Not quite two years
ago I blogged about my 65 favorite musical artists. I know 65 seems like a
rather odd number for a list of this sort, but I did have my reasons. I’m not
going to tell you what those reasons were, though, since I already wrote an
entire blog about it, but if you missed it, you can read about it here.
Of course, even though I had my reasons, I’m sure the fact that I did a Top 65
list and not a Top 100 list bugged a lot of my more OCD readers. Indeed, I’m
guessing that there were some who found it so blasphemous that they thought it
upset the natural order of things, and may well have pointed to that blog as
the thing that set off the pandemic less than three months later.
Well, don’t despair my neurotic friends, because today I aim to set things
right. Yes, my Hanukkah gift to my faithful fans is to provide a list of the
remaining 35 musical artists that flesh out my Top 100 list. So, without
further ado, let’s rock and roll right into it with number…
100. Lynyrd Skynyrd – I’m not generally that into southern classic rock bands.
You’ll not see the Allman Brothers or Credence Clearwater Revival anywhere on
my list, for example. But of that genre, Lynyrd Skynyrd is the one I like best.
Of course, they are best known for “Free Bird,” which is a great song that has
become of a bit of a cliché for people to drunkenly call out requests for at
concerts. I won’t claim to know a ton of their music, but there are a handful
of their songs that I really like. Favorite song: “Simple Man”
99. Beastie Boys – Fellow Brooklyn Jews, Michael Diamond, Adam Yauch, and Adam
Horovitz make up this unique punk-rap hybrid band. Not long after their debut
album, Licensed to Ill came out in
1986 I and my high school buddies latched onto it despite the fact that it was
completely unlike anything else we were listening to at the time. It was fun
and in your face and perfect for our adolescent partying mindset. Favorite
song: “No Sleep Till Brooklyn”
98. Jewel – While there are certainly much more famous one-named female artists
like Madonna and Cher, my favorite in this unique category is Jewel. Her 1995
debut album Pieces of You was
endearingly sweet and wistful and managed to capture a place in my heart at
just the right time in my life. I’ll admit that I’m not very familiar with her
work after this album, but this one album was strong enough to edge her onto
this list. Favorite song: “Foolish Games”
97. Billy Idol – With his signature sneer and great rock yowl, Idol churned out
a bunch of iconic radio hits in the 80s. We didn’t hear too much about him
after that decade, but the hard punk new wave tunes he produced during that
decade were all pretty solid. And, on a side note, he got me into a bit of
trouble at a friend’s wedding in the early 90s when the DJ played his song “Mony
Mony” and I was the only one to sing the alternative lyrics, that I incorrectly
assumed everyone else would join in on. Favorite song: “Rebel Yell”
96. Fleetwood Mac – Here is a band that formed in 1967 and has had so many
different lineup changes over the years that besides their regular entry on
Wikipedia, there is a separate entry called “List of Fleetwood Mac Members.” Of
course, the two members who have been with the band the entire time are the two
that the band is named after—Mick Fleetwood and John McVie. But for all their
different incarnations, the lineup that is best known is the one that also
included Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, and Christine McVie. These five gave
us the album Rumours, which went on
to become one of the best-selling albums of all time. Favorite song: “Go Your
Own Way”
95. Stevie Wonder – Child prodigy Stevie Wonder had his first number one single
in 1963 at age 13. By the time he reached age 18, he had released 11 albums and
had seven top ten singles. Oh, and of course he did all this while being
completely blind. By the time I was 18 I still didn’t know how to do my own
laundry. Kind of puts things in perspective. Favorite song: “Superstition”
94. John Mellencamp – With his straightforward grassroots approach to rock,
John Mellencamp, aka Johnny Cougar, aka John Cougar, aka John Cougar Mellencamp
(yes, he has more aliases than a KGB spy in a comic book) is sort of like a
Midwestern version of Bruce Springsteen. Throughout the 1980s, Mellencamp put
forth a load of catchy guitar-driven hits making him a pop icon of the times.
