20 Songs and Albums from 2022

Just in keeping with tradition, but at no great length and with no great thought, here are 20 songs and albums from 2022 I'd recommend.

SONGS

The Mainline Song/The Lockdown Song - Spiritualized

You Will Never Work in Television Again - The Smile

American Teenager - Ethel Cain

It's Not just Me, It's Everybody - Weyes Blood

Bad Habit - Steve Lacy

Two Fingers - Sea Power

Working Boy in New York City - Belle and Sebastian

For All Our Days That Tear the Heart - Jessie Buckley and Bernard Butler

She Still Leads Me On - Suede

Expert in a Dying Field - The Beths

Hurricane - Plains

Looking for Somebody (to Love) - The 1975

Greatest Hits - Jockstrap

Cuff It - Beyonce

Back to the Radio - Porridge Radio

Tired of Taking it Out on You - Wilco

Sunday - Let's Eat Grandma

Lovesong - Beabadoobee

Please Be Happy - Tears for Fears

Ignore Tenderness - Julia Jacklin

All the Flowers - Angel Olsen

Protection from Evil - Ibibio Sound Machine

ALBUMS

The Tipping Point - Tears for Fears

Pre-Pleasure - Julia Jacklin

LIFE ON EARTH - Hurray for the Riff-Raff

Two Ribbons - Let's Eat Grandma

PAINLESS - Nilufer Yanya

Remember Your North Star - Yaya Bey

Renaissance - Beyonce

Wet Leg - Wet Leg

Plains - Plains

Rolling Golden Holy - Bonny Light Horseman

Big Time - Angel Olsen

Cruel Country - Wilco

Autofiction - Suede

Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You - Big Thief

A Light for Attracting Attention - The Smile

Expert in a Dying Field - The Beths

Are You Happy Now? - Jenson McRae

SOS - SZA

No Thank You - Little Simz

For All Our Days that Tear the Heart - Jessie Buckley and Bernard Butler

Blue Rev - Alvvays

2022 Greatest Songs: Part 9 (49-1 Songs)

And in the end ...

*i'll probably have another post, where i list songs i didn't include because i forgot about them which should be on the list, but anyway, here are some good songs ...

And, ok, here is a google spreadsheet https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HwDT9WUowYKrfr7M_47CaRJxQ18cq9-vklJXwKxhjb0/edit?usp=sharing

49          Crying - Roy Orbison

48          Great Balls of Fire - Jerry Lee Lewis

47          Somewhere - West Side Story 

46          Dancing On My Own - Robyn

45          Get Ur Freak On - Missy Elliott

44          Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley

43          What's Going On - Marvin Gaye

42          You Really Got Me - The Kinks

41          Biology - Girls Aloud

40          River Deep, Mountain High - Tina Turner

39          Johnny B. Goode - Chuck Berry

38          Yes - McAlmont & Butler

37          Don't Worry Baby - Beach Boys

This is my favourite Beach Boys song, and my favourite melody.

36          Alright - Kendrick Lamar

35          Move on Up - Curtis Mayfield

34          Hey Ya! - OutKast

33          Strange Fruit - Billie Holiday

32          A Day in the Life - The Beatles

31          God Only Knows - The Beach Boys

30          Good Times - Chic

29          Family Affair- Mary J Blige

Family Affair’s a perfect song, right? This is, next to Be My Baby, the best intro in popular music.

28          Send in the Clowns - Barbra Streisand/Frank Sinatra

27          Thunder Road - Bruce Springsteen

26          (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher And Higher - Jackie Wilson

25          Blowin' in The Wind - Bob Dylan

24          Someone to Watch Over Me - Ella Fitzgerald

23          From the Morning - Nick Drake

I don’t feel too silly putting From the Morning by Nick Drake this high up. It is, after all, the final track on the last studio album by Britain’s archetypal posthumously lauded cult artist. It does represent something. But, I should say, this song has, for consistently longer than anything else, been near the very top of my personal favourites. I’ve listed my own favourite songs four times on this blog, and From the Morning has always been in the Top 5, apart from in 2015, when, for some reason, I let it slip down to 21. Can’t think why.

I don’t care what is played at my own funeral, but From the Morning is the song I want to be listening to as the world ends. It is the song of a man who knows and who always knew, who gave the better of humanity its dignity, who could see the beauty even while the sadness took a grip of him. It is a pantheistic vision which helps me feel just a little bit better about the world. A day once dawned, and it was beautiful. Now we rise and we are everywhere. It is the idea of a song reduced to the barest bones, but still emerging hopeful and rewarding. It’s a song I never don’t want to listen to. Then the night she fell and the air was beautiful.

22          Redemption Song - Bob Marley

21          Paper Planes – MIA

I love the song Paper Planes by MIA – MIA’s first album was 18 years ago and there still isn’t another voice quite like hers. This song became massive and made her a global star because of a number of things, including its appearance in a major film. It is really an odd and distinct combination of elements, but I think the bit that really, really makes it, that just unsettles you and makes you smile at the same time is the “some-some-a-some I murder, some-some I let go”, liltingly and innocently sung in that very distinct west London accent, almost posh. To manage to do that, to make one song (MIA has lots of other great songs, but none quite so huge) that is completely sui generis and challenging, but is also a banger, that is what everyone should aspire to.

20          Crazy in Love - Beyonce ft JZ

19          A Change is Gonna Come - Sam Cooke

18          Like A Prayer - Madonna

17          Sitting on the Dock of the Bay - Otis Redding

16          Dancing Queen - ABBA

15          (Love is like a) Heat Wave - Martha Reeves & the Vandellas

14          We Can Work it Out - The Beatles

I know We Can Work It Out is not actually the best Beatles song, but the way it is truly McCartney and Lennon, links the early 60s and late 60s, is joyful and weird, frustrated and conciliatory, simple and complicated, this song explains them for me. Most people would say A Day in the Life is a more perfect synergy of the whole band … and maybe they’re right, but I just love the fact We Can Work It Out doesn’t stop, just hurries to its conclusion.

13          Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana

12          Fight the Power - Public Enemy

11          Tutti Frutti - Little Richard

10          Wichita Lineman - Glen Campbell

9            Going Underground - The Jam

This whole blog 101songs has, from its outset in 2009, been one long attempt to put into words how much I love Going Underground. The feeling I got when I first heard it … you get that feeling not many times in a listening life. I know it is not actually a unique or innovative song, but because it did not start, proceed or end like anything I’d ever heard before when I first heard it in 1993, it still feels fundamental yet shocking to me. If great songs are either pop songs or protest songs, this is both. It is a greater pop song that it is a protest song, but its sound and its form and its urgency sounded to me like a protest from the start, and still does. The Jam were very big. They were three not wildly charismatic working-class kids from a small town, they were in their teens/early 20s, they had four Number 1s in two years, and might have dominated the UK charts throughout the 80s almost as much as the Beatles did in the 60s, if that’s what Weller had wanted and been able to put himself through. He still, clearly, had the songs in him, he just wanted to do it differently. If you’re from the USA, where Going Underground made no impact, fine, it may not be a great song, but here, in the context of what it sounds like, what it achieved, how much it hasn’t paled in the slightest, I think it is right to call it one of the greatest ever.

