Over the week I've been thinking of what criteria my favorite songs and films should fall under. What it is that I specifically look for in a film or song that leaves me always thinking fondly back to either one, and honestly, with films I still cannot do it. I tried my best, but I just cannot state, even when it's just in my own opinion, what the greatest films, to me, are, unless I'm doing it on a genre basis. There's just too many conflicting factors.
Songs, on the other hand, I feel I can do. I've found that what is most important to me, and what gets to me most, is really my own interaction with the song. My favorite songs are the songs that, no matter how I'm feeling when they come on, I just get lost in them. Songs where I can feel my body moving on its own, and where I just forget all problems I'm having. It's not the lyrical content, it's not even so much the musical skill, it's just the energy and the catchiness.
The following list of songs is in no particular order, as even when I managed to bring myself to select my top ten favorite songs of all time, I just could not rank them compared to each other. These are merely the ten songs that I love more than any other song, regardless of genre.
"Anarchy In The U.K." - The Sex Pistols
I wouldn't particularly call myself the biggest fan of the genre. I do enjoy some punk. I love Sex Pistols, Dead Kennedys, Butthole Surfers, Black Flag, and Dead Milkmen, but it's not particularly a genre I seek out.
This song, however... there's just something about the raw energy. The noise, the force, I just feel like a completely different person. The song feels like a calling to a movement, and I can easily see how this helped to birth an entire genre. It's the song equivalent to the big, motivational speech in a drama, only instead of Robin Williams getting you to stand on your chair, it's a bunch of unwashed british guys calling for anarchy.
"Fortunate Son" - Creedence Clearwater Revival
In a similar line of thought, we have Fortunate Son. To me, this is one of those songs where the second you hear it, it's like being transported to a completely other time. Everything about this song works to paint an image that encompasses the feelings of so many angry Americans during the Vietnam War, and in it's short run time (barely two minutes), it manages to emotionally put you in their shoes.
This song is basically a time capsule for 1969, and it's no surprise this song plays in so many films set in the era to ease the viewer in. I'm not sure any other song could do the job as well as this could for any other decade. It's quick, it's energetic, it's fantastically written, and I will never grow tired of it, even after seeing it in dozens of commercials for jeans and summer sales.
"Hey Jude" - The Beatles
The Beatles, for me, are an easy choice for one of my favorite bands of all time. It's a hard decision as to what other bands would be up there, but The Beatles are an easy in. No other band has made so many songs that I just -love-, have made so many albums that I just want to relisten to in order so many times, or has had as much of an impact on me, so it was no surprise for me that I found one of their songs on my list.
Hey Jude is easily one of the most recognizable songs out there. It's just so memorable, and so inviting to join in midway through that it's more comparable to a christmas carol than a normal song, and the longer the song goes on for, the more energy it gets, building up to crowds of people chanting along for as long as need be while Paul goes crazy on piano.
It helps that the song is also extremely beautiful lyrically, especially when one knows the backstory, that Paul wrote the song for John Lennon's child during a period where John's relationship with his wife was breaking down and he was becoming more and more involved with Yoko Ono. It's just such a beautiful song to a child going through a rough time in any kid's life, and combined with the fantastic, easy to remember and recognize music, it's just one big inspirational force.
"Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)" - Journey
Quick story as to why this actually managed to be the first song to pop into my mind for this list: I am, and always have been, a huge fan of the film Tron, and I was so psyched when a sequel was announced. For months I counted down to its theatrical release, I was -pumped-, I don't usually get that excited for new movies. How'd it go down? Well... ...it sucked.
What does that story have to do with Separate Ways, you might be wondering. Well, this song is one of the big reasons why I didn't feel too bad about the movie being crap. There's a simple scene of this song playing while the camera shows off an old school arcade, and for the duration of the song, I was pumped. More pumped than I normally get from -great- movies. I'm not joking when I say that hearing this -epic- song over the theater's sound system was worth the price of admission, and if the film had ended there, I wouldn't have minded.
That, to me, is a sign of a song being undoubtedly fantastic.
"Living On A Prayer" - Bon Jovi
As I've said, I love energetic songs, and I love songs that can bring a packed room full of people together singing along. These two descriptors sum of a lot of Bon Jovi's catalogue, and I will always love the man for it. I'm a person that is rather ashamed of my singing voice, but even I have a hard time keeping myself from singing along whenever this song is on. It's insanely catchy, it's powerful, it's a great storytelling song, and I just absolutely love it.
