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1,001 songs to listen to before you die...


Liam

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Oh I love Buddy Holly, That'll Be the Day is probably his best known song and it's probably my favorite. 

I guess more speculation from me is if we perhaps see Eddie Cochran or Link Wray make it here in the 50s. Seems Eddie's peers are here, both have hugely influential to me and my music tastes. 

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That'll Be the Day was one of the first pop songs I heard on a gramophone. I had no idea which songs were in the charts at the time because nobody in my home listened to the radio and we didn't have a tape player, so Buddy Holly and Tom Lehrer were acts I mistakenly considered to be contemporary. It seems completely mad when I think about it now.

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6 hours ago, VerbalPuke said:

Oh I love Buddy Holly, That'll Be the Day is probably his best known song and it's probably my favorite. 

I guess more speculation from me is if we perhaps see Eddie Cochran or Link Wray make it here in the 50s. Seems Eddie's peers are here, both have hugely influential to me and my music tastes. 

I feel he may be in if rumble is in. I love most of the songs being played lately, but the lack of Chuck Berry material still upsets me. :(

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88.      

‘When I Fall In Love’, Nat King Cole (1957)

Nat King Cole moved from a primarily jazz musician in the 30s to a pure pop singer in the 50s, with some question marks about how schmaltzy some of his later output would become. I also understand why someone might find this song itself schmaltzy with its earnest lyrics and strings in the background. However, to me it is a marriage of a good delivery played out across a simple arrangement that lifts the vocals in a way that creates a beautiful love song in my opinion. Your mileage may vary, I definitely feel that much is true.

89.      

‘You Send Me’, Sam Cooke (1957)

This feels very of its time to me, a time that I’ve only ever really experienced through film soundtracks if I’m being truly honest. That isn’t a knock on the song as it is a perfectly blissful love song that showcases Cooke’s soulful vocals throughout alongside some catchy harmonising. This was an early song in his solo career after a split from a gospel group due to his release (under a pseudonym) of a secular song that left him little choice but to strike out on his own. The Soul Stirrers loss was the world’s gain, it would seem.

90.      

 ‘It’s Only Make Believe’, Conway Twitty (1958)

Known to many modern music fans as a joke on Family Guy, Conway Twitty was born Harold Jenkins, yet found his new persona by joining the name of places in Arkansas and Texas. Sang with Elvis Presley’s normal backing vocalists, this song began with very little to personally recommend it…until Twitty’s vocals continued to build and build in a faintly mesmerising way. Considered to potentially influence the later work of people such as Roy Orbinson in delivery, narrative and tone, the slow build to the end really sold this tale of marital strife. Better than I expected.


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On 02/02/2020 at 02:18, Malenko said:

I feel he may be in if rumble is in. I love most of the songs being played lately, but the lack of Chuck Berry material still upsets me. :(

Yeah I was also a bit surprised by that but I looked up the dates (it’s hard to really know them for singers you experienced through greatest bits collections or whatever) and we’ve still got Johnny B Goode and Back in the USA. The former is almost certainly going to be in and maybe the latter too.

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91.      

‘Johnny B. Goode’, Chuck Berry (1958)

You have to be a pretty special track to be sent into space as a marker of your country’s musical and cultural output. That was what happened to ‘Johnny B. Goode’ in 1977, a fair turn compared to the unease that some felt at the time when it was released. A black man playing music and singing with such swagger? Unheard of. The riff at the start is one of the greatest intros for a song, setting the tone and pace of the song that never lets up until the very end. NASA made a good choice, that’s for sure.

92.      

‘Move It!’, Cliff Richard and the Drifters (1958)

It always boggles my mind that Cliff Richard might have ever been considered even somewhat cool, but I guess there was a time for everyone. It helped that it was the closest thing this side of the ocean to what was happening with people like Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry in the US. People loved Richard’s sexy vocal stylings, but I actually mainly enjoy the fuzzy guitar that the song is built upon. This is perfectly fine, but does feel a step behind everything else that has been going on elsewhere at this point in time.

93.      

 ‘La Bamba’, Ritchie Valens (1958)

This is one that I cannot talk about without thinking about my own personal take on this song – I’ve loved it since I was a child and it has stuck with me until now. The lyrics are taken from a popular Mexican wedding song, with Valens adding his guitar (reluctantly at first, apparently) to make it a much more rocking song. It is another song where the feeling of urgency and noise just is exciting, even over sixty years later. They call them classics for a reason.

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La Bamba. Beautiful song. What a tragedy to lose Richie at such a young age. Of course that extends to Buddy Holly and Big Bopper as well:(

The La Bamba story was my grandma's favorite movie.

And my buddy in the military taught me that the La Bamba is a form Hispanic dance? I guess the song is about a naval captain courting a woman and talking about dancing the La Bamba.

And there is the Chuck Berry we expected

L.

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13 hours ago, metalman said:

Yeah I was also a bit surprised by that but I looked up the dates (it’s hard to really know them for singers you experienced through greatest bits collections or whatever) and we’ve still got Johnny B Goode and Back in the USA. The former is almost certainly going to be in and maybe the latter too.

I know Johnny b Goode was always making the list but Roll over Beethoven didn't and while music is art and art is subjective, if we're talking classics that is definitely a big one and really should be in it. I know I would have put a lot more songs in it because I'm a fan but at least that one not making it seems unfair.

