Every gal in Constantinople
Lives in Istanbul, not Constantinople
So if you’ve a date in Constantinople
She’ll be waiting in Istanbul. – Jimmy Kennedy
Ever since my second “favorites” column a year and a half ago, I’ve pondered what I would put in a favorite songs list. It wasn’t an easy choice; after all, one hears so many more songs in a lifetime than one sees movies or reads books, and one’s feelings about them can change dramatically with mood or time. So as usual, I had to come up with a few rules to bring the pool of candidates down to a manageable size; I excluded hymns, songs without words, songs in languages I don’t understand, and songs which were (in my mind) inextricable parts of longer works. I also limited the selections to one per artist (in the case of songs deeply associated with that artist). The rules made the process difficult, but doable; I had to cut off almost a dozen songs from the first draft, including everything from Jesus Christ Superstar and a Bulgarian folk song I really love. What I eventually ended up with was a list of 40 twentieth-century popular songs in English, most of which (with several notable exceptions) were first recorded within my lifetime. I would’ve considered some of these (the ones marked with an asterisk) my “favorite song” at some point in my life or another; the rest are simply ones that, no matter how much time goes by, I always find myself pleased to hear (or find myself singing or humming).
These are presented in alphabetical order with minimal comment except to note the writers and (where applicable) performers I prefer, featuring a few selected videos; if I’ve mentioned the song before, I’ll link the column in which I did. And if any of you are surprised that a large fraction of these are dark and/or melancholy, you must not have been paying attention for the past three years.
Bette Davis Eyes (Donna Weiss/Jackie DeShannon; performed by Kim Carnes)
Bohemian Rhapsody* (Queen)
Born To Be Wild* (Mars Bonfire; performed by Steppenwolf)
Brown-Eyed Girl (Van Morrison) (Jeff strongly associated this one with me, so naturally it reminds me of him.)
Can’t Get it Out of My Head (Electric Light Orchestra) (I like a lot of ELO songs, especially “Turn To Stone” and “Telephone Line”, but this tale of pining edges them out.)
City of New Orleans (Steve Goodman; performed by Arlo Guthrie) (Sheer poetry set to music; one of the great American classics.)
The Cover of the Rolling Stone (Shel Silverstein; performed by Dr. Hook) (I can never hear this without smiling and singing along; just good goofy self-deprecating fun.)
Crazy On You* (Heart) (Probably my favorite rock song of all time.)
Diamonds are Forever (John Barry/Don Black; performed by Shirley Bassey) (I like “Goldfinger” a lot, too, but this one stands alone better.)
Dreaming (Blondie) (Blondie is one of my favorite bands so it’s tough to choose only one, but this would have to be it.)
Dust in the Wind* (Kansas)
Edge of Seventeen (Stevie Nicks)
Free Fallin’ (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) (Another hard choice because Tom Petty has a lot of great songs, but I think this is the one that sticks with me the most. )
Free Will (Rush) (What lover of reason and liberty could not like these lyrics? Good tune, too.)
Hazy Shade of Winter (Simon and Garfunkel) (I generally don’t like covers as much as the originals, but the Bangles version featured above is an exception.)
I Never Do Anything Twice (Stephen Sondheim) (Listen closely to the words. This is from the film The Seven Per Cent Solution.)
Istanbul (Jimmy Kennedy/Nat Simon) (I loved the original Four Lads version as a child, and was delighted when it was superbly covered by They Might Be Giants in 1990.)
The Logical Song (Supertramp)
Love Reign O’er Me (The Who) (A simple song, but one which gives me chills under the right conditions.)
Mr. Crowley (Ozzy Osbourne) (This one grew on me for years until I included it in one of my stripping routines. But I’m not a Goth, honestly.)
Mother Russia* (Renaissance)
Ode to Billie Joe (Bobbie Gentry) (Of course I love “Fancy”, but this haunting enigma of a song is one of the great ballads of the 20th century.)
Over the Rainbow (Harold Arlen/E.Y. Harburg; performed by Judy Garland)
Queen Bee (Grand Funk Railroad) (I liked it on the Heavy Metal soundtrack, and later it was Jack’s song for me.)
Real World (Matchbox 20) (One of the few songs of the 90s that inspired me to seek out the album.)
Satisfaction (The Rolling Stones)
Signs (Five Man Electrical Band) (A song which has stuck with me for decades and still pops into my head every time I see one of the ubiquitous order-and-threaten placards that deface this entire country.)
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes (Jerome Kern/Otto Harbach; performed by The Platters)
Stairway to Heaven (Led Zeppelin) (In case you missed it, Heart did an amazing cover of this song a few months ago.)
25 or 6 to 4 (Chicago) (I’m not really a big Chicago fan, but this is an old favorite I still enjoy.)
Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad (Jim Steinman; performed by Meat Loaf) (It was extremely hard to pick a favorite Jim Steinman/Meat Loaf song, but this one captures the typical spirit of their oeuvre in a relatively short tune with memorable lyrics.)
Veteran of the Psychic Wars* (Michael Moorcock; performed by Blue Oyster Cult) (My favorite Blue Oyster Cult song is just about a tie; though this I considered this one my favorite for several years, “Don’t Fear the Reaper” is extremely close to it and contains my favorite single line in all of rock, “The door was open and the wind appeared”.)
Vienna (Billy Joel)
Werewolves of London* (Warren Zevon) (A great song from a unique artist, and one of the greatest first lines in rock history.)
What a Wonderful World (Bob Thiele/George Weiss; performed by Louis Armstrong) (Louis Armstrong. ‘Nuff said.)
What’s Up? (4 Non Blondes) (This is almost tied with about half of the album from which it comes, especially “Spaceman”; it’s really a shame the group fell apart so quickly.)
Wheel in the Sky (Journey)
While My Guitar Gently Weeps (The Beatles) (You know what I said about the difficulty of picking one song for several of the choices above? Multiply that by six. I featured this one because it’s badly underrated, but “Eleanor Rigby” is a work of art and I couldn’t exclude it; see the rare 1966 video below.)
Windmills of Your Mind* (Michel Legrand/Alan & Marilyn Bergman; performed by Noel Harrison) (This was my favorite song when I was 11 or 12; it’s from the movie The Thomas Crown Affair.)
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald (Gordon Lightfoot) (Yes, another one about death; I’m sure you’re shocked.)
You feckin’ geek! LOL – I’m really not laughing since I have all their albums and listen to them all the time – and always have. You heard “Zoom” right? Which is, I believe, their (his) last album.
Speaking of ELO – about ten years ago Jeff Lynne made a video concert of old songs and some new stuff off “Zoom”. It featured a backup singer … Rosie Vela … who is the most beautiful 50 year old PLUS woman I’ve ever seen. I think she was 52 when she did this …
Also – when you’re as old as me and your old girlfriends from High School, College, or wherever contact you on FaceBook – good advice is to NOT friend them. Don’t look at their FB page and whatever you do – don’t look at their photos! Ninety-nine percent of the time – they’ll only spoil your memories of them because they didn’t age as well as ROSIE VELLA did!
Showdown 1973 is also very good and has the quality of background music during the climax scene of an action/adventure movie.
You are going to have problems when the BBC invites you on Desert Island Discs because they only allow you to take 8 discs; and at the end you have to choose one of these eight 😉
I commend the following to your attention:
Vertical Horizon; “Everything You Want”; strikes my ear as a song about growing out of worshiping pop-idols, and how scary that period can be.
Stan Rogers; “”Northwest Passage”, “Mary Ellen Carter”
Archie Fisher; “Witch of the Westmoreland” – also recorded by Stan Rogers and Barbara Dickson. I know it from a small press type CD by an SF fandom folk group called Clam Chowder.
Yes; “The Calling”; about the spreading of literacy in the third world by first world volunteers. Some strong Christian overtones and symbolism, but the work IS being done largely by Christian missionaries. In some cases they are actually creating written versions of local languages.
P!nk; “U+Ur Hand”; Rude and vulgar; but I love a young lady whose attitude to young men (I remember being one) is “I’m not here for your entertainment, you don’t really want to mess with me tonight.”. I married somebody like that. She was my best friend, and almost 30 years later she’s STILL my best friend.
My attitude is a little different; it’s “I can be here for your entertainment, but it’s going to cost you quite a bit.” 😉
I liked the S&G Hazy and for some reason it seemed alot like California Dreaming from the Mamas and the Papas. Loved City of New Orleans and used that along with S&G’s Bridge over Troubled Water to illustrate to my Dad – aclassical music aficionado – that some current music was worthy of the name. Big fan of ELO, thought Bohemian Rhapsody was as evocative as anything Liszt did, even without the lyrics. I was fascinated by Eleanor Rigby, portraying the lot of those people hardly seen while here and unremembered when gone.
In the Mood, Moonlight Cocktail, Chattanooga Choo-Choo and many others of that era.
Eleanor Rigby is a bit too close to describing my life. When I die, not only will no one care, odds are that no one will notice. Society has not changed for the better over these last two generations.
I’ll just mention out how long it’s been since water fountains marked WHITE and COLORED have been in fashion and then go on with my life.
Anybody who (also) lists Istanbul as one of their all time favorite songs would be an instant favorite of mine, if they weren’t already. Your top songs list has a pretty amazing overlap with the slower side of mine. You’re right about Heart, nobody can cover Zepplin like they do, although Barracuda is probably my favorite from them (Maybe because it was my first…)
Why have I never seen that Eleanor Rigby video before? I’ve even looked up lists of all the official music videos from the Beatles, and I’ve never seen that one listed.
