No. 35

Against The Wind - Bob Seger (1980) Video - Against The Wind is about looking back, looking ahead, and keeping your cool. It speaks of a wealth of experiences, both good and bad, that only a ramblin' life on the road could bring.

No. 36

All These Things That I've Done - The Killers (2004)* Video - I LOVE this song! Obviously this could be said of every song on the list, but this song has a special ability to produce positive emotions. While there are a lot of songs that are fun to yell, this one doesn't evoke any anger or negativity. It was written by lead singer Brandon Flowers, no, not THAT Brandon Flowers.

"I got a soul, but I'm not a soulja!"

No. 37

Angels - Robbie Williams (1997) Video - The song that revitalized Britain's Robbie Williams' career, and yes, another sappy song. Check out the video of his duet with the very lovely Joss Stone.

No. 38

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For - U2 (1987)* Video - The 2nd of 3 transcendent singles off one of the greatest albums of all time. U2's Joshua Tree is a work of art that has seldom been equalled. The 1st single was With or Without You, the 3rd single is further up my list, much further.

No. 39

Old Man - Neil Young (1972) Video - Another appearance by my favorite songwriter of all-time. In 1971, Neil Young who was, in his words, "being a rich hippie for the first time," bought a place called Broken Arrow Ranch, not that one, I checked, this one is in Northern California. The place had a caretaker for whom Young penned these lyrics:

"Old man, look at my life, I'm a lot like you were. Old man, look at my life, 24 and there's so much more. Live alone in a paradise that makes me think of two.

Love lost, such a cost, give me things that don't get lost, like a coin that won't get tossed rolling home to you.

Old man take a look at my life, I'm a lot like you. I need someone to love me the whole day through, ah one look in my eyes and you can tell that's true.

Lullabies, look in your eyes, run around the same old town. Doesn't mean that much to me to mean that much to you.

I've been first and last, look at how the time goes past, but I'm all alone at last rolling home to you."

No. 40

Suspicious Minds - Elvis Presley (1969) Video - As we've hit the 40-days-until-the-wedding landmark, it's unfortunate that it fell upon a song about dysfunctional relationships. Hardly a bad omen as twisted relationships form prime fodder for hit songs. I first heard the 1992 country version by Dwight Yoakam, which was also good, but doesn't compare to the original.

No. 41

Out on the Tiles - Led Zeppelin (1970) Video - Finding a bad Led Zeppelin album is like finding an anorexic Samoan; it doesn't exist, but Led Zeppelin II and Led Zeppelin III are the ultimate hard rock band at their best. This song has flown a little bit under the radar in the Zeppelin catalogue, but when Jimmy Page got together with the Black Crowes to play both of their greatest hits, this is one of the songs he chose.

"Out on the Tiles" is apparently a British term for going out to the bars. Drummer John Bonham used to sing a ditty around the phrase like so, "I've had a pint of bitter and now I'm feeling better and I'm out on the tiles. We're going down the rubbers and we're going to pull some scrubbers because we're out on the tiles." These lyrics were considered too inappropriate, but Jimmy Page took the tune and made it into a riff, while Robert Plant penned new "appropriate" lyrics. Unfortunately, Bonham had one too many nights "Out on the Tiles", downing (4) quadruple vodkas prior to a recording session before aspirating to his death. An unfortunate end to the life of the greatest drummer in history.

No. 42

Cold Cold Heart - Norah Jones (2002) Video - Yet another cover, this one is more excusable because it's barely the same song as Hank Williams' 1951 country hit. Tony Bennett also recorded a cover shortly after its debut. Her Come Away With Me album will rank high on my top albums list.

No. 43

F*ckin' Up - Pearl Jam (1998) Video - TWO POSTS IN ONE DAY?! Yes, well battery-willing, there will be a 3rd as well. The reason is I'm not going to have internet access this weekend and this is the post for breaking rules. First of all, this is a cover. It's a Neil Young/Crazy Horse song through and through. Problem is, I don't care for their performance of the song. Here's how I live with myself including the cover - it was recorded on Pearl Jam's Live On Two Legs album.

Second rule I'm breaking, not only is there gratuitous cursing in the song, the title, you may have noticed, is also a curse word. Well, I'm sorry, but I can't pretend that this isn't one of guitarist Mike McCready's finest moments and just leave this track off my list! I love this song! I can't help it!

