[Music] Rolling Stone Top 500 Songs (Updated Edition)

[Archinerd]

356 - Cheap Trick - "Surrender" - If I hadn't already talked about Guitar Hero, this is where I would have done it. Yet another track I found and played repeatedly through that game. I never realized it was about a kid catching his mom and dad making out though. Ewww.

I only know that because it was featured on an episode of Song Exploder over the summer.

[Dramatist]

356 - Cheap Trick - "Surrender" - If I hadn't already talked about Guitar Hero, this is where I would have done it. Yet another track I found and played repeatedly through that game. I never realized it was about a kid catching his mom and dad making out though. Ewww

This is one of my all time favorite rock songs and would make my personal top 500. I’m also not a great singer but I like to sing karaoke and this is a favorite to sing karaoke because it is a crowd pleaser.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Jeff V]

365 - Sex Pistols - "God Save the Queen" - Man, the Sex Pistols REALLY hated the queen, didn't they? I feel like every Sex Pistols song I've ever heard is them being pissed off at royalty.

Funny because on prior lists, "Nevermind the Bollocks" was listed as a top-5 album of all time by Rolling Stone.

I suppose it's different when grading songs on their own merit, as opposed to the cultural effect an entire album might have had. The Sex Pistols were a major influence on the punk rock scene, probably accomplishing more than anyone to thrust it into the limelight (even if it was largely in a negative light).

[YellowKing]

350 - John Prine - "Angel From Montgomery" - I feel like one of my biggest gaps in musical knowledge might be John Prine. It's particularly surprising given how much I'm into 1970s singer-songwriters. I really didn't listen to anything of his until his death last year, and realized I'd missed out on one of the greats. "How the hell can a person go to work in the morning, then come home in the evening and have nothing to say?" Damn, that hits a bit close to home.

349 - The Zombies - "Time of the Season" - This is my #1 favorite song from the 1960s. Period. And that's all I have to say about that.

348 - Roxy Music - "Virginia Plain" - Not one I'm overly familiar with. I believe there was a Roxy Music album on the Top 500 Albums list, but that's probably my only exposure to them. Kind of ambivalent on this track.

347 - Elvis Presley - "Heartbreak Hotel" - Pulp Fiction taught us that there are Beatles people and Elvis people, and I've always been a Beatles person. However, I totally recognize his appeal and his influence, and have made my kids learn who he was. I've dressed as Elvis a couple of Halloween and it's always been a huge hit even though I look nothing like him. To the point of random people coming up to get pictures. Just goes to show his appeal has never died.

346 - BTS - "Dynamite" - It feels a bit weird to have a song this recent on the Top 500. However, I can't argue with its pure pop perfection. For the longest time I didn't realize this was by the South Korean group. I knew who BTS was from pop culture references and their dolls in Target, but I couldn't name a song by them. When I realized they performed this I was like, "Ohhhh...that's why they're so popular." And I'm too old to care what people think of my opinion of mainstream pop music. If it's catchy, it's catchy, and I don't care who knows it.

345 - Carole King - "It's Too Late" - I love Carole King and this is one of my favorites of hers. In my favorite genre of 1970s singer-songwriters I tend to gravitate towards the male singers more, but she's one of the ones I could listen to as much as the fellas.

344 - Black Sabbath - "Iron Man" - I've never been much of a metal head. I dabbled in Metallica, I had a very brief stint with Iron Maiden, and other than that I could name the number of complete metal albums I listened to regularly on one hand. Black Sabbath's Paranoid was an exception. I listened to this album a lot in college for some reason.

343 - The Doobie Brothers - "What a Fool Believes" - Now we're talking my lane. I know there are a lot of people that hate yacht rock stuff like this but I absolutely love it. My brother and I have a friend Biggie who is a fairly well known chef in Nashville, and he told us that he had this regular customer of his that he got to know really well. One day as the guy walked out, his friend says, "OMG do you know who that was?" Biggie is like, "Yeah that was Mike." The friend says, "That was MICHAEL MCDONALD!" And Biggie is like "and....?" He had no clue about The Doobie Brothers or that "Mike" was in a huge band and one of the greatest background vocalists of all time.

342 - Chuck Berry - "Promised Land" - I love this one because it talks about Berry traveling through Raleigh and Charlotte, two cities this NC boy is extremely familiar with.

341 - The Monkees - "I'm a Believer" - There was a period of time when I was much younger that The Monkees show was airing around the same time I was in front of the TV, so I wound up watching it quite a bit. That was probably my first exposure to them, though later in life when I went through my 1960s period I explored their discography pretty thoroughly. Also reminds me of a great dad joke: "My wife told me to stop singing The Monkees. At first I thought she was kidding.....<sings>"then I saw her face."

[Madmarcus]

436 - Carly Rae Jepsen - "Call Me Maybe" -

This is Exhibit A as to why I thought it was so strange that “Welcome to the Jungle” was so low on the list.

I get that this song is outside my musical wheelhouse, but it what possible universe is this a better song or had more overall impact than “Welcome to the Jungle”?

Neither song is really in my wheelhouse in that they both belong to periods in my life when current music wasn't a big deal to me. From that perspective they seem to be about the same. Really I think of WttJ as a pretty generic intro song for athletes and sports talk radio. Does either one deserve to be in a top 500 list? Not for me but it's not my list.

[Archinerd]

348 - Roxy Music - "Virginia Plain" - Not one I'm overly familiar with. I believe there was a Roxy Music album on the Top 500 Albums list, but that's probably my only exposure to them. Kind of ambivalent on this track.

I've been Roxy Music adjacent for quite some time, and as part of my pandemic lifestyle coping mechanisms I have been buying old music. Last week I bought two of their albums, "Siren" and "Avalon". This song isn't on either one, but I bet you'll come across at least one more song of theirs further up this list.

Spoiler:

Love is the Drug

[YellowKing]

340 - The Clash - "(White Man) in Hammersmith Palais" - Cue the Dos Equis guy meme: "I don't always listen to punk music, but when I do I listen to The Clash." Listened to some of their stuff during the Top 500 albums challenge and they emerged as my favorite punk band to come out of the '70s.

339 - Prince - "1999" - I remember listening to this as a kid and thinking that 1999 seemed so far away. I also remember blasting it on New Year's Eve before 2000 while we all waited for the electronic apocalypse. While it finally dated itself, it's still a great track and one of my favorite Prince songs.

338 - Black Sabbath - "Paranoid" - This is probably the first Black Sabbath song I ever heard, and is a much better song than Iron Man. Also the first time I heard Ozzy.

337 - Cher - "Believe" - Oh man, I remember so clearly when this song blew up. And I'm not going to lie. I thought that auto-tune was the coolest shit ever. However, it wasn't long until the radio beat it into the ground, and this is why we can't have nice things.

336 - Hall and Oates - "She's Gone" - Being such 1980s staples, it's hard to believe Hall & Oates first released this song in 1973. I was a huge Hall and Oates fan as a kid and still am today. They were one of the first artists that I really recognized as individuals - when I was a kid I thought all music came from the same man or woman. So I've always associated Hall and Oates with that time when I hit about six years old and realized they were all unique artists. At any given time you can find me listening to Hall and Oates - they've never really been outside my orbit since I was 6. Lyrically this song doesn't get enough credit (or maybe it does, since it's now on this list). I've always loved the line "I need a drink and a quick decision." Words to live by.

335 - Marshall Jefferson - "Move Your Body (The House Music Anthem)" - 7 1/2 minute plea to move your body. Way too repetitive and typical-80s-club-dancy for my tastes, but it sounds like one of those songs that was sampled a million times so maybe that's why it's on here.

334 - The Grateful Dead - "Ripple" - Ah here it is. As mentioned, my favorite Grateful Dead song, hands down. "There is a road, no simple highway, between the dawn and the dark of night, and if you go, no one may follow, that path is for your steps alone." If there has ever been a more beautiful summary of what the journey of life is, I don't know what it is.

333 - The Temptations - "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" - Definitely not the first song I think of when I hear The Temptations, as this one came out in 1972, well after the hits they're best known for. It's been covered many times, but this 6+ minute version sounds like it was ripped straight off a blaxploitation film soundtrack.

332 - Rihanna featuring Jay-Z - "Umbrella" - I remember the first time I heard this song. I was reading a magazine (probably Entertainment Weekly, and they were talking about the hottest songs of the summer, and this was listed. And I was thinking, "WTF, I've never even heard it. How can this be the most popular song of the summer?" I guess I just got lucky and managed to dodge it. I say lucky, because it never got a chance to wear itself out with me and I dug it. Rihanna is another one of those artists that I don't seek out, but pretty much every single she releases I like in some form or fashion.

331 - The Marvelettes - "Please Mr. Postman" - I've already expressed my love for girl groups. Another classic track from a classic girl group and as Rolling Stone tells me, the first #1 Motown recording. Neat!

[YellowKing]

330 - The Notorious B.I.G. - "Big Poppa" - One of the most West Coast-sounding East Coast rap songs of all time. I remember using the phrase "I love it when you call me Big Poppa" in random and probably inappropriate situations a lot when this song came out. True classic, though.

