Can You Top This?
K-Earth 101, an oldies station, counts down the top 350 songs of all time every Memorial Day weekend. It makes for good listening, but can be pretty annoying. Why? Well, you'll hear some song like, say, "Ticket To Ride," and they'll rate it #171, or something like that. And from that point on, every song you hear, you say to yourself, "This is better than 'Ticket To Ride'?"
posted by LAGuy @ 12:30 AM
6 Comments:
HUM...Ticket to Ride # 171. Yeah, that's about right. That means that in the great scheme of rock/pop music there is a lot of great music that is better than this particular song. Well, as much as I love the Beatles, I don't think the Beatles deserve the top slot, but it's impossible to think of rock and roll without the Beatles being in 5 of of 10 top spots. The other 5 should be the Stones.
I have to admit that I stopped listening to these countdowns in the late 70s/early 80s on local radio stations because it always came down to "Stairway To Heaven" "Freebird" "Roundabout" and "Layla" (I think there was big anti-Beatles reaction at that point- "Let It Be" may have been in the top 10)-obviously this was the era of appreciating portentous loooong meaningful rock songs in the AOR format. (5 years later however, I am informed that these contests embraced the pop side and Michael Jackson starting winning) Years later those songs are not as horrible as I recall, but none belong in the top 20.
I hope LA GUY will inform us of #1-5 (I'm guessing something by Nirvana)
Anon #1: I used "Ticket To Ride" as an example--I'm not sure where it ranked (if at all). #171 was actually "Hold On, I'm Coming." I do know that "Can't By Me Love" was #161 and certainly that can't be right.
Anon#2: Sorry, I didn't stick around to hear the whole list. If you want to find out, you can go to the K-Earth 101 website.
However, since they play oldies, not classic rock, I don't think any of the songs you mention will even be on the list.
I recall the backlash when a certain blogger shared his complete ranking of Beatles recordings, placing "Ticket to Ride" at #1. Even among Beatles fans and experts, nobody can come to concensus on the "best" song, so you can imagine how much more difficult it becomes to do a ranking when you open the field up to all rock/pop songs ever recorded. It's completely subjective.
I myself will give you a different answer on any given day about which Beatles song is my own favorite, depending on my mood. I get heat for naming "Revolver" as my favorite Beatles album, and not "Sgt. Pepper" or the "white" album.
Many times those radio station countdowns are just a list of top-selling or most-requested singles, for either the listening area or the nation (like Billboard).
my boyfriend and i were driving around all weekend and caught more than half of the countdown in snippets. often, we'd look at each other in disbelief about how things were ranked. we were surprised that neither The Beach Boys nor The Beatles cracked the top ten. regardless, it was a pretty comprehensive list even if we didn't agree on the order.
This is anon #2 again-I don't know what makes something an oldie vs. classic rock - they're are plenty of songs on the list that could be called classic rock (NOTE highest Beatles was "Hey Jude" at #12 although John Lennon got #4 with "Imagine".) No Michael Jackson but plenty of Jackson 5. Sorry didn't see "Ticket to Ride" on a cursory glance
I will take it that lack of the offending titles in the list means that taste has improved since 1978 (or that all that all those guys who made the old lists are out at the country club nowadays instead of listening to the radio)
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