8            My Girl - The Temptations

When I was 13, My Girl was back in the charts because of the film of the same name, and I was singing it at my desk before an afternoon geography lesson, and a boy called Doug White turned round and told me to stop singing it, and I think, for over 20 years, I held that against the song and believed that meant it wasn’t such a great song, and it’s only really in the last decade I accepted it might have been my singing rather than My Girl itself that Doug didn’t like. Anyway, My Girl is just the most astonishingly good song, isn’t i? Like a combination of the best aspects of Good Vibrations and God Only Knows. It’s a beautiful fact that Smokey Robinson, Motown’s biggest star at the time, wrote it for David Ruffin’s voice, and even though Smokey knew how good it was after he’d written it and was tempted to keep it, still let it go to the Temptations. That’s like Paul Simon with Bridge Ove Troubled Water. The great writer/performer was true to what was best for their song, and so it’s the very best version of the song that exists. Which is not the version I sang in Geography in 1992.

7            Running Up that Hill (A Deal with God) - Kate Bush

6            Billie Jean - Michael Jackson

5            Like a Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan

4            Be My Baby - The Ronettes

3            All My Friends - LCD Soundsystem

This is, there and thereabouts, my own favourite song. It is also considered a great song, though perhaps not truly commercially successful enough to deserve this high placing. So. What can I say to justify it? That it is the Like a Rolling Stone of this century, but with a heart? Something like that.

It must have been tempting to make the music less basic, to do something other than one ongoing piano riff, gradually augmented, getting louder. So, it is a masterpiece of atmosphere, of dynamics, of sentiment. It starts where it starts, gets to where it gets, takes quite a long time, and you don’t want to miss a second.

In a sense, with that simplicity, with the emotional exorcism it contains, it’s rock and roll in its purest form.

It’s an old dude’s song, and I first heard it when I wasn’t really an old dude, but it made me want to be one.

2            Over the Rainbow - Judy Garland

Out with the old.

1            Doo Wop (That Thing) - Lauryn Hill

OK, let me talk, briefly, about the Greatest Song of All Time, which is Doo Wop (That Thing), by Lauryn Hill. It certainly helps its case that I love this song in my bones. It’s one of my favourite few songs in the world, and has been for a long time. I’ve loved it since I first heard it, in summer 1998.

There are many significant things about this song – debuted at US Number 1, first female rapper to do so, one of the first solo women to write and record Number 1 single, one of first debut singles to enter at Number 1, one of the youngest solo Number 1s etc etc. It is a landmark record. It is the first single from a landmark, acclaimed album. But I think this song is greater than the excellent album that it comes from.

It sets the agenda for 21^st century popular music, where black people and women both are seen not just as stars but as auteurs and geniuses. That was still quite rare before this song (my slight grouchiness at modern revisionism I’m sure comes across sometimes, but the fact is my education in rock and roll history very much said that, though everyone had recorded great songs, it was mainly white men that did great albums and were the driving brains behind great records, and it is clearly good that that has changed).

At the same time, it does not reject the past. It draws from the great history of song. It is both a nostalgic song and a futuristic song. It is polemical but kind and even-minded.

No one else in the history of pop music, not Bowie, not Beyonce, not Dylan or McCartney, had the full set of gifts Lauryn Hill had at her disposal right then. The rap is phenomenal, joyful, mind-bending. The singing is perfect. The production, the tune, the structure, the playing, everything.

It bridges every imaginable divide, even that between conservatism and liberalism. It is a song of limitless magnificence. It is, my friends, the Greatest Song of All Time.

2022 Greatest Songs: Part 8 (149-50)

Everything is good now.

149        Cannonball - The Breeders

148        Dry the Rain - The Beta Band

147        Mannish Boy - Muddy Waters

146        Can't Get You Out of My Head - Kylie Minogue

145        Strawberry Fields Forever - Beatles

144        Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - Judy Garland

143        Mmmbop - Hanson

142        Hound Dog - Big Mama Thornton

141        Umbrella - Rihanna

140        Suite: Judy Blue Eyes - Crosby Stills Nash

139        I’m Waiting For The Man - The Velvet Underground

138        Heart Of Glass - Blondie

137        This Land is Your Land - Woody Guthrie

136        Heroes - David Bowie

135        Runaway - Kanye West

134        Buffalo Stance - Neneh Cherry

133        Pressure Drop - Toots and the Maytals

132        Who Knows Where the Time Goes - Fairport Convention

131        Stormy Weather - Billie Holiday

130        I See a Darkness - Bonnie "Prince" Billy

129        The Only Living Boy in New York - Simon and Garfunkel

128        Ever Fallen in Love - The Buzzcocks

127        Stan - Eminem

126        Stand By Me - Ben E. King

125        The Trapeze Swinger - Iron and Wine

124        Losing You - Solange

123        Maps - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

122        Once in a Lifetime - Talking Heads

121        Roll Over Beethoven - Chuck Berry

120        Blitzkrieg Bop - The Ramones

119        Wonderful World - Sam Cooke

118        America - Simon and Garfunkel

117        The Street Where You Live - Nat King Cole

116        Young Hearts Run Free - Candi Staton

I heard Young Hearts Run Free last summer at the fairground. You know what the sound of fairgrounds is – loud and banging and brutal. A lot of the songs they play are worst-case scenario, but then, when me and the kid were on the dodgems, they were playing Young Hearts Run Free by Candi Staton, and I thought “this is a different level”. It’s really a great song, I think it’s underrated. Of course, it’s a disco banger, but it’s got a real poignancy and maturity to the lyrics, and Candi Staton is one of the great singers. I had a Candi Staton collection years ago, her singing songs like In the Ghetto and Stand By Your Man, and they were SOOO much better than the more famous versions.

They talk about sad bangers these days, don’t they, with Dancing On My Own being a classic example, but Young Hearts Run Free is a pretty definitive original sad banger.

115        Glory Box - Portishead

114        Waitin' for a Superman - The Flaming Lips

I think one of the greatest, most underrated “moments” in popular music, was the turn-of-the-century Americana centred on the production of Dave Fridmann. Over a three or four year period, there were a number of stunning songs and beautiful albums, a distinct sound that drew from the past and influenced the future, a prophetic understanding of the century to come that stands the test of the time and is not seen that much elsewhere. Not all the productions were Fridmann’s – he did Mercury Rev, Sparklehorse, Flaming Lips, not to mention the Delgados, Mogwai, Low and Sleater-Kinney, but also we’re talking Grandaddy’s The Sophtware Slump and a couple of Wilco albums, amongst other things.