Favorite song: “Jack and Diane”
93. America – This is one of a handful of bands that I got into because of my
mom, the others being Slayer, Anthrax, and Megadeth. Ha, ha – just kidding! I
had you going there for a second, didn’t I! No, my mom was not into thrash
metal, but rather soft rock with catchy melodies that could easily be turned
into elevator music. America was at the height of their popularity in the early
1970s and, when I was a kid, my mom would often put one of their albums on the
turntable in between playing show tunes and Barbra Streisand. Eventually I came
to like them via osmosis. I also came to have terrible grammar from repeatedly
hearing the lyrics: “In the desert, you can remember your name/'Cause there
ain't no one for to give you no pain.” Favorite song: “Ventura Highway”
92. The Smithereens – Here’s another entry that made it to this list purely on
the strength of one album. The Smithereens released their debut album Especially For You in 1986 and I played
it a lot over the next year or two. The catchy tunes on this album are somehow
simultaneously rocking and mellow and filled with interesting lyrics. They made
a few albums after this one but, in all honesty, I never checked them out, so I
could be missing some great stuff by them. Favorite song: “Behind the Wall of
Sleep”
91. The Beach Boys – One of the most successful bands of all time, the Beach
Boys had more Top 40 hits between the 1960s and 2010s than any other American band.
(At least according to Wikipedia, which I believe wholeheartedly.) The Beach
Boys delivered on their name, churning out a ton of songs about surfing and
having fun in the California son. Personally, their songs, while enjoyable, are
a bit too repetitious for me to put them any higher on my list than this.
Favorite song: “God Only Knows”
90. Hall & Oates – Although they were making albums since the early 1970s,
and had a couple of hits along the way, it wasn’t until the early 1980s that
they became mega-stars. From 1980 to 1982, this rock-pop (or pop-rock,
depending on who you ask) duo saw four of their singles hit number one on the
US Billboard charts, and had a couple of others land in the top ten. Their
stuff was never flashy—just solid songs that made them a mainstay on the radio
during my junior high school years. Favorite song: “Sara Smile”
89. REO Speedwagon – A straightforward rock and pop band from the 70s and 80s,
these guys reached their peak with the 1980 album Hi Infidelity, which had several hits that got lots of airplay.
Their previous album, while probably not as good, has the distinction of having
my favorite album title of all time: You
Can Tune a Piano, but You Can’t Tuna Fish. Favorite song: “Take It on the
Run”
88. Melting Hopefuls – Far and away the most obscure band on this list, there
is a pretty strong chance nobody reading this will have heard of them. When I
lived in Manhattan in the early to mid-1990s I stumbled across them headlining
at a small club that I went to in order to see my friend’s brother-in-law’s
band play. I don’t remember much about the band I went to see, but when the
Melting Hopefuls came on, I was entranced by their quirky brand of alternative
folk rock. I’ll also admit I was a bit entranced by their lead singer Renee
LoBue, and I became sort of a groupie of theirs for a couple of years,
following them around to their various gigs throughout Manhattan. They released
a couple of CDs on an independent label, but I lost track of them when I moved
to Arizona and found out later that they broke up in the late 90s (maybe
because they didn’t have me supporting them at their gigs anymore.) Favorite
song: “Don’t Touch Me”
87. Supertramp – This keyboard heavy prog-pop band debuted in 1970 and hit
their commercial and critical peak in 1979 with their nearly perfect album Breakfast in America, which included
three Top 40 hits. The album also featured a very memorable cover photo of a
happy waitress holding up a glass of orange juice in front of the Twin Towers.
The band never came close to matching the success of this album again, but I
like their catchy tunes enough to put them in this spot. Favorite song: “Take
the Long Way Home”
