Now that my countdown is complete, I thought it’d be fun to look back at the whole list, organize it, link it up, and add a fresh comment or two for posterity’s sake. So, without further ado, here it is, part 1 of my youtube countdown featuring the last 25 songs to appear on the list.
#100. The Beatles, All You Need is Love – Is it my favorite Beatles song? Not technically, but I think it’s their greatest triumph. FYI, this video was originally in black and white until the art gurus at Apple colorized it based on photographs from the event.
#99. The Beatles, Nowhere Man – The song that inspired me to become a Beatle slave, and a musician myself. Fun fact, not many songs have a guitar solo after the first verse.
#98. Tribalistas, Ja Se Namorar – 21st century island cool Brazilian pop at its finest.
#97. Carl Perkins and Friends, Rockabilly School – One of the greatest TV concerts in rock and roll history. Does anyone have a magic pair of blue suede shoes so I can travel back in time and be at this show?
#96. Simon and Garfunkel, The Sounds of Silence – You get to see S & G in all their young nerdy early 60s glory in this vid…Amazing.
#95. The Beach Boys, The Ramones, Do You Wanna Dance? – One of my favorite updates on the list. I absolutely adore both versions of this song, especially the Ramones ass kicking version.
#94. The Rolling Stones, Paint it Black – The Stones in a rare gritty live TV performance of their seminal 1966 hit. It features Brian Jones vamping on sitar, what more could you want?
#93. Ween, Even If You Don’t – The combination of the brothers Ween, and the brothers South Park.
#92. The Doors, Break On Through (To The Other Side) – My favorite Doors single ever, and this one has the original censored lyrics!
#91. Joy Division, Love Will Tear Us Apart – Joy Division’s classic tune that pretty much makes the rest of post punk redundant because this tune is endlessly playable.
#90. Islands, Rough Gem – Nick Diamonds beautiful indie tribute to NASA, and his own name. Gorgeous modern pop.
#89. Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder, Ebony and Ivory – Yes they were friends, but no they were not in the same room when this music video was recorded…So odd.
#88. Bob Marley, Could You Be Loved (Rare Studio Take) – My favorite Bob Marley song. He is authoritatively spiritual on this song, in the greatest way possible.
#87. Michael Jackson, Leave Me Alone – My favorite Michael Jackson. This was his unintentional glorious psychedelic 80s anthem.
#86. James Brown, Get Up Offa That Thing, Dancing Lessons – James Brown just getting absolutely busy and serious as a mustache.
#85. Marvin Gaye, Sexual Healing, 1983 Grammys – Marvin Gaye giving the music Illuminati a lesson in soul right before he died. Timeless.
#84. Marvin Gaye, The National Anthem – Gun to my head, the greatest performance of the National Anthem ever.
#83. Al Green, Tired of Being Alone – How could any list of the greatest ever not have this ruby of perfect soul?
#82. The Rolling Stones, Out of Time – My favorite mid 60s Rolling Stones song. The hook just melts bones, and this link has 3 versions of the song!
#81. Howlin’ Wolf, Smokestack Lightning – The Wolf howling his immortal classic. Attitude for miles on this one.
#80. George Harrison, Bangladesh – George’s funky hard rocking plea to end starvation and poverty in one of the worst countries in the world.
#79. Michael Jackson, Pepsi Commercials – These are some great ads MJ and his brothers did for Pepsi. As a bonus you get to see Mike’s hair catch on fire in this link!
#78. Carl Sagan, A Glorious Dawn ft. Steven Hawking (Symphony of Science) – Did you know these famous astronomers were also brilliant musicians? Well, they aren’t really, but this is amazing nonetheless.
#77. Jeff Bridges, The Man in Me – The Dude singing one of my favorite Bob Dylan songs. What a beautiful moment, and what a beautiful rug.
#76. The Ramones, Howard Stern On-Air Fight, I Wanna Be Sedated – I love the Ramones, and I love Howard Stern. This was a fascinating and hilarious blog post that really shouldn’t be missed.
#75. X Ray Spex, Identity – A screamingly genius cut of early British punk from a group of original legends who shot across the music world like a comet.
TO BE CONTINUED!