I went off Flaming Lips later, for a while, but, of all of it, I think the definitive song is their ‘Waiting for a Superman’, a song so beautiful and increasingly sad it’s hard to shake. Somehow, it seems to hint at this cultural century’s growing superhero obsession which now dwarfs all else, as if, as a culture, we have handed ourselves over to the idea that some all-powerful being might come and save us from ourselves, but it was always just too heavy.

113        I Want You Back - Jackson 5

112        There She Goes - The La's

111        The Rat - The Walkmen

110        In Between Days - The Cure

109        It's a Sin - Pet Shop Boys

108        The Mercy Seat - Johnny Cash/Nick Cave

107        Genius of Love - The Tom Tom Girls

106        The Weight - The Band

105        In the Still of the Night - The Five Satins

104        Blueberry Hill - Fats Domino

103        Cheek to Cheek - Fred Astaire

102        Maria  (West Side Story)

101        Crazy - Patsy Cline

100        Every Time We Say Goodbye - Ella Fitzgerald

99          Suspicious Minds - Elvis Presley

98          Hard to Handle - Otis Redding

97          Gimme Shelter - Rolling Stones

96          Penny Lane - Beatles

95          Born to Run - Bruce Springsteen

94          You've Got a Friend - Carole King/James Taylor

93          Respect - Aretha Franklin

In 2021, when Rolling Stone magazine updated their Top 500 songs of all time, Respect by Aretha Franklin had moved up to Number 1, which seemed like a solid enough choice, although, in a way, I’ve never really been able to hear Respect as intended. I’m sure I first heard it in 80s adverts, or in parodies, or bad covers, or on soundtracks, and so I just never had the moment of being excited, or inspired, by it.

When I first heard Franklin singing Think, which will have been when I was 17, it did for me what Respect did for other people, and I’ve always much preferred it as a song. Respect came first, and is the more dominant song, has the greater back story, has more to hook on to, of course. It’s interesting to think about how much our early encounters with a song drain it of its impact. I think ‘Satisfaction’ was another one, I think it was on a Marathon advert – if we don’t realise things are meant to be classic songs, it can take us by surprise when we find out that they are.

92          Palante - Hurray for the Riff-Raff

91          Jolene - Dolly Parton

90          Mercy Mercy Me - Marvin Gaye

Songs that suffer on these kind of lists are ones that are on a truly great, consistent album. All the songs on Blue are 9 out of 10 or above. A Case of You seems to be the one that mainly gets picked out, but River, Carey, The Last Time I Saw Richard, Little Green … if those had been the standout tracks on mediocre albums, they’d be listed as all-time classics too. It’s easy for people to pick on Both Sides, Now as a great Joni Mitchell song because it’s so much more noteworthy than everything else on Clouds.

I noticed this in Rolling Stone’s recent revised Greatest 500 songs of all time, where this happened a lot. What’s Going On was in the Top 10, and Mercy Mercy Me, from the same album, was nowhere to be seen …

… some songs stand out from albums, and that’s a good thing, but sometimes artists make a great album and they don’t want anything to stand out from it. Mercy Mercy Me is a companion to What's Going On, but they're still both so perfect in their own right.

89          Life on Mars? - David Bowie

88          Sabotage - Beastie Boys

87          Why Do Fools Fall In Love? - Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers

86          Ol' Man River - Paul Robeson

85          Let's Stay Together - Al Green

84          Take It With Me - Tom Waits

It’s funny to me that I hadn’t heard Take It With Me when I made the list in 2014. In some ways, that’s the best possible indicator of how perennially incomplete this process is.

Hadn’t heard it at all, though I deemed myself, to some extent, a Tom Waits fan. This is my favourite Tom Waits song now, and one of the loveliest songs you will ever hear. People in the know will have it at their wedding or their funeral, for sure. Is this the closest we get to Tom’s ”actual” singing voice? Does that matter? He writes a lot of songs full of love and empathy, it just often seems like it’s disguised. This song is a standard in waiting. Sinatra would do it and turn it into a hit in bygone days.

83          Summertime - Ella Fitzgerald

82          Oh Boy - Buddy Holly

81          Groove is in the Heart - Deee-Lite

It's funny that Groove is in the Heart tied with Number 1 in 1990 with Steve Miller Band’s The Joker - I think I’ve always put them together, even though they hardly sound the slightest bit similar. I’ve always seen them as groovy sui generis one-offs.

Groove is in the Heart still sounds modern, sounds near enough the cutting edge, so coherent for all the different elements, so joyful. It’s a song that surprises you by being at the top of your most played songs list, but it’ll just go anywhere and never let you down. Some of the very best singles are done by artists who only manage the magic once, and it is, in a way, the fact that they only managed it once that makes it so, like, every time you choose to listen to the song, you’re plucking something beautiful out of the ether that barely exists except within those four minutes. Then you forget til you’re surprised again by its brilliance the next time.

80          Blind Willie McTell - Bob Dylan

Blind Willie McTell has been my favourite Dylan song for a few years, but that aside, I have to find a reason for its elevated placing. So that reason I’m giving is that it represents “the whole story, not just the presented story”. Dylan has always been ahead of the game when it comes to retrospectively letting you know that the album and the songs that you first hear were not the whole story.

Reissues, outtakes, rerecordings, are now big business, but it has not always been thus. Everyone knows Dylan left a lot of his greatest songs (and recordings) off albums, and Blind Willie McTell is the greatest of those. So it is not just a magnificent song, it represents something important in the developing story of popular music.

79          Green Light – Lorde

It is interesting to me that, although music criticism appears to have been democratised, & pop as opposed to rock music is dominant critically and culturally, it continues to be tastemakers who, oxymoronically, define what a great “pop” song is. What I mean – consider Dancing on My Own by Robyn and Green Light by Lorde, feted as among the two greatest pop songs of this century.

Pop songs they definitely are, you can’t call them anything else. And yet, neither were actually all that popular. Dancing On My Own did fine, but didn’t really crack the US chart at all (yes, I know, it’s had enduring streaming popularity etc). Green Light was an active commercial failure, the comeback single from a teen sensation who’d had a Number 1 from a previous album, only making Number 20 or so in both the UK and US. Pop as they are, it is still taste rather than commerce, primarily, that deems them great.

Which they are, of course. But “pop” is really hard to pin down, even now.

