10,000 Maniacs - Like The Weather
Acetone - Shobud
Aimee Mann - Save Me
Aimee Mann - Wise Up
Astrud Gilberto - How Insensitive
Beck - Jackass
Beck- The New Pollution
Big Audio Dynamite - Rush
BJ Thomas - Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head
Bob Dylan - Shelter From The Storm
Bob Dylan - Simple Twist Of Fate
Bob Marley - No Woman No Cry
Camper Van Beethoven - Sweethearts
Carole King - Killing Me Softly With His Song
Cracker - The Golden Age
Crash Test Dummies - God Shuffled His Feet
Crash Test Dummies - In The Days Of The Cavemen
Cyndi Lauper - Time After Time
David Bowie - Ashes To Ashes
David Bowie - Starman
David Bowie & Queen - Under Pressure
Dead Milkmen - Punk Rock Girl
Dire Straights - Romeo and Juliet
Donald Fagen - The New Frontier
Donovan - Season Of The Witch
Donovan - Wear Your Love Like Heaven
Dream Academy - Life In A Northern Town
Dukes of Stratosphere - Pale and Precious
Dukes of Stratosphere - Vanishing Girl
Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Elton John - Tiny Dancer
Elvis Costello - Everyday I Write The Book
Elvis Costello - Harpies Bizarre
Elvis Costello - I Want You
Elvis Costello - Our Little Angel
Fountains of Wayne - A Fine Day For A Parade
Fountains of Wayne - Troubled Times
Freedy Johnston - Tearing Down This Place
Freedy Johnston - This Perfect World
Freedy Johnston - Western Skies
Gene Kelly - Singing in the Rain
Harry Nilsson - Everybody's Talkin'
Harry Nilsson - Turn On Your Radio
Harry Nilsson - Without You
Harry Nilsson -Remember Christmas
James Taylor - Sweet Baby James
Jane Siberry - Love Is Everything
Jane Siberry - The Taxi Ride
Jane Siberry - The Walking
Jim Croce - I Got a Name
Jim Croce - Operator
Joe Walsh - Lifes Been Good to Me So Far
John Lennon - Jealous Guy
Joni Mitchell - A Case Of You
Joni Mitchell - The River
Judy Collins - Those Were The Days
Kate Bush - Cloud Busting
Kate Bush - This Woman's Work
Led Zeppelin - Going To California
Led Zeppelin - Thank You
Lou Reed - Perfect Day
Lou Reed - Sattelite Of Love
Madness - Our House
Matthew Sweet - Winona
Michael Nesmith - Joanne
Michael Penn - No Myth
Neil Young - After The Goldrush
Nick Drake - Pink Moon
Paul Mcartney & Wings - Uncle Albert
Paul Simon - Graceland
Paul Simon - Kodachrome
Peter Gabriel - In Your Eyes
Peter Holsapple & Chris Stamey - Angels
Pink Floyd - Fat Old Sun
Pink Floyd - The Gunner's Dream
Procol Harem - A Whiter Shade of Pale
Queen - Killer Queen
Radiohead - Fake Plastic Trees
Radiohead - High and Dry
Randy Newman - Sail Away
REM - Night Swimming
REM - Perfect Circle
REM - Pilgrimage
Ricki Lee Jones - Last Chance Texaco
Robyn Hitchcock - Flesh Number One (Beatle Dennis)
Robyn Hitchcock - Railway Shoes
Robyn Hitchcock - You've Got
Sarah McLachlan - Adia
Simon & Garfunkel - America
Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water
Simon & Garfunkel - Overs
Simon & Garfunkel - The Only Living Boy In New York
Supertramp - The Logical Song
Suzanne Vega - Knight Moves
Suzanne Vega - Marlene On The Wall
Talking Heads - Home (Naive Melody)
Tears For Fears - Everybody Wants To Rule the World
Tears For Fears - Sowing The Seeds Of Love
Teenage Fanclub - The Concept
Terry Jacks - Seasons In The Sun
The Beach Boys - Caroline No
The Beach Boys - God Only Knows
The Beach Boys - Good Vibrations
The Beatles - Here and There and Everywhere.
The Beatles - Here Comes The Sun
The Beatles - Misery
The Beatles - Strawberry Fields Forever
The Buggles - Video Killed The Radio Star
The Carpenters - Rainy Days And Mondays
The Cars - Just What I Needed
The Church - Under the Milkyway
The Cure - Catch
The Cure - Close To Me
The Cure - The Love Cats
The Figments - Feel The Fields
The Flaming Lips - Buggin'
The Flaming Lips - Race for the Prize
The Kinks - Waterloo Sunset
The Las - There She Goes
The Lilac Time - Return To Yesterday
The Nails - 88 Lines About 44 Women
The Ocean Blue - Between Something and Nothing
The Police - Does Everyone Stare The Way I Do?
The Police - Don't Stand So Close To Me
The Replacements - Achin' To Be
The Replacements - Swinging Party
The Rolling Stones - Under My Thumb
The Smiths - Girlfriend In A Coma
The Smiths - There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
The Sugar Cubes - Birthday
The Sundays - Here's Where The Story Ends
The Velvet Underground - Candy Says
The Velvet Underground - Stephanie Says
The Who - The Song Is Over
The Zombies - Care Of Cell 44
The Zombies - Time of the Season
They Might Be Giants - Ana Ng
They Might Be Giants - Dirt Bike
They Might Be Giants - New York City
Tom Petty - Room At The Top
Tom Petty - The Waiting
U2 - One
Ultravox - Hiroshima Mon Amo
World Party - Is It Like Today?
World Party - Take It Up
XTC - Jason and the Argonauts
XTC - Love On A Farm Boy's Wages
XTC - Scarecrow People
Yes - Heart Of The Sunrise
Yo La Tengo - Autumn Sweater