86. Queensryche – This band has a unique place in the pantheon of heavy metal.
I always used to describe them as “this is what it would sound like if Pink
Floyd and Metallica had a baby.” In fact, their amazing concept album Operation: Mindcrime is to me,
essentially a heavy metal version of Floyd’s The Wall. Sometime in the late 80s or early 90s I got to see them
open for Def Leppard and it was definitely one of those scenarios where I went
to the concert for the opening act, not the headliner. To my mind Queensryche
blew Leppard out of the water. Favorite song: “Speak”
85. Kansas – The first of three geographically named bands that will appear on
this list, Kansas formed, not surprisingly, in Topeka, Kansas in the early
1970s. The band was a major force during that decade, putting out six albums
including their two masterworks, Leftoverture
and Point of Know Return. Those
albums included two epic songs that would go on to be mainstays on classic rock
radio—“Dust in the Wind,” and the one that’s my favorite song of theirs…Favorite
song: “Carry on Wayward Son”
84. Aerosmith – One of the most iconic bands of the hard rock genre, Aerosmith
hit it big in the early to mid-70s before having a bit of a lull and then a
popularity resurgence in the mid-to-late 80s. I will admit that their output is
a bit hit or miss for me, but there is enough in the “hit” category to land
them in this spot on my list. At one time I may have ranked these guys higher,
but I’ve read in multiple spots that when Rush (my favorite band) opened for
them, Steven Tyler and his cohorts treated them like crap, so I’ve soured on them
a bit. Favorite song: “Dream On”
83. The Temptations – This Motown group produced a ridiculous amount of hits in
the 60s and 70s. What makes them somewhat unique, though, is their successful
transition from more traditional Motown love songs like “My Girl” to a more
funky psychedelic sound with songs like “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone.” They also
often sported fun matching outfits and did dance routines to their songs. I
dare you to watch their “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” video on YouTube and not
smile. Favorite song: “Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)”
82. Chicago – This rock band with horns (yes, they had a full brass section of
their band) had an interesting trajectory, starting out with a jazzier more
intense sound and eventually evolving into more standard pop and soft rock. While
I do like some of their later tunes, it’s really their earlier work that is
more compelling to me. They also had an interesting naming convention for their
albums, using numerical names (like Chicago
VI or Chicago 19) for 24 of their
37 albums. For some reason I find this amusing, but I guess I’m easily amused.
Favorite song: “25 or 6 to 4”
81. Motley Crue – First off, I want to apologize to purists who object to the
fact that I didn’t include metal umlauts over the “O” and “U” in this band’s
name. I didn’t have the patience to figure out how to do that. Motley Crue may
be the epitome of the 80s heavy metal band. Not as heavy as bands like Iron
Maiden and Metallica, but not as glam as bands like Cinderella and Poison, Crue
existed right in the middle of that decade’s metal spectrum. From 1981’s Too Fast for Love through 1989’s Dr. Feelgood, they put out five straight
platinum albums. The one time I had tickets to see them live in the summer of
1987, I had to give them up because one of my nephews was born that night, so I
wound up at a hospital instead of a stadium. I think there was about the same
amount of screaming in both locations. Favorite song: “Kickstart My Heart”
80. Bon Jovi – I can already feel the eye rolls I’m getting on this one, as I
know there are a lot of rock connoisseurs who write this band off as mindless
pop-metal. Whatever. The reality for me is that Bon Jovi’s multi-platinum album
Slippery When Wet came out a couple
of weeks before my senior year of high school and its songs are woven into the
cultural fabric of my group of friends from that timeframe. In fact, the song
“Never Say Goodbye” was the theme song for our senior prom and I get wistful
and misty-eyed to this day if I hear it on the radio. Of course, Bon Jovi is
led by Jon Bon Jovi, who is the rock star that my female friends swooned over
more than any other during that period. Maybe that’s the real reason so many
guys can’t stand him. Favorite song: “Runaway”
79. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – This folk rock super group, consisting
of David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash and Neil Young, did not always
include Young, but trying to divide them out as separate entries on this list,
with and without Young, seems silly. Besides, in my opinion their best work is
with Young, anyway. Indeed, their best-selling album, Déjà Vu, includes all four of them and has many of their most
iconic songs. On a side note, the band Barenaked Ladies put out a Christmas
album in which they replaced the lyrics of “Deck the Halls” with the name of
the band Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young repeated over and over. It’s pretty