78          Lean on Me - Bill Withers

77          Blue Suede Shoes - Carl Perkins/Elvis Presley

76          At Last - Etta James

75          You've Lost That Loving Feeling - The Righteous Brothers

74          I'm so Lonesome I Could Cry - Hank Williams

73          Singin' in the Rain - Gene Kelly

72          Superstition - Stevie Wonder

71          Bills, Bills, Bills - Destiny's Child

70          (Reach Out) I'll Be There - The Four Tops

There’s a joyous 2019 documentary called ‘Hitsville: The Making of Motown’, which does not let the bad vibes in. Berry Gordy and Smokey Robinson are the masters of ceremony, and their 60 year friendship shines through. But my favourite bit is when various talking heads are recalling the revue shows the many Motown acts used to take part in, the friendly rivalry between the Temptations and the Four Tops (the Temps and the Tops) to be the stars of the bill, and Otis Williams, the last surviving original member of the Temptations, is saying that he always felt his band had the upper hand, with their slicker dance moves, but then says admiringly, “but Levi Stubbs was noooo joke!” and it cuts to Stubbs, drenched in sweat, leading the Four Tops on ‘Reach Out I’ll Be There’, and really, it’s one of the best things you will ever see. What a singer, what a song.

69          The Way You Look Tonight - Fred Astaire

68          Good Vibrations - The Beach Boys

67          He's Misstra Know-it-all - Stevie Wonder

66          Being Alive (Company)

65          White Christmas - Bing Crosby

64          No Surprises - Radiohead

63          Bridge Over Troubled Water - Simon And Garfunkel

62          Waterloo Sunset - The Kinks

61          Think - Aretha Franklin

60          Who Do You Love? - Bo Diddley

59          When the Haar Rolls In - James Yorkston

Two extremely long songs to consider, both about water in the air – Purple Rain by Prince, and When the Haar Rolls In by James Yorkston. Purple Rain is Pitchfork’s Greatest Song of the 80s, and in Rolling Stone’s 10 Greatest Songs of All Time. When the Haar Rolls In is a song with 41K views on youtube (which is not very many, number fans), the title track to a 2008 album that hopefully sold, at best, a few thousand copies.

When I made this list in 2014, WTHRI was, ridiculously, in the Top 50, while Purple Rain was, ridiculously, nowhere to be seen. Yet, though I can be sensible and pretend objectivity with lots of things, there is no part of me that wants to, or even can, change that. What’s the point of my gratuitously giving Purple Rain some solidly but not excessively high position, when I think it’s a fake song, a robotic facsimile of a song. I leave WTHRI high, because it represents the idea that there are objectively perfect songs (even though we all have an idea of what that objectively perfect song is, and I seem to be the only person for whom WTHRI is it), notwithstanding popness and protestiness.

I have reacted the same way to Purple Rain, and nearly all Prince songs, since I was a child. Like it was something that was in the vicinity of what I could love but never what I could love. I think about, and focus on, Prince, a lot, because he belongs in rarefied air, in modern criticism, alongside Bowie, Kate Bush, Bjork, Beyonce, still the Beatles, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Wonder … I’d say that’s pretty much it, where their genius, their combination of fame and affection and acclaim is overwhelming and pretty much unchallengeable, and I get it with all the others, indeed I fully embrace it with most, but with Prince, I genuinely, despite myself, feel like it’s all a con. Weird, innit. So, the point is … this is my list. It’ll never not be my list, as much as I’d like to pretend it’s not. James Yorkston’s way better than Prince.

58          A Case Of You - Joni Mitchell

57          Gimme Some Lovin' - Spencer Davis Group

56          In California - Joanna Newsom

55          Son Of A Preacher Man - Dusty Springfield

54          The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll - Bob Dylan

53          Sweet Child O' Mine - Guns 'N Roses

52          Both Sides Now - Joni Mitchell

51          Yesterday -  Beatles

50          Moon River - Audrey Hepburn

2022 Greatest Songs: Part 7 (299-150)

299        Just Like Honey -  The Jesus and Mary Chain

298        $1000 Wedding - Gram Parsons ft Emmylou Harris

297        Bat out of Hell - Meat Loaf

296        I Feel Good - James Brown

295        Manhattan - Ella Fitzgerald

294        All I Have To Do Is Dream - The Everly Brothers

293        The Kiss - Judee Sill

292        Northern Sky - Nick Drake

Probably the weirdest placing on my original list, the one that would make a casual reader who dropped in immediately think “what is this idiot on?”, after all the build-up I’d given about objectivity, is Northern Sky by Nick Drake at 4. What was I thinking? I had something in my head about Northern Sky possessing the same kind of unmatchable beauty as God Only Knows, which was Number 2. But God Only Knows has more than just beauty going for it, of course. The thing is Northern Sky probably isn’t even in my 3 favourite Nick Drake songs. It is a lovely song, but I don’t think there’s any good reason for it to be anywhere near the top, in retrospect.

Actually, just listened to it again. Scrap all that. Clearly is the 4^th best song of all time.

291        How Far I'll Go (Moana)

290        Girl in Amber - Nick Cave

289        You Oughta Know - Alanis Morrisette

288        Fast Car - Tracy Chapman

287        Atomic - Blondie

286        Push It - Salt-N-Pepa

285        Go Your Own Way - Fleetwood Mac

284        Livin' on a Prayer - Bon Jovi

283        The Modern Leper - Frightened Rabbit

Pound for pound, Scottish music’s been the best, right? That’s a given … Frightened Rabbit were so good. This album is so good. The scabrously witty and bathetic lyrics, the unfakeable voice. I love the line it ends with “You can tell me all about what you did today …”

282        God Save The Queen - The Sex Pistols

281        Fun, Fun, Fun - The Beach Boys

280        Land of 1000 Dances - Wilson Picketts

279        You Are the Generation That Bought More Shoes and You Get What You Deserve - Johnny Boy

278        Monster - Kanye West

277        Fourth of July - Sufjan Stevens

276        Independent Women - Destiny's Child

275        Wonderwall – Oasis

Two Mancunian songs of the 90s to consider now. Amidst the generally negative retrospectives on Britpop from both sides of the Atlantic, it is Oasis that are dealt with worst – described with contempt like they were the dense, basic, testosterone-fuelled lad apotheoasis of all that was grim about the era. Which is fine. I think we all ended up thinking that to an extent. But it’s not the whole story, certainly not for me, who was, somewhat, there.

Oasis were a behemoth, but I think it was ok to think they were a behemoth in a good way for a few months, from late 1995 to mid-1996, with their two biggest, most defining songs Wonderwall (sung by Liam Gallagher, a good rock singer) and Don’t Back in Anger (sung by Noel Gallagher, a bad rock singer), overpowering all before them.

Wonderwall is a funny thing. It still, unlike anything else by them, will give me a funny feeling if I’m caught offguard by it. It is not stereotypically Oasis – it is downbeat, minor-key, it is fairly gentle and empathetic. It’s not, unlike Don’t Look Back in Anger, an obvious football anthem.

Yet it became a British folk song, a people’s song, an everywhere song. I’d suggest that it did that while just about holding on to being a proper not-bad song by any reckoning. It also, contra-history, broke America. It was a very big hit in the USA, one of the biggest rock songs of 1995, and made What’s the Story one of the bestselling albums in the US of 1996. That did happen. American press act like no one in the US fell for Oasis, but they did fall for this song.

