Tag: most awarded songs

Most awarded songs #10

mondegreen of long duration

Sam Cooke

More fun with tunes that are among the most awarded songs #10. I own every one of them in some form. Here are some of your Grammy and Oscar winners. They’ve been touted by Rolling Stone magazine, RIAA, ASCAP, CMA, NPR, and others.

60. A Change Is Going To Come – Sam Cooke. If you saw the biopic One Night in Miami, you get a sense of the importance of this song on society at that point. He was inspired by Bob Dylan’s Blowing In The Wind. Cooke chose to share feelings he had from dealing with discrimination, at hotels, e.g., that he experienced. Unfortunately, he was killed on December 12, 1964, two weeks before the song was released as a single.

59. I Only Have Eyes For You – The Flamingoes. Quoting me: “I hear those first three or four chords and I am always surprised how it leads to such a lush tune. My first favorite song, probably for 30 years.”

58.  Layla – Derek and the Dominoes. I loved this song when I was in college. My neighbors Howie and Debi had a cat named Layla, who was a sister to our cat Doris. It is, of course, about Clapton’s longing for his friend George Harrison’s wife, Pattie Boyd. Rita Coolidge has claimed credit for co-creating the piano part, a segment that her then-boyfriend Jim Gordon was playing the tune during the album sessions.

57. Losing My Religion – R.E.M. I could always relate to this song.

56. Imagine – John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. I’m on record of having overdosed on this recording and especially all of the covers. Still, I’m glad that John had a signature song by which he’ll be remembered. His son Julian sang it to support the Ukrainians recently.

“Picket lines and picket signs”

55. What’s Going On – Marvin Gaye.  Berry Gordy famously wasn’t a fan at first.

54. You Send Me – Sam Cooke. Cooke took a lot of grief for abandoning the gospel music with the Soul Stirrers. Still, this song is pretty tame for such outrage.

53. I Walk The Line – Johnny Cash. as his first big hit – #1 country, #17 pop in 1957 – it is the song I most associate with him. A biopic about him and June Carter was titled Walk The Line.

52. Brown Eyed Girl – Van Morrison. Apparently, because of signing a bad contract with Bang Records, Morrison never made a cent on his first, and signature hit.

51. California Dreamin’ – The Mamas and The Papas. They were listed as The Mama’s and the Papa’s on their first big single. Here is was one of the mondegreens I lived with for the longest time:
Stopped into a church
I passed along the way
Well, I got down on my knees (got down on my knees)
And I pretend to pray (I pretend to pray)
but I heard
And I began to pray
Moreover, I’ve heard a number of cover versions that made the same mistake.

The most awarded songs #9

murder ballad about the 1866 death of Laura Foster

Hey, kids! I know you want even more of the most awarded songs #9. They’ve picked up Grammys and Oscars. They’ve been cited by Rolling Stone magazine, RIAA, ASCAP, CMA, and NPR. For all I know, maybe AARP.

70. I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll – Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. Joan Jett heard The Arrows play their version on a UK TV show, a year after they recorded it in 1975. This I hadn’t heard: “She first recorded the song in 1979 with two of the Sex Pistols, Steve Jones and Paul Cook.” Then she re-recorded it with the Blackhearts two years later.

69. Fortunate Son – Creedence Clearwater Revival. John Fogerty said that the song “speaks more to the unfairness of class than war itself. It’s the old saying about rich men making war and poor men having to fight them.” Got that right.

68. Stand By Your Man – Tammy Wynette. It was a crossover hit, #1 country for three weeks in 1968. In early ’69, it went to #11 adult contemporary and even #19 pop. Lyle Lovett did a cover, which shows up at the end of the 1992 movie The Crying Game.

67.  Georgia On My Mind – Ray Charles. It was a Hoagy Carmichael song from 1930. Three decades later, Brother Ray had a #1 pop hit. In 1979, Ray Charles’s version was designated the official state song of the Peach State.

66. Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone – The Temptations. Dennis Edwards said in an interview that the long instrumental intro made him so angry that he barked out that first line, just the way producer Norman Whitfield wanted. This was the last of the Tempts’ four #1 pop hits.

A bad mother…

65. Theme from Shaft – Isaac Hayes.  The movie Shaft had a black director, a primarily black cast, and music composed and performed by a black artist. In 1971, this was a BFD. The theme has entered the culture, from Sesame Street and The Simpsons to The Wire and The X-Files. “Damn right.”