 

3 hours ago, VerbalPuke said:

La Bamba. Beautiful song. What a tragedy to lose Richie at such a young age. Of course that extends to Buddy Holly and Big Bopper as well:(

The La Bamba story was my grandma's favorite movie.

And my buddy in the military taught me that the La Bamba is a form Hispanic dance? I guess the song is about a naval captain courting a woman and talking about dancing the La Bamba.

And there is the Chuck Berry we expected

L.

I guess so. The lyrics are repetitive and mostly about dancing la bamba. You can assume he's a naval captain from that one line but it's not like it's a very elaborate story. Still fun though!

Cliff's song was nice too.

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1 minute ago, Malenko said:

I know Johnny b Goode was always making the list but Roll over Beethoven didn't and while music is art and art is subjective, if we're talking classics that is definitely a big one and really should be in it. I know I would have put a lot more songs in it because I'm a fan but at least that one not making it seems unfair.

 

I guess so. The lyrics are repetitive and mostly about dancing la bamba. You can assume he's a naval captain from that one line but it's not like it's a very elaborate story. Still fun though!

Cliff's song was nice too.

In the case of Chuck Berry I'm probably going with School Day myself, catchy dance tune.

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love "Just A Gigolo" - my favourite version is Alex Harvey's, which follows Louis Prima's lead of combining the two songs wonderfully. 

Lonnie Donegan was my grandad's favourite, and I regret that I only got into his music after my grandad died. It's so unlike anything else you'd have heard in the UK at the time, and while some of it hasn't aged well, some still sounds fresh and interesting now. Rock Island Line is great, but "Frankie & Johnny" is my favourite, and still holds up.

 

As for Chuck Berry, in terms of importance, it has to be between Johnny B. Goode and Roll Over, Beethoven. Both are statements of intent as much as they're great rock and roll songs - in the fine tradition of early rock and roll songs being about rock and roll, but taking it a bit of a step further. Johnny B. Goode almost functioning as an origin story, and Roll Over, Beethoven being a black rock and roller effectively telling the white music canon to step aside because his time has come.

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94.      

‘Yakety Yak’, The Coasters (1958)

A song that, until now, I hadn’t realised was about parents trying to get their children to do chores (I’ll be honest – not paid that close attention to the lyrics before). The Coasters were well known for their comedic short songs and the squealy saxophone noise that is perhaps one of the more memorable elements of the tune. For a song that comes in at under two minutes, it feels like they do a lot in terms of shifts in dynamics and sound, or at least it feels like they do. The success of this song on soundtracks, especially children’s films/television, cemented its legacy, and is probably where I heard of it first.

95.      

‘At The Hop’, Danny and The Juniors (1958)

The moment this started, it sounded like the type of song I’d expect to hear in any 50s high school dance scene of a film…and that is pretty much what this song was all about. The Hop was the high school slang term for a dance and this was a celebration of that moment that unsurprisingly caught on with teenagers. It is another song that feels very busy, though more in terms of the persistence of the percussion underneath the pretty repetitive lyrics. It’s definitely a song, just one of the least I’ve heard so far in my own opinion.

96.      

‘Stagger Lee’, Lloyd Price (1958)

This was not what I expected when the song first began whatsoever. ‘Stagger Lee’ was a traditional story about an argument between two men that saw Lee kill a friend called ‘Billy’ Lyons. Lee himself is a character who isn’t exactly celebrated, but he isn’t exactly chastised either. To turn it into a swinging R&B number was definitely a shout by Price and this is a surprisingly groovy take on a murder, especially considering white America’s occasional distrust of black people. Outside of the lyrical content, there is also something about the song that makes it sound more modern than many – it definitely doesn’t feel its sixty years.

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97.      

‘Summertime Blues’, Eddie Cochran (1958)

Eddie Cochran does not sound like a teenager on this song, one of his biggest hits before tragically dying at the age of just 21. What the song does do is add that element of teenage angst to the world of rock and roll. Up until now a lot of the tunes had been about having fun and being edgy – this was a song that was about being fed up with the world you lived, the work you had to do, and the money you didn’t have. Lyrically, it feels a lot more conscious of the world at large in a way others haven’t; music as introspection, rather than for escapism.

98.      

‘Dans mon ile’, Henry Salvador (1958)

There seemed to be myriad different versions of this, so I stuck the video of the film version that attracted the interest of a Brazilian composer who was trying to develop bossa nova. I’ll be honest with you, I played this song about three times and have nothing much to say about it. It is pleasant enough, but unless you are a book telling me I must listen to you before I die, I wouldn’t have considered it anything special. Wrong time, wrong place, etc.

99.      

‘Lonesome Town’, Ricky Nelson (1958)

In an interesting addition to the book, this is the first song with a little section that tells me this:

Influenced by: I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry • Hank Williams (1949)   

Influence on: Wicked Game • Chris Isaak (1989)   

Covered by: The Ventures (1961) • Shakin’ Stevens and the Sunsets (1975) • The Cramps (1979) • Paul McCartney (1999) • Richard Hawley (2008)

Always helpful. I initially thought this might be another case of good looking boy singing songs that teenagers love, but it is much more along the ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ lamenting love style of tune. It was seen as the turning point for Nelson who had been known up until this point for his TV career and some rock and roll that distinctly lacked edge. This may not be mindblowing in any capacity, but its appeal to the market that had begun to be cultivated by other rock and roll stars is clear.

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