Not guaranteed. Country House was bigger than Roll With It, The Great Escape came out first. The second single was to be The Universal, which is one of Blur’s greatest, and most universal songs. But everyone went for Oasis instead, on the back of Wonderwall and Don’t Look Back in Anger. Such a distinct direction of events, which seemed to matter so much at the time.

Even now, it is possible to look back and not realise how enormous Wonderwall actually was, kept off the top spot as it was by Simply Red’s Fairground and Robson and Jerome. But Wonderwall, like Simply Red’s Stars, which I will now get to, falls into a very distinct category of song, which is the single that sold the album. Wonderwall is Oasis’ bestselling single, 12 times platinum, but it’s even bigger than that. It also convinced 100s of 1000s of people to buy the album from which it came.

Stars was only a Number 8 single in late 1991, but Stars the album was the bestselling in the UK for both 1991 and 1992, a phenomenal achievement, and it’s not like there were other songs on the album that were bigger than the title track. That song was everywhere in the early 90s. If I was to list six songs that were the true sound of the UK in the 1990s, I think I’d say I Will Always Love You, Stars, Wonderwall, Wannabe, Angels and the Macarena. Something like that.

That being so, and Simply Red being, somewhat, the comical enemy in my early indie days, it’s only in the last few years I’ve accepted that Stars is a magnificent song, a transcendent piece of melody. I’ve been wanting to write about Stars for quite a while, to confess, if you will, that I probably listen to it more than almost anything else these days. Isn’t that funny? Stars and Wonderwall, universal songs I still hold on to, after all.

274        The Message  - Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five

273        Would I Lie to You - Charles and Eddie

272        Random Rules - Silver Jews

271        No Woman No Cry - Bob Marley

270        September Gurls - Big Star

269        Little Green - Joni Mitchell

268        When You Wish upon a Star - Cliff Edwards

267        Ms. Jackson - OutKast

266        Seven Nation Army - The White Stripes

265        Take On Me - Aha

264        Let's Get It On - Marvin Gaye

263        I Will Survive - Gloria Gaynor

262        West End Girls - Pet Shop Boys

261        Try A Little Tenderness - Otis Redding

260        I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free - Nina Simone

259        When the Saints Go Marching In - Louis Armstrong

258        Mack The Knife - Bobby Darin

257        Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd

256        Cross Road Blues - Robert Johnson

255        The Killing Moon - Echo and the Bunnymen

254        People Get Ready - The Impressions

253        I Think it's Going to Rain Today - Randy Newman

252        Tiny Dancer - Elton John

251        Venus in Furs - The Velvet Underground

250        Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - Elton John

249        London Calling - The Clash

248        Anything Goes - Frank Sinatra

247        Emily - Joanna Newsom

246        Soon - My Bloody Valentine

245        Slide Away - Oasis

244        Happiness Is A Warm Gun - Beatles

243        Sweet Jane - Velvet Underground

242        The Ace of Spades -  Motörhead

241        Boulder to Birmingham - Emmylou Harris

240        The Man That Got Away - Judy Garland

239        He Stopped Loving Her Today - George Jones

238        Alone Again Naturally - Gilbert O'Sullivan

237        What'll I Do? - The McGarrigles/Various others

What’ll I Do by Irving Berlin is almost 100 years old. That melody and lyric is just as good as it gets, just gives me the shivers  – What’ll I do … when you … are far away … and I am blue … what’ll I do? There’s a version on the McGarrigle Hour album which really ticks several boxes. It’s a melody that would survive pretty much anything, though. I feel like there’s no one who could ruin it, not even Simon Le Bon.

236        Float On - Modest Mouse

235        Try Not to Breathe - REM

234        Milkshake - Kelis

233        Time to Pretend – MGMT

I don’t really know what the chaps from MGMT do now, but I imagine if they meet people in bars and tell them they’re musicians and they’re asked “have you done anything I’d know” they could go “duhnuhnuhnuh-NUH-NUH” and there’s not many people that wouldn’t be impressed. They had some other good songs and their second album wasn’t too bad, but those six notes are up with the six greatest notes ever, and enough.

232        Burn Baby Burn - Ash

231        Visions of Johanna - Bob Dylan

230        My Baby Don't Understand Me - Natalie Prass

229        Downtown Train - Tom Waits

228        Better Son/Daughter - Rilo Kiley

227        I Say a Little Prayer - Aretha Franklin

226        My Generation - The Who

225        Love Child - The Supremes

224        Famous Blue Raincoat - Leonard Cohen

223        Unsatisfied - The Replacements

222        Grace - Jeff Buckley

221        Modern Girl - Sleater-Kinney

220        They Can't Take That Away from Me - Fred Astaire/Ella Fitzgerald

219        That'll Be The Day - Buddy Holly and the Crickets

218        Stand and Deliver - Adam and the Ants

217        White Lines (Don't Do It) - Melle Mel

216        Ice Hockey Hair - Super Furry Animals

215        No Diggity - Blackstreet featuring Dr Dre

214        Not Dark Yet - Bob Dylan

213        There is a Light That Never Goes Out - The Smiths

212        Sir Duke - Stevie Wonder

211        Hey Jude - The Beatles

210        Perfect Day - Lou Reed

209        Will You Love Me Tomorrow? - The Shirelles/Carole King

208        As Time Goes By - Dooley Wilson

207        No No No - Dawn Penn

206        Don't Stop Me Now - Queen

205        Jump - Van Halen

204        No Scrubs - TLC

203        Sheena Is A Punk Rocker - The Ramones

202        Remember (Walkin in the Sand) - The Shangri-las

201        I'm Gonna Make You Love Me - Supremes and the Temptations

200        Temptation - New Order

199        Empire State Of Mind - Jay Z and Alicia Keys

198        I Only Have Eyes for You - The Flamingos

197        Fortunate Son - Creedence Clearwater Revival

196        Mr Tambourine Man - The Byrds/Bob Dylan

195        Into My Arms - Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds

194        Hyperballad - Bjork

193        Bring da Ruckus - Wu-Tang Clan

192        She's a Jar - Wilco

191        No Children - Mountain Goats

190        I Know You Got Soul - Eric B and Rakim

189        Brimful Of Asha - Cornershop

188        You Don't Have to Say You Love Me - Dusty Springfield

187        Witness (1 Hope) - Roots Manuva

186        Bad Romance - Lady Gaga

185        One - U2

184        That's The Way Love Goes - Janet Jackson

183        Stayin' Alive - Bee Gees

182        Rise – PiL

I, weirdly, used to self-identify as punk. When I first got into music, that simplicity, austerity, judgemental morality, appealed to me. Between the age of 16 and 19 I was very austere. Jesus was, in a way, the original punk, when you think about it. I never looked like a punk, I looked more like a monk. I took as gospel, for quite a while, the idea of not liking Fleetwood Mac, Queen, the Bee Gees, even Elton John. Silly thing is, I didn’t actually like the Sex Pistols. I wrote an excruciating article in the school newspaper about how real punk was The Jam and Elvis Costello. I die a little to think of it. I’d tie in lots of music I quite liked to the idea it might just about be punk, like the Police, Dire Straits. Oh god! Oh Jesus Christ!

