Retro Spectrum Radio Lists: Favorite Songs, Greatest Albums, Greatest Bands

How can you pick favorite songs from bands like the Beatles or the Stones, as there are so many. So I picked some offbeat ones… Underlined selections could be used for a Top 10 list — today… who knows about tomorrow.

#1 song would be “Sunshine of Your Love.” Today… It actually reminds me a girl in a strip club, who performed to it while making some moves I’d never seen before — or since.

Favorite Songs

The Beatles: “I’m So Tired,” (a performance worthy to be called Brandoeqdque), “And Your Bird Can Sing,” “Yer Blues” (my favorite Beatles song actually is “Strawberry Fields,” or “Day in the Life,” or is it “Hey Jude”?)

— John Lennon: “You Can’t Catch Me”

— George Harrison: “What is Life?”

Rolling Stones: “Monkey Man,” “Tumbling Dice” (“Out of Time” Mark III-the ersatz Allen Klein version) — these are some interesting, lesser known faves

Bob Dylan: “Tangled Up In Blue,” “Shelter From The Storm,” “If You See Her, Say Hello“ — all from Blood on the Tracks, they have a great deal of personal meaning to me

Cream: “Sunshine of Your Love” (“White Room,” “Tales of Brave Ulysses”)

Jimi Hendrix: tie “Hey Joe” (Live at Monterey ’67) and “Johnny B. Goode” (Live at Berkeley ’70) — Honorable Mention “Remember” (Studio version)

The Who: “My Wife,” “Summertime Blues” (Live at Leeds or was it Hull?) — Honorable Mention “Substitute” (Studio version)

Andy Pratt: “Avenging Annie” (there’s a good cover by Roger Daltry) — In 1973. Pratt was hailed as a force in pop music akin to Dylan — they always got it wrong

Cat Stevens: “Sitting,” “Wild World”

Steely Dan: “Reeling in the Years”

ELP: “Lucky Man”

Nilsson: “Jump Into the Fire,” “Spaceman”

Jefferson Starship: “Runaway,” “White Rabbit” — Honorable Mention: “Show Yourself” ( not a great song but a great rant against corporate America by Grace Slick)

Hank Williams: “Honky Tonk Blues”

Elvis Costello: “Oliver’s Army,” “Big Sister” — Honorable Mention: “Psycho”

Squeeze: “Annie Get Your Gun”

Patti Smith: “Because the Night”

John Fogerty: “Rock ’n’ Roll Girls”

Velvet Underground: “What Goes On” (one of innumerable live versions — 1969)

— Lou Reed: “Andy’s Chest,” “Vicious”

Kraftwerk: “Trans-Europe Express”

Leonard Cohen: “Winter Woman” (“Chelsea Hotel,” “Everybody Knows”)

Procul Harum: “Conquistador”

The Supremes: “My Forever Came Today”

David Essex: “Rock On”

BB King: “There’s Gotta Be a Better World Somewhere”

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GREATEST ALBUM

Based on greatness and the sustained level of artistry throughout the entire disc(s):

Greatest Album — “Blood on the Tracks” (Dylan) — the centerpiece of the canon of a Nobel Prize-winner

Runner Up — Tie “SGT Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”/“The Beatles” a.k.a. White Album (The Beatles)

Honorable Mentions:

“The Rise of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars” (Bowie)

“Plastic Ono Band” (John Lennon)

— — —

GREATEST BANDS

The Beatles (hands down)

The Rolling Stones (#2 hands down)

The Beatles and The Stones are to pop music from 1964–1990 what Chaplin and Keaton were to silent film comedy (which was the most popular genre of its time and universal) — the Beatles are known everywhere by everyone…. Stones and Michael Jackson likely are the same….

Jimi Hendrix Experience

Cream

The Animals

Velvet Underground

The Who

The Supremes

Creedence Clearwater Revival

The Doors

Greatest Singer

Elvis Presley

Personal Theme Song

Warren Zevon, “Excitable Boy”

Runner-up: Clash, “I Fought the Law (and The Law Won)”