No. 44

Stay With Me - The Faces (1971) Video - Probably not a song that will endear you to your female coworkers, Rod Stewart penned an anthem most appropriate for Neil Patrick Harris' Barney Stinson character, though not necessarily an anthem appropriate for Neil Patrick Harris as we're led to believe that the character is a woman :) I don't know how this song has slipped through the cracks for so many, myself included, as I didn't learn of this song until Wedding Crashers' closing credits.

"In the morning, don't say you love me 'cause I'll only kick you out the door."

"Yeah, I'll pay your cab fare home, you can even use my best cologne, just don't be here in the morning when I wake up."

"Stay with me, stay with me, yeah tonight you better stay with me."

No. 45

Boom Boom - John Lee Hooker (1961) Video - The quintessential blues-rock anthem, to which I was first exposed in The Blues Brothers. I don't care how cool you think you are, you're not as cool as John Lee Hooker. The Animals later did a very respectable, albeit inferior, cover.

No. 46

Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain - Willie Nelson (1975) Video - Continuing a good run of songs that my dad gave to me is the last song Elvis Presley ever sang (at the piano in the music room at Graceland). Though Willie Nelson had previously been primarily known for his writing prowess, Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain was actually written in 1945 by Fred Rose. It doesn't get much simpler than this song, which is, I assert, country at its finest.

"In the twilight glow I see her, blue eyes crying in the rain. When we kissed goodbye and parted, I knew we'd never meet again. Love is like a dying ember and only memories remain and through the ages I'll remember blue eyes crying in the rain. Someday when we meet up yonder, we'll stroll hand in hand again in the land that knows no parting blue eyes crying in the rain."

No. 47

Blueberry Hill - Fats Domino (1956) Video - I owe my love for this song entirely to my dad. If not for him I likely would never have known anything of Fats Domino, the fun-spirited, piano-playing legend. You can't help but like Fats because he never does anything but sing and smile.

This quest to document my top 100 songs has helped me uncover a lot of things about music. To give you an idea how different the music industry was in 1940 (when the song was written), here's an example. Blueberry Hill was written in 1940 and published in a songbook, that's how the public was exposed to this classic. It was then recorded by 6 different artists in 1940 alone. Fats Domino, who is best known for the song, didn't record it for another 16 years, a year before Elvis also recorded it.

"I found my freedom on Blueberry Hill on Blueberry Hill when I found you. The moon stood still on Blueberry Hill and lingered until my dreams came true.

The wind in the willow played love's sweet melody, but all of the vows we made were never to be. Though we're apart, you're part of me still for you were my thrill on Blueberry Hill."

No. 48

I Cross My Heart - George Strait (1992) Video - This wraps up a stretch of 7 straight songs from the 90s. It's an unabashedly sappy love song and one of my favorite country songs ever. Liking this song doesn't make you a homo, but tearing up in the video does.

No. 49

Mama, I'm Coming Home - Ozzy Osbourne (1991) Video - Contrary to what one might think, this song is about Ozzy's wife, Sharon, not his mother. In many ways, she was a mother to him, a mother keen on using her husband's talents to make them both wealthy. It was Sharon who slapped Ozzy out of his drug-induced post-Black Sabbath stupor, if not for her, we likely never experience his talents again. Thank you, Mama.

My experience with the Ozzman really began in college where my roommate C.J. had recently purchased his greatest hits. I was working until midnight one Sunday evening at my internship with my headphones on, listening to this song, when I realized there was no one else in the entire building. I began belting "Mama, mama I'm coooommmmiiinnnnggg hhhhhhooooooommmmmeeee!" After finishing up the project, I walked past the executive offices to see one of the vice presidents working away.

No. 50

Yellow Ledbetter - Pearl Jam (1992) Video - Written for their Ten album, but released only as the B-side to the Jeremy single, Yellow Ledbetter is the lyrically-indecipherable story of Eddie Vedder's friend who received a yellow letter from the government notifying him that his brother had died in the Gulf War hence the line "I only hope he won't be coming home in a box or a bag." The song pays homage to Hendrix, most notably to Little Wing.

