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The Now That’s What I Call… compilation series, which stretches all the way back to 1983, has always been commercially successful. Wildly, phenomenally so, in fact. There are dozens and dozens of these CDs. However, one such disc first released in June is getting some renewed attention because of its subject matter. Okay, fine. Dads love music, too. And yeah, dads can sometimes be all Homer Simpson about what they believe to be great music. But if we look at the tracklisting for this disc, I wonder how many of the included acts appreciate being lumped into a category that is synonymous with “uncool.” How many of these tracks would you classify as “Dad Rock?”
1. “We Will Rock You” – Queen (Yep)
2. “Start Me Up” – The Rolling Stones (Maybe)
3. “With Or Without You” – U2 (This is more Mom Rock, don’t you think?)
4. “Livin’ On A Prayer” – Bon Jovi (Yep)
5. “Radioactive” – Imagine Dragons (Possibly)
6. “Mr. Brightside” – The Killers (What?)
7. “Dakota” – Stereophonics (You’re kidding, right? Maybe if dad was a British indie kid.)
8 “Take Me To Church” – Hozier (What’s this even doing here?)
9. “Rockstar” – Nickelback (Definitely)
10. “Sweet Home Alabama” – Lynyrd Skynyrd (Slam dunk)
11. “More Than A Feeling” – Boston (Ditto)
12. “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper’ – Blue Oyster Cult (Ditto again)
13. “Bat Out Of Hell” – Meat Loaf (I suppose…)
14. “Ace Of Spades” – Motörhead (If Lemmy were still alive, he’d come round and smash every one of these discs personally.)
15. “Should I Stay Or Should I Go” – The Clash (Perhaps)
16. “The Jam” – Town Called Malice (Only if dad was a mod)
17. “Two Princes” – Spin Doctors (Yes. But no one should have to listen to this song. Ever.)
18. “She’s So Lovely” – Scouting For Girls (Okay…)
19. “Chelsea Dagger” – The Fratellis (No!)
20. “Rocks” – Primal Scream (Absolutely not! Unless dad was a hardcore raver back in the day.)
21. “Africa” – Toto (100%)
22. “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” – Simple Minds (We can debate this one.)
23. There She Goes – The La’s (No. Just no.)
24. “I Wanna Be Adored” – The Stone Roses (Depends. Does dad have some baggy trousers at the back of the closet?)
25. “Everybody’s Changing” – Keane (More Mom Rock)
26. “How To Save A Life” – The Fray (See above)
27. “Hold Back The River’ – James Bay (Are you freakin’ kidding me?)
28. “Ho Hey” – The Lumineers (Was dad a hippie?)
29. “All Right Now” – Free (Agreed)
30. “Smoke On The Water” – Deep Purple (I’d be shocked if this song wasn’t here.)
31. “Search And Destroy” – Iggy & The Stooges (Was dad into PCP in the day? Then yes.)
32. “Are You Gonna Go My Way” – Lenny Kravitz (You can make the argument.)
33. “Walk This Way” – RUN-DMC feat. Aerosmith (This was probably the song that introduced dad to hip-hop.)
34. “(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)” – The Beastie Boys (Or maybe it was this one.)
35. “Stacy’s Mom” – Fountains Of Wayne (If so, don’t ask dad about his adolescent years. You’ll be scarred by the truth.)
36. “Buck Rogers” – Feeder (Odd choice)
37. “All The Small Things” – blink-182 (Is there an old skateboard in the garage? Then yes.)
38. “Crazy Crazy Nights” – Kiss (There are better dad rock songs from their catalogue.)
39. “Addicted To Love” – Robert Palmer (No question.)
40. “The Final Countdown” – Europe (Oh, yes.)
41. “Teenage Dirtbag” – Wheatus (Well…)
42. “Kids” – MGMT (What? No!)
43. “In Too Deep” – Sum 41 (How old is dad?)
44. “America” – Razorlight (Another odd choice.)
45. “Complicated” – Avril Lavigne (What the F**K is this doing here?)
46. “Torn” – Natalie Imbruglia (And THIS!)
47. “The Sound” – The 1975 (A little current to be actual Dad Rock, no?)
48. “Pompeii” – Bastille (Same here.)
49. “Naive” – The Kooks (If so, then your dad is pretty cool.)
50. “Breakfast At Tiffany’s” – Deep Blue Something (Come ON!)
51. “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” – Bachman – Turner Overdrive (Nailed it.)
52. “I Shot The Sheriff” – Eric Clapton (The original Bob Marley version would have been a better choice.)
53. “Can’t Fight This Feeling” – REO Speedwagon (I’m guessing this was on the radio when your dad first made out with your mom.)
54. “Maggie May” – Rod Stewart (If dad is in his 50s, he had this on his stereo back in the day.)
55. “Sharp Dressed Man” – ZZ Top (A standard at wedding receptions. So, yes.)
56. “Born To Be Wild” – Steppenwolf (Quintessential dad rock.)
57. “Here I Go Again ‘87” – Whitesnake (Did dad ever sport a mullet? Then yes.)
58. “Eye Of The Tiger” – Survivor (Wait. This is the quintessential dad rock song.)
59. “Love Is The Drug” – Roxy Music (Well, the song is from 1975…)

thanks brother!

Any man who would purposely listen to most of the songs on that list, outside of it happening to be on the radio, is a walking cliche. What an embarrassing collection of songs meant to define a group of guys.

I'm surprised to see no Huey Lewis & The News on that playlist. Or Hootie & The Blowfish for that matter.

Both perennial "dad rock" bands.

Lately I’ve been noticing how many stores use eighties pop and poppy rock as their piped in background music. Fine by me — I’ve always like that music, and I imagine it’s a pretty safe choice. Lots of good upbeat songs from that era. There’s a bit of an eighties revival going on at the moment that may be factoring in too.

No Humble Pie, Uriah Heep, Styx, Mott the Hoople, Procol Harum, Led Zeppelin, ?

Dad doesn’t need to buy the CD.

Just listen to the oldies station on any FM radio.

These songs are played 24/7. All Day Long.

I recently started liking Billy Joel songs after reading the lyrics.

Well I used to believe
I was such a great romancer
When I came home to a woman
Whom I could not recognize
When I pressed her for a reason
She would not even answer
It was then I felt the Stranger
Kick me right between the eyes

Never heard of many of them and the one’s I know of, I’m split on. I won’t buy this collection. My own 45 collection plus some anthology albums is far superior (including most of the “Cruisin” series albums, “Best of” for (Jackie Wilson, Elvis/Xmas, Beach Boys & Xmas album, Spinners, Motown Sun records (esp. first 5 singers - Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, etc)and anthologies for the 60’s, 70’s (Best of Disco), 80’s etc. Rock died, for many of us original rockers, in the 1990’s.

Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack works for me