A friend recently challenged me to come up with a list of my 10 favourite songs. I made the list. But then I kept going. I couldn’t resist. How could I possibly stop at 10. It went to 20. Then 30. Then I settled on my 50 favourite songs. While exercising that day a number of songs popped in my head that I couldn’t leave off. A day later the list became my 100 favourite songs.
These are songs that make me think, get up and dance, rock out, lose my mind, calm my mind. There are songs that I have loved for a long time, some newer tracks. There are songs that are serious and some that are silly (an imitation of myself?) There are songs I love playing on the guitar and piano, songs I love to sing. There are songs that hit me in the feels, songs that hit the nostalgic nerve. The common denominator and the main criteria is that these are songs I could listen to on repeat and never get tired of. They are well written tunes by artists I revere and respect. I have likely forgotten some key tracks, but in all assurance these are 100 songs I love very much. Here they are in alphabetical order:
1904 (Tallest Man on Earth)
All Along the Watchtower (Jimi Hendrix)
All Apologies (Nirvana)
All I Want (Joni Mitchell)
All My Friends (LCD Soundsystem)
Beast of Burden (Rolling Stones)
Blackbird (Beatles)
Block Rockin’ Beats (Chemical Brothers)
Bobcaygeon (The Tragically Hip)
Boys and Girls (Blur)
Can’t Do Without You (Caribou)
Carry On (CSNY)
Coastal Brake (Tycho)
Colours (Donovan)
Comfortably Numb (Pink Floyd)
Creeque Alley (The Mamas and the Papas)
Crown of Love (Arcade Fire)
Depreston (Courtney Barnett)
Doin’ It Right (Daft Punk)
Do You Realize (Flaming Lips)
Elderly Woman Behind A Counter in a Small Town (Pearl Jam)
Electric Feel (MGMT)
Everybody Hurts (R.E.M)
Everybody Wants to Rule the World (Tears for Fears)
Fake Plastic Trees (Radiohead)
Father and Son (Cat Stevens)
Feels Like We Only Go Backwards (Tame Impala)
Fire and Rain (James Taylor)
Friend of the Devil (Grateful Dead)
Future People (Alabama Shakes)
Girl from Ipanema (Getz/Gilberto)
God Only Knows (Beach Boys)
Good Times Bad Times (Led Zeppelin)
Hallelujah (Jeff Buckley)
Happiness is A Warm Gun (Beatles)
Hard to Explain (The Strokes)
Harvest (Neil Young)
Hazey Jane II (Nick Drake)
Heartbreaks and Setbacks (Thundercat)
Hit ‘Em Up (Tupac Shakur)
Hollywood (Tobias Jesso Jr.)
Holocene (Bon Iver)
I Can Feel It (Sloan)
I Heard It Through the Grapevine (CCR)
Intergalactic (Beastie Boys)
It Hasn’t Hit Me Yet (Blue Rodeo)
It Makes No Difference (The Band)
I’m the Man Who Loves You (Wilco)
Julia (Beatles)
Just Dropped in To See What Condition My Condition Was In (The First Edition)
Killing in the Name Of (Rage Against the Machine)
Last Goodbye (Jeff Buckley)
Let My Baby Stay (Mac Demarco)
Let’s Save Tony Orlando’s House (Yo La Tengo)
Lola (The Kinks)
Long Train Runnin’ (Doobie Brothers)
Look-Ka Py Py (The Meters)
Lorelai (Fleet Foxes)
Lost Cause (Beck)
Magic (Ben Folds Five)
Man in the Mirror (Michael Jacskon)
Money Trees (Kendrick Lamar)
Morning Side (Four Tet)
Move on Up (Curtis Mayfield)
Mr. Tambourine Man (The Byrds)
My Girls (Animal Collective)
My Sweet Lord (George Harrison)
Myth (Beach House)
Offend in Every Way (The White Stripes)
Ohio (Neil Young)
Only Living Boy in New York (Simon and Garfunkel)
Peeping Tomboy (Kurt Vile)
Rather Go Blind (Etta James)
REALiti (Grimes)
Satellite of Love (Lou Reed)
She Bangs the Drums (Stone Roses)
She Belongs To Me (Bob Dylan)
Sing Me Spanish Techno (New Pornographers)
Someone Great (LCD Soundsystem)
Space Oddity (David Bowie)
Sprawl II (Arcade Fire)
Subterranean Homesick Blues (Bob Dylan)
Sunday Bloody Sunday (U2)
Sunday Morning (Velvet Underground)
Sweet City Woman (Stampeders)
Talking About A Revolution (Tracy Chapman)
Tell Her Tonight (Franz Ferdinand)
The Logical Song (Supertamp)
Time of the Season (The Zombies)
The Rainbow Connection (Muppet Movie)
Under the Pressure (War on Drugs)
Untitled (Interpol)
Waiting in Vain (Bob Marley)
Walkin’ on the Moon (The Police)
Weird Fishes (Radiohead)
What’s Golden (Jurassic 5)
Wildwood Flower (Carter Family)
Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd)
Wonderful Tonight (Eric Clapton)
Wouldn’t It Be Nice (Beach Boys)