No. 51

Pink - Aerosmith (1998) Video - There are a small handful of songs that were responsible for completely changing the direction of my musical voyage. This is one of them. For a few months in the summer of '99 this was my favorite song in the world. As a result of this song, Aerosmith was my favorite band for the next several years. You know the feeling you have when a song is so catchy that you can't wait for it to end so you can begin it again? Pink gave me that feeling, only I didn't have the CD, and anyway I couldn't listen to it around my parents anyway.

Aerosmith's Nine Lives is an eternally underrated CD. When I got my grubby little hands on that album, it was, I would imagine, like the first time trying heroin. To quote Steve Martin in The Jerk, "if this out there, then what else must be?" Unfortunately the CD, which was borrowed, had a huge scratch in the middle of Pink so I could only listen to about the first 30 seconds before static set in. No matter, the opening harmonica is still one of my favorite moments of any song. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of leaving it in the CD player where my Dad would encounter it, rather than the Paul Harvey he was anticipating.

As I awoke, listened to the opening bars of the opening track, The Farm, which opens with a sarcastic line from Wizard of Oz and phases into a primal Steven Tyler scream, I suddenly realized what was about to happen. Suddenly I heard the sound of buttons being pulverized in an effort to remove the devil's music from his stereo. I sat bolt upright in bed, paralyzed by fear, both that the CD would be destroyed and that I might have the very large stereo hurled at me. As luck would have it, he found the right button and quickly became entranced with a Paul Harvey commercial, to which he so seamlessly fades. My brother's Queen and Dr. Dre CD's had not been as fortunate.

No. 52

Strawberry Wine - Deana Carter (1996) Video - In 1996, Deana Carter, the sexy and talented singer who only performed barefoot, seemed destined to be a country Sheryl Crow. Sadly Strawberry Wine would represent both the commencement and the peak of her fame, but it was a great song about a girl's first time to -ahem.

"He was working through college on my grandpa's farm, I was thirsting for knowledge and he had a car. I was lost somewhere between a woman and a child, one restless summer we found love growing wild on the banks of a river on a well-beaten path, it's funny how those memories they last, like strawberry wine, seventeen, hot July moon saw everything, my first taste of love, bittersweet, green on the vine, like strawberry wine."

No. 53

Corduroy - Pearl Jam (1994) Video - Off their extremely popular Vitalogy album, Corduroy managed to chart despite not being released as a single. I think I love it so much because it was the first track off Live On Two Legs, which is how I first began experiencing Pearl Jam. Thanks, Dustin

No. 54

Pretty Noose - Soundgarden (1996) Video - Although the band was together from 1984-1997, Soundgarden basically produced 3 well-known albums. 1991's Badmotorfinger, Superunknown in 1994, and finally Down On The Upside in 1996. After toiling in obscurity for many years, they hit their prime and quit. Listening to Down On The Upside, at no point does one think, "they're about out of material here, time for other pursuits." In actuality, they toured too much and broke up over creative disputes. That always sounds better than saying, "Chris Cornell got tired of Matt Cameron's snoring and leaving his clothes all over the bus.

Pretty Noose describes a situation that appears good at first, but turns out to be horrible. The band describes it as the classic bad-girlfriend experience. I think it could also apply to the plot of Hotel California.

"I caught the moon today, pick it up and throw it away. I got the perfect steal. A cleaner love with a dirty feel. Fall out and take the bait. Eat the fruit and kiss the snake goodnight.

Common ruse, dirty face. Pretty noose sells pretty hate. And I don't like what you got me hanging from."

No. 55

The Sad Cafe - The Eagles (1979) Video - An underrated song and album, their follow-up to 1976's Hotel California was the last #1 album of the 1970s, dethroning Led Zeppelin's In Through The Out Door. The album spawned 3 Top 10 hits, of which The Sad Cafe was not one, yet it made their greatest hits. I don't know how such a melancholy song makes me feel happy, but indeed it does.

"Out in the shiny night, the rain was softly falling. The tracks that ran down the boulevard had all been washed away. Out of the silver light, the past came softly calling and I remember the times we spent inside the sad cafe.

Oh, it seemed like a holy place, protected by amazing grace, and we would sing right out loud, the things we could not say. We thought we could this world with words like "love" and "freedom". We were part of the lonely crowd inside the sad cafe.