I do still like punk rock, and I do rather like the Sex Pistols now. John Lydon is infuriating, in some ways coming across like a standard fame-hungry clown (“What? Too challenging for you? Oooh” etc) but there’s always a part of him which remains very impressive and endearing. Pretty Vacant is, for me, the best Pistols song, and even better is Rise, by PIL. PIL are pretty great. What strikes me about Rise is that his singing is really incredible. Like, he always had a unique, throat-grabbing sound, but, on mid-80s PIL, his voice is a greater, richer instrument, without losing its power. Everything about that record is great - the guitar sound, the scope, such a bold, big, beautiful record – I love the sloganeering “anger is an energy”, “may the road rise with you” (sons of dead Irish dads have a particular fondness for that one). So, yeah, take it from me, the original punk, that some good came of it after all.

181        Where Did You Sleep Last Night? - Leadbelly/Nirvana

180        Black - Dave

179        Rehab - Amy Winehouse

178        You Get What You Give - The New Radicals

177        I Feel Love - Donna Summer

176        7 and 7 is - Love

175        So Long, Marianne - Leonard Cohen

174        I Wanna Dance With Somebody - Whitney Houston

173        212 - Azaelia Banks

172        It's Alright Ma, I'm Only Bleeding - Bob Dylan

171        Fantasy - Maria Carey

Number 1 in Pitchfork’s recent Top 250 Songs of the 90s was ‘Fantasy (Remix)' ft Ol’ Dirty Bastard, a judgement you’ll be amazed to hear I don’t agree with. But … while I never liked Mariah Carey, found her voice so much more self-congratulatory than, say, Whitney Houston, and she did release some warbly cack in the early 90s, nevertheless even when I first heard Fantasy, back in 1995, I thought “well, that’s pretty good, actually” so if it was able to break past my defences even then, that says a lot. It’s not the Greatest Song of the 90s, but it’s pretty perfect, and even better with ODB on the remix.

170        We Shall Overcome - Pete Seeger

169        Satisfaction - Rolling Stones

168        The Israelites - Desmond Dekker and the Aces

167        Killing In The Name - Rage Against the Machine

166        My Funny Valentine - Ella Fitzgerald

165        Diamonds and Rust - Joan Baez

This song reminds me of Martha Wainwright. “My poetry was lousy, you said” and “Poetry has no place for a heart that’s a whore”. Two songs about men being dicks. There are a lot of great lines in Joan Baez’s ‘Diamonds and Rust’ but “my poetry was lousy, you said” is the most telling. You can imagine him saying it … “heh-heh you’re poetry’s lousy, Joan” … just off DA Pennebaker’s camera. “Sister, you fagged out a long time ago”. Dylan’s recent book’s brought a lot of chat about misogyny. At the moment, I can’t really face reading it. None of it really matters when he’s the guy who wrote ‘The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll’ and the more I know about him, his borrowed melodies, his sharp practices, his autopen, his grumpy old mannish oddness, the more, yet, I simply love the songs, more deeply than ever, knowing the limitations they spring from. That’s Dylan. “My poetry was lousy, you said”. Not this time.

“You say my time here has been some sort of joke, that I've been messing around, some sort of incubating period for when I really come around … …. you have no idea” – around 2004, I saw Martha W twice in quick succession, supporting her brother and then Wilco (or vice versa), the first time I’d heard her, and there she was, lost in the song, balanced on one leg, her massive voice filling the Barbican and the Hammersmith Apollo, shutting down the early chatter-drinkers to silence. “You bloody motherfucking asshole!” I love that kind of clumsy swearing, like Johnny Boy in Mean Streets saying “You fuckin fuck” or Maggie Gyllenhaal saying to Jake “Go suck a fuck” in Donnie Darko. It could be about any casual vain man but it’s about her dad, the new Bob Dylan, just being an asshole before he knows better. I love these songs.

164        Jesus, Etc. - Wilco

163        You Make Me Feel So Young - Frank Sinatra

162        Hounds Of Love - Kate Bush/The Futureheads

161        Pretty Vacant - Sex Pistols

160        Debaser - The Pixies

159        The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly) - Missy 'Misdemeanour' Elliot

158        Shake It Off - Taylor Swift

I didn’t think I’d be writing about Robbie Williams twice, but there you go. There’s a kind of writing I can’t really stand, which I think of Robbie Williamsy, where’s it so self-absorbed, knowing, the artist is singing about their own place in the culture with catchphrases and mild shock factor. It’s the thing that holds me back from being more of a Taylor Swift fan – her story songs are much better than her confessional or postmodern songs. Ed Sheeran reminds me of Williams sometimes, the 1975, Kanye West, just a bit … give it a rest. Having said all that, I love Shake It Off, and that’s a very Williamsy Swift song.

157        The State That I Am In - Belle and Sebastian

156        Folsom Prison Blues - Johnny Cash

155        Rebel Without a Pause - Public Enemy

154        Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division

153        Shaft (Theme From) - Isaac Hayes

152        Dancing In The Street - Martha and the Vandellas

151        Lose Yourself - Eminem

150        My Girls - Animal Collective

2022 Greatest Songs: Part 6 (499-300)

We go on ...

499        For Once in My Life - Stevie Wonder

498        California Dreamin' - Mamas and the Papas

497        Killing Me Softly - Roberta Flack

496        Roadrunner - The Modern Lovers

495        Tired of Being Alone - Al Green

494        Call Me Maybe - Carly Rae Jepsen

493        No One Know Me Like the Piano in My Mother's Home - Sampha

492        Good Intentions Paving Company - Joanna Newsom

491        The Promise - Girls Aloud

490        Sock it to Me - Missy Elliott

489        Fade Into You - Mazzy Star

488        Violet - Hole

487        Birdhouse in Your Soul - They Might Be Giants

486        Ain't No Mountain High Enough - Diana Ross

485        Get Ready - The Temptations

484        You Can't Always Get What You Want - Rolling Stones

483        Cloudbusting - Kate Bush

482        Inner City Blues - Marvin Gaye

481        Give Me a Little More Time - Gabrielle

480        Forgot About Dre - Dr Dre ft. Eminem

479        1 Thing - Amerie

478        Two Weeks - fka twigs

477        Sweet Thing - Van Morrison

476        Idiot Wind - Bob Dylan

475        There Must Be An Angel - Eurythmics

474        Letter from America - The Proclaimers

473        Pure Shores - All Saints

472        Le Freak - Chic

471        Geno - Dexys Midnight Runners

470        Unfinished Sympathy - Massive Attack

469        Holes - Mercury Rev

468        Alone Again Or - Love

467        Carey - Joni Mitchell

466        Galveston - Glen Campbell

465        On and On - Erykah Badu

464        Rock and Roll Music - Chuck Berry

463        Didn't it Rain - Sister Rosetta Tharpe

462        Kiss Me More - Doja Cat ft SZA

A good thing for me is I’m not entirely beholden to the “it’s not like it was in my day” nostalgia when it comes to pop music (i do mean pop specifically here). My day wasn’t 78 to 83, which would have been hard to get over. It was 88 to 93, when there was mainly crap pop music. And I don’t like pop music anyway. I think.