329 - Bad Bunny - "Safaera" - Had never heard of this artist who according to Rolling Stone released an astonishing three albums last year. To be fair it's Puerto Rican reggaeton which is going so far outside of my musical knowledge that I'm ashamed to even be writing about it. It's a crazy song, kind of shifts gears all over the place. Not really my cup of tea but it's got some really cool beats.

328 - Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Under the Bridge" - A RHCP song so smooth even my mom liked it. My brother was a Chili Peppers fan very early on, and I just kind of listened to them adjacently. It wasn't until 1991's Blood Sugar Sex Magik that I became a fan, and have been ever since. That album was truly one of the defining albums of my adolescence. One of my greatest memories of high school was an exchange student trip to Germany. We were on a train out of Berlin, and several of us had this cassette. So we all synced up and pressed play and were singing every song together. My high school days were tough, but I have nothing but good memories associated with this album.

327 - Mary J. Blige - "Real Love" - This song sounds sooooo of its time. But kind of in a good way. Mary J. can do no wrong.

326 - Rilo Kiley - "Portions for Foxes" - It's a bit strange that I missed out on Rilo Kiley during one of the periods I was probably most into indie music, but here we are. Decent song, at some point I'll have to hit their back catalog.

325 - Iggy Pop - "Lust for Life" - I did not know David Bowie co-wrote this. However, it just reminds me of that cruise line that uses this in its commercials. Now every time hear it I just see people going down a waterslide and sipping drinks on a sun deck.

324 - Billy Joel - "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant" - In college I had a good friend who was really into artists I had always considered a bit schmaltzy soft rock/adult contemporary. Billy Joel, Phil Collins, etc. He would drive around in his old Ford Fiesta playing Billy Joel's Greatest Hits over and over, and since we were always riding somewhere I listened to that album dozens of times. I came out of college with a new appreciation for those songs, and to this day I still listen to them. This song in particular has always been a bit too lengthy for my tastes, but I appreciate the ambition.

323 - Everly Brothers - "All I Have to Do is Dream" - It's funny how different songs trigger different memories from moments in your life. For this one, all I can think of is when my mom signed me up for keyboard lessons. We played this one a lot. Sure, it was basically piano lessons, but I guess it seemed a tad bit cooler. We'd go to this great local music store (same one I'd later get my Fender Strat from), and they had this room filled with all kinds of keyboards where we'd attend class. I had a blast with it, and still have a bunch of my lesson books. I never got terribly good at playing, but I think it helped me understand music and reading tablature, etc. that would be beneficial later in life when I started messing around with guitar and ukulele. Looking back I seriously don't know how my mom was able to afford those classes. I was one of those kids who never knew how poor we were.

322 - Neil Young - "After the Gold Rush" - As 70s singer-songwriters go, Neil Young actually came in kind of late for me. Outside "Heart of Gold" I didn't really listen to much by him despite my love of the era. That changed when Harvest Moon came out in 1992. Absolutely loved that album, and that kind of got me on the Neil Young kick ever after. He's still not an artist that I've really deep-dived into - I'm kind of content to stay in the mainstream waters, so I don't care about bootlegs or super deep cuts. Love this one though.

321 - U2 - "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" - U2 is the Coldplay of the 1980s for me. They're a band I absolutely loved and became obsessed with for a time, and then grew to just sort of hate. I can pretty much listen to anything Achtung Baby and before, anything after I want to destroy with fire. I also laugh because there's a YouTuber called Vinyl Junkie that absolutely fucking HATES Bono, and calls him "Bongo" and now I can't listen to a U2 song without thinking of him sneeringly calling him "Bongo".

[YellowKing]

320 - Tupac - "California Love" - Classic west coast track. I wasn't enough into the rap scene enough at the time to really be phased by Tupac's death, but tracks like this showcase why he was so important to so many.

319 - Tears for Fears - "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" - Great '80s anthem that shows up on pretty much any self-respecting '80s retrospective. Really like this one.

318 - Big Mama Thornton - "Hound Dog" - Before Elvis' version, there was this track from 1953. I'd never actually heard this version, but it's raw, powerful and pretty awesome.

317 - Bob Dylan - "Visions of Johanna" - I got into Bob Dylan during my '60s phase, but kind of stayed in the greatest hits lane. A buddy of mine that lived up the street, however, was a huge Dylan fan and introduced me to some of the deeper, lengthier cuts that wouldn't make the compilations. I found I loved those much more than his typical standards. While I left most of the 1960s artists behind once I really settled into 1970s music, Dylan was one of the few holdovers I still put on regularly. This is a favorite.

316 - The Shangri-Las - "Leader of the Pack" - You know the drill by now. 1960s girl group equals automatic like. This one has pretty much everything - great call and response vocals, motorcycle sounds (with bonus crash!), and a tragic ending.

315 - John Coltrane - "Pt. 1 - Acknowledgment" - I've already spoken of Coltrane and my brief jazz stint, so I won't rehash that here. I do love this album though.

314 - The Stooges - "I Wanna Be Your Dog" - This one's a nasty little piece of work. Raw, sinister and captivating.

313 - Smokey Robinson and the Miracles - "The Tears of a Clown" - I remember this being one of my favorite oldies as a kid. Obviously the clown imagery was part of it, but even at that young age I remember being struck by the upbeat melody coupled with the sad lyrics. Still my favorite Smokey Robinson song. Which is saying something, because he has a lot of good ones.

312 - Isaac Hayes - "Walk on By" - Could I listen to this song without picturing it being sung by Chef from South Park? No. No I could not.

311 - The Eagles - "Hotel California" - Probably #1 on my list of songs I was terrified of as a kid. In my mind, Hotel California was inhabited by vampires, and if you stopped there you were trapped there forever as their blood slave. I also always envisioned the "she" in this song as being Elvira, because at the time she was pretty much the only "scary" female I knew. I admit that to this day this song still unnerves me a bit - that childhood kindertrauma runs deep.

[Jeff V]

Damn it, YK, you're moving too fast!

re: What a Fool Believes -- Michael McDonald was sitting at a table next to us at Alpine Valley when we saw them circa 1981. I liked the older Doobie's music a lot more (which is why we were there for the concert in the first place). I still don't like this song.

re: Tears of a Clown - should be top-100

re: Hotel California - I was reading Golding's Lord of the Flies when this song was playing and during the scene in the book when the kids were stabbing the "beast" (a pig) came they lyric "they stabbed it with their steely knives but they just can't kill the beast". It was one of a "woah!" moment involving music over the years.

re: Under the Bridge - also should be higher - my favorite RHCP song, and I like a lot of their songs.

re: The Clash. The only band that matters, man. If they had the entire top-10, I wouldn't complain.

re: Lust for Life - I saw Iggy on this tour. Great song, great performance (friends of mine were too close to the stage, got spit on and left). I'd have thought this to be as high as Iggy could aspire to, but I see the Stooges rated a little higher!

re: Paranoid. The same concert I saw Iggy, I saw The Dickies, who did the most awesome speed metal version of this song (no, the Black Sabbath version is not fast enough).

re: Cher. I don't think I ever gave her the respect she deserved until this song. The power level was spot on, reminiscent of why I enjoy Grace Slick so much.

re: I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For - I like U2, but I like their anthems more than their ballads. I remember The Joshua Tree being critically acclaimed album, but only one or two songs (not this one) resonated with me.

[YellowKing]

310 - The Doors - "Light My Fire" - I was HUGE HUGE HUGE into The Doors during the latter part of high school, in large part due to Oliver Stone's movie. To the point I went back and bought every album, right down to the weird spoken word poetry one they assembled after Jim Morrison passed. I watched the movie all the time, to the point when I picture Jim Morrison in my head I see Val Kilmer's face. They're probably the one '60s band I know the most about outside The Beatles.

309 - Bill Withers - "Ain't No Sunshine" - Easily my favorite Bill Withers track. Also a favorite sing-along track due to the "I know I know I know" part - I got where I could nail that part every time.

308 - Liz Phair - "Divorce Song" - Don't know much about Liz Phair, but I dug this track. Has that great 90s indie-rock sound and interesting lyrics.

307 - Gnarls Barkley - "Crazy" - Another track that I love but wore out its welcome around the 5000th time I heard it on the radio.

306 - Aretha Franklin - "Chain of Fools" - Another classic by Aretha. I really need to go see that new biopic on her, my mom said it was really good.

305 - The Police - "Every Breath You Take" - I've always been a big fan of The Police and Sting for as far back as I can remember. It started with the greatest hits album, and then like those often do, it led me into their back catalog. My brother is an even bigger fan of Sting's solo career than me - he's got every album and has been to see him several times in concert. I think he's actually got tickets for an upcoming concert in November.

304 - Kraftwerk - "Trans-Europe Express" - I first heard Kraftwerk, appropriately enough, in Germany while I was over there for the exchange student trip I mentioned earlier. I actually got into this type of music pretty deep for a brief period (seems to be a recurring theme in my life). At one time I was listening to a lot of Brian Eno, Air, Boards of Canada, Prodigy, The Chemical Brothers, Portishead, Goldfrapp, Royksopp, LCD Soundsystem, etc. I like this track.

