Top 100 Songs
100 ELO
In VH-1 Storytellers in 2001, Jeff Lynne told the story that he had origninally and unknowingly placed the word "grus"(?)which he learned means "greetings" in German and decided to leave it in the song. The story went on that at every concert, everyone would always sing, "Bruce!" and he ended up doing the same.
- Jack, Port St, Lucie, FL
99 The Beatles
The Beatles performed this in the movie Let It Be. Both the movie and album were the last The Beatles released. Abbey Road was the last album they recorded
98 Janis Joplin
This was written by Kris Kristofferson, who has written hundreds of songs for a wide variety of artists. He has also recorded many songs and appeared in several movies. He and Joplin had a brief affair.
97 The Who
Pete Townshend wrote this as if it was a prayer from a destitute man. The man is speaking to God, asking "Who are you?"
96 CCR was the only group to equal the beatles record of 8 million sellers in one year-1970
95 Joe Walsh (quote) I can't complain, but sometimes I still do.
94 Pink Flyod Dark Side" started as a sequence called "Eclipse," most of which was developed in rehearsals for live shows
93 David Bowie
A "Suffragette" is a woman involved in the women's suffrage movement (trying to get the right to vote). A London newspaper was the first to use the term, and did so in a derogatory manner. In England, women got voting rights in 1918. In the US, it was 1920
92 Queen Although Queen did not intend it this way, it is usually played along with "We Are The Champions." The songs segue together on the album, so disc jockeys usually play them together. It was released as a double A-side single with "We Are The Champions."
91 The Beatles The Beatles wrote this in 2 weeks as a message to the world. It was written and released faster than any other Beatles song
90 Grateful Dead Did you know how many songs performed by the Grateful Dead mention the words "grateful" and "dead"? "Grateful" never appears in any Dead song. "Dead" is in 27 songs, 9 of them being original Dead tunes, as opposed to "alive" which appears only 10 times.
89 Eagles The Eagles are an American rock music group that originally got together in Los Angeles, California in the early 1970s. Their early music was a hybrid of country and bluegrass instrumentation grafted onto the harmonies of California surfer rock, producing tender ballads and soft top-down country-flavored pop-rock about relationships, cars, and the wandering life
88 Procol Harum This was the first song Procol Harum recorded. After it became a hit, they fired their original drummer and guitarist, replacing them with Barry Wilson and Robin Trower - more experienced musicians who could handle the subsequent touring.
87 Eric Clappton
Clapton wrote this in 1976 while waiting for his girlfriend (and future wife) Patti to get ready for a night out. They were going to a Buddy Holly tribute that Paul McCartney put together, and Clapton was in the familiar position of waiting while she tried on clothes
86 ELPGreg Lake started writing this when he was 12 years old. When he formed ELP with Keith Emerson and Carl Palmer in 1970 and they were recording their first album, they found themselves short one song. Keith Emerson came in while Greg was laying down the acoustic part in the studio. He started up the new Moog synth he'd just received and added one of the most famous moog parts in history to the end of the song. (thanks, Linda - NYC, NY)
85 The Beatles Sgt. Pepper, on the vinyl version, as it was originally released was famous as the sequence of songs is two continuous sides of music, without any pauses.
84 Fleetwood Mac Lindsey Buckingham wrote this as a message to Stevie Nicks. It describes their breakup, with the most obvious line being, "Packing up, shacking up is all you want to do." Stevie insisted she never shacked up with anyone when they were going out, and wanted Lindsey to take out the line. He refused.
83 Rolling Stones This is about the political and social unrest at the time. There was the war in Vietnam, race riots, and Charles Manson. Jagger sings of needing shelter from this "Storm."
82 Manfred Mann This was a #1 hit for Manfred Mann's Earth Band in 1976. Their version was much more elaborately produced, and Springsteen hated it at first.
81 KinksThis is about a transvestite. Ray Davies wrote the lyrics after their manager got drunk at a club and started dancing with what he thought was a woman. Toward the end of the night, his stubble started showing, but their manager was too tanked to notice.
80 Grand Funk RailroadRecorded in June 1973 at Miami Criteria Studios in Miami Beach, Florida. The first 100,000 copies of the album were released in Virgin (gold) Vinyl as were a limited number of the "We're An American Band/Creepin'" singles. The album came with 4 decal stickers.
79 CSNY
CSN(Y)'s performance at Woodstock was only their third show together. Before forming the band, Crosby had been a member of The Byrds, Nash was with The Hollies, Stills and Young were members of Buffalo Springfield. Neil Young played with the group for only part of the set.
78 Jimi HendrixThis was written and originally recorded by Bob Dylan (also in 1968), but it was the Jimi Hendrix cover that made the song famous. Many other artists have covered it, including Eric Clapton, Neil Young, U2, The Dave Matthews Band and The Grateful Dead. Dylan was so impressed with Jimi's version that Dylan for years played it the way that Jimi had recorded it.
77 Tom Petty Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers have a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7018 Hollywood Blvd. and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002, their first year of eligibility.
76 Allman BrothersThe Allman Brothers Band have a unique facility. They have this perpetual swing sensation. When they play things that are tangential to the blues -- even when they play heavy rock -- they swing like they're playing jazz. They're always going forward, and it's always a groove. When you take their music apart, you realize how exquisite and deep their playing facility and sensitivity really is."
75 The Beatles George Harrison wrote "Something" while The Beatles were recording “The White Album.” He came up with the title while listening to the James Taylor song, “Something in the Way She Moves.”
