine and California girls. We were convinced every girl in the Golden State was beautiful, and we were right.
19. I Can't Help Myself (Sugarpie Honeybunch), The Four Tops, 1965 -- The Motown Sound did more to fight racism than most civil rights leaders, and if the Supremes and the Temptations were more popular, it was the Four Tops who made the best records. This was one of the quintessential Motown songs.
18. Dancing Queen, Abba, 1977 -- Yeah, I know. Disco. But I liked Abba's sound, and I always thought "Dancing Queen" was the perfect example of what disco should have been. A great hook and a great wall of sound.
17. Do You Believe in Magic, The Lovin' Spoonful, 1965 -- It's probably no accident that 1965 is heavily represented here. It was a coming of age year for me - the year I turned 16 - and John Sebastian's best song spoke of all sorts of possibilities.
16. Teach Your Children, Crosby Stills Nash & Young, 1970 --Probably the best song of the hippie era, a song about love and hope and doing the right thing. Beautiful vocals from the group that had the best harmony this side of the Beach Boys.
15. Boys of Summer, Don Henley, 1984 -- The newest song on my list. There are several other Henley songs I could have picked - "End of the Innocence" or "Heart of the Matter" come to mind - but for some reason, this is the one I really love. "My love for you will still be strong, after the boys of summer have gone."
14. Can't Help Falling in Love, Elvis Presley, 1961 -- The oldest song on the list. The King may have made better records, but this is the special one to me. Maybe it's because it's the "our song" song for my wife and me. I definitely couldn't help falling in love with her.
13. Margaritaville, Jimmy Buffett, 1977 -- If I could only listen to one artist for the rest of my life, Buffett would be one of the finalists. Upbeat, catchy and so much fun. God, I would love to retire someday to a town just like Margaritaville.
12. Daydream Believer, The Monkees, 1967 -- It's interesting to me how much better the Monkees sound now than they did then. A song with sweet vocals, nice music and a great hook. It also reminds me of someone who was very special to me in 1967.
11. A Whiter Shade of Pale, Procol Harum, 1967 -- This song is 1967 to me. In fact, when I wrote a coming-of-age novel about the year, I used this title as the name. Melancholy, confusing, and very beautiful. And it's the miller who told his tale, not the mirror.
10. I Can See For Miles, The Who, 1967 -- From the great guitar riff that starts the song to Roger Daltrey's soaring vocals, this is one kick-ass great rock 'n' roll song.
9. What Does it Take (to Win Your Love), Junior Walker and the All-Stars, 1969 -- The only quasi-instrumental on the list, I love the saxophone solos. More from the best of Motown.
8. Like A Rolling Stone, Bob Dylan, 1965 -- Once upon a time, you dressed so fine, threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn't you? This song blew me away in 1965 and it blows me away 39 years later. Nobody ever wrote lyrics like Bob Dylan.
7. American Pie, Don McLean, 1971 -- A history of rock, a history of the '60s, a history of us. I wonder if anybody ever did figure out all the references in this epic. I think I got most of them, but I never was quite sure who the father, the son and the holy ghost were.
6. Hungry Heart, Bruce Springsteen, 1980 -- The Boss would also be on that short list with Buffett. I could have picked "Born to Run" or "Dancing in the Dark," but I liked this one best of all. It's funny how conservatives never understood what "Born in the USA" really meant.
5. Take it Easy, The Eagles, 1972 -- For most of the last 30 years, the Eagles have been my favorite band, and it's funny that their very first single turned out to be the one song I always turn the radio up and sing along with. I love "Lyin' Eyes" too, and have a special fondness for "The Long Run," but this was their best.
4. California Dreamin', The Mamas and the Papas, 1966 -- A beautiful, melancholy song that spoke to me of yearning for the sun and sand of Southern California more than 20 years before I ever lived in the state where I was born.
3. (It's the) Same Old Song, The Four Tops, 1965 -- The Tops were one of only two bands to make this list twice. This was to me the greatest song ever done in Motown, and I still love it every time I hear it.
2. Don't Worry, Baby, The Beach Boys, 1964 -- I forget who it was who called this the perfect Beach Boys song, but I would have to agree. Great Brian Wilson music, soaring harmonies and the essence of what it meant to be a teenager in the '60s. "I can't back down now because I've pushed the other guys too far."
1. Brown Eyed Girl, Van Morrison, 1967 -- It wasn't easy to pick my all-time favorite song. Really any one of the top three could have headed this list, but when it came down to it, this is the song that makes me happiest when I hear it. That's as good a reason as any to put it at the top of the list. "Hey, where did we go?"