Although they are not on my list, You Give Love A Bad Name and Dead or Alive both deserve honorable mention. Although not as awesome, to me, as Living on a Prayer, they're both still -fantastic- songs.
"Fat Bottom Girls" - Queen
Even if you didn't expect this song in particular, it was a given that on a list of songs where energy and catchiness are considered important, Queen would be on that list.
So much of Queen's discography just lends itself to the band's flamboyant and energetic performances and Freddy's powerful stage presence, and I can easily say that, as with the previously mentioned Beatles, Queen would be in my list of greatest bands of all time. Freddy Mercury especially was a master of getting crowds pumped, and no other singer could match the amount of vigor the man had during live performances.
This song in particular, just... I can't even explain it. The lyrics are hilarious, but the band performs it in such an amazing, epic way that you end up with a song that is equal parts awe inspiring and silly. It's like a clown juggling knives on fire.
Honorable mention goes to Princes of the Universe. If you're going to remember anything from Highlander's TV series, it's that it had the single greatest theme song ever. Even if you didn't like the show, you just can't change the channel until the theme song is over.
"Painkiller" - Judas Priest
I am, without a doubt, a huge metal fan. I was raised on the genre, and it still makes up a large chunk of my music library. While my taste in various subgenres of metal has changed over the years, one important thing has not, and that is that Painkiller is the single greatest metal song of all time.
It's fast, powerful, skillfully played and sung, and extremely over the top. The solos are fantastic, the drumming is insane, and the vocals are beyond description. This song, to me, sums up metal as a genre, and then sets up a throne atop it all so it can gloat over all other attempts at what it has mastered. This is, without a single bit of doubt, the greatest achievement in the genre, and should be regarded as such.
"Total Eclipse of the Heart" - Bonnie Tyler
Probably feels odd to see this after a song like Painkiller, but Total Eclipse of the Heart is a song I am just in love with. It's powerful, it's moving, it's instantly recognizable, and as silly as the music video may be it's just an altogether fantastic song.
It's got a slow buildup into a powerful chorus and just continues from there, building up and building up, with Bonnie Tyler's recognizable raspy vocals kicking into overdrive before slowing back down... and then regaining its energy for a big finish after a fantastic synth solo.
This song is, for me, how a lot of people describe Stairway to Heaven. Like this fantastic, movie-like experience that you just get completely lost in, a song that truly deserves to be graced with the word "epic."
"Who Was In My Room Last Night" - Butthole Surfers
Truth be told, this is one of the songs that got me into wanting to play guitar, up there with Painkiller and the entirety of Metallica's Ride the Lightning album. It's fast, it's insane, it's got an extremely unique sound and feel to it, and every time I hear it I just want to play along to it so badly.
The solos are complex and all over the place, the riff is hypnotic, and Gibby Hayne's drug fueled lyrics are as awesome as ever. Combine that with a music video full of bizarre hot rod imagery and RHCP's Flea looking completely coked up and you've got one of the greatest bizarre songs out there.
"It's Raining Men" - The Weather Girls
I know many people out there have a dislike of this song, and I myself had a dislike of it for awhile around the time I realized I wasn't straight, purely because I didn't want to engage in stereotypical behavor. But I've gotten past that, and I must confess, It's Raining Men is a classic.
It's just so fun and catchy, and the lyrics are so hilarious that you can easily pair the song with any video footage and make it hilarious. I can't count the times I've seen that happen and still managed to laugh everytime.
It's a great over the top disco song that manages to both be a silly example of the genre and an awesome song at the same time, and for that it deserves recognition. Easily my favorite disco song of all time, ahead of even the likes of ABBA's Gimme Gimme Gimme, Dschinghis Khan's Moskau, and Boney M's Rasputin.
Honorable Mentions:
These are some songs that are also just -fantastic- and were up for consideration, but got bumped out of the list. If the list was for 15 or 20, these would have been in.
"10538 Overture" - Electric Light Orchestra
"Aqualung" - Jethro Tull
"Carry On My Wayward Son" - Kansas
"Party Hard" - Andrew W.K.
"Pool Party" - The Aquabats