Oh, expecting to fly, we would meet on that beautiful shore in the sweet by and by. Some of their dreams came true, some just passed away, and some of them stayed behind inside the sad cafe.

The clouds rolled in and hid that shore, now that glory train, it don't stop here no more, now I look at the years gone by, and wonder at the powers that be. I don't know why fortune smiles on some, and let's the rest go free.

Maybe the time has drawn the faces I recall, but things in this life change very slowly, if they ever change at all. There's no use in asking why, it just turned out that way, so meet me at midnight baby inside the sad cafe. Why don't you meet me at midnight baby inside the sad cafe."

No. 56

The River - Bruce Springsteen (1980) Video - I know many will think it odd that this track is 16 spots above Born to Run and Born in the U.S.A. didn't even make the list, but this isn't about what sold the most records, it's about the story it tells, the audience it speaks to, and how it relates to the listener. While it's not my story, it encapsulates so many others' stories that I can just imagine the feelings going through the construction worker as he hears his biggest idol sing about what it's like to be him. A lyrically-rich artist singing his best-written prose.

In this case, the river represents life and hope in one instance, but then serves as a reminder that his hopes and dreams have vanished in another. An interesting fact, of my Top 100 songs, 12 discuss water in some form or other, typically as a source of life (river) or a source of sadness (tears). Just thought that was interesting how closely water is tied to our emotions.

"I come from down in the valley where mister when you're young, they bring you up to do like your daddy done. Me and Mary we met in high school when she was just seventeen, wed ride out of that valley down to where the fields are green.

We'd go down to the river and into the river we'd dive, oh down to the river we'd ride.

Then I got Mary pregnant and man that was all she wrote. And for my nineteenth birthday, I got a union card and a wedding coat. We went down to the courthouse and the judge put it all to rest. No wedding day smiles, no walk down the aisles, no flowers, no wedding dress.

That night we went down to the river and into the river we'd dive on down to the river we did ride.

I got a job working construction for the Johnstown company, but lately there ain't been much work on account of the economy. Now all them things that seemed so important, well mister they vanished right into the air. Now I just act like I don't remember, Mary acts like she don't care.

But I remember us riding in my brother's car, her body tan and wet down at the reservoir. At night on them banks I'd lie awake and pull her close just to feel each breath she'd take, now those memories come back to haunt me, they haunt me like a curse. Is a dream a lie if it don't come true or is it something worse that sends me down to the river though I know the river is dry, my baby and I, oh down to the river we ride."

No. 57

Nothing Else Matters - Metallica (1992) Video - Guitarist James Hetfield wrote this song while on the phone with his girlfriend, literally holding the phone against his ear and strumming the chords. It talks about how close they were, despite the fact that he was out on tour and they rarely saw each other, not the usual Metallica fare.

"So close no matter how far, couldn't be much more from the heart. Forever trust in who we are and nothing else matters.

I never opened myself this way. Life is ours, we live it our way. All these words I don't just say, and nothing else matters.

Trust I seek and I find in you, everyday for us something new. Open mind for a different view and nothing else matters."

No. 58

Fishin' In The Dark - Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (1987) Video - No song takes me back to summers growing up in Kansas quite like this one. The song is about plotting all winter to take a girl fishing all night. When it says, "It don't matter if we sit forever and the fish don't bite", I thought until I read the lyrics a few minutes ago that it said "Fall River" instead of "Forever" because I grew up on Fall River. Unapologetic country at its best. I love it! Though at age 5 when I first heard this song, I didn't have a girl to take and was just learning to fish, I could imagine that having both at the same time was just about as good as it could get.

"Lazy yellow moon coming up tonight shining through the trees, crickets are singing and the lightning bugs are floating on the breeze, baby get ready.

Across the field where the creek turns back by the old stone road, I'm going to take you to a special place that nobody knows, baby get ready.

You and me going fishing in the dark, lying on our backs and counting the stars where the cool grass grows. Down by the river in the full moonlight, we'll be falling in the middle of the night just moving slow. Staying the whole night through, feels so good to be with you.

Spring is almost over and the summer's come and the days are getting long, waited all winter for the time to be right just to take you along, baby get ready.

And it don't matter if we sit forever and the fish don't bite. Jump in the river and cool ourselves from the heat of the night, baby get ready.