Yet, then, as now, I’ll be thinking “this is all shit” and then I’ll hear something, like Would I Lie to You by Charles and Eddie, like Kiss Me More by Doja Cat & SZA, and think, “that’s pretty great, actually”. Then I’ll get back to the serious music, whatever that is. But I’m ok with modern pop music. Some of it I hate, some of it I don’t.

461        Ride on Time - Black Box

460        Video Killed the Radio Star - Buggles

459        Let it Go - Idina Menzel

458        I Am Trying To Break Your Heart - Wilco

457        Love Machine -Girls Aloud

456        Hurt - Johnny Cash

455        Can I Kick It? - A Tribe Called Quest

454        Firestarter - The Prodigy

453        Down Town - Petula Clark

452        Easy - The Commodores

451        Be Not So Fearful - Bill Fay

450        I Could Have Danced All Night - Julie Andrews/Marni Nixon

449        When Doves Cry - Prince

448        Hummingbird - Wilco

447        Try Again - Aaliyah

446        The Circle Game - Joni Mitchell

445        Rainbow Connection - Kermit the Frog

444        99 Problems - Jay-Z

443        California Soul - Marlena Shaw

442        You Are Everything - Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye

441        Jesus was a Crossmaker - Judee Sill

440        Into the Mystic - Van Morrison

439        Fairytale of New York - The Pogues

438        Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space - Spiritualized

437        There She Goes, My Beautiful World - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

436        Heartbeat - Annie

435        All The Things She Said - TATU

434        When the Revolution Comes - The Last Poets

Slightly contradicting something I wrote earlier, I hadn’t realised that ‘The Revolution Will Not be Televised’ was an answer to, and entirely modelled on, this earlier track, or if I did, that it really takes everything from it. This is the greater song. TRWNBT suffers from knowing more about it.

433        My Favourite Things - Julie Andrews

432        Hurricane - Bob Dylan

431        Rock N Roll - Mos Def

430        Everybody Hurts - REM

429        Here, There, and Everywhere - The Beatles

428        I Got Rhythm - Gene Kelly/Ethel Merman

427        Come Rain or Come Shine - Ray Charles

I’ve been listening to the playlist of Bob Dylan’s 66 Songs from The Philosophy of Modern Song (haven’t got to the book yet, it sits misogynistically, fraudulently upon my shelf). It’s a reminder of how little pre rock’n’roll and early rock’n’roll I really know. There are whole worlds of popular song I’ve barely dipped my toe into, when it comes to early country, blues, soul, rock’n’roll, the stuff which is clearly Dylan’s lifeblood. I already knew about half the songs on his list, which is not bad going. I guess he could have chosen 1000s more I had no idea about.

I’m quite enjoying the songs I don’t know, but I wouldn’t say anything is blowing my mind. Dylan loves the pop music of his youth, just as most people love the pop music of their youth. But I don’t necessarily know that there are vast quantities of hidden masterpieces, in terms of how they relate to what a great song is in the here and now.

I retain the belief that Beatles/Dylan/Motown began something greater than what went before, expanded the possibility of song. There were great songs before, and many of them are on this list. But I do believe the possibilities of song increased in the 60s and have continued, by and large, with some caveats, to increase, and that’s a good thing.

Also, take Tutti Frutti. One thing that makes it great is the influence it’s had, sure, but the reason it continues to rank highly on Greatest Song lists is because it’s a great, exciting, song RIGHT NOW, whenever right now is. It doesn’t date, or lose its lustre. I’ll have to figure out if I’m contradicting an earlier point here. Maybe a little.

This (above) is on Dylan's list, and I rather like it.

426        You Can't Hurry Love - The Supremes

425        Cry Baby - Janis Joplin

424        I Am the Walrus - The Beatles

423        Sweet Caroline - Neil Diamond

422        Sympathy for the Devil - Rolling Stones

421        We Are Your Friends - Justice Vs Simian

420        I Bet That You Look Good On The Dancefloor - Arctic Monkeys

419        Time After Time - Cyndi Lauper

418        The Boys Are Back In Town - Thin Lizzy

417        Unchained Melody - The Righteous Brothers

416        I Heard It Through The Grapevine - Marvin Gaye

415        Paint It Black - Rolling Stones

414        I Shall be Released - The Band/Bob Dylan

413        Rock Around The Clock - Bill Haley and his Comets

412        Stagger Lee - Nick Cave

411        B.O.B. - OutKast

410        King Kunta - Kendrick Lamar

409        Deceptacon - Le Tigre

408        Free Fallin '- Tom Petty

407        Every Grain of Sand - Bob Dylan

406        Dance To The Music - Sly and the Family Stone

405        Be-Bop-a-Lula - Gene Vincent

404        Five Years - David Bowie

403        Jackie - Scott Walker

402        Silly Games - Janet Kay

401        Shine on You Crazy Diamond - Pink Floyd

400        Get Happy - Judy Garland

399        I Will Dare - The Replacements

398        The Sound Of Silence - Simon and Garfunkel

397        It's Your Thing - Isley Brothers

396        Rock'n'Roll Suicide - David Bowie

395        Trans-Europe Express - Kraftwerk

394        Nightswimming - REM

393        Born Slippy - Underworld

392        This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The Both Of Us - Sparks

391        Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen

390        Stars - Simply Red

389        Standing In The Way Of Control - Gossip

388        Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out of - U2

387        Without You - Nilsson

386        IDGAF - Dua Lipa

385        Baggy Trousers - Madness

384        The Winner Takes It All - Abba

383        Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head - Dionne Warwick/BJ Thomas

382        Cry Me A River - Julie London

381        What a Wonderful World - Louis Armstrong

380        Wouldn't It Be Nice - Beach Boys

379        Don't Interrupt the Sorrow - Joni Mitchell

378        Blank Generation - Richard Hell & The Voidoids

377        Fantasy - Earth Wind and Fire

376        (You Make me Feel) Mighty Real - Sylvester

375        Firework - Katie Perry

374        Super Bass - Nicky Minaj

Nicki Minaj, the Carry On franchise of modern music. You might think Nicki Minaj has one bit, one trick, but she has an astonishing number of singles and guest slots on singles – this one I rather love.