64. I Can’t Stop Loving You – Ray Charles. The song was from a B-side by Don Gibson in 1958. Brother Ray’s take went to number one on the U.S. R and B (10 weeks!), pop (5 weeks), and Adult Contemporary (5 weeks) charts in 1962. It was a hit in the UK and Sweden too.

63. Heartbreak Hotel – Elvis Presley. His first hit on his new label RCA Victor in 1956. “Presley accepted [Mae Boren] Axton’s offer of a third of the royalties if he made the song his first single on his new label.”

62. The Thrill Is Gone – B.B. King. Roy Hawkins’ recording of the song got to #6 on the Billboard R and B chart in 1951. It was written by Hawkins and fellow West Coast blues musician Rick Darnell. But King’s version in 1970 went to #3 R and B, #15 pop, and became one of his signature songs.

61. Tom Dooley – The Kingston Trio. A lot Most of my father’s folk collection was of black musicians such as Leadbelly, Harry Belafonte, and Odetta. But surely the Kingston Trio was represented, for I recall hearing this song in my home. This is a murder ballad about the 1866 death of a woman named Laura Foster by a guy named Tom Dula, with a poem by Thomas Land written shortly thereafter. The first recording of the song was c. 1929.

Most awarded songs #8

Albany Institute of History and Art

Jackson 5These are more of the most awarded songs #8. They’ve been touted by the Grammys, the Oscars, Rolling Stone magazine, RIAA, ASCAP, CMA, NPR, and all other sorts.

80. We Are Family – Sister Sledge. This song became the theme song for the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates. The baseball team featured Dave Parker and the aging (at 39) Willie Stargell, referred to as Pops. They played the Baltimore Orioles in the World Series and the Bucs were down 3-1 to the Birds. Inexplicably, I made a small wager that the Pirates would win, first game 5, then game 6, which they did. But I didn’t bet on game 7 when the Pirates took the Series. This song was the first written by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards for someone other than Chic.
79. Purple Rain – Prince and the Revolution. I saw the movie. Great tunes, including by The Time. The song was the last tune performed live by Prince.
78. Born To Be Wild – Steppenwolf. On the Easy Rider soundtrack, of course. But it’s the hit from that first Steppenwolf album, which is my favorite of theirs.
77.  I Want You Back – Jackson Five. Unashamedly,  unironically, I loved the most of the songs from the group’s first two albums. This was the first hit. I liked singing along on the Jermaine parts, the second lead. Incidentally, the B-side, a cover of Who’s Loving You, is also great.

The music died

76. That’ll Be The Day – The Crickets. Buddy Holly wasn’t credited for contractual reasons. Regardless, given how young Holly was when he died, it’s astonishing what a force of nature he was.
75. Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow – The Shirelles. The Goffin/King song was the first by a black all-girl group to reach number one in the US pop charts in early 1961. Carole King later covered it on Tapestry.
74. Beat It – Michael Jackson. A rock song, featuring a guitar solo by Eddie Van Halen.
73.  American Pie – Don McLean. Speaking of Buddy Holly, the line ‘the day the music died” of course refers to a plane crash on February 3, 1959. Holly, Richie Valens, the Big Bopper, and others were killed. The song was the source of much speculation about its meaning.
72.  Maggie May – Rod Stewart. As much as any song, this song defined my freshman year in college, 1971-72, with the constant play on dorm record players of the Every Picture Tells A Story album.
71. I Want To Hold Your Hand – The Beatles. There is a famous photo of The Beatles engaged in a pillow fight. It took place in a hotel in France after they heard that the song went #1 in the United States. A month later, the band was on Ed Sullivan. I saw the Harry Benson photo at the Albany Institute of History and Art, a part of a show called The Beatles: Now and Then in early 2003. There was a complementary exhibition, THE BEATLES: Community Stories, in which I participated.

Most awarded songs #7

“the catchiest song in the history of pop music”

These are the most awarded songs #7. They’ve won commendations from the Grammys, the Oscars, Rolling Stone magazine, RIAA, ASCAP, CMA, NPR, and similar entities. Yet, there is one song on this list I had never heard before. Naturally, it came out after 1999.