You and me going fishing in the dark, lying on our backs and counting the stars where the cool grass grows. Down by the river in the full moonlight, we'll be falling in the middle of the night just moving slow. Staying the whole night through, feels so good to be with you. "

No. 59

Up Around The Bend - Creedence Clearwater Revival (1970) Video - There are at least 10-15 CCR songs that most people know ahead of this one, but I absolutely love the opening hook. As with all good CCR songs, this was written John Fogerty and inspires images of a traveling riverboat of fun.

No. 60

Sabotage - Beastie Boys (1994) Video - A song that scores extra cool points by having one of the baddest videos of all-time about a drug heist gone bad or something like that, you're never actually sure what's going on in the video, but there is a lot of action, no dialogue, loud music, and cops, sort of like a Michael Bay film.

No. 61

I Just Called To Say I Love You - Stevie Wonder (1984) Video - The song about how a day devoid of any other stimuli can be fantastic just by making a phone call to tell someone you love them. There's nothing else here, but it's a beautiful song and message.

No. 62

Are The Good Times Really Over - Merle Haggard (1983) Video - I'll give a big shout-out to anyone reading this who knows this song or who is even familiar with Merle Haggard. At some point, probably about the mid-90s, it became very en vogue to answer the what-type-of-music-do-you-like question with, "anything but country." When Shania Twain was dominating the country charts with watered down pop, I think that was an entirely legitimate albeit lazy response. However, the pure country sounds of Hank Williams, Merle Haggard, George Strait, and early Garth Brooks stands up very well to the best music of the last half century.

Merle Haggard is a bit of a country Bruce Springsteen. He appeals to the working man, to traditional values, and to genre purists. By and large, country music today is pathetic. It's watered down pop with cheesy, redneck lyrics and "artists" who can't play their instruments. It's just not any good at all. Now, I will accept the fact that some people just don't like country music, but I think a closer examination of classic country will reveal a lyrically rich genre with some seriously beautiful music.

Merle Haggard was a small-time criminal who served 3 years in San Quentin where he observed 3 Johnny Cash concerts that encouraged him to turn his life around and continue performing. A few years later, he told Johnny how much he'd enjoyed one of those concerts. Cash said, "Merle, I don't remember you playing with us that day." Haggard said, "Johnny, I wasn't on the stage, I was in the audience."

While Haggard is a hardcore conservative with a bent for traditional values, he seems to spread blame and praise where it's due, regardless of party affiliation. Thanks Dad, I'd never have heard Merle if not for you. I think with a couple changes, this song would play even better today:

"I wish a buck was still silver and it was back when the country was strong, back before Elvis and the Vietnam War came along, before the Beatles and Yesterday when a man could still work and still would. Is the best of the free life behind us now and are the good times really over for good?

Are we rollin' downhill like a snowball headed for Hell? With no kind of chance for the flag or the Liberty Bell? I wish a Ford or a Chevy would still last 10 years like they should. Is the best of the free life behind us now and are the good times really over for good?

I wish Coke was still cola and the joint was a bad place to be. It was back before Nixon lied to us all on tv. Before microwave ovens when a girl could still cook and still would. Is the best of the free life behind us now and are the good times really over for good?

Stop rollin' down hill like a snowball headed for Hell. Stand up for the flag, and let's all ring the liberty bell. Let's make a Ford or a Chevy that'll still last 10 years like they should. The best of the free life is still yet to come and the good times ain't really over for good."

No. 63

Criminal - Fiona Apple (1997) Video - Fiona Apple has been a bad, bad girl as the song goes. This is made much clearer by the video that shows her waking up after a wild party looking super sultry. If you've never seen this video, you must. Based on the video alone, this song would be Top 3 on my list. In commenting on the video, Apple said, "I decided if I was going to be exploited, I would do the exploiting myself."

Not a natural beauty, Fiona Apple projects a raw sexuality that is equal parts tempting and terrifying. Another great example is her cover of Elvis Costello's I Want You. Do yourself a favor and drink it in.

No. 64

In My Life - The Beatles (1965) Video - This could've been any of about 20 songs by the Beatles, but the fact that it's not played as often as Yesterday, Let It Be, or Imagine has kept me from getting tired of it. The truth is, you could rank the remaining 64 songs as all Beatles songs and not have a bad one. In My Life and Eleanor Rigby are the only 2 Beatles songs that Lennon and McCartney disagree on. They both claim to have written the melodies.