303 - TLC - "No Scrubs" - This song reminds me of dating my (future) wife (but I wasn't no scrub, I swear!). She stayed at her parents house at the beach on the weekends in the summer, and I'd drive down to take her out every Friday and/or Saturday. She was quite the pool player and had a pool table, so you'd often find us down there playing 9-ball and listening to TLC.

302 - Pink Floyd - "Wish You Were Here" - I fell down a deep, deep Pink Floyd rabbit hole in my early years of college. I believe this was the third album I picked up after Dark Side of the Moon (which I loved) and Piper at the Gates of Dawn (which I didn't so much). This one really blew me away though. Also the first Pink Floyd song I learned to play on guitar.

301 - Bob Seger - "Night Moves" - One of the best songs about growing up, and just chock full of great lyrics: "I wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then" might be one of the greatest lines of all time.

[YellowKing]

300 - The B-52s - "Rock Lobster" - This iteration of the B-52s was before my time, but later in high school they would be one of my most listened-to bands. I used to drive around for hours with friends listening to Cosmic Thing on repeat. My fondest mystery of this song was hanging out with a buddy of mine, his girlfriend, and my girlfriend. We were playing some silly party game where you had to do different challenges. One of them was a dance party and we had this song on going nuts. We both ended up marrying our respective partners so I guess we didn't embarrass ourselves too much.

299 - Screamin' Jay Hawkins - "I Put a Spell on You" - This song spawned what I consider the greatest lip sync performance of all time. Go look up Jimmy Slonina's lip sync of this on YouTube and thank me later.

298 - Bruce Springsteen - "Jungleland" - At times I get the feeling people who created this list just voted for the longest song they could find by any one artist. This is a 9 1/2 minute epic by the Boss. It's OK - it's the lane I like my Bruce songs in - sort of mellow and reflective. But just too long for me to want to listen to.

297 - The Beach Boys - "Wouldn't It Be Nice" - This might be my favorite Beach Boys song of all time, with the closest competition probably being "God Only Knows." While my wife and I were not as young as the couple in this song implies, we did date for 6 1/2 years before getting married. We both wanted to get our degrees and buy a house before tying the knot, so that's what we did. So this song does remind me of those early college years knowing we would one day have a family, but knowing that dream would have to wait.

296 - Bikini Kill - "Rebel Girl" - I'm not usually into girl punk bands (or really, any punk bands) but this is a fun track.

295 - The Who - "Won't Get Fooled Again" - The Who is one of those bands (like Rush) who everybody seems to like but that I've never been able to get into. I recognize their importance and their talent, I just don't really like their music to the point I want to listen to it. I did get invited to a Who concert by a vendor one time, and would have definitely gone for free, but I wound up not being able to make the date.

294 - The Velvet Underground - "Sweet Jane" - My first exposure to this song was the Cowboy Junkies cover, which I loved. However, I got into The Velvet Underground a bit and finally got to hear the original and loved it just as much. The original is a very different song though, feels much more upbeat.

293 - Alice Cooper - "School's Out" - I remember first seeing this song on The Muppet Show and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. A grown-up singing about not going to school. And the school blows up??? How rebellious! I don't know how Alice Cooper manages to ride the fine line between being cool and being totally campy, but God bless him for having the guts to do so.

292 - A Tribe Called Quest - "Can I Kick It?" - Not sure how you fail to clear a sample as recognizable as Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side," but for this track it cost A Tribe Called Quest all writing credits and proceeds (thanks Rolling Stone for the trivia). I had a very brief stint with some of the more laidback groups like Arrested Development and A Tribe Called Quest, but it was *very* brief.

291 - Phil Collins - "In the Air Tonight" - Best drum fill of all time? Yes. I absolutely adore this song. I'd always liked it, but I don't think I ever appreciated it until I got to be an adult and realized the utter anguish behind the words. This song gets a lot of play in my house, and I make everybody freeze while I air drum the drum fill - I will literally stop my wife mid-conversation (she rolls her eyes every time). Listen to this song on a good pair of headphones sometime. Oh my God. Pure perfection. Should have been way higher on the list. P.S. This song once started a heated debate at work on whether Phil was saying "Oh lord" or "Hold on".

[Jeff V]

re: Phil Collins -- while he is going to be participating in Genesis upcoming tour, he will not be playing drums. Seems he's physically incapable of doing so now.

re: Rock Lobster -- ah, memories. There was one time we got the DJ at a disco to play it for us...six of us jumped up on the stage and danced to it...shocking the crowd into a stunned silence (and great applause...because we were done? Or because it was good? Who could say). Then a friend had it played at his wedding...and at the climax of the "down...down" portion of the song, were were all on the floor, mopping up the dust with our tuxedoes.

re: Won't Get Fooled Again - always the climax of a Who concert, when i first saw them, it was the first time I saw a laser light show in person. I love this song.

re: School's Out - wasn't always an Alice Cooper friend, but I became one when the aforementioned friend (see Rock Lobster) blasted this repeatedly at his high school graduation party. I then dated a huge fan of his (it really pissed off her Baptist parents) for 2 years. But I really grew to respect him when he stepped outside of his persona...he used to be on the radio a lot when he lived in Chicago, he did well on Celebrity Jeopardy!, was a decent actor and golfer. And I think he's playing a concert here soon (or just did).

[Archinerd]

329 - Bad Bunny - "Safaera" - Had never heard of this artist who according to Rolling Stone released an astonishing three albums last year. To be fair it's Puerto Rican reggaeton which is going so far outside of my musical knowledge that I'm ashamed to even be writing about it. It's a crazy song, kind of shifts gears all over the place. Not really my cup of tea but it's got some really cool beats.

I was introduced to Bad Bunny via an episdoe of This American Life. At the start of the pandemic, you did a mobile concert through the streets of New York City. You could hear people screaming with excitement as he made his way along the route, and I just kept think, "who is Bad Bunny?"
We must have been living under the same rock.

291 - Phil Collins - "In the Air Tonight" - Best drum fill of all time? Yes. I absolutely adore this song. I'd always liked it, but I don't think I ever appreciated it until I got to be an adult and realized the utter anguish behind the words. This song gets a lot of play in my house, and I make everybody freeze while I air drum the drum fill - I will literally stop my wife mid-conversation (she rolls her eyes every time). Listen to this song on a good pair of headphones sometime. Oh my God. Pure perfection. Should have been way higher on the list. P.S. This song once started a heated debate at work on whether Phil was saying "Oh lord" or "Hold on".

I used to sing this song ironically all the time because I thought it was funny. Phil Collins is lame, amiright? Jokes on me, I love this song.

[YellowKing]

290 - Usher featuring Lil Jon and Ludacris - "Yeah!" - When Dave Chapelle used this song to make fun of Lil Jon "OKAYYY YEAHHHHH" it cracked me and my buddy up so much that nearly every exchange involved YEAH.....OKAYYYYY! We really beat that dead horse. I can't listen to this song without picturing Dave Chapelle on the phone as Lil Jon. It's just completely ruined for me in the best way.

289 - Bruce Springsteen - "Atlantic City" - Now THIS is the Bruce Springsteen I love. This is one of the best tracks off an already stellar album. I listen to Nebraska a lot - it's easily one of my favorite late-night chill out albums.

288 - The Funky 4+1 - "That's the Joint" - According to Rolling Stone, Funky 4 + 1 never made an album and broke up after performing their second single on SNL. Whooops. I will have to say this song sounds about 10 years more advanced than its 1980 debut. Minus an occasional bit of stilted rhyming, it truly sounds like some of the stuff that was coming out in the early 90s. Also why the hell did these early rap songs have to be like 9 minutes long. Jesus.

287 - AC/DC - "You Shook Me All Night Long" - My wife, on the surface, is very sweet, very mild-mannered. She's one of those folks people will tell their whole life story because she has a very calming nature about her. But put some AC/DC on and stand the fuck back because she has a wild side. I've seen her go from "school librarian" type to standing on the table knocking back tequila shots party girl when this band comes on. Her ringtone for as long as she's had a smartphone has been "Highway to Hell." This song was covered by Shania Twain in what I'm convinced is the worst cover of any song by anyone ever. Period. Go look it up, but don't say I didn't warn you.

286 - ABBA - "Dancing Queen" - This is the first ABBA song I ever remember hearing, and I pretty much dismissed it as tripe for a long time. Then I went through my disco phase (yeah, I even had one of those), and started exploring ABBA, Bee Gees, etc. That's when I kind of grew to love them, and by extension a bunch of other Nordic artists.

285 - Destiny's Child - "Say My Name" - I wasn't into Destiny's Child that much, we were a TLC household (see #303 "No Scrubs"). But I like this track.

