As promised a few weeks ago, today I am beginning my list, from "worst" to best, of my top 500 favorite songs of all-time. Now keep in mind that I'm not rating these for their artistry or general historical significance but rather am applying very, very personal, subjective standards. Chances are that you've already heard many of them...for the ones you haven't, I suggest you do an online search and listen to them: I think they're worth it. By the way, I found myself painfully having to omit many wonderful pieces of music that just didn't make the "cut"...so even these songs at the "bottom" of my list are pretty special to me. Well, here they are, starting with #500...
500 YESTERDAY...the Beatles
Not one of my very most-liked Beatles songs, but as a slow ballad...and I generally dislike slow ballads...this would easily be near the top of that list. Paul McCartney aced his solo performance of it in '65 on Ed Sullivan. Be prepared to encounter many more Beatles songs later on...
499 100 OTHER LOVERS...DeVotchKa
I'm not sure how I came across this Colorado-based indie group, but this title song of their 2011 album had a chilling, mysterious effect on me that year (and still does). I bet you've never heard of it...
498 WESTERN UNION...the Five Americans
I moderately liked this 1967 hit when it came out...in later years I grew to appreciate it as a well-packaged piece of popular musical art...
497 GREEN TAMBOURINE...the Lemon Pipers
I had the same reaction with this one as with #497...it's from 1968 and I bought the single nine years later while browsing through Peaches on Sunrise Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale...
496 TWO TIMING TOUCH AND BROKEN BONES...the Hives
Combining brash, screaming punklike vocals and intense guitar virtuosity into a two minute experience...the Hives are an underrated Swedish alternative rock band. I first heard this song on my local alternative rock station 100.5/"The Buzz" back in 2005...
495 STUPID GIRL...Garbage
Rock 104, my radio station of choice when I was working the long hours on the letter-sorting machine back in 1995-96, played this song a lot and, the song's misogynous-sounding title notwithstanding, Garbage singer Shirley Manson made me one of their fans with her brilliant performance...
494 NEIGHBORHOOD #3 (POWER OUT)...Arcade Fire
Another song I first heard played on "the Buzz" several times around 2006-07, but without knowing who did it or even what the title was. I later became interested in this band and was surprised to hear it on their Funeral album...
493 THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME...Led Zeppelin
Although I had loved their epic Stairway to Heaven since the early 1970s, I didn't know much of Led Zeppelin's catalog until the first box set came out in 1990...that's when I first heard this song featuring Jimmy Page's incredible guitar talent and singer Robert Plant struggling to keep up...
492 I FOUGHT THE LAW...the Bobby Fuller Four
When this tune hit the airwaves (over local Miami station WQAM "Tiger Radio") in 1966, I generally either ignored it or switched over to WFUN. Now I think it's one of the best songs to come out that year...tragically, Fuller mysteriously died in his parked car the same year, along with his promising musical career...
491 OH VERY YOUNG...Cat Stevens
Cat Stevens during the early 1970s composed and performed many sensitive and emotionally-gripping songs...this one was an ongoing radio hit at the time of my high school graduation in May, 1974...how appropriate a song to this era in my life...
Next Monday I'll cover #490-481...
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