My favorite Pop songs

#1 ? Don’t know the name, or even what it’s about really. (Have been looking for this song (sort of my Holy Grail song) since ‘87, when Mike the Greek loaned me a cassette containing it. My brother and I have recently discovered, using YouTube, the singer: definitely Sophia Karivalis, probably c. 1950)

#2 Down the Petersky (Sorry, MUST be sung by Chaliapin. Two versions: (‘24) The best, they’re all rowdy, drunk, (‘29) He’s being nice, genteel, something like 20 balalaika-playing ladies behind him)

#2.5 The Song of the Flea (also sorry, must be Feodor C. again. I just found out Robeson recorded it too, in RUSSIAN, quite a bit lower–amazing guy)

#2.6 Persian Love Song (Rubinstein/Chaliapin)

#2.75 The Marsailles (sp?) (Check out Feodor Ivanovich’s (again))

#2.85 Just found this. Several strange songs. Check it out “The sound of Slavic soul”

#3 Llego Borracho el Borracho (Sorry, MUST be sung by Amalia and Jose Alfredo.)

#3.5 in my best attempt to imitate the opening lyric (know next to no Spanish, and don’t know the actual name) “Yo quiero, que in silencio de la noche, no senbuela” (also sorry, must be Mendoza and Jimenez again)

#3.6 GANGSTA PARTY (the video anyway. Stoic Morale Outrage? And I thought Snoop Dog only did commercials…)

#3.7 Joy to the World (Know what a three dog night is???)

#s4-? Everything by The Beatles (except the Revolution where Lennon says “count me IN”. Also coolest name ever: The “Beat”les)

#105 (?) Since I’ve Been Loving You (Yeah, even better than Stairway.)

#105.5 What Is and What Should Never Be (likewise)

#105.75 Stairway to Heaven (okay…)

#106 Bohemian Rhapsody (Freddy Mercury probably greatest rocker ever—great singer, composer. and performer)

#106.5 Fat Bottomed Girls

#106.75 Let Me Live

#106.8 Bicycle Race (for those prideful “serious” musicians who don’t think pop songs can be harmonically challenging)

#106.9 All Dead

#107 Wild Thing (tragic how early they died!, also Hank Williams, Schubert, Mozart…Hank and Wolfgang also drug related—bad alchoholics)

#107.5 The “Shoop Shoop” Song—Cher

#108 The Name of the Game (Could you ask for a slower beat–I love it! Is ABBA rock?—good question)

#108.1 Knowing Me Knowing You

#108.2 Chiquitita (sp?)

#108.3 Head Over Heels

#108.31 Cassandra (yes, the Trojan one)

#108.32 Waterloo

#108.33 Take a Chance on Me

#108.34 Dancing Queen (okay…)

#108.35 I wonder

#108.36 Voulez-Vous

#108.37 The Way Old Friends Do

#108.375 Our Last Summer

#108.38 I Shot the Sheriff (the original–THEY could wail)

#108.39 Rapture (the Man from Mars sounds dangerous)

#108.4 Rhiannon

#108.45 Landslide (I think that’s the title–written and sung by the same great writer and singer in the number just above)

#108.46 Gold Dust Woman

#108.47 Gold (the one with her)

#108.5 Uncle John’s Band

#108,6 The Dire Wolf

#108.7 something like “Mission in the Rain”

#108.75 I Need a Miracle

#109 Rainy Days and Mondays (has there ever been a more beautiful alto? Maybe some castrato? No, I AM losing it: Marian Anderson had the most beautiful tone of any singer ever. Also a good civil rights activist. High if you like angels, low if you like the voice of God as an alto, Deep River if you like both)

#109.5 Sing

#109.75 Top of the World

#110 Suite: Judy Blue Eyes (Judy Collins)

#110.5 Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?

#110.75 Karma-Chameleon (sp?)

#111 Both Sides Now (Joni Mitchell, but first recorded by the self-same Judy Collins)

#112 You Needed Me (Another Canadian. Love the intervals)

#112.5 Danny’s Song

#112.75 59th Str. Bridge Song

#112.85 Mrs. Robinson

#112.95 The Sound of Silence

#112.96 The Boxer

#112.97 Cecilia

#112.98 Bridge over Troubled Water (okay…)

#113 When the Saints Go Marching In (I think this may be a spiritual—great contributions by very many unknown African Americans)

#113.5 Deep River (Robeson–better than Anderson–proves God exists because this is a miracle)

#114 Oh, Baby Don’t You Want to Go (originally by Tommy McClennon, covered by Robert Johnson (untouchable), a little changed by Jake and Elwood in The Blues Brothers)

#115 Johnny B. Goode

#115.5 Barbara Ann

#116 Wise Men Say

#117 Georgy Girl (dowdy = dirty)

#117.5 I Know I’ll Never Find Another Ewe (just a little joke–they’re Australian, right?–OK, very little)

#117.75 Waltzing Matilda (can’t have enough billabongs or cullibah trees (sps?), right?)

