En el año 2003 la prestigiosa revista Rolling Stone decidió elaborar una lista con las 500 mejores canciones de todos los tiempos, la polémica que se desató fue muy similar a la de sus predecesoras, la lista de los 500 álbumes más importantes de todos los tiempos y la lista de los 100 guitarristas más grandes de todos los tiempos. Entre muchas, las principales críticas eran a la gran cantidad de canciones de los 60 y los 70 (En la lista se incluían 202 canciones de los 60, 144 de la década de 1970, 55 de la de 1980, 24 de los 90 y solo 3 del siglo XXI), que Bohemian Rasody de Queen se situase en el puesto 163 y sobre todo y por encima de todas las demás se dijo que **no era justo ** realizar una lista así, sobre todo teniendo en cuenta que se omitían géneros de aparición más tardía y tan influyentes como el rap, por ejemplo.
Although the list was made by 172 critics, musicians and experts from the recording industry, the crème de la crème of the music scene, personally I think it is crazy to make a list like that. Why? Well, because everyone has their personal Top500, or their Top100 or their top whatever, they are those counted songs that are capable of making us feel different every time the first bars begin to play, and even though we have it on the iPod, on the computer and we have listened to them over and over again, from time to time it comes on the radio or you listen to it somewhere and you feel different, right? The list may include the most prestigious songs, the best composed, those that achieve greater compositional perfection, but many of them, depending on each one, will lack that “something” that happens to us with the others.
In order not to make a macro post, I’ll give you the first 25:
- Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles
- Pet Sounds, The Beach Boys
- Revolver, The Beatles
- Highway 61 Revisited, Bob Dylan
- Rubber Soul, The Beatles
- What’s Going On, Marvin Gaye
- Exile on Main Street, The Rolling Stones
- London Calling, The Clash
- Blonde on Blonde, Bob Dylan
- The Beatles (“The White Album”), The Beatles
- The Sun Sessions, Elvis Presley
- Kind of Blue, Miles Davis
- Velvet Underground and Nico, The Velvet Underground
- Abbey Road, The Beatles
- Are You Experienced?, The Jimi Hendrix Experience
- Blood on the Tracks, Bob Dylan
- Nevermind, Nirvana
- Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen
- Astral Weeks, Van Morrison
- Thriller, Michael Jackson
- The Great Twenty-Eight, Chuck Berry
- Plastic Ono Band, John Lennon
- Innervisions, Stevie Wonder
- Live at the Apollo (1963), James Brown
- Rumors, Fleetwood Mac
You can see the remaining 475 here, on the Rolling Stone website. As I said, although there are real great songs, I differ in many. Here goes my Personal Top:
- I Can’t Get No Satisfaction, The Rolling Stones
- Hit Me With Your Best Shot, Pat Benatar
- Suddenly I See, KT Tunstall
- Radio Nowhere, Bruce Springsteen
- Show Me What I’m Looking For, Carolina Liar
- Like a Rolling Stone, Bob Dylan
- Sweet Home Alabama, Lynyrd Skynyrd
- Smells Like Teen Spirit, Nirvana
- My Illness, Andrés Calamaro
- Don’t Fear the Reaper, The Caesars
- Here it Goes Again, Ok Go!
- Work, Jimmy Eat World
- LA, Message of the Blues
- Everlong, Foo Fighters
- Highway to Hell, AC/DC
As you see, variadillo, and seventies and eighties too ;) And you? What are your best songs ever?