90. I Will Always Love You – Whitney Houston. I never owned this record. Never had to. It’s embedded in my brain forever, even though I haven’t heard it much in thirty years. I don’t even much LIKE it from overexposure. Still, I’m glad that songwriter Dolly Parton used some of the royalties to invest in an office complex in a Black neighborhood in Nashville, TN.
89. In The Still Of The Nite – The Five Satins. I never knew that “Nite” was spelled that way, to avoid confusion with a Cole Porter tune. A great song that may lay claim to being the origin of the term doo-wop.
88. I Hope You Dance – Lee Ann Womack. I did not recognize this 2000 song from its title and performer. Though it was highly regarded, I just managed to miss it.
87. On Broadway – The Drifters. The Drifters, I once wrote, were my favorite 1950s/early 1960s group, even though I never owned their albums. They were always generously represented on compilation albums. A Mann/Weil song tweaked by Leiber and Stoller.
86. Johnny B. Goode – Chuck Berry. Quite probably the first rock and roll hit about rock and roll stardom

Very Brazilian

85. The Girl From Ipanema – Astrud Gilberto/Stan Getz. Even as a kid, the song seemed exotically sexy. it may be the second-most recorded pop song after Yesterday.
84. King Of The Road – Roger Miller. I got the Roger Miller Greatest Hits album, on Smash Records, from the Capitol Record Club c. 1966. I LOVED it, especially this song. Lyrics: “Two hours of pushin’ broom Buys an eight by twelve four-bit room. I’m a man of means by no means.”
83. We Will Rock You/We Are The Champions – Queen. I associate both of these with sports. We Will Rock You is a stadium anthem. Any number of championship sporting teams have attempted to sing We Are The Champions. “In 2011, a team of scientific researchers concluded that ‘We Are The Champions’  was the catchiest song in the history of pop music, despite its not reaching #1 in the charts in any major market.”
82. Green Onions – Booker T. and The MG’s. Since it came out, it may have been the most popular choice by disc jockeys breaking away to the news at the top of the hour. Or so I remember. Unlike other hit instrumentals of the era, it was really funky. And it had the word Green in the title. I remember Wolfman Jack saying in the movie American Graffiti that the green onions hanging all over the studio would “keep the vampires away.”
81. Whole Lot Of Shakin’ Going On – Jerry Lee Lewis. Big Maybelle made the first recording of the song in 1955, produced by Quincy. A couple of years later, Jerry Lee’s version added the boogie piano and the “suggestive spoken asides”. Sam Phillips thought it was too risque.

Most awarded songs #6

a library school story

Frankie Lymon

Counting down to the most awarded songs #6. Still more tunes that got awards from the Grammys, the Oscars, Rolling Stone magazine, RIAA, ASCAP, CMA, NPR, and the like.

100. Your Song – Elton John. The first song on the first Elton John album I owned, which I mistakenly thought WAS the first Elton John album because it was eponymously named.
99. You Really Got Me – The Kinks. The early Kinks were a really LOUD band, and this song epitomized that. I don’t think I really appreciated the band until later on.
98. Why Do Fools Fall In Love – Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers. This is a very good question! This song was SO infectious it was covered by the Beach Boys, Diana Ross, and even Joni Mitchell.
97. Maybellene – Chuck Berry. His first hit and it redefined rock and roll. Apparently named for the makeup company.
96. I Got You (I Feel Good) – James Brown. Not only was it #1 on the R and B charts for SIX weeks, but it was also the highest-ranked song of his on the pop charts, #3 for three weeks in 1965.
95. Suspicious Minds – Elvis Presley. I always associate this song with Elvis’ big comeback c. 1968.

“Just look over your shoulder”

94. Reach Out I’ll Be There – The Four Tops. Their second #1, on both the R and B, and pop charts, after I Can’t Help Myself. I saw the Four Tops and The Temptations at Heritage Park in Colonie, near Albany in the mid-1980s. It was not a great venue but they were fine anyway.
93. House Of The Rising Sun – The Animals. This is a really old song, at least six decades before it became a #1 hit in 1964.
92. Wake Up Little Susie – The Everly Brothers. I loved this song at the time. In retrospect, I love it even more. It denotes a certain level of innocence. “What are we gonna tell our friends when they say, ‘Ooh, la, la’?”
91. Billie Jean – Michael Jackson. When I was in library school, I had written a paper about how, initially, MTV wasn’t going to show Michael Jackson videos because MJ was too.. “urban” or something. His label, Columbia/Epic, said that if he didn’t get on the platform, the label would yank their OTHER videos from MTV, and MTV capitulated. MTV made Michael, and Michael made MTV. Anyway, my professor was surprised that the facts I stated about this situation, which I thought were rather well known, were actually true. I was a bit bemused by that, and maybe a bit ticked off.

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