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

[Liam]

100.       

‘Fever’, Peggy Lee (1958)

Influenced by: Calypso Blues • Nat King Cole (1950)   

Influence on: Bad Day • Carmel (1983)   

Covered by: Frankie Avalon (1959) • Elvis Presley (1960) • Ben E. King (1962) • Conway Twitty (1963) • Suzi Quatro (1975) • Boney M. (1976) • The Cramps (1980) • Joe Cocker (1989) • Madonna (1992) • Beyoncé (2003)

There are certain songs that I’ve come across in this project so far that I’d never have placed in terms of the time I assumed they were recorded against when they actually were. This is one of them, though this itself was a cover and it has been covered a lot since it was most famously done by Lee. The arrangement of this version is a lot simpler than the original, focusing purely on the bass, drums played by hand and the irresistible finger clicking that somehow feels like the essence of this song to me. Sultry and somewhat mysterious, Fever is still a pretty cool little song.

101.      

‘One For My Baby (And One More For The Road), Frank Sinatra

Originally sung by Fred Astaire in a musical and already tackled twice by Sinatra, this ended up being the defining version of this song. Again, simpler was better as the piano supports the melancholy nature and delivery of the song, allowing Sinatra’s understated but effective vocals to sell the narrative. The fluctuations between his lamentations and the acceptance of his situation are a great sell job of the song’s persona, for lack of a better way of putting it. This was part of a suite of songs that were designed to explore sadness and loss – something that this song absolutely nails.

102.      

 ‘Le poinçonneur des Lilas’, Serge Gainsbourg (1958)

Gainsbourg is a name that I’ve seen many times before, but feel like I haven’t really heard any of his songs. This is definitely one I hadn’t heard and whilst the song itself is catchy, it is the lyrics themselves are most interesting. With love songs, swaggering songs, songs about loss all out there, this was Gainsbourg choosing to sing about a bored ticket collector who was contemplating mass murder/suicide. Mimicking the noise of the train as he talks about potentially getting a gun and going on a killing spree, it definitely is something different.

[MalaCloudy Black]

Huh, I did not know The Cramps covered Peggy Lee. The Cramps is one of my punk blind spots, though.

[METALMAN]

I love the Gainsbourg one. It’s probably his best song along with L’Anamour and Nazi Rock. 

[Skummy]

15 hours ago, How The Cloud Stole Christ said:

Huh, I did not know The Cramps covered Peggy Lee. The Cramps is one of my punk blind spots, though.

It's kind of telling that we've had two great songs covered by The Cramps in very short order, getting very much into that classic '50s aesthetic here. The Cramps' version is brilliant - they often play it quite safe with covers, but less so here.

Serge Gainsbourg was a master, just doing things in the field of pop music that no one else would even consider for decades. 

I love that Sinatra track - "...Sings For Only The Lonely" is one of my all-time favourite albums, as it feels so much more intimate and personal than he normally does. It doesn't feel like a big glitzy Vegas production, or a swaggering big band, it feels very down and out, end of the bar crooner stuff, and better for it.

[Liam]

103.      

‘Volare (Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu)’, Domenico Modugno (1958)

A song that has a chorus hook that is hard to stop from singing along to and little else in all reality for me. I mean, it is a perfectly enjoyable song, but so much goodwill is born out of the ‘volare’ chorus that the rest of the tune doesn’t really need to do too much else. This was 3rd place in the European Song Contest for Italy in 1958, whilst it was only beaten by Waterloo as the best song of the competition’s history according to a vote during the 50th anniversary celebrations for the effort.

104.      

 ‘All I Have To Do Is Dream’, The Everly Brothers (1958)

This is one where the significance is a little beyond me in terms of my knowledge of music and what was/wasn’t around. The high harmonies of Don and Phil Everly were different to a lot of different things out at this time, whilst this song followed ‘Wake Up Little Susie’, so the Brothers were busting out some top quality hits during this time period. What helps this song is length – it is perfectly sliced at around two minutes more as any more would threaten to become boring.

105.      

 ‘To Know Him Is To Love Him’, The Teddy Bears (1958)

The first of what I can only assume could be a number of Phil Spector songs. This was written by him when he was just a teenager, yet spent three weeks atop the Billboard 100 as he struck gold with pretty much his first tune. The song is catchy enough and the juxtaposition between the sweetly melodious voice of Annette Kleinbard and the simplistic accompaniment works together to create an enjoyable couple of minutes of music. It isn’t difficult to see why this got some traction and launched Spector’s career.

[GoGo Yubari]

I absolutely love "Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu," that's one of the songs I discovered from this book that's stuck with me the longest. I had no clue "Volare" was a cover and where the Dean Martin version is just the chorus for me, I really love the whole package here. All the non-chorus parts are really just tablesetting but I like the relative sparseness building up to that soaring chorus.

[Liam]

106.      

