Some of the Very Best Rock and Roll Songs Ever
Yesterday’s listing of terrible rock and roll has, logically, an error. The error is that I need to explain one of two things – either why rock and roll is inherently inferior as an art form, or why the duds in the list are inherently inferior to rock and roll when represented by a list of competent and mesmerizing songs. So here is my own personal list of rock and roll at its best. I start with high quality and go to even higher quality as the list goes on.
Song -- Artist
Chantilly Lace -- The Big Bopper
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes -- The Platters
My Prayer -- The Platters
My Blue Heaven -- Fats Domino
Why Do Fools Fall in Love? -- Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers
Diana -- Paul Anka
Blueberry Hill -- Fats Domino
Rock Around the Clock -- Bill Haley and his Comets
The Fool on the Hill -- The Beatles
It Don’t Come Easy -- Ringo Starr
Rocking at Midnight -- The Honeydrippers (1985 remake)
Love Child -- The Supremes
The Logical Song -- Supertramp
Village Ghetto Land -- Stevie Wonder
While My Guitar Gently Weeps -- The Beatles
Since I Fell For You -- Lenny Welch
The Windows of the World -- Dionne Warwick
The White Cliffs of Dover -- The Righteous Brothers
The Long and Winding Road -- The Beatles
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
A very minor clarification: rock and roll tends to be an upbeat boogie woogie with sung lyrics. However, my very own personal absolute favorites are the best of the rock and roll instrumental hits. This has become a very unusual preference – no instrumental pop song of any genre has charted in the top twenty for the last 20 years. The best of the best such rock instrumentals are, to my ears, Bandstand Boogie by Les and Larry Elgart, the introduction to "At the Gym" by Leonard Bernstein for West Side Story, The Peter Gunn Theme by Henry Mancini, The Young Lovers Theme from "A Summer Place" by Max Steiner (the 1959 original, not the 1960 pop smash arrangement by Percy Faith), the James Bond Theme by Monty Norman (arranged and conducted by John Barry), and the Pink Panther Theme by Henry Mancini. All of these instrumental tunes are the next generation of 1940s style boogie woogie, a subgenre almost exhaustively collected in a CD box, "Bands that can Boogie Woogie," itself available on Amazon.com and reviewed by me at:
http://www.amazon.com/Boogie-Woogie-ORIGINAL-RECORDINGS-REMASTERED/dp/B00022M5FO/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1320558910&sr=1-1
Yesterday’s listing of terrible rock and roll has, logically, an error. The error is that I need to explain one of two things – either why rock and roll is inherently inferior as an art form, or why the duds in the list are inherently inferior to rock and roll when represented by a list of competent and mesmerizing songs. So here is my own personal list of rock and roll at its best. I start with high quality and go to even higher quality as the list goes on.
Song -- Artist
Chantilly Lace -- The Big Bopper
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes -- The Platters
My Prayer -- The Platters
My Blue Heaven -- Fats Domino
Why Do Fools Fall in Love? -- Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers
Diana -- Paul Anka
Blueberry Hill -- Fats Domino
Rock Around the Clock -- Bill Haley and his Comets
The Fool on the Hill -- The Beatles
It Don’t Come Easy -- Ringo Starr
Rocking at Midnight -- The Honeydrippers (1985 remake)
Love Child -- The Supremes
The Logical Song -- Supertramp
Village Ghetto Land -- Stevie Wonder
While My Guitar Gently Weeps -- The Beatles
Since I Fell For You -- Lenny Welch
The Windows of the World -- Dionne Warwick
The White Cliffs of Dover -- The Righteous Brothers
The Long and Winding Road -- The Beatles
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
A very minor clarification: rock and roll tends to be an upbeat boogie woogie with sung lyrics. However, my very own personal absolute favorites are the best of the rock and roll instrumental hits. This has become a very unusual preference – no instrumental pop song of any genre has charted in the top twenty for the last 20 years. The best of the best such rock instrumentals are, to my ears, Bandstand Boogie by Les and Larry Elgart, the introduction to "At the Gym" by Leonard Bernstein for West Side Story, The Peter Gunn Theme by Henry Mancini, The Young Lovers Theme from "A Summer Place" by Max Steiner (the 1959 original, not the 1960 pop smash arrangement by Percy Faith), the James Bond Theme by Monty Norman (arranged and conducted by John Barry), and the Pink Panther Theme by Henry Mancini. All of these instrumental tunes are the next generation of 1940s style boogie woogie, a subgenre almost exhaustively collected in a CD box, "Bands that can Boogie Woogie," itself available on Amazon.com and reviewed by me at:
http://www.amazon.com/Boogie-Woogie-ORIGINAL-RECORDINGS-REMASTERED/dp/B00022M5FO/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1320558910&sr=1-1
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