10 - 1 (my top 100 tunes)

You will note that my top 10 is unchanged from 2010. The truth is, when you get to this point it is incredibly difficult to rate one song above another. Depending on my mood any of them could have claimed the top spot.

10 A New England - Kirsty MacColl 10
It's not just the additional verse or the gender swap that makes this version of A New England very different from Billy Bragg's. The silky voice of the sorely missed Kirsty MacColl, the musical arrangement and the tempo give this version real oomph. Better than Bragg's version? Different, and brilliant. I will settle for that.

9 The Glorious Day - Amsterdam 9

There was a section of my friends at Uni who loved a band called Pele. Indeed at one point it felt like Pele were the house band of Rutherford College Junior Common Room. I never really got Pele, but when I saw Amsterdam (formed from the wreckage of Pele) support Billy Bragg I was won over. Even more so when they played The Glorious Day. There isn't a particularly good version of this song on the internet. Skip to around 40 seconds in on the link above to get a flavour. Then perhaps listen to Billy Bragg's The Warmest Room, the song on which this is based. With Bragg you get a love song, but with Amsterdam it is an ode to revolutionaries. It's a great track but sadly I think for you to appreciate it you will just have to buy their album.

8 Panic - The Smiths 8
I think this may be the first Smiths song I remember hearing. It was certainly the first to capture my imagination, even though it breaks my 5th Law of Pop: "Though shalt never have a choir of children singing backing vocals" or the Excerpt From A Teenage Opera Law as it is otherwise known. Only the Smiths and Pink Floyd are exempt from this Law. Anyway I digress. Do I really need to justify how brilliant Panic is? I don't think so.

7 I Useta Love Her - Sawdoctors 7
In my first year at University the jukebox in Keynes College bar was a new fangled CD jukebox. It was really very novel, but it also only had a small number of CDs. Fortunately one of those CDs included this song which would get played pretty much every night. I get a big goofy grin every time I hear this song. Partly due to the brilliance of this Irish band's songwriting/performing, and partly because it transports me back to some happy and formative years.

6 I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind Of Thing - Pet Shop Boys 6
Despite the deadpan delivery this song is fantastically life affirming song. Every now and then we all need to cut loose. For no reason, just because. We all have the right to be a-typical once in a while. The emotions stirred by this song are summed up by  "I feel like taking all my clothes off. Dancing to the Rite of Spring. And I wouldn't normally do this kind of thing."
 

5 Beat Surrender - The Jam 5
There was a time in the mid 90s when the soundtrack to me getting ready for a night out was a Jam cd. Invariably this was the last song I would play before heading out. It got me in the perfect positive mindset. Shouty vocals, great lyrics, blaring horns and a driving beat. It has all of my favourite ingredients. "Fill my heart with joy and gladness. I've lived too long in shadows of sadness." Succumb to the beat surrender!

4 Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards - Billy Bragg 4
In many ways I suppose it's odd that the top Billy Bragg song in my list is impossible to sing along to live. And yet curiously it's a highlight of his show.Over the years pretty much every line has changed to reflect the topical issues of the day. This original version was written before the fall of the Iron Curtain and muses on the lot of the political singer/songwriter. It gradually gains momentum over the course of the song, through a succession of one liners, into the final glorious shouty refrain. (If you listen very hard you can hear Phil Jupitus shouting amidst the backing vocals towards the song.)

If you want to see how radically Bragg screws with the song check out later live versions:
Live on the Henry Rollins Show 2007
Live at Keele 2011

3 Mr Blue Sky - ELO 3
When I was little, my brothers had the ELO album Out Of The Blue on which was my favourite song of the time: Mr Blue Sky. Were they being mean or were they being principled prog rockers? I don't know. But whenever I wanted to hear Mr Blue Sky I was forced to listen to all of the preceding tracks. I couldn't fully appreciate the song you see, unless I heard it in context. Well that's what distinctly remember them telling me. The only problem being that Out Of The Blue was a double album and Mr Blue Sky was at the end of side 3. Despite this, I still love ELO, I still love Mr Blue Sky and I still talk to my brothers. This is a sublime piece of orchestral rock. I can't listen to it without feeling good. It is 4 and a half minutes of spellbinding genius.


2 Something  - Beatles 2
Frank Sinatra, who knew a thing or two about music, said that Something was "the greatest love something of the past 50 years". Who am I to disagree? From the moment that the drum roll ushers in the mournful guitar riff you know this is a truly special work of art. The song just drips with lush gorgeousness. It oozes class. It is remarkable to think that only 6 years previously they had been bashing out mersey beat tunes like I Want To Hold Your Hand. Has any other band in history changed so radically over such a short lifespan and with such high quality control? 

1 Yes - McAlmont and Butler 1
I used the word lush in describing Something. It applies equally to this gem of the britpop era. Bernard Butler of Suede, and David McAlmont of the impossibly high voice, combined to produce a masterpiece. It is a sweeping, embracing and intoxicating song. I was introduced to Yes by my friend Corinne when I lived in Sheffield. I don't remember the games we played on the Sega Megadrive on that boozy night, and it has been 15 years since I saw Corinne. But 16 years on from that night I can remember the thrill of hearing it for the first time. It sounded like nothing else. Timeless and contemporary at the same time. Is it my favourite song of all time? Maybe not. Can I think of anything that would decisively knock it off top spot? No. 