74 Jefferson AirplaneThe term Jefferson airplane is also slang for a used match bent to hold a marijuana cigarette that has been smoked too short to hold without burning the hands. This may have been the origin for the band's name, though another theory holds that the band was named for blues singer Blind Lemon Jefferson.
73 Pink Floyd Dark Side of The Moon" still sells approximately 8,000 copies a week in the U.S.
72 Led Zeppelin
Robert Plant dedicated this to his wife, Maureen
71 Don McLean Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, radio conglomerate Clear Channel Communications sent out of a list of 150 songs that were recommended to be pulled from airplay. "American Pie" was among those listed.
70 The Doors
This was the first song on The Doors first album, and also their first single. It got some airplay on Los Angeles radio stations after their friends and fans kept requesting it
69 Rod Stewart Stewart's record company didn't think this was a hit, so they released it as the B-side of "Reason To Believe." Disc jockeys liked this better, so they played it as the single instead.
68 Jimi Hendrix
Hendrix is legendary for theatrics like setting his guitar on fire and playing it with his teeth (not at the same time). This was the song he was playing when he set it on fire for the first time. At a concert in London in 1967, he doused his guitar in lighter fluid and burned it. The emcee at the show burned his hand trying to put it out.
67 Van Morrison
This was originally called "Brown Skinned Girl," and was about an interracial relationship. Morrison changed it to "Brown Eyed Girl" to make it more palatable for radio stations. Some stations banned it anyway for the line, "Making love in the green grass."
66 Bruce Springsteen
Springsteen wrote this about his difficulty writing a hit single and his frustration trying to write songs that will please people. Ironically, it was a hit single.
65 Bob Dylan
Dylan wrote this for the 1969 movie Midnight Cowboy. Harry Nilsson's "Everybody's Talkin'," which was released the year before, was chosen for the theme song instead.
64 David Bowie Bowie wrote this at a time when he started feeling comfortable writing songs. This became Bowie's theme song, as he embraced change and kept updating his look.
63 Fleetwood Mac The resulting album was Rumours in 1977, in which the band laid bare the emotional turmoil of the time. It became the best selling album of its time, selling over 18 million copies worldwide. The RIAA certified Rumours as a diamond album
62 Elton John This was also a hit on the US R&B charts, known at the time as the "Black" charts. Elton was especially proud of this, as he was influenced by many black musicians.
61 Police This is one of the most misinterpreted songs ever. It is about an obsessive stalker, but it sounds like a love song. Some people even used it as their wedding song.
60 Paul Mc Cartney is a song written by Paul McCartney, which was first released on his McCartney album on April 17, 1970. It was also recorded and released as a single by Wings in February 1977, and versions of the song can be heard on several other albums including Wings Over America, Back in the US and Back in the World.
59 The Who After originally performing as The High Numbers, the band chose to take a shorter name because concert posters at the time typically ran a list of band names, devoting one line to each band; They reasoned that even if they were at the bottom of the bill their name would be printed in larger type because it was short.
58 Aerosmith Aerosmith used to travel with extra-long extension cords, so that the televisions they tossed out windows would keep playing until they hit the ground.
57 Jimi Hendrix James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix November 27, 1942 - September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer who is widely considered to be the most important electric guitarist in the history of popular music.
56 Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin is the only band to have had all their albums reach the Billboard Top 10. Of these ten albums, six went to number one.
55 Pink Floyd "The Wall" was originally to have included live footage of five performances of Pink Floyd in concert at London's Earl's Court, but none of the resulting footage was deemed suitable.
54 Rolling Stones The original title was "The Devil Is My Name." Says Jagger: "Songs can metamorphasize. And Sympathy for the Devil is one of those songs that started off like one thing, I wrote it one way and then we started the change the rhythm. And then it became completely different. And then it got very exciting. It started off as a Folk song and then became a Samba. A good song can become anything. It's got lots of historical references and lots of poetry."
53 The Doors The band took their name from a line in a book by Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception, which was in turn borrowed from a line of poetry by the 18th century artist and poet William Blake: "If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it truly is, infinite."
52 The Beatles On November 29th, 2002, the first anniversary of his death, the Concert For George saw the two remaining Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr join many of Harrison's friends for a special memorial concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London that benefitted the Material World Charitable Foundation. Ravi Shankar joined Jeff Lynne in a performance of "The Inner Light," Eric Clapton and Lynne performed "I Want To Tell You" and "Here Comes The Sun," Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers (with Jools Holland and Sam Brown) performed "Taxman" and "I Need You," Starr performed "Photograph", members of Monty Python (Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Eric Idle and Terry Gilliam) performed "The Lumberjack Song," and McCartney and Starr performed "For You Blue". For the finale, all of the artists went back on stage to end with "Something," "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," "My Sweet Lord," (with Billy Preston on keyboards). Joe Brown concluded with the Gus Kahn/Isham Jones classic "I'll See You In My Dreams".
51 Elton John He went on to be one of the 1970s most successful recording artists, with globally-successful singles including "Rocket Man," "Crocodile Rock," "Saturday Night's Alright (For Fighting)," "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," and, notably "Candle In The Wind" (a song about Marilyn Monroe) and the equally well-known B-Side "Bennie And The Jets."
50 Steppenwolf Steppenwolf rocketed to fame after their third single, "Born to Be Wild" was used in the movie Easy Rider. The song coined the term "heavy metal". This was followed by several more hits, including "Magic Carpet Ride" and "Rock Me". Fans consider their double album "Steppenwolf Live" the best of Steppenwolf's releases.
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