My All-Time Top 40 Favorite Tracks

 What are my all-time Top 40 favorite tracks?

It's a separate discussion from my usual ranting on behalf of my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). The book at least attempts a long view, albeit still a long view shaped by my own taste. The tracks listed here today are tracks I just really, really like. A lot.

The only restriction I placed on this list was a limit of just one track per artist. And I excluded the Beatles; my favorite song is pretty much everything the Beatles released from 1964 through '66, A Hard Day's Night through Revolver. If I tried to pick one Beatles selection, it might be the American mix of "Thank You, Girl," or it might be "No Reply," or "Rain," or "The Night Before," or...see, this is why I'm not pickin' one. The Fab Four exist outside the parameters of this exercise.

And I'm not ranking my picks; they're arranged alphabetically by artist. My all-time # 1 is probably Badfinger's "Baby Blue," but everything's listed here as equals.  Ladies and gentlemen...my all-time Top 40 favorite tracks.

EMERITUS STATUS: THE BEATLES: [1964-1966]

1. THE 13th FLOOR ELEVATORS: You're Gonna Miss Me

2. THE ANIMALS: It's My Life

3. P. P. ARNOLD: The First Cut Is The Deepest

4. BADFINGER: Baby Blue

5. THE BAY CITY ROLLERS: Rock And Roll Love Letter

6. THE BEAU BRUMMELS: Laugh Laugh

7. THE BEVIS FROND: He'd Be A Diamond

8. CHUCK BERRY: Promised Land

9. BIG STAR: September Gurls

10. THE DAVE CLARK FIVE: Any Way You Want It

11. THE COCKTAIL SLIPPERS: St. Valentine's Day Massacre

12. NEIL DIAMOND: Solitary Man

13. THE DRIFTERS: On Broadway

14. EDDIE AND THE HOT RODS: Do Anything You  Wanna Do

15. THE FLAMIN' GROOVIES: Shake Some Action

16. THE FLASHCUBES: No Promise

17. THE FOUR TOPS: It's The Same Old Song

18. FREDDIE AND THE DREAMERS: Do The Freddie

19. THE KINKS: You Really Got Me

20. KISS: Shout It Out Loud

21. THE KNICKERBOCKERS: Lies

22. MARY LOU LORD: Aim Low

23. MANNIX: Highway Lines

24. MATERIAL ISSUE: Kim The Waitress

25. EYTAN MIRSKY: This Year's Gonna Be Our Year

26. THE MONKEES: Porpoise Song (Theme From Head)

27. THE RAMONES: Sheena Is A Punk Rocker

28. THE RARE BREED: Beg, Borrow And Steal

29. SMOKEY ROBINSON AND THE MIRACLES: The Tears Of A Clown

30. TODD RUNDGREN: Couldn't I Just Tell You

31. DUSTY SPRINGFIELD: I Only Want To Be With You

32. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: Girls In Their Summer Clothes

33. THE T-BONES: No Matter What Shape (Your Stomach's In)

34. THE TEARJERKERS: Syracuse Summer

35. THE TOYS: May My Heart Be Cast Into Stone

36. TRANSLATOR: Everywhere That I'm Not

37. THE VOGUES: Five O'Clock World

38. THE YARDBIRDS: Heart Full Of Soul

39. THE WHO: I Can't Explain

40. STEVIE WONDER: Uptight (Everything's Alright)

And yeah, of course the list would look different if I did it tomorrow. Obviously.

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This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.

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