70 -61 (my top 100 tunes of all time)

70 Crazy For You/Rain mashup Jane Lui new
Felicia Day is one of my favourite actresses and at the forefront of online tv having created and starred in a number of shows that I really like. She is also a very good singer with a number of collaborations under her belt. So when she mentioned on facebook that she had recorded a duet with Jane Lui I was interested to hear it. Payphone/Some Day My Prince Will Come was an eye opener. Day is of course wonderful, but Jane Lui was a revelation. To say she is multi-talented is an understatement. Check out this multi-instrumentalist, singer and artist. You won't regret it. I blogged about her before when I was recovering from an operation, but since then one of her songs has really burrowed inside me. Ok, so it's not really her song it's a mashup of two Madonna songs. But it is beautiful.



69 Fergus Sings The Blues Deacon Blue 64
Deacon Blue are one of those late 80s/early 90s bands that quietly amassed a catalogue of really really good songs without ever really breaking through into the big time in the way that a band like Wet Wet Wet did for example. I saw them live at the Greenbelt festival in 1990 without knowing too much of their work and they were trulysuperb live. This was the song I remember most from that gig, and while there are a half dozen other songs that could have staked a claim to be on this list I have stuck with my choice from three years ago. I love the light and shade in this song. I love the horns, the melody and the lyrics.



68 The Show Lenka new
I only know this song thanks to the film Moneyball. In the film, Brad Pitt's young daughter plays a song to him on the guitar in a music shop. Instantly I thought I knew the song from way back. The film was set a decade or so ago so that would have made sense. But when I looked into it the song was a recent one by a performer called Lenka. Her version is kooky and kooky appeals to me. Will this song be in my top 100 the next time I update this list? I don't know. But for now it merits its place as a song and a video that make me smile every time.


67 Fix You Coldplay new
It is fashionable to hate Coldplay. To call them bland or boring. Having seen them perform at the 2012 Paralympics Closing Ceremony I reject that verdict. They were great live ad their music is perfect for a stadium environment. The one song they didn't play was "Fix You". I find it a powerful and moving song, written by Chris Martin for his wife when she lost her father. I think the sentiments are universal. When bad things happen to loved ones you want to put things right, but in truth you are impotent. "Tears stream down your face, when you lose something you cannot replace". Set aside your cynicism about Coldplay. This is a truly great song.


66 Friday I'm In Love The Cure 62
From the angst of Coldplay to the joy of The Cure. At University a friend used to get exasperated with me because I was drawn to the upbeat poppy songs by The Cure rather than their more challenging or darker songs. I don't care. We can all relate to the joi de vivre of this song, and I can remember happy times bouncing around a dancefloor to it.


65 Live And Let Die Wings 60
At some point in the late 1970s/early 1980s we got our first VCR. This was a big thing. You could watch one channel and record another. Revolutionary! It's hard to remember back now, but in those days if you missed a programme when it was broadcast, that was it. If you were lucky it might be repeated in a couple of years, but basically if you went out for the night the only way of finding out what had happened was to find someone who had watched it and ask them. The VCR changed this. Now we could record things when we were out. If there was a programme or a film we really liked we could even keep it. One of the first things we recorded was Live And Let Die, and I watched it over and over. I love that film to this day. It remains my favourite Bond film, and the theme is my favourite Bond theme.Maybe I was brainwashed by repeated viewings but it is just perfect. Rock and reggae with a hint of menace. One further note for fact fans. The initial broadcast of Live And Let Die had an audience of 23.5 million. It still hold the record for the highest UK audience for a movie on TV.


64 Purple Haze Jimi Hendrix 59
As a guitarist with dreams of stardom the young me sought out idols to emulate. I could copy note for note guitar solos by Brian May, Eric Clapton and others. I never had fast enough fingers to emulate the guitar wankery of my heavy metal idols but that didn't bother me so much. I wanted to make my guitar sing not babble. But Hendrix was different. He got sounds from a guitar that I couldn't begin to fathom. Sure I could play his music up to a point. But then it would be a bit like when you try to copy someone's signature. You can never write it with the same carefree flow, and so it never looks entirely convincing. That's how it felt with Hendrix. I was a shaky pastiche. But you know what? That's ok. Idols should be on a pedestal. Purple Haze is Hendrix on fire, and untouchable by mere mortals like me.


63 Lose Yourself Eminem new
I like Eminem, but at times he is cartoony to the point of doing himself a disservice. Lose Yourself however, is a seriously good song.For me this is his finest moment. It is better than the overhyped Stan, or all that Slim Shady nonsense. This is a serious song, and for once Eminem is revealing a little of himself. It is no coincidence that the song appears in the semi-autobiographical film 8 Mile. The lyrics are challenging and motivational. This is a song about stepping up to the plate, but without being corny. It's a great song to break you free from apathy.


62 I Say A Little Prayer Aretha Franklin new
One of the greatest voices in soul in one of her finest moments. It almost goes unnoticed, but she doesn't really sing the chorus, leaving the backing vocalists to carry the song while she riffs over the top. How do you get away with that? I guess you can when a song is as strong as this one and you have a majestic set of vocal chords. When she sings (2 mins in) "For me there is no-one but you. Please love me true" towards the end it is the sound of a woman on top form. If you want to know quite how good this version is, compare it to the original Dionne Warwick version. What's the big difference? Soul.



61 Eton Rifles The Jam 56
This post-punk mod gem is a belligerent beast of a tune. Punchy lyrics talking of a literally punchy confrontation between the classes. PM David Cameron who was at Eton at the time cites this as one of this favourite songs. Despite this it is one of my favourites too. It is sobering to think that the Eton Rifles now run the country.