‘Brand New Cadillac’, Vince Taylor and the Playboys (1959)

According to the book, Vince Taylor’s rise and fall became the model for the story of Ziggy Stardust told by David Bowie in the 70s. This was Taylor (Brian Holden) at his best though as he took everything he knew from time spent in the US about rock and roll and unleashed it on an unwitting UK audience. The driving rhythm of the guitar holds everything together whilst Taylor maintains that swagger that had felt ever present in the US rock and roll songs up until this point. An example of the UK beginning to catch up with larger trends, perhaps?

107.     

 ‘What’d I Say (Part 1 and 2)’, Ray Charles (1959)

Ray Charles is another musician that I assume I must have heard something from in the past, yet I couldn’t name you a specific song. The story behind this tune is that it was pretty much improvised to fill part of a fifteen minute live spot, eventually becoming a song that Charles often ended his shows with. Claimed to be mainly about how the sum of the parts can create a greater whole than expected, this is quite a simplistic song (as songs like this go) but it feels as lively on record as you’d imagine it does in person. The keyboard and drumming in particular create a feeling of spontaneity, ably assisting Charles’ simple, yet effective lyrics with vocals that eventually turn into a call and response with the backing vocalists. Great fun.

108.      

‘I Only Have Eyes For You’, The Flamingos (1959)

Assured immortality due to its use in multiple films and television shows, this was one of the only real hits for The Flamingos. They’d been largely unsuccessful before this and would fade back into obscurity, but they do hit it out of the park here. The arrangement allows the vocals to be at the forefront, with the backing ones in particular creating a somewhat ethereal tone throughout the song.

[Liam]

109.      

 ‘Ne me quitte pas’, Jacques Brel (1959)

Influenced by: Les feuilles mortes • Yves Montand (1946)   

Influence on: Once Was • Marc & The Mambas (1983)   

Covered by: Nina Simone (1965) • Sandy Shaw (1967) • Scott Walker (recorded as “If You Go Away”) (1969) • Daniel Guichard (1972) • Serge Lama (1979)

Another one that comes across as ‘just a song’ to me, though I do like the impassioned nature of Brel’s voice as the song progresses. The accompaniment couldn’t be more simple and reflective of a melancholy that is fundamental to the song as a whole. Brel became more well known, or at least his songs did, when they were translated into English and sung by others,  though often without the lyrical wit that Brel apparently had.

110.      

‘Shouts Part 1 and 2’, The Isley Brothers (1959)

Influenced by: Lonely Teardrops • Jackie Wilson (1958)   

Influence on: White Lines (Don’t Don’t Do It) • Grandmaster Melle Mel (1983)   

Covered by: Lulu & The Luvvers (1964) • Joan Jett (1980) • Grandmaster Melle Mel (1983)

It is hard not to focus on this song in the light of Lulu’s version that I am significantly more aware of. However, this does offer both parts of the original song, thus including a big breakdown in Part 2 which is all about the call and response. Coming from gospel backgrounds, the writers were used to this style of vocal and it makes up the end minute or so of the song. The – perhaps apocryphal – origin of the song involved ‘You know you make me wanna shout’ being sung during an encore, with the crowd responding in kind. If that is the case, it wasn’t hard to see why – few songs have the ability to get people not only moving, but singing along as well.

111.      

‘Mack The Knife’, Bobby Darin (1959)

Considered by none other than Frank Sinatra as the definitive version of this song, Darin’s ‘Mack The Knife’ was a chart topper in both the UK and the US. This is a particular favourite song of my stepdad, so it already maintains positive memories for me. It is a swinging tune that tells a story of death and robbery, instantly making it a different kettle of fish compared to a fair few of the songs that were out at this time. Toe tapping, finger clicking, always swinging; the song is three minutes of gold.

[METALMAN]

I'd never heard the original Brand New Cadillac but I like the Clash one. I like this one too.

What'd I Say is obvs a classic.

Flamingo is nice, didn't know that was them.

Ne me quitte pas is nice but not really one of my favourite Brel songs.

Shout is fun.

Mack the Knife is obviously amazing and yeah I think the Bobby Darin one is my favourite version, though the live Ella Fitzgerald one where she forgets the words gets a big thumbs up too, as does Louis Armstrong. But it's such a good song. Even Robbie Williams couldn't mess it up. It's good in its original German too, but quite different:

 

[GoGo Yubari]

The only version of "Mack the Knife" I've ever heard and not liked is a version that's a duet between Frank Sinatra and Jimmy Buffett and is just way too goofy and buddy-buddy for a song about a murderer. Otherwise it's an incredibly hard song to screw up.

[Moses Julep]

Ne Me Quitte Pas had to be in this, the lyrics are pretty spectacular and it really allowed French music to pass into a world where sensitivity for men was welcome.

[VerbalPuke]

Love that Eddie Cochran is on here. He's brilliant, one of my favorites from that era (another that died tragically at a young age). 

Also, Blue Cheers cover of Summertime Blues is one of my favorite covers.

[MalaCloudy Black]

Thaaaaaaaat's why I recognize Summertime Blues.