#118 Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

#118.5 The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face (“Mary Travers in Sydney”–THIS will make you CRY–OR NOTHING WILL)

#118.75 If I Had a Hammer (great Woody song–at least in the ’60s, now I’m afraid it may be too late. Sorry, no Magic Dragon’s here–it’s just TOO sad)

#119 Blowin’ in the Wind

#119.05 Very Last Day (EVERYONE will be afraid–see Sistine Chapel)

#119.1 Operator (Would You Help Me Place This Call)

#119.2 Bad Bad Leroy Brown

#119.5 The Loco-Motion (Little Eva created and owned this song, but there’s something cute too about Kylie Minogue’s)

#119.6 Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?

#119.7 Da Doo Run Run

#119.8 One Fine Day (Carole Klein?)

#120 Queen of Hearts (check out Juice’s video)

#120.1 Angel of the Morning

#120.5 When Will I Be Loved (sorry, Linda owns this. Also did some nice Spanish things)

#120.6 Blue Bayou

#120.75 Brandy (sounds like a fine girl indeed)

#121 Cool Change

#122 Africa

#123 Do it Again (by the way, do you know what a Steely Dan is?)

#124 Rocky Mountain High

#124.5 Country Roads

#124.75 Leaving on a Jet Plane

#124.85 Thank God I’m a Country Boy

#125 Coward of the County

#125.5 The Gambler

#126 Can the Circle be Unbroken (original)

#126.5 Sweet Dreams (Patsy Cline)

#126.75 Sweet Dreams (The Eurythmics)

#126.76 Dedicated to the One I Love (The Mamas and the Papas)

#126.8 Please Come to Boston

#126.9 Hot Stuff (that Bad Girl was hot indeed)

#127 Say Hey, Good Lookin’

#127.1 I Saw the Light (one version has a whole congregation including June, and I think Anita, Carter, the other has all three verses)

#127.15 Amazing Grace (sorry, MUST be Robeson)

#127.2 “Today I passed you on the street…” (not sure about the name. Check out the YouTube with Anita Carter)

#127.33333… Centerfield (video awesome too)

#127.66666… Proud Mary (Ike and Tina, (1971) LIVE)

#127.67 River Deep Mountain High

#127.7 If You Knew Susy (Eddie C.)

#127.8 Making Whoopie (likewise)

#128 Ring of Fire (I think June Carter wrote this but Johnny added the three trumpets, resulting in what I call “metrical weirdness of the second variety”. This is also present in #s 1. 108.5 and 126. More on this later)

#129 God Bless America (musical theater numbers not allowed in this list, otherwise would be Shitloads more. EXCUSE ME BUT, image of someone’s house being burnt down by very unfriendly neighbors plaguing my thoughts just now. Can be hard being mentally ill! That was this composer’s first memory.

#129.5 My Country ’tis of Thee… (Marian Anderson, preferable outside, in front of 75,000 fans…)

#130 Over There (Check out Caruso’s)

#131 You’re a Grand Old Flag.

#131.5 Shanendoah (sp?) (Sorry, MUST be Robeson)

#131.75 The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (Sorry, MUST be Joan Baez)

#132 Suwanee (this one maybe a show-tune but maybe not. I’m thinking he and his brother also wrote non-show-tunes. Please forgive the famous performer with the black-face, he was, I think, really, a good guy)

#133 How Will I Know (also adore the video. She also did the best national anthem ever (Bills -Giants superbowl I think)

#133.5 I Wanna Dance with Somebody

#133.75 I Will Always Love You

#134 Time After Time

#134.5 Girls Just Want to Have Fun

#135 Like a Surgeon (much better than Madonna’s—I don’t even find that sexy—maybe just me)

#136 Like a Prayer

#137 Heart of Gold

#138 Carry On My Wayward Son

#138.5 Love Grows

#138.75 Gloria

#138.85 Joe Hill (Robeson or Baez?–why not both)

#138.95 1,2,3, What Are We Fighting For (has to be Woodstock. Only thing worse than Viet Nam–reception afforded returning warriors)

#138.96 Stayin’ Alive

#138.961 Wonderful World (Sam Cooke)

#138.965 Dancing in the Moonlight (interesting backstory)

#138.97 I Can’t Get No Satisfaction (can you believe THEY got a knighthood before John Lennon???????)

#138.98 The Lion Sleeps Tonight. (It’s “wimoweh”)

#138.99 I Don’t Want a Pickle.

#139 Afternoon Delight (just joking–check out The Anchorman movie)

(and undoubtedly a million others that are escaping what’s left of my mind just now)