amusing and worth a listen. Favorite song: “Ohio”
78. Deep Purple – DA-DA-DAAA…DA-DA-DA-DAAA…DA-DA-DAAA…DA-DA-DAAA. Clearly I don’t
know musical notation, but hopefully you still got the fact that my DAs were
supposed to be representative of one of the most iconic guitar riffs in the
history of rock from Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water.” That song, which is
Deep Purple’s most famous, comes from their flagship album Machine Head. But this heavy prog-rock band put out a lot of really
intense tunes prior to their seminal album. This is one of those bands, though,
that has gone through multiple lineup changes over the years, and while they
put out 16 more albums after Machine Head,
none came close to matching that LP’s grandeur. Favorite song: “Highway Star”
77. The Clash – One of the pioneering bands of British punk rock, The Clash
only made six albums from 1977 through 1985 and then broke up. But in that
short timeframe they produced an incredible amount of great tunes. The Clash
also didn’t stick with just a traditional punk sound, as they were also at the
forefront of new wave and even delved into a more traditional pop rock sound at
times. Indeed, their most notable album, London
Calling, mixes all of these genres and more. On a side note, as I surfed
YouTube to re-listen to some of their songs to write this, I stumbled across
the fact that in 2009, Bruce Springsteen played a few Clash covers at his
concerts. How cool would it be to be at a Springsteen concert and he suddenly
breaks into a Clash song! But I digress. Favorite song: “London Calling”
76. Jim Crocce – Here’s another artist that I was exposed to mostly through my
mom, who played Photographs &
Memories: His Greatest Hits quite a lot during my childhood. Croce’s accessible
brand of folk rock got a lot of airplay in the 70s, though tragically, Croce
died in an airplane crash in 1973, at the height of his popularity. While he
doesn’t get a lot of airplay these days, every once in a rare while I still
hear “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” crop up on the radio. Favorite song: “I Got a Name”
75. Boston – “Well, we were just another band out of Boston,” starts the lyrics
to “Rock & Roll Band,” which opens side two of Boston’s self-named debut
album. That might be selling themselves a bit short—they weren’t “just another
band,” they were a really good one. (Note: some research told me that I have
two other Boston bands on this list—the previously mentioned Aerosmith and, as
it happens, the very next band on this list.) I really dig Boston’s orchestral rock
sound and use of harmonies. My one quibble with them is that every tune on
their first two albums sounds exactly the same, just with different lyrics. But
I really like the sound of that tune a lot, which is how they wound up here on
my list despite the sameness. Favorite song: “Peace of Mind”
74. The Cars – This is not just another band out of Boston. The Cars were a hit
machine from the late 70s through the mid-80s, with their signature brand of
catchy new wave pop. They were also mainstays on MTV, with several very memorable
videos to their credit, thanks to the distinctive look of their quirky lead
singer, Ric Ocasek. (Note: That’s not a typo—Ocasek spelled “Ric” without the “k.”
I guess he thought that made him quirkier.) Favorite song: “You Might Think”
73. The Moody Blues – One of the pioneering bands of the progressive rock
genre, most of the Moody Blues songs fall into the “epic” category. Their 1967
concept album Days of Future Passed
is best listened to straight through from beginning to end so that your mind is
sufficiently blown. The album, which follows an everyman throughout the day,
includes impressive orchestral bits, as well as occasional spoken word
interludes. While the Moody Blues did have other successes throughout their
16-album career Days of Future Passed
is certainly their signature work, which includes their most identifiable song,
which also happens to be my favorite of theirs. Favorite song: “Nights in White
Satin”
72. Peter Gabriel – Gabriel first came to fame as the lead singer of Genesis
before leaving the group in 1975 to start a solo career, in which he had
significant commercial success with seven songs reaching number three or higher
on the US pop charts. In trying to find a way to characterize Gabriel’s sound,
the phrase that keeps on coming to mind is “chill rock.” Not to be confused
with soft rock (like the aforementioned America) chill rock is music you just
hang out with your friends and chill to. Indeed, I saw Peter Gabriel live once
in the mid-90s and it was probably the most chill stadium concert I’ve ever
been to. Favorite song: “Solsbury Hill”
71. The Commodores – Before Lionel Richie went solo, this was his band. The
Commodores were a later addition to the Motown label, putting out their first
album in 1974. While they had some success with more funky, upbeat songs like “Brick
House” and “Lady (You Bring Me Up),” it was really Richie’s swoon-worthy
ballads like “Easy” and “Three Times a Lady” that they were best known for.
