Monday, 18 August 2025

101 Songs again and again

Right, I seem to put a list of my 101 Favourite Songs on here every five years or so, and the time has come round again.

Obviously, I've done countless sub-lists in the intervening period, but nice to go back to basics with no parameters.

Apple Music recently offered me my 100 Most Listened To songs of the last 10 years, so here, in the link, is that for comparison. Obviously, that has a significant weighting towards the toddler tyranny of the Disney years, which my own list, mainly, will not.

https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/replay-all-time/pl.rp-bwCb43xN

There is a lot in common, of course. I tend to listen to songs I like. I think, more than usual, I've included passing fancies in this list as much as longstanding favourites, so probably when I look again in five years there'll be a few were I'll wonder what the hell that's doing there ...

Anyway, here's the list. No big surprises, I'd have thought ...

  1. From the Morning - Nick Drake
  2. When the Haar Rolls In - James Yorkston
  3. Can't Do Much -Waxahatchee
  4. Pa'lante - Hurray for the Riff-Raff
  5. Take It With Me - Tom Waits
  6. Something Like Happiness - The Maccabees
  7. All My Friends - LCD Soundsystem
  8. In California - Joanna Newsom
  9. She's Your Lover Now (Take 16) - Bob Dylan
  10. Diamonds - Rihanna
  11. Impossible Germany (Live) - Wilco
  12. Doo Wop (That Thing) - Lauryn Hill
  13. Caravan (Live) - Van Morrison
  14. Head Rolls Off - Frightened Rabbit
  15. Fourth of July - Sufjan Stevens
  16. Witness (1 Hope) - Roots Manuva
  17. Being Alive (from Company)
  18. My Baby Don't Understand Me - Natalie Prass
  19. A Matter of Time - The Leisure Society
  20. Love It If We Made It (Live) - The 1975
  21. Ruby Falls - Waxahatchee
  22. Place to Be - Nick Drake
  23. Yes - McAlmont and Butler
  24. Dancing on My Own - Robyn
  25. Surf - Roddy Frame
  26. Losing You - Solange
  27. Grace - Jeff Buckley
  28. Ignore Tenderness - Julia Jacklin
  29. Song for Our Daughter - Laura Marling
  30. Famous Blue Raincoat - Leonard Cohen
  31. The Mercy Seat (Live) - Nick Cave
  32. Would I Lie to You? - Charles and Eddie
  33. Good Luck, Babe - Chappell Roan
  34. Better Son/Daughter - Rilo Kiley
  35. Isis (Live) - Bob Dylan
  36. Angela Surf City -The Walkmen
  37. Rise to Me - The Decemberists
  38. The Only Living Boy in New York - Simon and Garfunkel
  39. She's a Jar - Wilco
  40. I See a Darkness - Johnny Cash/Bonnie Prince Billy
  41. Rainy Night in Soho - The Pogues
  42. Thunder Road - Bruce Springsteen
  43. The Wild Kindness - Silver Jews
  44. No Children - Mountain Goats
  45. Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love - Kara Jackson
  46. With Every Heartbeat - Robyn
  47. The Modern Leper - Frightened Rabbit
  48. Moon River - Audrey Hepburn
  49. The Rat - The Walkmen
  50. Sultans of Swing - Dire Straits
  51. Hummingbird - Wilco
  52. Downtown Train - Tom Waits
  53. The Place Where He Inserted the Blade - Black Country, New Road
  54. St Elmo's Fire - John Parr
  55. She's Got You High - Mumm-Ra
  56. Rise - Josh Rouse
  57. Au Fond Du Temple Saint - Jussi Bjoerling
  58. Alyosha - Susanne Sundfor
  59. Danny Callahan - Conor Oberst
  60. Green Light - Lorde
  61. Redemption Song - Bob Marley
  62. Blind Willie McTell - Bob Dylan
  63. Under the Westway - Blur
  64. Slow Life - SFA
  65. Sally MacLennane - The Pogues
  66. Stars - Simply Red
  67. The Dark is Rising - Mercury Rev
  68. Like a Prayer - Madonna
  69. Dollar Days - David Bowie
  70. Idiot Wind - Bob Dylan
  71. Don't Let Go (Love) - En Vogue
  72. You've Got a Friend - Carole King
  73. So Now What - The Shins
  74. The Way You Look Tonight - Frank Sinatra
  75. All My Happiness is Gone - Purple Mountains
  76. Killing in the Name - Rage Against the Machine
  77. Modern Girl - Sleater-Kinney
  78. There Must Be an Angel - Eurythmics
  79. Right Back to It - Waxahatchee ft MJ Lenderman
  80. Young Hearts Run Free - Candi Staton
  81. Iceblink Luck - Cocteau Twins
  82. Two Princes - Spin Doctors
  83. Suite: Judy Blue Eyes - Crosby Stills and Nash
  84. A Woman of Heart and Mind - Joni Mitchell
  85. In the End - Linkin Park
  86. Chicago - Sufjan Stevens
  87. How Far I'll Go (from Moana)
  88. Save It for Later - The Beat
  89. Sunday - Let's Eat Grandma
  90. My Girl - The Temptations
  91. Danko/Manuel - Drive-By Truckers
  92. Carey - Joni Mitchell
  93. Takeover - Jay-Z
  94. Werewolf - Fiona Apple
  95. Nutmeg - Ghostface Killah ft RZA
  96. Llorando - Rebekah Del Rio
  97. Party Fears Two - The Associates
  98. Back to the Radio - Porridge Radio
  99. Still Life - Suede
  100. Paper Planes - MIA
  101. Bryte Side - Pernice Brothers


2 comments:

  1. No big surprises? I am super curious about your inclusion of (admittedly the most famous/best) tracks by Linkin Park and The Associates, I feel they have never come up before in online or offline ramblings and want to hear more!

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    Replies
    1. Funnily enough, I was just thinking that I had forgotten to put Doll Parts by Hole and that In the End would be the one in the list I'd replace. It's a banging tune, but probably not actually one of my favourite 101 songs. I think the think i most like about is that it works on a meta level as the rap lyrics of the verse are so childish and banal and, it's like, the irresistible chorus comes in as if to say "in the end, the lyrics of the verse don't matter if you've got a monster chorus like this". As for Party Fears Two, well, that's just a song I've liked for a long time. It is Number 358 on my list of the 2022 Greatest Songs of All Time, so not a bolt from the blue!

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