One of the more underrated aspects of Queen's music are the backing vocals of the band. Freddie Mercury is obviously a very talented lead man, but what makes this song are the call and answer parts from the band. The definitive reason Queen can't be easily replicated; No one else can do justice to "Somebody toooooooooo loooooooooove"
Red Hot Chili Peppers-Under The Bridge
The Chili Peppers have had a strange career arc. They went from relatively obscurity to a hit song and a few others and all of a sudden exploded into a huge rock band a decade later. While their newer stuff is slightly overproduced it still has a good section to it and I love Flea's bass anytime. This one hit from the 90's though is still my all-time favorite from them. One of my friends in high school used to think they said "Under the bridge of time". I bet a bridge of time would be awesome!
Rolling Stones-Gimme Shelter
Most true rock bands can trace their roots back to either The Beatles or The Stones. Obviously they have their own influences, but the Stones are always the ones cited by the harder rock bands such as Aerosmith as influences. The Stones were probably the first white R&B group. Would anyone really be surprised if this were first a Tempations song?
Rolling Stones-Wild Horses
While the Stones dripping bluesy sound is their trademark, the reason they are one of the all-time greats is because they had variety. This song is a beautiful heartbreaker with possibly some of Mick's greatest vocal work.
Rolling Stones-You Can't Always Get What You Want
You'll probably notice a lack of Satisfaction on my list which probably violates some secret rock list ritual. While a great song, there are just others of the Stones I like better such as this anthem. It's too bad most of the best musicians in rock history are either old, dead or in the case of Keith Richards, both.
Roy Orbison-Crying
It's probably good the Big O came out when he did. I can't imagine such a mysterious dark person would be embraced by popular music in the MTV age. But man could he sing. Has anyone in rock history had a bigger vocal range? And he shows it all off on this song.
Rufus Wainwright-Hallelujah
Leonard Cohen is a fantastic poet. I cannot stress this fact enough. The only problem is no one can stand his performances. I'm pretty sure most songs of his remade I like. This is probably one of his more famous songs. Although Jeff Buckley's version seems to get more critical acclaim, I much prefer this version.
Stevie Ray Vaughn-Pride And Joy
Another case of only the good die young. After coming back through drug and alcohol problems, Stevie was killed in a similar way to his southern rock idols before him. Truly one of the best blues guitarists around, this is his best song.
Styx-Renegade
The pinnacle of arena rock. Styx is sort of a polarizing band for me. I like many of their songs, but can never listen to them for long periods of time. Except for this song. For some reason when I first started listening to classic rock I thought this was a newer song...not really sure why.
Sublime-Santeria
Ska, punk whatever you want to count this as, it's just good relaxing music. Sublime is another band that has a fairly unique sound.
The Band-The Weight
The Band has always struck me as kind of an enigma. They had the whole Southern jam band thing going, but always seemed like they stood away from the spotlight a bit and then knew when to let it go, giving us the fabulous The Last Waltz.
This is a good laid back rock track with wonderful biblically invoked lyrics.
The Knack-My Sharona
For some reason this band was hailed as the next Beatles. Maybe it made sense at the time, but I doubt it as it looks extra silly now. This song does have the signature drum beat with a simple guitar lick, but what many people forget is the blistering guitar solo at the end, truly one of my all time favorites.
The Romantics-What I Like About You
This song really sounds like it's from the 60's. Just a good catchy guitar and I love the whispering part toward the end.
Third Eye Blind-Semi-Charmed Life
Quite possibly the best song ever written about crystal meth. Of all the outrages over song lyrics in rock history no one seemed to have a problem with this one probably because it's hard to understand what he's actually saying in the song. Very infectious beat though.
Tom Petty-Free Fallin'
Tom Petty sticks to the three chord format better than anyone. He has a unique, but not necessarily great voice. Somehow this all leads to him completely rocking. I dare anyone not to belt out the chorus to this one.
Tom Petty-Mary Jane's Last Dance
Back in 1994 this probably would have been number one on the list. I absolutely loved this song when it first came out and not much has changed since then. I'm pretty sure this song was a strong motivation for me buying my first harmonica and of course he mentioned Indiana in the song which is always great.
Tom Petty is also one of the great classic rock artists that MTV didn't kill. Don't Come Around Here No More's video is already freaky enough, but this one takes the cake. In the video he steals a dead Kim Basinger from the morgue and dances with her one last time. See it's not about pot, it's about necrophilia.
Tommy Tutone-867-5309 (Jenny)
Sure this song is kind of cheesy (obviously because it's from the 80's) but it's still awesome. Also anyone who actually has this number probably got it changed sometime in the mid-80's, but apparently somebody in Southern Indiana didn't. After commencement my junior year of college one of my friends decided to call this number on the 812 prefix. Some lady in Evansville was not pleased to hear from us at 3 a.m.
U2-With Or Without You
Let me get this straight. U2 is one of the most overrated bands in rock history. Bono is a blowhard. They have only ever released one good album and a handful of other good songs, most of which were singlehanded negated by Vertigo which may be the worst song ever made.
I love this song. It is beautiful, mellow, heartbreaking, loving, just about everything you could ever want in a rock ballad all at the same time. My next highest rated U2 song would probably be in the thousands and Vertigo is about infinity+2 on my list, but U2 has a gem with this one.
Van Morrison-Brown Eyed Girl
Van Morrison definitely wins the award for artist I thought was a band for the longest time, but he also wins with this song which I'm pretty sure I've heard played at the last 700 weddings or so I've been to.
Weezer-Island In The Sun
Weezer like Green Day turned on the suck after their initial few albums, but I can still remember when they were awesome. This is the perfect happy song. I don't think it's possible to not be in a good mood when this song plays.
Weezer-Say it Ain't So
One of my all time favorites from the 90's. Weezer set themselves apart from most 90's groups because they used brilliant poppy jangly guitar riffs instead of/combined with grungy music.
White Stripes-Seven Nation Army
Proof that not all newer music sucks. Though the garage rock revival didn't create a whole lot of great songs, it finally went back in the direction of real music instead of produced music that is overdubbed so much it loses all feeling.
It's also nice to see a musician who is willing to take chances and veer away from the standard path in search of something better. Not every album is great, but it's at least interesting and keeps fans wondering instead of spurning out the same generic rip-offs of your own songs album after album.
Who-Who Are You
I've spilled much virtual ink on the Who before. The adaptability they had was simply amazing. This is a later period song and really one of Roger Daltry's best vocal performances.
Who-You Better You Bet
A friend of mine in college absolutely hated this song and I'm not sure why. Most people think Keith Moon was a drumming madman. Which he was to a degree (and the muppet character animal was based on him). If you really structurely break it down though other than an afinity for rolls (especially snare rolls) he had some technically sound qualities to him. He was just unconventional.
He would use the bass drum to keep the beat instead of the hi-hats. He would do tom rolls to the beat and throw cymbals in instead of a snare on the backbeat. All of the chaos tied together with the steadiness of the bass playing makes the Who great.
Willie Nelson-Georgia On My Mind
In a song popularized by Ray Charles, I'm probably one of the few that prefers Willie's version in no small part to the harmonica played throughout.
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