284 - Leonard Cohen - "Suzanne" - I was typically heavily influenced by friends when it came to music, at least until I hit college. I rarely sought out stuff on my own, just waited for a recommendation from someone else. I had a good friend who was a huge Leonard Cohen fan, and he tried to turn me on to him a couple of times. For whatever reason I just never dug any further. I love this song, I love Cohen's version. And yet here I am still not digging into his discography. At some point I really need to get off my ass and do so.

283 - Ray Charles - "Georgia on My Mind" - Any song with Georgia in the title has romantic connotations for me. Before I was married I had a huge crush on a Georgia peach girl next door that had that great accent. Many years later I would wind up marrying another Georgia peach, my wife who was also originally from the state. I do love those Georgia girls. Driving through the state sucks though (sorry Georgia).

282 - INXS - "Never Tear Us Apart" - If this song comes on and you try to turn it, my wife might literally kill you. I've never been brave enough to test it. Seriously though, this is a huge favorite of ours. We were both big INXS fans growing up. This might be second only to "Brass in Pocket" in terms of songs my wife and I instantly just drop everything to listen to.

281 - Clipse - "Grindin" - Leave it to Pharrell to impossibly craft something with a hook out of nothing but drums and the sparsest beat ever. Still, I question how this, in any universe, would be ranked higher than some of the other classics we've seen. I'm sure it's not the last injustice we're going to see, though.

[YellowKing]

280 - The Beatles - "Penny Lane" - If the White Album was the album that introduced me to The Beatles, Magical Mystery Tour may be the album that cemented my fandom. After falling in love with the White Album, I just started working my way backwards and bought Magical Mystery Tour as my next record. I vaguely recognized this song from its occasional appearance on the radio, but I could not get enough of it after my slide into full-blown Beatles fanboy.

279 - Radiohead - "Karma Police" - I was somewhat familiar with Radiohead from Pablo Honey, but had not listened to anything else by them. Then the critics started weighing in on OK Computer and I grew insanely curious. The "Creep" guys made this masterpiece of a record? Really? So I bought it on blind trust, never having heard a single track. And I remember lying on my bed listening to the entire album in one sitting and being absolutely dumbstruck. I watched one of those YouTube videos a few weeks ago where someone listens to a famous piece of music for the first time, and the guy got halfway through the album and just started crying. It's an intense album, and actually seems more relevant today than it did in 1997.

278 - Toots and the Maytals - "Pressure Drop" - Like I mentioned before, reggae is one genre where I feel pretty damn weak in. I really haven't gone back and listened to a lot of the classics like this one, but I love what I hear.

277 - Bo Diddley - "Bo Diddley" - Important song for establishing the Bo Diddley beat per Rolling Stone. This goes a bit too far back for my tastes - really have never listed to much 50s music outside of early Elvis. Weirdly enough, however, if you skip back to the 1940s and Big Band stuff you get back into an era I know a bit more about thanks to my grandparents collection of records I used to listen to.

276 - Buzzcocks - "Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)" - I really should give this band a listen - they fit right into that perfect blend of punk and pop that I really like. This is a great track.

275 - Randy Newman - "Sail Away" - I'm generally not a big fan of Randy Newman's vocals, and maybe it's because my first exposure to him was Toy Story. So all of his songs now sound to me like they belong on a Pixar soundtrack. I know that's not fair, because this is a pretty genius song. But I can't shake the image of this guy being your talented uncle that always has to sing a song on the piano when he comes over for a family gathering.

274 - Al Green - "Love and Happiness" - I'm pretty sure I first heard Al Green (or at least paid attention to him) on the Pulp Fiction soundtrack. That led me down the path of seeking out his stuff occasionally through the years. This song is deceptive in that it starts out sounding like some typical Al Green love song then turns into this funky upbeat number. Pretty great.

273 - Roberta Flack - "Killing Me Softly With His Song" - I think it's kind of weird that they put this on the list after putting the Fugees version on the same list, but whatever. I've long since stopped assigning logic to this thing. As much as I love Lauryn Hill's take on it, Roberta Flack's version is the GOAT. Somewhere along the line I had heard this song was about Don McLean before reading Rolling Stone's trivia, but if you didn't know then there it is.

272 - Thin Lizzy - "The Boys Are Back in Town" - Maybe I've just seen it used in one too many movies, but this song just comes off so relentlessly cheesy that I have a hard time taking it seriously. All I can picture is a gang of dude bros getting out of a car and putting on sunglasses as they walk in slow motion with a beach in the background.

271 - Procol Harum - "Whiter Shade of Pale" - This is such as weird song. Not only that it's set to a Bach piece, but the lyrics are so dream-like and surreal. This song has always made me uneasy between the funeral-esque organ, lyrics about feeling sick and pale, etc. Great song but so bizarre.

[LordMortis]

277 - Bo Diddley - "Bo Diddley" - Important song for establishing the Bo Diddley beat per Rolling Stone. This goes a bit too far back for my tastes - really have never listed to much 50s music outside of early Elvis. Weirdly enough, however, if you skip back to the 1940s and Big Band stuff you get back into an era I know a bit more about thanks to my grandparents collection of records I used to listen to.

You are dead to me. Back when media was a thing, I collected versions of "Who Do You Love" and the Bo Diddley beat is one of the greatest musical hooks ever. I mean you can even hand jive to some Trent Rezor. (He kept throwing stuff at us for hand jiving at the first lollapalloza, Good times.)

Spoiler:

[YellowKing]

270 - Nine Inch Nails - "Closer" - I was really into Nine Inch Nails in 1994, and The Downward Spiral was constantly playing. Which is kind of funny because I was about as far away from fucking anything like an animal as you could get. I had Nine Inch Nail shirts, I wore a lot of black. I wasn't goth but this was about as close as I got.

269 - The Righteous Brothers - "Unchained Melody" - Simon Cowell's favorite song, as he never failed to point out on American Idol. I've never really gotten the craze over this song, which I think started with the Ghost soundtrack. I'm not a huge fan of that movie either so maybe that's part of it.

268 - The Isley Brothers - "Shout (Parts 1 and 2)" - Party staple and part of one of the best scenes in Animal House. Yeah, I guess this does belong on the list somewhere.

267 - Drake featuring Rihanna - "Take Care" - I like Drake and Rihanna just fine, but honestly this song just sounds like one of dozens of Drake-like songs on the radio. Better than Unchained Melody? Better than Penny Lane? Ok, whatever.

266 - Augustus Pablo - "King Tubby Meets the Rockers Uptown" - This seems less like a song and more like a filler track intermission on an album, but OK. I don't know enough about reggae to understand its importance so I'll leave it to the experts.

265 - The Replacements - "Left of the Dial" - I don't really know much at all about these guys, but I like this song alright. Though if you'd asked me to guess when it came out, I'd have pegged it at about a decade later than its 1985 debut.

264 - Marvin Gaye - "Let's Get It On" - This song has been forever ruined for me due to an incident that happened at work (but in a hilarious way). At work there was a group of co-workers that were big music lovers, so we'd send each other YouTube links of various songs throughout the day that we liked, and have kind of a group listening party, comment on the songs, etc. One day one of my co-workers (female) accidentally sent the link to this song to our project manager (male) instead of to the group. She came to me mortified asking if there was any way to "recall it." Um no, it was a Skype IM, and he saw it instantly. He never said anything about it and never replied, but I'm sure he probably saw her in a different light after that day.

263 - Dolly Parton - "Coat of Many Colors" - I'm a big Dolly Parton fan and always have been since I was a kid. That fandom became even bigger as I got older and learned of her philanthropy. I've got pictures of myself with the replica of the coat on display at Dollywood.

262 - Paul Simon - "American Tune" - I remember when I was in my teens riding with my mom late at night on a road trip to Florida, and "Scarborough Fair" came on the radio. I had heard the song before but didn't really know who sang it, so I asked my mom. She then proceeded to educate me on Simon & Garfunkel, who she had seen in concert back in their prime. This, along with the song, fascinated me so much that I bought the complete Simon & Garfunkel studio albums. Sometime later I branched out into Paul's solo work, grabbing his wonderful 1964-1993 boxed set which served as a wonderful overview of his work up to that point. I can't even begin to count how many times I listened to that set.

261 - Curtis Mayfield - "Pusherman" - Ooooh I remember this one from Superfly. The epitome of cool.

[Jeff V]

When Closer came out, I was a moderator in the AOL chat rooms. It was possible to circulate a sound clip and invoke it with a tag, something like #closer that might trigger a clip to the tune of "I want to fuck you like an animal." AOL aggressively punished people invoking this sound bite, until it was pointed out the target could be anything, say, "Closer to the Heart" by Rush. AOL admitted defeat and the persecution stopped. (FTR, I never enforced it...my chat room had a few NiN fans from Detroit and they became personal friends as well).

[YellowKing]

260 - The Wailers - "Get Up, Stand Up" - I've already talked about Legend and how ubiquitous it was on my college campus in the early 90s, so I won't rehash it here. Yet another classic track from a classic album that I can barely listen to these days because I got so burned out on it.