I love ELO, but your choices would be way down on my list.
None of the places I’ve done karaoke have ever had Windmills Of Your Mind. I don’t understand it. They have lots of more obscure songs. Windmills was immensely popular at one time– it’s considered a classic. And I’ve got the right voice for it. It drives me crazy.
I sang this for karaoke. The advantage is that if I don’t sound just like the original, well did anybody expect me to?
I did the dance, too.
The title, “I Never Do Anything Twice” reminds me of something you might like, “I’ll Try Anything Once”. It was redone by The Strokes as “You Only Live Once”, and recently covered by Haim. But my favorite version is the original demo with Julian singing softly over Nick’s keyboards: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcze-UD1D4w
Continuing my effort to outdo Pandora. If you are going to listen to prog, you have to listen to Yes. And no need to bother with the accessible 7 minute pieces, just try “And You and I” and “Close to the Edge”.
Slowly catching up on e-mail. I f you want a treat, listen to the Crusaders perform “Elanor Rigby” on their live album “Scratch.” Very different, very hauting.
I like several of these myself. There’s a couple I even carry around on the ol’ .mp3 player.
The ELO song is a little Beatle-esque in spots, and not just because it has cellos (though that adds to it of course).
Suzanna Hoff’s eyes. OMG. ‘Nuff said.
007 songs tend to be good. Won’t say there haven’t been ANY clunkers, but they tend to be good. So much so that the animated TV series ReBoot gave us this. It immediately followed a dramatic chase on skies which ended in a fall over a cliff, of course.
“Free Will” isn’t exactly the same song as “Limelight,” but it almost is. I knew I’d heard it somewhere.
I’ve always liked “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)” and that was before I really understood that they were the same city. In fact, this song is how I learned that.
I still will sometimes say that something is or isn’t “beautiful, wonderful, magical.”
Laura is the biggest Who fan I know, and she’s taught me a lot about them and other bands too. This is different than what I usually think of when I think of the Who, and yeah, it’s a good’un.
I remember “Mother Russia” from the earlier post, yes. Neither love nor hate. The girl can sure sing, though.
Hard to go wrong with the Platters. I even have a Tracy story with them.
Didn’t Moorcock write Elric of Melnibone? Maybe another Moorcock?
I’m about to go have lunch with Laura, and then grocery shopping. That a hot date these days. 😉
I’ll finish up either at her place or back home Sunday night or Monday.
Sorry Sailor, Laura is only one of the biggest who fans you know. I’ll be happy to challenge her to singing songs from John Entwhistle’s solo albums, two falls out three, as well as the Who’s first mini Opera “A Quick One ‘While He’s Away.'”
“While my Guitar Gently Weeps,” possibly the best guitar riffs ever done by Clapton. Prince pulls off a perfect homage when Harrison was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo act.
“Edmund Fitzgerald.” May be the saddest song in rock history. When I start singing it to myself, I know I’m in for a bout of major depression. “The legend lives on, from the Chippewa on down, of the big lake they call Gitcheegoomie…”
In all fairness, I do know her a little better. 😉
Well yes, you do. But I did see every Who concert in the Denver area from 1976 up until Entwhistle’s death except the last–in late 1999–which was right after my breakdown.
“Laugh and say I’m green,
I’ve seen things you,ve never seen,
Talk behind my back,
I’m off the beaten track.
I’ll take on anyone, ain’t scared of a bloody nose;
Drink til I drop down, with one eye on my clothes.
Dr. Jimmy, Mr. Jim,
When I’m pilled you don’t notice him;
He only comes out when I drink my gin.”
Dr. Jimmy (John’s Theme), Quadrophenia
I think you two have something to talk about.
I believe you are correct.
Well heck; there’s only a few left. I think I can do it!
Billy Joel gets a lot of crap from some people, and I don’t know why. He’s very talented.
My friend Mandy, whom I haven’t seen in years, introduced me to “Werewolves of London.” It was an instant like.
Laura likes Journey, and so do I, but it’s my younger sister who is the HUGE Journey fan. So I know more of their songs than I aught to lol. Hey Laura, check out the video with its ancient astronauts theme.
What if the Beatles were Irish?
“The Windmills of Your Mind” is almost like a psychedelic song, but softer. I had read the title somewhere, but don’t think I’d actually heard it before. It’s pretty good, but I wouldn’t want to hear it frequently. I would like to hear it from time to time, though.
“The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” is a good song, with a sound that sticks with you. I like “Sundown” better myself. He was quite the talent.
OK, it’s the comments I’ll look over tonight or tomorrow. I’d like to thank you for letting me in on a few songs I didn’t know. Now, I really do have to get.