Lennon penned the lyrics from childhood memories:

"There are places I remember all my life, though some have changed. Some forever not for better, some have gone and some remain. All these places have their moments, with lovers and friends I still can recall. Some are dead and some are living, in my life I've loved them all.

But of all those friends and lovers, there is no one compares with you and those memories lose their meaning when I think of love as something new. Though I know I'll never lose affection for people and things that went before I know I'll often stop and think about them, in my life I love you more."

No. 65

Rock Your Body - Justin Timberlake (2003) Video - As much as I like to rip on the popular artists of today, I have to admit I like JT's beats. 2 interesting things about this song - it was intended for Michael Jackson's 2001 album Invincible, which makes what happened with his sister Janet during this song at the Super Bowl even more interesting.

No. 66

Three More Days - Ray LaMontagne (2006) Video - Ok, so I did something last night that I promised myself I wouldn't. If you read my earlier posts, you know that I started this list with my iTunes library of 10,000 songs, rated the songs from 1-5, took the 500 5-stars and from that selected the Top 100, which were then organized into the list I've been unveiling.

I knew that upon finalizing the list I'd instantly have second thoughts about some of the songs, but planned to resist the urge to constantly reorganize and add/subtract from the list. That was until I came across 2 songs that belonged well up the list and 1 song that probably didn't belong on the list at all. The solution was to bump everything down and 2 songs off the list. Sorry for the incredibly detailed explanation, but just thought I should explain why you may not know this song, but will definitely know the next one when just yesterday I promised 3 songs in a row you wouldn't likely know.

Anyway, Ray LaMontagne has managed to fly under the radar, but he deserves to be known. Some of the sexiest music being made, but yet Chris Isaak gets to shoot videos with Victoria's Secret models. Not any longer, Chris!

No. 67

Girl, I Wanna Lay You Down - Animal Liberation Orchestra (2004) Video - Known simply as ALO, these high school buddies used their lead singer's (Zach Gill) college friendship with Jack Johnson to launch their own music career. The video actually features Jack Johnson at the Kokua Music Festival. They now frequently tour and play together. Based on the success of this single, Jack signed them to his label, Brushfire Records.

The song is as chill and as sweet as any song on the list. In fact, barring a late veto, it will be played at my wedding in 2 months. This is the first of 3 straight songs that many people don't know. I'd encourage you to familiarize yourself with them. If you like the rest of the list, you'll probably like the unknowns as well.

"I come over, early in the morning. I'm like a heat wave without warning and when I touch you, my heart begins to flutter 'cause you're smooth and creamy like peanut butter.

Awww girl I wanna lay you down. I said girl I wanna lay you down.

I'm gonna flood you, like a love river, aww baby the postman is about to deliver. I cook you up some dinner, a little pasta. Listen to some music, a little rasta.

I said girl I wanna lay you down, I said girl I wanna lay you down, awww baby baby, don't you know I need you love?

So turn out the lights, bring out the candles, wrap your arms around my love handles. They say that passion does not always endure, but this feeling that I have for you is burning up my world."

No. 68

Time Bomb - Dave Matthews Band (2009) Video - Though most of my favorite Dave songs are ballads, my top 100 wouldn't be complete without this screaming number. Dave's 7th album, Big Whisky & the Groogrux King is dedicated to LeRoi Moore, their saxophonist who died in 2008. Time Bomb is supposedly written from the perspective of his sister's husband who shot Dave's sister and then himself. You feel the sense of desperation in his voice as he belts out, "I wanna believe in Jesus!"

No. 69

Lucille - Kenny Rogers (1977) Video - Ray Charles once said that the thing he loved about country music was the stories. Although this tune hadn't come out yet, it's precisely the type of song he envisioned. 3 characters - all with sympathetic and negative characteristics, it's a rich story:

"In a bar in Toledo, across from the depot, on a barstool she took off her ring. I thought I'd get closer so I walked on over. I sat down and asked her name. When the drinks finally hit her, she said, I'm no quitter, but I finally quit living on dreams. I'm hungry for laughter, here ever after, I'm after whatever the other life brings.