259 - Neil Young - "Heart of Gold" - I've been to a lot of concerts, but hearing that first harmonica note as Neil Young performed Heart of Gold at Farm Aid ranks right up there with one of the best. If I had to do it all over again, however, I'd have skipped the multiple craft beers I had before that performance. Yikes.

258 - Gil-Scott Heron - "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" - I had never heard this one but wow is it a powerful track. Sort of a spoken word poem over a nice 70s groove, but aside from the dated television program references, still feels relevant today.

257 - Martha Reeves and the Vandellas - "Heat Wave" - Oh look another girl group. Automatic like. I remember as a kid not being able to hear the term "heat wave" on the weather without thinking of this song.

256 - Metallica - "Master of Puppets" - One of the criticisms of the Black Album is that it's where Metallica seemingly lost their edge. While I absolutely love that album, there's no denying that their earliest stuff had an anger to it that I never really saw again. I remember diving into Metallica's back catalog after the Black Album and being absolutely blown away. Love this track.

255 - Loretta Lynn - "Coal Miner's Daughter" - Absolutely love this one. My grandparents listened to a lot of classic country, is where I first heard artists like Loretta Lynn. I also remember watching the movie as a kid, which kind of sparked my Sissy Spacek fandom.

254 - The Supremes - "Stop! In the Name of Love" - Weirdly as big a fan as I am of 1960s girl groups, The Supremes have never been one of my favorites despite them being one of the biggest acts. It seems like I gravitate towards the ones that were more one-hit or two-hit wonders.

253 - Willie Nelson - "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain" - I'm a big Willie Nelson fan, dating back to the classic country days of my youth as mentioned above in #255. This is a classic. I used to listen to his Greatest Hits album incessantly.

252 - Parliament - "Flash Light" - I'm not much of a funk master per se, but this is a great track.

251 - Gloria Gaynor - "I Will Survive" - I admit there's no way I can listen to this song without envisioning Jim Carrey as Andy Kaufman as Tony Clifton in Man on the Moon..... "I will surveeeeeeve". This is a good jam though. I like cranking these old songs up and seeing how hard they hit.

HALFWAY POINT!

Nothing left to do but keep on going!

[Jeff V]

re: Gloria Gaynor -- this is probably the only disco song I can abide by. She had such a good voice, wished she used her powers for greater good. In this batch, the only other comment is regarding Neil Young. I've always liked his stuff, and saw him with CSN&Y (with a non-Dead Jerry Garcia act opening). That concert was remarkable in that I went with 2 coworkers who shared the same last name and were dating. Until that night. Prior to the concert, he told her that he was being transferred out of state and thanks for being my fuck buddy. It was awkward passing joints over her pouting head as she refused to even look at the concert.

[YellowKing]

250 - The Jimi Hendrix Experience - "Purple Haze" - Man I fell down a DEEP Jimi Hendrix rabbit hole in college (for those who wonder how I have so many "phases" in college, I was on the 6-year program so I had PLENTY of time). There was a time there when I had not only every album, but I was seeking out bootlegs and all kinds of underground stuff. Still not quite sure why that artist at that period of time, as Jimi is not a musician I listen to much at all, if any, these days. Maybe I went too deep.

249 - Joan Jett - "Bad Reputation" - Not my favorite Joan Jett track by a long shot, but let's be realistic, I don't know a hell of a lot of Joan Jett songs to begin with. Honestly I think I only found out about her because of me looking up what song Weird Al's "I Love Rocky Road" was parodying.

248 - N.W.A. - "Straight Outta Compton" - I didn't listen to N.W.A. in the late 1980s, but I was certainly *aware* of them. This is when Parental Advisory stickers were a thing, explicit lyrics were a huge controversy, etc. It seems sort of funny looking back on it now when anyone can go buy a video game with more swearing than this song and the added ability to kill your own hookers. Gotta give it to them though - this was a long way from the Fat Boys in just a few short years.

247 - Joni Mitchell - "River" - I'm a HUGE fan of sad Christmas songs. Every single one of my favorite Christmas songs has a thread of melancholy running through it. So naturally I absolutely love this one. Just pure stripped down emotion poured out into melody and lyrics. So good.

246 - Faces - "Ohh La La" - I first heard this song in the movie RUSHMORE, and I immediately went out and bought the soundtrack and listened to it constantly. However, I was completely clueless who the Faces were, and found myself thinking a lot about how much this sounded like a Rod Stewart song. Well didn't I feel like an idiot when I finally realized it *was* a Rod Stewart song. Still a favorite of mine.

245 - Beastie Boys - "Sabotage" - I love this song, love this video. I bought License to Ill in 1986 after hearing "Brass Monkey" at the skating rink. LOL. Wore it out and while I never followed the Beastie Boys' career regularly after that, I did love all their singles.

244 - Pavement - "Summer Babe (Winter Version)" - Pavement is one of those weird bands I was always adjacent to but never actually listened to. I knew who they were, I had maybe heard a song or two, but they flitted in and out of my existence without settling. I really only paid much attention after a brief stint getting into Stephen Malkmus' solo stuff. This is a good track though, not sure why I never got into them considering they were very much in my lane at the time of this release.

243 - The Beatles - "Eleanor Rigby" - Another song that scared me as a kid, thanks to the mournful violins and the lyric about poor Eleanor "wearing a face that she keeps in a jar by the door." I just imagined this actual cut off human face she put on Leatherface style. As I got older and understood the soul-crushing lyrics, it became a lot different song.

242 - Jerry Lee Lewis - "Great Balls of Fire" - This one's always been a bit too wacky for my tastes, but it's a classic.

241 - Digital Underground - "The Humpty Dance" - My wife will tell you, with a sigh, that to this day it is almost impossible for me to reach for a biscuit without saying, "Just grab 'em in the biscuits." Yes, somehow I'm still quoting this song 30 years later. Another favorite in the household but my wife won't let me play it when the kids are around. Naughty Humpty!

[Archinerd]

246 - Faces - "Ohh La La" - I first heard this song in the movie RUSHMORE, and I immediately went out and bought the soundtrack and listened to it constantly. However, I was completely clueless who the Faces were, and found myself thinking a lot about how much this sounded like a Rod Stewart song. Well didn't I feel like an idiot when I finally realized it *was* a Rod Stewart song. Still a favorite of mine.

Same.

[Jaymann]

243 - The Beatles - "Eleanor Rigby" - Another song that scared me as a kid, thanks to the mournful violins and the lyric about poor Eleanor "wearing a face that she keeps in a jar by the door." I just imagined this actual cut off human face she put on Leatherface style.

I love this interpretation.

[YellowKing]

Get ready for a kind of shitty batch here.

240 - Backstreet Boys - "I Want It That Way" - Better than Eleanor Rigby and Penny Lane folks. F U Rolling Stone. However, I did listen to a fascinating podcast episode about this song (sorry, I can't remember the name of it now, it was years ago). But they were talking about how the lyrics don't really make any sense because the songwriters were Swedish and weren't fluent in English. Kind of the only reason I can tolerate this song is knowing that fact.

239 - Big Star - "September Gurls" - It's a damn shame that Big Star never got the recognition they deserved. Listen to this track from 1974 and it sounds like something that could have come out from an indie group anytime in the last 20 years.

238 - Aaliyah - "Are You That Somebody?" - Didn't know who Aaliyah was before her tragic death, so don't know much of what to say about this one. Don't know the song. Has a weird sample of a baby cooing in it.

237 - Hank Williams - "Your Cheatin' Heart" - Another one of those old chestnuts we used to play in keyboard class.

236 - Bill Withers - "Lean on Me" - My least favorite Bill Withers song. Not really because of the song, but because it's been used in so many schmaltzy ways I can barely tolerate it anymore. Working at a hospital I've seen if far too many times in promotional videos. Ugh.

235 - New Order - "Blue Monday" - Rolling Stone says this is the best-selling 12 inch single of all time. Wow. Absolute classic though. This transports me directly back to the '80s.

234 - The Supremes - "You Keep Me Hangin' On" - I've already talked about my weird non-love of The Supremes, and this is another example of a big hit of theirs that I don't really care for. Why am I like this?

233 - Deee-Lite - "Groove Is in the Heart" - This is kind of a standard on any early 90s compilation, but have you ever really *listened* to it? It's nuts. More samples than you can take in, and just a ridiculous amount of over-the-top sound effects.

232 - The Who - "My Generation" - Meh. Don't care for The Who.

231 - Whitney Houston - "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)" - I don't know WTF is up with this song, but I think I've heard it more in the past 2 weeks than I did in all of 1987. It's weird how sometimes these random songs will just start popping up in every store you go into, every time you turn on the radio, etc. It's a good song, but damn it's also 35 years old. Why am I being bombarded with it all of a sudden?

[Dramatist]

233. Deee-Lite - “Groove is in the Heart

I saw this band in concert because Happy Mondays was the opener and it was at a Six Flags I had season tickets for (ie free). I was blown away by how fun they were. This is a classic track that always brings back fond memories.

Plus another lyric swap to “Move I Gotta Fart”


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Jeff V]

232 - The Who - "My Generation" - Meh. Don't care for The Who.