Indeed, after Richie left the band in 1982 to start his solo career, they only
had one significant hit with “Nightshift.” Favorite song: “Still”
70. Elvis Presley – Arguably the most iconic figure in the history of rock
music, for years I claimed I didn’t like Elvis, though I’m not quite sure why I
took that stance. Maybe it was because I preferred “classic rock” to “rock and
roll,” or because of Elvis’s pretty boy status that made me roll my eyes. But
these days, if I try to be objective, there is no doubt that Elvis was an
incredible performer and recorded a ton of hits that made rock what it is
today. Of course, Elvis didn’t write any of his hits, which is why I wouldn’t
put him any higher than this spot on my list. Favorite song: “Heartbreak Hotel”
69. Pearl Jam – Along with Nirvana, Pearl Jam helped usher the grunge sound
into the mainstream in the early 1990s. But it wasn’t just the sound that got
ushered in, as it was the entire vibe. Flannel quickly replaced spandex as the
material of choice for young rock fans, as everyone tried to mimic Pearl Jam
front man Eddie Vedder’s brooding aesthetic. But I’m not here to talk about
fabric, so much as I am to talk about music. Pearl Jam’s debut album Ten, which weirdly had eleven tracks, is
one of the great debut albums in the history of rock, with its aggressive
guitar sound combined with compelling, personal lyrics. The album, which has
gone on to sell more than 13 million copies, spawned three Top 20 radio hits.
But these boys from Seattle didn’t stop there, as they amassed an additional 24
Top 20 hits after their first album. Favorite song: “Better Man”
68. The Spinners – An R&B group that got its start in the early 1960s, the
Spinners were with Motown during that decade but, for whatever reason, couldn’t
get a foothold with that label. It wasn’t until they switched over to Atlantic
in the early 1970s that they really took off. At that point they started
churning out a bunch of catchy hits, including seven that ended up in the Top 10
on the Billboard charts. Interestingly, their only number one hit came as a
collaboration with Dionne Warwick, when they made “Then Came You.” A few years
ago I bought a greatest hits CD of theirs called Flashback With The Spinners and I’ve played the heck out of that
thing. (Sorry for the strong language there. I get fired up about the
Spinners.) Favorite song: “The Rubberband Man”
67. Genesis – My hunch is that if I were to reorder my Top 100 music artists
lists one year from now, Genesis would land in a much higher spot on the list—possibly
in the Top 30. But since I’m writing this now, here is where they stand. Here’s
the deal—Genesis essentially had two main phases of their career, the first
with Peter Gabriel as the frontman that had a distinctly more progressive rock
feel, and the second with Phil Collins as the frontman that started out a bit
proggy and eventually went to more straightforward rock and pop. It’s the
second phase that I am much more familiar with and what I am basing their
ranking on. But just in the past 30 minutes, as I’ve been doing my research for
this blog, I’ve been listening to some of their earlier work and am blown away.
Why didn’t I listen to this stuff before??? I guess I’ve got some catching up
to do. In any event, my favorite album of theirs for many years has been the
Collins-led Duke, but maybe that will
change soon. And my favorite song of theirs may change soon, too, but for now…Favorite
song: “That’s All”
66. The Animals – Rounding out my “Other 35” is a British band that hit it big
during the same timeframe as the Beatles and Rolling Stones. While The Animals
obviously did not have the longevity or cultural impact of the two
aforementioned bands, they did have a string of wildly successful hits during
the mid-1960s. Led by singer Eric Burdon, whose incredibly rich voice sounded
like it should have come from a man 30 years his senior, The Animals songs seem
to fall into two categories—straightforward rock and roll or gritty
organ-driven blues. Either way, their output in the short time they were
together was incredibly impressive. And the video of them performing “House of
the Rising Sun” in matching grey suits as they slowly and sullenly walk around
the stage together may be my all-time favorite thing on YouTube. Do yourself a
favor and check it out. Favorite song: “House of the Rising Sun”
Thank you for indulging me, once again, with one of my self-indulgent lists. If
you want to find out numbers 65 through 1 on my list and you missed the link
earlier, here it is again.
If you’re sick of my lists and want to read a blog I wrote five years ago about
athletic equipment stuck in trees, click here.
If you're done with me and are just looking for information about something that has nothing to do with me, go here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