In the mirror I saw him and I closely watched him. I thought how he looked out of place. He came to the woman who sat there beside me. He had a strange look on his face. The big hands were calloused, he looked like a mountain, for a minute I thought he was dead, but he started shaking, his big heart was breaking, he turned to the woman and said,

You picked a fine time to leave, Lucille, with four hungry children and a crop in the field. I've had some bad times, lived through some sad times, but this time the hurting won't heal, you picked a fine time to leave me Lucille.

After he left us, I ordered more whisky, I thought how she made him look small. From the lights of the barroom to the rented hotel room, we walked without talking at all. She was a beauty, but when she came to me, she must have thought I'd lost my mind. I couldn't hold her, for the words that he told her kept coming back time after time.

You picked a fine time to leave, Lucille, with four hungry children and a crop in the field. I've had some bad times, lived through some sad times, but this time the hurting won't heal, you picked a fine time to leave me Lucille."

No. 70

Lola - The Kinks (1970) Video - My favorite song about a guy going out having a few drinks and bringing home a transvestite. The funny thing is that it's actually based on the true story of their band manager dancing all night with a "woman" that has stubble, but was too drunk to care. Be sure to check out the video where Ray Davies looks like Mr. McFly from Back to the Future.

"I met her in a club down in old Soho, where you drink champagne and it tastes just like Coca-Cola, C-O-L-A, Cola. She walked up to me and she asked me to dance. I asked her name and in a dark brown voice, she said Lola, L-O-L-A Lola lo-lo-lo-lo Lola.

Well I'm not the world's most physical guy, but when she squeezed me tight she nearly broke my spine, oh my Lola lo-lo-lo-lo Lola. Well I'm not dumb but I can't understand why we she walked like a woman and talked like a man, oh my Lola lo-lo-lo-lo Lola lo-lo-lo-lo Lola.

Well we drank champagne and danced all night, under electric candlelight. She picked me up and sat me on her knee and said dear boy won't you come home with me? Well I'm not the world's most passionate guy, but when I looked in her eyes, well I almost fell for my Lola lo-lo-lo-lo Lola lo-lo-lo-lo Lola Lola lo-lo-lo-lo Lola lo-lo-lo-lo Lola.

I pushed her away, I walked to the door, I fell to the floor, I got down on my knees, then I looked at her and she at me.

Well that's the way that I want it to say, and I always want it to be that way for my Lola lo-lo-lo-lo Lola. Girls will be boys and boys will be girls. It's a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world except for Lola lo-lo-lo-lo Lola.

Well I left home just a week before and I'd never ever kissed a woman before, but Lola smiled took me by the hand, and said dear boy I'm gonna make you a man.

Well I'm not the world's most masculine man, but I know what I am and I'm glad a man and so's Lola lo-lo-lo-lo Lola lo-lo-lo-lo Lola Lola lo-lo-lo-lo Lola lo-lo-lo-lo Lola."

No. 71

Remember When It Rained - Josh Groban (2003) Video - The most powerful display of his amazing voice.

No. 72

Born To Run - Bruce Springsteen (1975) Video - One of the greatest opening drum lines of all-time, this is one of many Springsteen greats. There aren't many rockers with the inspirational power of The Boss. His fans generally are working class, down on their luck, and he gives them hope. This album, and particularly this single, propelled him from a regional act to international superstar. Without Born to Run, there would be no Born in the U.S.A. The song took 6 months to record, a ridiculous length of time, glad it turned out better than Axl Rose's 15-years-in-the-making Chinese Democracy.

No. 73

Born To Be Wild - Steppenwolf (1968) Video - There's so much to say about this song that I'll have to be careful not to turn it into a novel.

"Get your motor running, head out on the highway, looking for adventure, and whatever comes our way!"

First of all, there's no better road trip song. Secondly, no other song is tied so closely to a movie as this is to Easy Rider. If you consider yourself a film or music buff and haven't seen the movie, that should be your next rental, but only if you're by yourself because it's best appreciated in solitude, much like Basic Instinct but for entirely different reasons. The mind-blowing news is that this may not even be the best song in this movie (The Weight) or even the best Steppenwolf song in the movie (The Pusher). There's nothing more American than Road Trippin' and Rock 'n Roll, except that this song's actually Canadian, it was written and eventually performed by Canadian rockers Mars Bonfire.