Fun fact: the artist that wrote the lyric "Hope I die before I get old' and the one who sang it are the only two that survived to old age.

[LordMortis]

Plus another lyric swap to “Move I Gotta Fart”

"Digging in the Dirt" by Peter Gabriel, I can't help but sing "This time I'm going to fart. This time I'm going to fart. I told ya! I told ya!I told ya!I told ya!

[YellowKing]

230 - The Byrds - "Mr. Tambourine Man" - At the risk of being branded a heretic, I'll say that I far prefer this Byrds cover to Dylan's original version. I'm just a total sucker for that Laurel Canyon sound.

229 - Woody Guthrie - "This Land is Your Land" - Never really liked this one after being forced to sing it in elementary school. I hate forced singing, because I can't carry a tune in a bucket. If I have to listen to it, however, I definitely prefer this original stripped down version.

228 - Beyonce - "Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)" - For a long time this was the only Beyonce song I actually knew. Heck, it still might be the only one I can actually name off the top of my head. But man what an iconic music video.

227 - Creedence Clearwater Revival - "Fortunate Son" - Not my favorite song from CCR by a long shot, but it might be one of my favorite protest songs. It's such a scathing criticism, John Fogerty really holds nothing back. This one's almost mandatory for any '60s compilation.

226 - The Smiths - "There is a Light That Never Goes Out" - The Smiths have been one of my favorite recent discoveries. I didn't know much about their music at all, but a podcaster I really enjoy did some episodes and YouTube vids on his love of The Smiths and it opened up a whole new world for me. My wife can't really wrap her head around the dark humor of their lyrics, but I love it.

225 - Joni Mitchell - "Both Sides Now" - Judy Collins' version of this was the first release, and sounds like an upbeat sunny good time in the 1960s. Joni Mitchell's version of her own words reveal the true emotion behind the song. Just a gut-wrenching rendition. While I still love Judy Collins' more radio-friendly version, the Joni Mitchell version is what you'll want to reach for at night while you're alone with your thoughts.

224 - Derek and the Dominos - "Layla" - Despite a short period of buying Clapton CDs (MTV Unplugged, to be specific), I was never a huge fan. I did like Cream, but Clapton's solo stuff was not a world I knew much about. As a huge Beatles fan, the fact that he stole George Harrison's wife might have made me a bit bitter. Later revelations that the guy's apparently an enormous asshole didn't help things either. At any rate, I wasn't aware of this version of the song until much later. I just knew the slowed down unplugged version.

223 - Eminem featuring Dido - "Stan" - I skipped Eminem's first album, but grabbed The Marshall Mathers LP thanks to singles like this. Like many people, it was also my first introduction to Dido so I picked her album up as well (I still really like that album, though "White Flag" usurped "Thank You" as my favorite track).

222 - Crosby, Stills, and Nash - "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" - I love CSN, I love this song. I don't usually dig overly long songs, but this one's an exception. (Note: Gordon Lightfoot's Canadian Railroad Trilogy and Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald are also exempted).

221 - Ike and Tina Turner - "River Deep, Mountain High" - Never been a big Tina Turner fan, even though we share a birthday. Nothing against her, and she's certainly an enormous talent, but just never really clicked with me. That said, this song is a bit meh for me.

[YellowKing]

No, you can't get rid of me that easily. Took a weekend break but let's get back to it!

220 - New Order - "Bizarre Love Triangle" - I wasn't familiar with this one going in, even though I recognized New Order's earlier entry on this list. Not surprising since according to Rolling Stone it barely made the US Hot 100. So why is a song that barely charted deserving a slot as high as 220 on a list of best 500 songs of ALL TIME? ALL TIME? Your guess is as good as mine. It's a fine little ditty, but again I find it indistinguishable from every other 1980s synth track.

219 - Tom Petty - "Free Fallin'" - I've been a Tom Petty fan since I was in my teens, and the weird thing is I honestly can't remember where or why. It's like the fandom just organically sprung out of nothingness. Part of me thinks it may have been kickstarted by "American Girl" being featured in Silence of the Lambs, since that movie was such an instant classic for me. I'm so happy I got to see him in concert before he passed - it was one of those magic shows that I'll remember forever.

218 - Wilson Pickett - "In the Midnight Hour" - This is a great song. According to the Rolling Stone trivia here, it was based on the beat from a song called "The Jerk" by the Larks. Kind of cool to go back and listen to that one and hear how "In the Midnight Hour" borrowed the beat and made it its own thing.

217 - Stevie Nicks - "Edge of Seventeen" - I talked about my introduction to Fleetwood Mac, and from there I became a fan of Stevie Nicks. I think her whole "white witch" persona thing just intrigued me as a fan of horror/supernatural stuff. She also has one of the most unique female voices out there. I never dived too deeply into her solo stuff, but have always kind of cheered it on from afar.

216 - Elvis Presley - "Jailhouse Rock" - As I pointed out before, there are Elvis people and Beatles people, and I've always been a Beatles person. Some of Elvis' hits just make me cringe with the lyrics. This is another that is just silly and sometimes I have a hard time getting past the goofiness of it all. Yeah it was a different era so they could get away with that, I guess.

215 - Mobb Deep - "Shook Ones, Pt. II" - Not only had I never heard this song, I'd never heard of this group. It's pretty bad-ass though. Very dark.

214 - Steely Dan - "Deacon Blues" - I first really heard Steely Dan when I was going around with co-workers to test out various home theater systems in the late '90s. At lunch we'd all pile in the car and hit one of the high-end A/V shops in town to test speakers because the guys I worked with were all audiophiles. Steely Dan songs were very common demo tracks because their production was so insanely obsessed over. Another band with which I never really got past the "greatest hits" stage, but those hits, like this one, I truly love. Lyrically they went places that few bands would ever tread - on paper it seems it would never work.

213 - The Rolling Stones - "Paint It, Black" - Another one for the "songs that scared me as a kid" list. Red doors, black doors, they all seem sinister to me. However, this has always been one of my favorite Stones songs because of that dark undertone. Also until now I never realized this song title had a comma in it. Weird.

212 - Boston - "More Than a Feeling" - I couldn't name a Boston tune if you held a gun to my head before Guitar Hero. After Guitar Hero, I was a fan. It's probably inevitable I would have stumbled into them sooner or later thanks to my later love of '70s rock, but I'm glad the game turned me on to them. And they say video games rot your brain!

211 - U2 - "With or Without You" - I talked before about my relationship with U2 - basically anything Achtung Baby and before I'm OK with, anything after I want to nuke from orbit. This falls into the former category, so it's safe for now.

[YellowKing]

210 - Funkadelic - "One Nation Under a Groove" - I'm not much into funk music but there's no denying it's hard not to smile listening to this. These guys were nuts in the best way.

209 - Don Henley - "Boys of Summer" - The Dude would hate me because I *don't* hate the Eagles. In fact, I spent many, many college nights driving around listening to their greatest hits album, and went to see them in concert on their Hell Freezes Over tour. So I've also followed their solo careers somewhat, primarily Don Henley. "A little voice inside my head says don't look back, you can never look back." That lyric goes through my head a lot when nostalgia threatens to rip me away from the present.

208 - Hole - "Doll Parts" - Ughhh. Just ughhhh. I don't like Hole, I can't stand Courtney Love. She can't sing. Rolling Stone says this song was written in 20 minutes inside a bathroom. Well no shit, it sounds like it. I can forgive a lot of songs I don't agree with this being on the list because they had some other contribution to musical history, but seriously, fuck this garbage from being on this list.

207 - Rage Against the Machine -"Killing in the Name" - Rolling Stone must be trying to win back my favor after that last entry, because now they come through with one of my absolute favorites. What's funny is in my teens I HATED Rage Against the Machine. I was a staunch conservative, and their lyrics pissed me off to no end. But my brother kept listening to them (he was my exact opposite politically) so I had no choice but to hear them with his room right next door to mine. As I got older this became an absolute favorite - there's probably not a week that goes by that I don't crank this at some point during the work week.

206 - Glen Campbell - "Wichita Lineman" - My dad had a really rough life. He was given up for adoption and suffered physical abuse growing up from his adopted family. He ran away from home at the age of 14, and lied about his age to get a job as a roofer. During those early years he moved from job to job and boarding house to boarding house, struggling to get by until he finally got married to my mom at the age of 16 where they continued to scrape their way through poverty. In one of those boarding houses my dad said this song came on all the time, and to this day he can't listen to it because it brings back such bad memories. If you even mention "Wichita Lineman" in my dad's presence, you are poking a bear you don't want to poke.

205 - Britney Spears - "...Baby One More Time" - I was 24 when this song came out, so a bit too old to be enamored by Miss Britney. I do want to watch that new Netflix documentary though. Kind of a tragic story, I hope that one day she gets the comeback she deserves.

204 - David Bowie - "Young Americans" - This song has Luther Vandross on backup vocals! That's crazy. As a Beatles fan, I always loved the nod to them in this one "I heard the news today oh boy." So cool.

