Top 100 (5-1)

5. Pearl Jam - Alive

The best grungy classic rock song ever. Pearl Jam has always been kind of a hybrid band. They are definitely grunge and fit in nicely with the Seattle scene, but they always had more classic rock (especially Neil Young) influences to their music than fellow Seattle grungers did.

At the forefront of this influence are some absolutely blistering guitar solo by Mike McCreedy and this song features one of my favorites of any genre. The way this song crescendos into an all out rock fest at the end is absolutely amazing.

4. Lynyrd Skynyrd - Free Bird

Ok so it's cliche, but cliche or not it's just a damn good song. Another song with the classic start slow/end rocking format that is all but lost in new music nowadays with legendary guitar work from the triple-axe attack. The only danger this song poses is to motorists who don't have cruise control. Often times during the solo, 80 mph can be hit easily without being conscious of it.

3. Bob Dylan - Like A Rolling Stone

From the first snare hit you just know this song is going to be a classic kick-off to Dylan's best album. After embracing the electric guitar, Dylan gives critics of the move nothing more to complain about after this song. How does it feeeeeel indeed.

2. Beatles - A Day In The Life

Reason number infinity Lennon & McCartney were the best songwriting duo ever. As was the case with a lot of Beatles classics, this tune was composed from half written song by each side of the duo melded perfectly together by George Martin.

The dreamy trance like music and lyrics from Lennon crescendos into Paul's verse then right back to Lennon before the final crescendo and the single biggest piano chord in rock history fading out in the oblivion.

1. Bruce Springsteen - Thunder Road

I've always put this song hand in hand with Born To Run as a lot of fans probably do. But while I like Born To Run, I absolutely love this song. It is the epitome of classic rock and roll to me and probably a pretty controversial song for #1 overall, but this song instantly brightens any day in which I hear it.

It starts off with a simple harmonica/piano medley referencing Roy Orbison and picks up the pace ending with a sax solo by the great Clarence Clemons. It's probably also the Boss's greatest vocal performance (at times reminding me of The Big O himself) not to mention one of the best road trip songs ever.

So there you have it. My personal Top 100 list. Undoubtedly since I started writing it, some songs have changed their rankings in my own mind and I'm always on the outlook for good new songs I can add to the list in the future. I'd love to hear everyone else's opinions on both my list and your own personal list especially of why people favor songs that you don't find on traditional Best of lists.

Top 100 (10-5)

10. Dire Straits - Sultans Of Swing

For a while when I was a teenager this was one of my favorite Bob Dylan songs. From the moment I realized it's Dire Straits it's been my favorite song by them as well. Yeah I know, now I can tell the difference pretty easily, but I was a neophyte then.

Mark Knopfler is really an underrated guitarist. The guitar work (and the drumming) in this song rate amongst the best of any classic rock song. The only thing that could possibly make it better were if the lyrics involved installing microwave ovens.

9. Aerosmith - Dream On

Most bands peak early and it's not a big surprise to find their best song is off their first album, however in a musical career as long and storied as Aerosmith it is a bit of an odd thing. Ironically this song is probably about as un-Aerosmith sounding as Aerosmith gets. If you squint, you can tell it's Steven Tyler singing, but it lacks his trademark scat. Still an absolutely fantastic song though.

8. Beach Boys - Good Vibrations

Why do the best ones always have to be crazy? If not for his neurosis it's very possible Brian Wilson may have become as big as Paul McCartney. While they started out as a fairly simply surf group they, like the Beatles, grew up in terms of complexity as the 60's waned. The Beatles begat Pet Sounds which begat St. Pepper's. Sometimes friendly competition is good when it leads to 2 of the best albums ever recorded.

With the Beach Boys it was always all about the harmonies and this song is the apex of that along with the dreamy quality of the music and lyrics.

7. The Who - Won't Get Fooled Again

In making this list, I realized I really really like The Who which came as no surprise, but they are the only band with two songs this high on my list. This song showcases everything that is good about the band. The structure of the song changes so many times up to the most defining yowl of any song ever made.

And the drumming, oh Lord the drumming. The track laid down by Keith Moon is probably the best drum track ever and thanks to the increasing blandness of newer song's drums may hold that title for a very long time.

6. Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody

There is no band out there quite like Queen. It's amazing what they managed to accomplish with the limitations of 1970's analog recording equipment. This signature cut has probably caused numerous traffic accidents as people were busy banging their head to this song a la Wayne's World.

To create this masterpiece the 3-part harmony was dubbed and overdubbed numerous times to create the choirlike vocals.

Top 100 (15-11)

15. Kansas - Carry On My Wayward Son

I'm really to the point now where depending on the day any of these may qualify as my favorite song. I play a variety of instruments and like songs for a variety of reasons, but this song nails it on every front. It's got several guitar solos, a killer bass line, good drums and soaring vocals. Probably my #1 most played song on Rock Band as well.

I'll have another post up soon about "The Loudness War" and why classic rock production is so much better, but one thing newer bands can learn from this is variation. My favorite points of the song are when the drummer plays a few well placed open hi-hat notes in the middle of a verse to really add to the build up.

14. Radiohead - Karma Police

Thom Yorke genius..blah blah blah. Yeah it's still true. The beautiful archepellago harmony of the acoustic guitar and piano during the chorus is fantastic. It's both simple and complex at the same time and then fades into a noise at the end that somehow works.

13. Guns N Roses - Sweet Child O Mine

I think one of the points I realized when I was getting a little bit older was when I started hearing this song with regularity on classic rock stations. Led Zeppelin, Beatles, Pink Floyd, that stuff is classic rock. It came out before I was born. I remember buying this album when this song was new. That was only...umm...over 20 years ago...crap. And for over 20 years this has been among my all time favorites.

I remember driving around the country in high school with some friends looking for another friends house where we were supposed to play paintball. We were completely lost down county roads and lo and behold Axl was singing on the stereo, "Where do we go now?" Very appropriate.

12. Boston - More Than A Feeling

A rock song with dynamics? A build up from a softer sounding song into an all out rock fest? Must be from the 70's. Those types of songs don't exist anymore in the mainstream. Probably one of the first songs, I ever learned how to play on guitar and when I started concentrating on drums, this is one of the songs that made me realize I really really like the sound of a rimshot on the snare.

11. The Who - Baba O'Riley

Another thing my study of drums has taught me is I love the bass drum and I love lots of crashing cymbals. This song is tame by Keith Moon's standards, but still has a ton of cymbals at just the right spots to support Roger Daltrey's always excellent vocals. Nobody seems to appreciate this song as much as they should because they think the name of it is Teenage Wasteland.