The Finch Formerly Known As Gold

29 August 2005

None so fine

This has been all over the place, and I suppose I've stalled long enough.

The rules:

  1. Go to musicoutfitters.com and, in the search box provided, enter the year you graduated high school.

  2. From the search results, click the link for the top 100 songs of that year.

  3. With the resulting list:
    1. bold the songs you like
    2. strike through the ones you hate
    3. underline your favorite
    4. and ignore the ones you don't remember/don't care about.

And now, buoys and gulls, the top 100 of 1969, below the fold. (I mention in passing that of these 99 songs — for some reason one is on the list twice — I own copies of 94.)

  1. Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In, Fifth Dimension
  2. Sugar, Sugar, Archies
  3. I Can't Get Next To You, Temptations
  4. Honky Tonk Women, Rolling Stones
  5. Build Me Up Buttercup, Foundations
  6. Dizzy, Tommy Roe
  7. Hot Fun In The Summertime, Sly and The Family Stone
  8. I'll Never Fall In Love Again, Tom Jones
  9. Everyday People, Sly and The Family Stone
  10. Get Together, Youngbloods
  11. One, Three Dog Night
  12. Crystal Blue Persuasion, Tommy James and The Shondells
  13. Hair, Cowsills
  14. Too Busy Thinking About My Baby, Marvin Gaye
  15. Love Theme From Romeo And Juliet, Henry Mancini and His Orch.
  16. Crimson And Clover, Tommy James and The Shondells
  17. Grazin' In The Grass, Friends Of Distinction
  18. Suspicious Minds, Elvis Presley
  19. Proud Mary, Creedence Clearwater Revival
  20. What Does It Take (To Win Your Love), Jr. Walker and The All Stars
  21. It's Your Thing, Isley Brothers
  22. Sweet Caroline, Neil Diamond
  23. Jean, Oliver
  24. Bad Moon Rising, Creedence Clearwater Revival
  25. Get Back, The Beatles
  26. In The Year 2525, Zager and Evans
  27. Spinning Wheel, Blood, Sweat and Tears
  28. Baby, I Love You, Andy Kim
  29. Going In Circles, Friends Of Distinction
  30. Hurt So Bad, Lettermen
  31. Green River, Creedence Clearwater Revival
  32. My Cherie Amour, Stevie Wonder
  33. Easy To Be Hard, Three Dog Night
  34. Baby It's You, Smith
  35. In The Ghetto, Elvis Presley
  36. A Boy Named Sue, Johnny Cash
  37. Baby, Baby Don't Cry, Smokey Robinson and The Miracles
  38. Only The Strong Survive, Jerry Butler
  39. Time Of The Season, Zombies
  40. Wedding Bell Blues, Fifth Dimension
  41. Little Woman, Bobby Sherman
  42. Love (Can Make You Happy), Mercy
  43. Good Morning Starshine, Oliver
  44. These Eyes, The Guess Who
  45. You've Made Me So Very Happy, Blood, Sweat and Tears
  46. Put A Little Love In Your Heart, Jackie DeShannon
  47. Do Your Thing, Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band
  48. I'd Wait A Million Years, The Grass Roots
  49. Touch Me, The Doors
  50. More Today Than Yesterday, Spiral Starecase
  51. I've Gotta Be Me, Sammy Davis Jr.
  52. Lay Lady Lay, Bob Dylan
  53. Atlantis, Donovan
  54. Traces, Dennis Yost and The Classics IV
  55. It's Getting Better, Mama Cass Elliot
  56. This Magic Moment, Jay and The Americans
  57. Run Away Child, Running Wild, Temptations
  58. Hawaii Five-O, Ventures
  59. Galveston, Glen Campbell
  60. I'm Gonna Make You Mine, Lou Christie
  61. Gitarzan, Ray Stevens
  62. Can I Change My Mind, Tyrone Davis
  63. Time Is Tight, Booker T and The MG's
  64. This Girl's In Love With You, Dionne Warwick
  65. Color Him Father, Winstons
  66. Black Pearl, Sonny Charles and The Checkmates, Ltd.
  67. Indian Giver, 1910 Fruitgum Company
  68. Mother Popcorn (Part I), James Brown
  69. Twenty-five Miles, Edwin Starr
  70. Things I'd Like To Say, New Colony Six
  71. When I Die, Motherlode
  72. That's The Way Love Is, Marvin Gaye
  73. Everybody's Talkin', Nilsson
  74. Worst That Could Happen, Brooklyn Bridge
  75. Chokin' Kind, Joe Simon
  76. Smile A Little Smile For Me, Flying Machine
  77. Polk Salad Annie, Tony Joe White
  78. Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town, Kenny Rogers and The First Edition
  79. Games People Play, Joe South
  80. You Showed Me, Turtles
  81. Come Together, The Beatles
  82. Oh, What A Night, Dells
  83. Something, The Beatles
  84. This Girl Is A Woman Now, Gary Puckett and The Union Gap
  85. Tracy, Cuff Links
  86. Mr. Sun, Mr. Moon, Paul Revere and The Raiders
  87. I'm Gonna Make You Love Me, Diana Ross and The Supremes
  88. I Heard It Through The Grapevine, Marvin Gaye
  89. Gimme Gimme Good Lovin', Crazy Elephant
  90. Hang 'Em High, Booker T and The MG's
  91. Your Good Thing (Is About To End), Lou Rawls
  92. Baby I'm For Real, Originals
  93. You Showed Me, Turtles (obvious duplicate — what gives?)
  94. Love Me Tonight, Tom Jones
  95. Ramblin' Gamblin' Man, Bob Seger System
  96. Laughing, The Guess Who
  97. My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left Me), David Ruffin
  98. Soul Deep, Box Tops
  99. Hooked On A Feeling, B.J. Thomas
  100. Sweet Cream Ladies, Box Tops
Posted at 7:00 PM to Screaming Memes