203 - Stevie Wonder - "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours" - I hear you say, "YK, you went through so many musical phases. Surely you never had time for a Stevie Wonder phase." You'd be WRONG! Yes, I had a Stevie Wonder phase where I went deep down that rabbit hole. This is still one of my favorite Stevie Wonder tracks out of his whole discography. It's just got that completely old-school vibe, it's so full of joy, and he gives everything to the performance - there's nothing to critique.

202 - Elton John - "Your Song" - I remember growing up I really loved Elton John songs when they came on the radio, but it didn't seem "cool" to like Elton John. I had this weird imaginary construct that Elton John was some kind of guilty pleasure embarrassment. So I never admitted it to anyone. Cut to many years later, I was working as an intern in the computer department for the Corps of Engineers. I was working with a contractor who was much older than I, and he was telling me how much he loved early Elton John albums. And it was like this awakening - why did I care if anyone knew I loved Elton John songs? After that I just dived straight in, and I've been very open about my Elton John love ever since.

201 - Johnny Cash - "Ring of Fire" - I really got into Johnny Cash seriously in college, and bought boxed sets, albums, compilations, you name it. While I recognize it as one of his biggest hits, "Ring of Fire" is far from my favorite Johnny Cash song - in fact I'd put it way at the bottom. Those mariachi horns are just annoying, and the lyrics just make me think of someone taking a dump after eating a spicy burrito.

[YellowKing]

200 - David Bowie - "Changes" - You know the drill by now. It's David Bowie. No further commentary necessary.

199 - Aerosmith - "Dream On" - Easily my favorite Aerosmith song. I'm not sure I'd call myself an Aerosmith "fan" but I certainly have liked most of their radio hits. Their greatest hits compilation used to get a lot of play. I have actually seen them in concert roughly 15 years ago or so - they did a double header with Motley Crue. Great show because they played a lot of their older stuff to appeal to the Motley Crue crowd. Probably disappointed the soccer moms in the audience looking for "I Don't Want To Miss a Thing", but I loved it. Steven Tyler was in top form that show, I was amazed at how good they sounded - particularly on this song.

198 - Marvin Gaye - "Sexual Healing" - Compared to the other great "gettin' it on" song by Marvin Gaye, "Let's Get It On" this one wins out for me.

197 - Ann Peebles - "I Can't Stand the Rain" - Getting to the top 200 I figured I'd know every song, but I didn't recognize this one at all from the title. Then that weird intro starts and I was positive I've heard this as a sample in a different song. A quick search tells me it was used in Missy Elliott's "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)."

196 - James Brown - "Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine" - Rolling Stone continues their list of sex tracks apparently with this number. Every James Brown song sounds the same to me, so yeah, this is another one. Haha.

195 - Patsy Cline - "Crazy" - My mom was working for a couple when I was born, and they became my "adopted" grandparents. I was as close to them as any real relative, and basically grew up in their household. Their son (who was grown) would come down to visit on occasion and he would spend a lot of time working on his car and listening to Patsy Cline. I imagine he had every Patsy Cline recording in existence. It was through him that I was introduced to her and many classic coutnry artists. Still an absolute fan of hers.

194 - PJ Harvey - "Rid of Me" - Didn't know this one. Very understated and then kicks in with some rage about halfway through. Again it's weird to see songs like this I've never heard of ranking above classics like "Crazy" but what do I know.

193 - The Rolling Stones - "Wild Horses" - Another one of my favorites, easily top 5 by the Stones. I believe I actually first discovered this song through The Sundays' brilliant cover, which I still love. Incidentally this song is a ton of fun to play on guitar or ukulele. The chords are easy, but the strumming pattern is really fun and it comes off sounding much more impressive than it actually is.

192 - Geto Boys - "Mind Playing Tricks on Me" - Wasn't familiar with this one, but I like horror-rap which was kind of the Geto Boys thing. This song in particular doesn't really stand out to me though.

191 - Bobbie Gentry - "Ode to Billie Joe" - I've always loved this song, and remember being fascinated by it as a kid when it came on the radio. I remember discussing it with my mom and speculating about what exactly Billie Joe dropped off the Tallahatchie Bridge.

[Kurth]

Really enjoying this thread, YK. Thanks!

[LawBeefaroni]

460 - Steel Pulse - "Ku Klux Klan" - Reggae is a weird genre for me - I've never delved much into it aside from the stuff everyone knows like Bob Marley, yet I find I enjoy most of what I hear. And in fact many of the bands I listen to regularly like Stick Figure and Michael Franti have heavy reggae influences. Too much music out there and not enough time. I liked this one.

Good God, man Listen to this. Solidly in my top 20 all time albums.

[YellowKing]

Thanks LawBeef, I will absolutely give that a listen.

190 - N.W.A. - "Fuck Tha Police" - Oh man, I remember the controversy when this one came out. My brother and I met these two brothers our age (roughly 15-16) while visiting my dad around the same time as this and Tipper Gore and the PMRC. They had created this band called "ACK!" and one of their songs was "Fuck the PRMC." They couldn't play worth a shit so it was mostly noise, but their lyrics were hilarious. My favorite song of theirs was "Scooby Dooby Doo, where the fuck are you?" which held the classic line, "Scooby Doo if you come through you'll get to play with Velma's tits....and that ain't no shit!"

189 - David Bowie - "Space Oddity" - Another one to file under "songs that scared me as a kid." The thought of poor Major Tom alone in space, left to die alone, absolutely horrified me. If you want some creepy conspiracy that goes along with this thought, go down the rabbit hole of the Torre Bert recordings. The theory goes that the Russian space program left many cosmonauts to die in space, and two Italian amateur radio operators captured the last words of one of the first females in space as she burned up on re-entry. It's pretty much been debunked as a hoax, but it's still really spooky.

188 - The Jimi Hendrix Experience - "Little Wing" - I talked previously about my big Jimi Hendrix phase so I won't rehash it here. I'll just say that this is one of my favorite Jimi songs. "Angel" is still probably my #1 favorite overall, but I love his playing in this one.

187 - Bob Dylan - "Subterranean Homesick Blues" - This is probably the first Bob Dylan song I ever recognized as Bob Dylan. I was fascinated by the fast-paced half-spoken lyrics and remember trying to learn them by listening to the Greatest Hits cassette over and over.

186 - The Staple Singers - "I'll Take You There" - Am I crazy or do I feel like this song is used all the time for prescription drug commercials? Maybe that's something from my fevered imagination. But when I hear this I instantly picture an elderly couple dancing while a narrator lists off side effects.

185 - Michael Jackson - "Beat It" - Like most kids in the 1980s, I was absolutely enamored with Michael Jackson. I had the glove. I had the Thriller doll. And "Beat It" was my introduction to all that. It's funny looking back now because this song is way down my list of MJ songs - I just find it corny these days. But man, what an impact it had. This song was everywhere. MJ was everywhere. I think it was the first time I realized what "celebrity" was.

184 - Sinead O'Connor - "Nothing Compares 2 U" - I was somewhat obsessed with this song (and the famous music video) in 1990. I've always had a love for Irish artists (I absolutely loved The Cranberries in the '90s). It's not surprising it's a brilliant song considering Prince wrote it, but Sinead turned it into a masterpiece. I still absolutely love this song.

183 - Stevie Wonder - "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" - If you look at this song on paper, the lyrics seem so trite and simple. But then you just listen to the instrumentation and vocals and it's just elevated into this amazing classic. It's so interesting to me. There is so much complexity going on here that is so at odds with the lyrics and structure.

182 - Simon and Garfunkel - "Sound of Silence" - I already spoke about how I discovered Simon & Garfunkel. Another one of those songs I always remember being so intrigued by. It still intrigues me. Completely deserving of this list.

181 - The Byrds - "Eight Miles High" - I remember when I was in my '60s music phase my mom kept telling me "You should listen to The Byrds. You should listen to The Byrds. You should listen to The Byrds." And I'm thinking "Dammit get off my back about The Byrds." I think I intentionally avoided listening to them because my mom wanted me to so bad. Of course, mom was right and I should have listened to them. She was a teen in 1966, living the hippie life full throttle. She knew what was going down back then.

[Archinerd]

194 - PJ Harvey - "Rid of Me" - Didn't know this one. Very understated and then kicks in with some rage about halfway through. Again it's weird to see songs like this I've never heard of ranking above classics like "Crazy" but what do I know.

PJ Harvey has a lot of good stuff. She's mellowed out on the noise and loud rage in recent albums, but I think you'd appreciate a decent chunk of her work.

[YellowKing]

180 - Lou Reed - "Walk on the Wild Side" - This is another song I've always been fascinated by. It's a peek into a world that I was never a part of, and probably never wanted to be a part of.

179 - Pink Floyd - "Comfortably Numb" - When I hit my Pink Floyd phase, I literally hit THE WALL. I was obsessed with that album. It's another one that I burned out on so hard, that I almost can't listen to tracks from it anymore. I remember one time I went out in the woods and made some corny music video with a camcorder for some of the songs off it. That's how stupidly obsessed I was with that album.