373        A Design for Life - Manic Street Preachers

372        Eye Know - De La Soul

371        Ghost Town - The Specials

370        Stairway To Heaven - Led Zeppelin

369        Lola - The Kinks

368        If You Could Read My Mind - Gordon Lightfoot

367        Eleanor Rigby - Beatles

366        The First Time Ever I Saw your Face - Roberta Flack

365        Juice - Lizzo

364        The Parting Glass - The Clancy Brothers

363        Bye Bye Love - Everly Brothers

362        Proud Mary - Ike and Tina Turner

361        I Got A Woman - Ray Charles

360        Let's Face the Music and Dance - Fred Astaire

359        I Want You - Elvis Costello

358        Party Fears Two - The Associates

357        Monkey Gone To Heaven - The Pixies

356        Lust for Life - Iggy Pop

355        Teardrop - Massive Attack

354        More Adventurous - Rilo Kiley

353        Don't Let Go (Love) - En Vogue

352        Dollar Days - David Bowie

351        Mr November - The National

350        Groovejet (If This Ain't Love) - Spiller ft Sophie Ellis-Bextor

349        I Used to Love H.E.R. - Common

348        Animal Nitrate - Suede

347        Everyday People - Sly and the Family Stone

346        Love and Affection - Joan Armatrading

345        Something - The Beatles

344        Lucille - Little Richard

343        Video Games - Lana Del Rey

342        Paranoid - Black Sabbath

341        Many Rivers to Cross - Jimmy Cliff

340        Back To Life - Soul II Soul

339        The Drugs Don't Work - The Verve

338        Time For Heroes - The Libertines

337        Diamonds - Rihanna

336        The Whole of the Moon - The Waterboys

335        Me Myself and I - De La Soul

334        In the Air Tonight - Phil Collins

333        Twist And Shout - The Isley Brothers

332        A Hard Rain's a Gonna Fall - Bob Dylan

331        The Way We Were  - Barbra Streisand

330        Search and Destroy - Iggy and the Stooges

329        Always on My Mind -Willie Nelson/Elvis Presley/Pet Shop Boys

328        Whole Lotta Love - Led Zeppelin

327        Here You Come Again - Dolly Parton

326        (You Make Me Feel) Like A Natural Woman - Aretha Franklin/Carole King

325        First Day of My Life - Bright Eyes

324        Blinding Lights- The Weeknd

323        Uptown Top Ranking - Althea and Donna

322        A Little Respect – Erasure

When you think of mainstream British culture, and you think how “groundbreaking” a gay TV kiss was in the 90s, you think how rare it’s always been for a mainstream film star to come out, how it’s only fairly recently there are mainstream gay films, you think that vanishingly few professional male footballers, male sportists in general, have come out, it is quite notable, between 1970 and 1990, how British pop and rock music was absolutely dominated by huge gay icons.

Elton John, Freddie Mercury, Bowie, Boy George, George Michael, Pet Shops Boys, Erasure – the absolute biggest stars. And no, of course, it wasn’t a case of all of them saying “here I am, world, I’m out and proud” but it is nevertheless a striking thing in the buttoned-up, masculine, openly homophobic culture it was that those were very much the pop stars it wanted.

Earlier on, I pondered whether gay/straight was a significant dividing line in music taste, and I initially thought “no, that’s a stereotype, and also, clearly, the gay performers were so utterly mainstream, so universal, that line doesn’t seem to exist” but I suppose you can look at some genres – glam, disco, new romantic, high energy pop – that were clearly suffused with camp and/or had their origins in gay culture, and others – metal, punk, hip-hop etc, that traditionally weren’t (yes, i know there are many exceptions), and think, actually, wanting camp, androgyny and gay in your music or not might very well be a dividing line for some.

You were perhaps thinking earlier, Erasure? Really? At the end of that list of megastars, Erasure stick out a bit as a league or so down … but it’s Erasure and gayness I want to talk about. I loved Erasure when I was a child – I bought the Crackers International single, the album Wild!, had a picture of Andy Bell on my wall. However I, a prepubescent homophobe (homophobe too strong a word for what I was, but you know boys back then…) worried that Andy might, maybe, be a bit gay. As I stared at him on my wall,  I did accept he looked a little bit gay.

Once, Andy and Vince were on Going Live! and were being asked about the famous story of their forming via an ad in Melody Maker, and Andy said “yes, that’s how we first met, and over time, we’ve come to love each other”, thus, in my mind, confirming said gayness (though of course, in that case, he was doing no such thing) and I may be retrofitting, but I’m pretty certain I thought “well, there you go, that’s nice” and that might have been my first good step to not being what most clueless boys in the late 80s were, a bit befuddled and scared of gay.

I always loved Erasure more than the Pet Shop Boys, I think I really loved the effort and vulnerability in Andy Bell’s singing. Which reminds me of another nice little Erasure half- memory I have. When I was in Kenya (and I can’t quite remember if this was in a Nairobi record store, a newspaper, or in conversation with a friend) I distinctly remember Erasure being categorised as “Soul” and I probably thought, no, Erasure aren’t soul, they’re pop, soul is music made by black people. But actually, it’s rather beautiful that the soulfulness in Andy Bell’s singing was recognised and categorised differently in that different cultural setting. So, here’s A Little Respect, a bit littler than Respect, but still, an absolutely classic.

321        Need a Little Sugar in My Bowl - Bessie Smith

320        Rock And Roll Music - Chuck Berry

319        Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough - Michael Jackson

318        How Soon Is Now? - The Smiths

317        Losing You - Randy Newman

316        Waterfalls - TLC

315        Suzanne - Leonard Cohen

314        Midnight Train To Georgia - Gladys Knight And The Pips

313        Your Cheatin’ Heart - Hank Williams

312        Subterranean Homesick Blues - Bob Dylan

311        In My Life - Beatles

310        Nothing Compares 2 U - Sinead O'Connor

309        Thriller - Michael Jackson

308        Song for our Daughter - Laura Marling

307        This Year - Mountain Goats

306        Takeover - Jay-Z

305        With Every Heartbeat - Robyn

304        Sound Of Da Police - KRS-One

303        Live Forever - Oasis

302        Get Up (I feel like being a sex machine) - James Brown

301        Sally MacLennane - The Pogues

300        Don't You Want Me - Human League

In 2018, I took part in a poll/knockout competition for quizzers as to what the Greatest UK Number 1 of all time was. By a fairly solid though somewhat leading process, the winner was Don’t You Want Me, ahead of Wuthering Heights, then Like a Prayer and Atomic – pretty interesting, betraying somewhat the average age of participants, but also, you could say, the sweet spot of chart pop in the UK. All of those are great songs, but there’s still something a little interesting about there being nothing in the Top 4 before 1975 or after 1990. I don’t really listen to eighties music too much of my own volition, but there is no doubt that it was the electronic sound a lot of people were waiting for all their life. Anyway, I don’t really know what I’m wittering on about here. I thought I had a good point. Don’t You Want Me has all the ingredients of a great single it's a song of real character & flair. Also I note, when I first got iTunes, it was one of the first songs I downloaded- a 79p I’d always been waiting to spend.