[Skummy]

Blue Cheer's Summertime Blues is superb, but I don't think I know a bad version of it. Guitar Wolf's is extraordinary.

I love Jacques Brel, and as I get older prefer his versions to the Scott Walker interpretations that made me aware of him. Walker is one of my all-time favourites, but the arrangements are all too bombastic for Brel, who should feel slightly seedy and paranoid. Nina Simone's version of this song is wonderful, though.

Mack The Knife is a great tune, but the more I got into Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, and into The Threepenny Opera, the weirder I find it that it became a finger-clicking swing standard. The Tiger Lillies do a good version that feels closer in spirit to the original, while maintaining most of the established English lyrics.

[Pooker]

I grew up knowing Summertime Blues as an Alan Jackson country song. It still blows my mind to hear it sung by rock groups.

[METALMAN]

I think the first Summertime Blues I heard was the Who Live at Leeds cover. That's a nice one too.

And then there's the Beach Boys one which is the drizzling shits. So so so bad.

Eddie Cochran one is probably still my favourite all told.

Edited February 12, 2020 by metalman

[MalaCloudy Black]

@Liam I'm having withdrawals here

[Liam]

13 hours ago, How The Cloud Stole Christ said:

@Liam I'm having withdrawals here

I've been very busy but shall have some more up later today.

[Liam]

112.      

‘It Ain’t Necessarily So’, Diahann Carroll and the Andre Previn Trio (1959)

Initially from the musical ‘Porgy and Bess’, the original version from the film that was released in 1959 saw Sammy Davis Jr. sing it, though without a release on the soundtrack CD due to contractual obligations. After the film’s release, Carroll and Previn returned to the song with a sparser, jazzier arrangement. Carroll has a sultriness to her voice that I really like, whilst the piano work is playfully working in the background to effectively accompany her vocal work. It starts to fall a little into the category of ‘pleasant enough’, though Carroll has a good enough voice to elevate it slightly beyond that.

113.      

‘Wondrous Place’, Billy Fury (1960)

Into the Sixties! This sounds like nothing I’ve heard yet, with a UK pop/rock and roll singer attempting to filter Elvis Presley’s vocal stylings through an echo chamber and creating something that is eminently catchy. It has more legs than most of the songs as it has – at least in the UK – maintained some traction due to its use in adverts and with various cover versions. The recording makes it feel otherworldly and adds another layer of interest to what is otherwise a good pop song. Fury liked the song so much, he recorded it four more times.

114.      

‘Save The Last Dance For Me’, The Drifters (1960)

A bittersweet song (the writer of the song had been left unable to walk without crutches, penning this song about his own inability to dance with his wife at their own wedding), the use of a Brazilian ‘baion’ beat and the amount of strings in the arrangement were considered novel for the time. Ben E. King really did take on board the narrative within the song and delivered a great vocal filled with frustration and yearning, whilst the melody provides a catchy rhythm whilst also allowing the lyrics room to breathe and be understood.

115.      

‘Chaje Shukarije’, Esma Redzepova (1960)

The perfect example of a song that I just don’t really get – lyrically, musically, societally – but just think is good fun. It isn’t surprising that a song by ‘The Queen of the Gypsies’ probably isn’t within my usual wheelhouse, but her success over the years at bringing Romany music to international audiences has been lauded. Hell, when you Youtube this song and see her still performing it live into the 2000s, you have to give her a lot of credit.

116.      

‘Oh Carolina’, The Folks Brothers (1960)

File this under the category of ‘original song to covers I should have realised were covers all along’, even if that is a little bit unwieldy. Apparently the first Prince Buster production and one of the first songs with a real Rastafarian flavour to it that made it big, it is an essential slice of pop that still earns a head nod and shuffle along even today. Probably why it was made into that cover that was clearly a cover all along you idiot.

117.      

‘The Click Song (Qongqothwane)’, Miriam Makeba (1960)

You might as well copy and paste the words under 115 as this pretty much has the same response from me. It is worlds away from anything I’d listen to normally, but it is a good song to listen to, mixing the percussion, vocals and clicking in a way that is catchy irrelevant of your musical sphere of interest. The click sound is supposed to mimic the sound of a dung beetle when it is preparing to mate as it bands its abdomen on the floor – the more you know. Similar to 115, this primarily gets into the book as it opened up the world to a new type of music that was out there. Can’t argue too much with that.

Edited February 24, 2020 by Liam

[GoGo Yubari]

The album that The Click Song is on is also in 1001 Albums to Listen to Before You Die so I listened to it in full a couple years ago. On top of that song, I'd wholeheartedly recommend listening to "One More Dance," which is a darkly funny song but is especially great because for whatever reason the dude she sings it as a duet with is cracking up the whole time.

I love "Wondrous Place." I'm sure I must have heard it before the book but listening to it for the purposes of reading the book really locked it in place as a good song. Like you said, I think the production is really what separates it from other good songs of its ilk.