178 - Billie Eilish - "Bad Guy" - I won't dive into whether or not a song this recent should be this high on the Top 500 songs of all time list. ALL TIME. But I do like Billie Eilish, as do my kids. It's amazing to realize this track was recorded in their house. Finneas O'Connell is just a wizard, and I'm always looking forward to what these two come up with. A girl I went to high school with apparently taught Billie when she was little and knows her and her parents really well. According to her they are all really down to earth, great people. Incidentally the Billie Eilish documentary is really good, and a neat look into pre-and post-fame life.

177 - Van Halen - "Jump" - Van Halen is another one of those really classic bands that I just never got into. Which is a little weird because I was well aware of their songs via MTV, and I was actually into other rock bands of the same time - many much worse than Van Halen. I'm not quite sure how I always stayed just outside their orbit. And since I'm guessing "Panama" isn't going to make this list, I'll tell this story. We have a guy at work named Adam Tonn, and one day I inexplicitly started singing, "ADAM TONN. ADAM TAH-AHN" to the tune of Panama. And it stuck. And the whole office started doing it. And it's still a thing like 2 years later. Adam's a good sport though, he loved it. Also, check out "Your Jumpin' Heart" mashup by Bill McClintock on YouTube. It's an absolutely brilliant countrified mix of this song which must be heard to be believed.

176 - The Kinks - "You Really Got Me" - I liked some of The Kinks hits before I did the Rolling Stone Top 500 albums challenge, but after having to listen to a bunch of other songs for that challenge I became a fan. They really are right up my alley. And in a weird bit of synchronicity, Van Halen (#175) covered this song on their debut album in 1978.

175 - The Flamingos - "I Only Have Eyes for You" - The Flamingos aren't a name that instantly come to mind when you think of famous bands from the 1950s, but I'm guessing most people know this tune. This is one of my absolute favorite oldies. It's like entering into a dream state.

174 - R.E.M. - "Radio Free Europe" - After The Beatles, R.E.M. is my favorite band, period. And technically I was a fan of R.E.M. long before I was a fan of The Beatles. My brother (as he did with most music) introduced me to them, and I fell for them hard. It was a fandom that lasted from early days of high school all the way through college. I had every album, a lot of bootlegs, and every deep cut compilation and import I could find. Their last two albums were the only releases I never bought a physical copy of. I really regret never getting to see them live before they broke up. Maybe one day we'll get a reunion when they're all in their 70s.

173 - Television - "Marquee Moon" - I'm pretty sure this album made the Top 500 albums list, but I swear I just don't remember much about it. Or even this song. Just not really feeling this one today.

172 - Nina Simone - "Mississippi Goddam" - I talked about my friend Wayne that died during one of the Lynyrd Skynyrd tracks. Wayne was also a fan of classic jazz singers, and he loved Nina Simone. Such a striking song - a really upbeat song, sounding almost like a throwaway novelty tune. But the lyrics showcase the horror that was ripping through the country for African Americans at the time.

171 - Louis Armstrong - "What a Wonderful World" - Like a lot of folks I probably really sat up and took notice of this song when it appeared in "Good Morning Vietnam." Good Morning Vietnam was a movie that, on paper, made no sense for me to be such a huge fan of. While I liked Robin Williams, I was 13 years old when this film came out. What did I care about Vietnam? Yet something in it struck me - I remember watching it over and over when it hit VHS. This song has almost become a cliche at this point - how many times have we seen it superimposed over images of violence and terror as a bit of irony? Still, it absolutely belongs on the list.

[YellowKing]

170 - The Five Satins - "In the Still of the Night" - If you had a program to <insert oldies song here> there's a good chance it would be this one. Pretty much a standard track to let us know we're back in time. We have a local barbecue place we used to go to for lunch, and they played nothing but oldies. One day my co-worker looked at me and said, "I hate this place. You just eat and listen to dead people." That freaked me out a bit.

169 - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - "American Girl" - When I talked about Tom Petty I mentioned this song's feature in Silence of the Lambs is probably what got me hooked on him. Well here we are.

168 - Dusty Springfield - "Son of a Preacher Man" - This song definitely entered my consciousness via the Pulp Fiction soundtrack. I listened to Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs constantly, and in fact I'd be so bold to say as Pulp Fiction was the compilation soundtrack I've listened to most in my life. This was one of my favorite tracks.

167 - Eminem - "Lose Yourself" - I liked Eminem back in the day as pointed out earlier. Never really cared for this track though. I guess I probably liked the Slim Shady persona more than the straightforward and serious Eminem of this performance.

166 - Mott the Hoople - "All the Young Dudes" - In a similar sense as "Ooh La La" - I spent years thinking this sounded like a David Bowie song, only to learn later that he wrote and produced it. Great song, great album. I first listened to this one for the Top 500 Albums challenge.

165 - Hank Williams - "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" - Another classic country tune. Again this one goes a bit too far back for me; I'm a bigger fan of '60s and '70s country. But of course Hank Williams paved the way for all the outlaws that would come after.

164 - Bob Dylan - "Mr. Tambourine Man" - Why is this song on the list again after The Byrds version OF THE SAME FUCKING SONG was #230? Stupid list. Still prefer The Byrds version. Fuck you Rolling Stone.

163 - Fleetwood Mac - "Landslide" - At the risk of sounding really basic, this is one of my favorite Fleetwood Mac songs. What can I say, I like songs about growing old, and reflecting on life (see "Dream On" earlier in the list).

162 - Nick Drake - "Pink Moon" - Yes, I'm one of those dumbasses that only found about Nick Drake through that (brilliant) Volkswagen commercial. But hey, at least I found about him. Brilliant. I can't imagine what songs that might have been had he not been taken away so early. Really tragic waste of a musical genius.

161 - Madonna - "Into the Groove" - There's at least a dozen Madonna songs I'd put on the list before this one, but whatever. I've never been a Madonna "fan," she was just a constant presence growing up in the 80s. On the other hand, I never hated her stuff. It was just there, ubiquitous and somehow comforting. There was a time when it just felt like Madonna had always been and would always be.

[YellowKing]

160 - R.E.M. - "Nightswimming" - Out of Time was the album that first got me into R.E.M., and after that album I went back into all of their back catalog and listened to it repeatedly. When AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE came out, I wasn't immediately hooked. The album's tone was notably more melancholy than I was used to. However, it didn't take long for it to grow on me, and it's now considered by many as R.E.M.'s best album. Wonderful song even if I'm surprised it's so high on this list.

159 - The Who - "Baba O'Riley" - One of the most instantly recognizable intros in rock history. Still don't care for the song or the band.

158 - The Meters - "Cissy Strut" - Read this and was like, "The what now?" Then I listened to it and was like, "The what now?" Apparently this was a very influential track, but I didn't recognize it. Probably just exist out of my wheelhouse.

157 - Sonic Youth - "Teenage Riot" - I used to listen to the album Dirty CONSTANTLY, but never expanded into Sonic Youth past that. Which is a bit strange, I guess, because you'd think if there was an album I loved that much, I'd be eager to seek out others. I believe I did at one point try Daydream Nation, but it wasn't Dirty so I sort of dismissed it and moved on. This one's probably long overdue for a revisit.

156 - The Kingsmen - "Louie Louie" - I remember when I first read about the controversy over this song's supposedly "pornographic lyrics" I listened to it over and over trying to make out where you could even misinterpret anything in here as pornographic. I still can't figure it out. Must have just been a brilliant record company marketing scheme.

155 - The Strokes - "Last Nite" - An admitted rip-off of Tom Petty's "American Girl" but at least they own up to it. And Tom Petty didn't care because he was cool like that. I love The Strokes, as do my kids. Even when they went in that weird '80s direction on Angles in 2011, I was there for it. This album (Is This It) and The New Abnormal gets a lot of play in my house.

154 - Howlin' Wolf - "Spoonful" - Dirty little blues number. My blues phase as mentioned before was pretty brief, so I never got into Howlin' Wolf much. I dig it though.

153 - Rick James - "Superfreak" - Like a lot of other kids, my first exposure to this song was MC Hammer's sample in "U Can't Touch This." After finally hearing the original on '80s compilations it became a favorite. Cocaine's a helluva drug.

152 - Creedence Clearwater Revival - "Proud Mary" - I'm a huge CCR fan, even though this song is towards the bottom of my list of their hits. I think it's more that I don't like the Tina Turner version of it, which kind of retroactively ruined the original for me. Favorite CCR track? "Have You Ever Seen the Rain." Hands down.

151 - The Shirelles - "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" - One of my favorite Carole King-penned tracks, sung by one of my favorite '60s girl groups. Love this one.

[Pyperkub]

201 - Johnny Cash - "Ring of Fire" - I really got into Johnny Cash seriously in college, and bought boxed sets, albums, compilations, you name it. While I recognize it as one of his biggest hits, "Ring of Fire" is far from my favorite Johnny Cash song - in fact I'd put it way at the bottom. Those mariachi horns are just annoying, and the lyrics just make me think of someone taking a dump after eating a spicy burrito.

Yeah, I like the Social Distortion cover of this much better!