BBC Poll: What's the best song in the world? (A long-but fast- read)

BBC On-Line | Tuesday, 17 December 2002 | staff writer

[GOPJ]

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[GOPJ]

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[It's me]

Too late to vote. (Someone's probably already said that, though) Look for the results on December 21st.

Wouldn't it be ironic if "A Nation Once Again" won on a BBC Birthday Bash?!

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

"Life is a rock (but the radio rolled me)" - ???

The group is named "Reunion", Joey Levine lead singer. He wrote and sang most Bubblegum music (click here).

[mtg]

My favorite Rock Song: "Light My Fire", The Doors

Favorite Jazz: "Take Five", long version

Favorite Easy Listening: "Theme From a Summer Place", Percy Faith

Favorite C&W: (Tie) "He'll Have to Go", Jim Reeves and "Tumbling Tumbleweeds"

Favorite Classical: "Adagio For Strings": S. Barber

Favorite Musical: "Oliver!"

[sadimgnik]

"Run Joey Run" - David Geddes

kewl .. must add that to the Snuff CD .. I'd forgotten it!

oh, and

"Life is a rock (but the radio rolled me)" - ???

was by Reunion.

Have it on my Rio as we speak :-)

[muggs]

He has a web site, too.

Yes, I checked for one after I saw him in August. The best part is knowing he's not a brain dead liberal. When I was a 14 year old little girl I would have thought that was a bad thing though.

[freedumb2003]

"The best part is knowing he's not a brain dead liberal. When I was a 14 year old little girl I would have thought that was a bad thing though. "

I think in our youth we all have to go through that stage -- it gives us insight in our adulthood. Those that stay liberal simply never made it into adulthood.

[NCLou]

Life is a Rock

I love that song. I love all songs where people talk very fast, I don't know why.

I play that song for my 6 and 3 year old daughters regularly to try to see how many names they pick out. The more names they recognize, the better job I'm doing as a parent.

[CollegeRepublican]

Freebird!!

[CollegeRepublican]

I can't believe it took 117 posts to get to Freebird. It is one of my favorite songs, but I always love to hear some drunk, including me, scream for some crappy cover band to do Freebird.

[NCLou]

I've always believed that the Beach Boys are one of the most underrated of all time. My generation knows them only for incessant touring on the oldies circuit where they have become a parody of themselves.

The other thing that destroys them is the Orange Vibrations commercial from my childhood. Whoever was ultimately responsible for making that happen is/will be in hell for eternity I think for desecrating such a beautiful thing. They can say Hi to George Harrison, who I'm pretty sure is in hell for putting "Within You Without You" right in the middle of Sgt Pepper.

The Beach Boys have 5-6 songs that will stand up to the best 5 songs of any other pop artist of all time. My personal favorite right now is Heroes and Villains.

Had the entire band died in a plane crash in 1975 or something, they would be revered as the legends they are/were.

[philosofy123]

All these choices are very good, however, I think a French song: Je t'aim --moi non plus is sooo fantastic. If you listened to it you would understand, there is nothing that can come close. You don't even have have to understand French, to appreciate that song, it has universal sounds, that all men can relate to, if you know what I mean.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Probably the best damn "live" album ever recorded. It burns.

And this one gets my vote for best studio album ever recorded. Bar none.

[bassmaner]

but I always love to hear some drunk, including me, scream for some crappy cover band to do Freebird.

ROFLMAO!

I play bass in a (not so) crappy cover band in the Philly 'burbs, and this happens at just about every gig.

[Temple Owl]

Mark Stryker wrote this about Star Dust--my favorite-- in the Detroit Free Press:

Hoagy Carmichael 'Star Dust' 1927 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Hoagy Carmichael and his pals headed east from Indianapolis after their gig, driving all night to Richmond, Ind., home of the Gennett studio, a center of hot-jazz recording. It was Halloween; Oct. 31, 1927. Carmichael was 28, a secure pianist, budding composer, committed jazzman and doomed lawyer. Now celebrating its 75th anniversary, "Star Dust" has lodged itself deeper in Americans' subconscious than any other popular song. It is the most-recorded pop tune in history, with at least 1,800 versions; some estimates reach 2,300. And it is surely the only song that can claim interpreters as diverse as Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, Willie Nelson, Liberace, Billy Ward and His Dominoes, Artie Shaw, Arthur Fiedler, John Coltrane, the London Symphony and Fred Flintstone. "Star Dust" has become the apotheosis of the great American songbook, trumping not only anthems by Berlin, Rodgers, Porter, Gershwin and Kern, but also stiff competition in Carmichael's own portfolio -- "Skylark," "Lazy River," "Rockin' Chair," "Georgia on My Mind," "The Nearness of You," "Heart and Soul" (the ditty Tom Hanks plays on a mammoth keyboard in "Big") and "I Get Along Without You Very Well." You can request "Star Dust" in any piano bar in the United States -- maybe in the world -- and 99 out of 100 pianists will deliver a recognizable version. The song has permeated the culture so thoroughly that it shows up in a wry picture by pop artist Roy Lichtenstein: a comic-book chanteuse singing "The melody haunts my reverie."

[CollegeRepublican]

I play bass in a (not so) crappy cover band in the Philly 'burbs, and this happens at just about every gig.

I actually went to college at Swarthmore in the Philly burbs. That drunk was probably me. :)

[lonestar]

"Happy Birthday" for confirmation I'm still here!

[Alicesnightmare]

Hi,It's way too hard to pick one favorite song,cos I love Alice Cooper,Rob Zombie,Johnny Cash,Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson. Tons more. Yet,I have to pick one. In the end,it has to be Bobby Darin's "If I Were A Carpenter".
That song'll give you chills.