TrackBack: 1:15 AM, 30 August 2005
» Now up, with a free-throw average of 1%....... from dwayne.blog-city.com
   Everybody else is doing this. But rather than list all the 100 best songs from 1978, you can look at them here. I want it known that I was listening to country & western back then & #71 (Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue, Crystal Gayle )...[read more]

TrackBack: 8:52 AM, 30 August 2005
» Top 100 songs the Year I Graduated from Cadmusings
This is just sad. I would have used strike through on most of these… ......[read more]

Gosh I wish I went to school in 69-- those are some great songs!

Posted by: Donna at 8:39 PM on 29 August 2005

My thoughts exactly, Donna -- no fair graduating in the '60s!

At least I know most of these. I can't say the same about my graduation year (1981). Can we use the year we were born instead of the year we graduated?

Posted by: Michael Bates at 10:37 PM on 29 August 2005

Wanna see something pathetic... check out 1992. I don't remember 95% of the songs and the ones I do remember make me choke back vomit.

Posted by: Donna at 10:53 PM on 29 August 2005

I didn't bother doing '70 because it's so close to yours..but you didn't cross OUT the ARCHIES?? Major ick.

Im so glad we have something we can call our own as the kids today listen to and copy our music :) Apparently people in our age bracket aren't as gay as most most teens and early 20'ers thought we were. Music of the 80's? A joke. The 90's? already forgotten. The 60's were classic, I tell you. And I have my share of favorites from the early to mid-70's as well...ELO and the Eagles probably my two top favorites.

Posted by: Vickie at 5:36 AM on 30 August 2005

I loved the Archies! I used to have the album of all their songs. Then one day my sister left it out of its sleeve on the bed, and our dog jumped up on it and scratched it all up. I wonder if it's been released on cd... Why yes, it has. Hmm... Christmas is coming up...

Even though my favorite song when I was five was Steppenwolf's "Magic Carpet Ride" I also liked bubblegum favorites like "Dizzy." What can I say, at least the hippy freaks of the sixties put out some good tunes. And they weren't all hippy freaks anyway.

Posted by: Andrea Harris at 7:00 AM on 30 August 2005

New Wave died way too soon. Lemme tell you, the late 80's were A-trocious. When the best songs on your list are the FINE YOUNG CANNIBALS for mercy's sake... I want your year, CG. You got Hot Fun in the Summertime and I got bubkes. (BTW, I own about half the list YOU posted.)

Posted by: Nightfly at 8:35 AM on 30 August 2005

My 1987 list did indeed have a lot more crossouts than this one would have. And most of the ones I didn't were because I forgot about them.

Posted by: Matt at 11:35 AM on 30 August 2005

My 1987 list is here. If we go by Michael Bates' suggestion, my work is done, since I was born the year CG graduated.

Although I have to ask about some notable bolding omissions, if you're in the mood to get into whys and wherefores:

Wedding Bell Blues?
Something?
Touch Me?
Hair?

Posted by: Phil at 9:41 AM on 3 September 2005

Of the four, I liked "Wedding Bell Blues" the best, but the version I really liked was the one the 5th Dimension snuck onto an LP, in which it's blended with "The Worst That Could Happen." That's the version I prefer, but it's not the version that came out on the 45, so I opted to leave it blank.

I was a big fan of "Hair", and indeed of most of the songs from Hair, when it came out, but the show has dated badly, and the one song that's held up best was "Easy to Be Hard," which Three Dog Night did beautifully.

The problem with "Something" is the problem with most George Harrison songs: the ones dealing with abstractions and spirituality and other non-everyday topics always seem more persuasive than his love songs. "Here Comes the Sun," alas, didn't chart as a 45.

And "Touch Me" is just silly: it's admittedly grandly arranged, but this is Morrison's dumbest lyric, which is going some when you consider "Hello, I Love You," and the grammarian in me freaks at the sound of "for you and I."

Posted by: CGHill at 10:20 AM on 3 September 2005