 

Henning's 150 Not Really Faves

Henning: When I was first presented with the idea of compiling a CD of my 150 favorite songs of all time I was a little skeptical. “150 is a lot of songs”, I thought. I was wrong. 150 is not really that many songs when you start compiling them.

The next day, while riding through up state New York on a journey to Toronto, I began making a list and I started to see how I would ultimately fail.

There are certain musicians who I hold in higher esteem than others, but I did not want this collection to be filled with primarily Paul Simon, XTC, The Beatles etc. So, I started to limit myself to two songs per performer. Suddenly 150 songs seemed like a lot again.

How could I possibly limit the amount of songs by a writer like Paul Simon while at the same time including Cindy Lauper or The Nails? Is “88 Lines About 44 Women” a better song than “The Sounds of Silence”? No. But did I include it anyway despite leaving off “Sounds Of Silence”? Yes. Why? Variety, I guess. The whole project started to become more like a huge mix-tape.

And, what is a favorite song anyway? George Harrison dies and suddenly you start listening to All Things Must Pass. You see the film Magnolia and now you love the soundtrack. How different will this list be 5 years from now? A little bit different, I guess.

There’s another problem with great songs, too, and that’s over-rotation. “Imagine” by John Lennon and “American Pie” by Don MacLean are both incredible songs but are absent from this collection. Over the years they have become parodies of themselves thanks to the glut of Classic Rock radio stations. So, I left them off, because you just really don’t need to hear them much more in your life-time.

Ok. For the most part, all of the songs collected here were the first songs that popped into my head as great songs that I love for one reason or another. I came up with about 130 in that first sitting in the car. Later, a song here and there would pop into my head.

There was, sadly, also an issue of time and technology. Some of the songs I wanted to put on this list, I simply could not find. Jonathon Richman’s “Have You Ever Been To Bermuda?” comes to mind. If I had had more time…maybe.

So, anyway, here it is. My collection from 2001 of my Not Necessarily Favorite 150 Songs (but songs that deserve to be heard again and again anayway.) Enjoy.