The Mighty Rhino’s personal top 100 favourite songs across genres
The Mighty Rhino’s personal top 100 favourite songs across genres
Just for the fuck of it, here we go! Enjoy, y’all!
Fitting, I think, that the image I choose should be one of the smiling face of my favourite singer-songwriter ever.
So! I realize that a greater fool’s errand than this can hardly be imagined, but I decided to make a list of my top 100 favourite songs in popular music history, one song per artist, because Rolling Stone magazine has been conducting its semiregular survey of artists and critics about that kind of thing, and several of my friends, including the fine writers Carl Wilson, Chuck Eddy, Maura Johnston, Nate Patrin, Chris Molanphy, Ann Powers, Joe Tangari, Tom Breihan, Al Shipley, Geeta Dayal, and Chris Estey, have either been invited by the magazine to contribute or have made their own lists for its own sake. So here’s mine! A separate list of my 100 favourite rap/hip-hop songs, which restricts me only to the genre I know best and have loved most passionately for upwards of 20 years, is here, but this list is intended to be a more general survey than that one, with entries from a variety of genres.
I have forbidden myself to include any purely instrumental music, which means there is no instrumental jazz music, none of what we call “classical music”, and no instrumental electronic music, but I have permitted myself to include music with vocals in languages other than English. When I first attempted to make this list on the morning of September 24th, 2021, it emerged that, despite a voluminous honourable mentions list that I will share later, I had managed to compile a fine selection of 100 joints without having to sacrifice anything that was too terribly agonizing to leave off; there have since been six minor updates to the list, each between February and December of 2022. There are of course a few joints I love so much that not to put them here is distinctly painful, but I’m pretty happy with the suggestion that these might be my 100 “desert island songs”, at least for the time being. I have provided YouTube links to all of them, except to those few that are not on YouTube. All of them are also to be found on Spotify, except where noted. If and when a song on this list is available to be listened to only in one specific place on the internet, I’ve indicated where it can be found.
Standard CONTENT NOTE that a few of these artists have committed egregious sins in their personal lives, notably Cee-Lo of Goodie Mob (who appears twice, once wAs ever, it is recommended that if you are particularly sensitive about making sure you don’t engage with art created by people who have committed terrible sins, no matter how great that art may be, you should please tread carefully.
Now then! Here we go:
100. Sufjan Stevens - “Chicago”
99. Getaway Car Driver - “Jesus I My Cross Have Taken” (cover of traditional Christian hymn, YouTube only)
I’m a convinced and ardent non-Christian, but there is an awful lot of Christian music I love, and this is my favourite traditional Christian hymn, indelibly rendered by I dazzling female vocalist.
98. The Young Novelists - “Song For A Winter’s Night” (Gordon Lightfoot cover, YouTube only)
Laura Spink’s plaintive voice is ideal for this moving torch song.
97. Ray LaMontagne - “You Are The Best Thing”
I fell in love with this one right from the moment a friend of mine and her husband used it in their wedding video. I happen to think Ray LaMontagne has one of the finest soul voices of any living artist, and as much as I love “Jolene”, he’s never put it better use than on this incredibly potent declaration of lifelong love.
96. Ian & Sylvia - “Four Strong Winds”
95. Lucy Dacus - “Thumbs” [original version]
94. The Walkmen - “The Rat”
93. Disco Vietnam - “Little Infinity”
92. Solange - “Stillness Is The Move” (Dirty Projectors cover)
91. Robert Pollard - “Zoom (It Happens All Over The World)”
90. Boygenius - “True Blue”
89. The Innocence Mission - “Where Does The Time Go”
88. Basia Bulat - “Snakes and Ladders”
87. Sophie Ellis-Bextor - “Murder On The Dancefloor”
86. Teeks - “Wash Over Me”
85. Mahmoud Ahmed - “Belomi Benna”
84. Cat Stevens - “I Think I See The Light”
83. Miriam Makeba - “Pata Pata” (stereo version)
82. Janelle Monáe - “Tightrope” (ft. Big Boi of OutKast)
81. Paul McCartney - “Maybe I’m Amazed”
80. James Taylor - “Fire and Rain”
79. Jamie Woon - “Wayfaring Stranger” (cover of age-old traditional) [the original version, not the Burial mix]
78. Sugar Minott - “My Love Is True” (the 4-minute version, not the extended mix)
77. Emily King - “Remind Me”
76. Ini Kamoze - “Here Comes The Hotstepper” [the widely known 1994 mix]
75. Faith Evans - “Love Like This”
74. Corinne Bailey Rae - “Like A Star”
73. Aaron Neville - “Tell It Like It Is”
72. Nick Drake - “Things Behind The Sun”
71. JJ Cale - “Sensitive Kind”
70. Leigh Nash, Megan Roderick & the Bifrost Arts Collective - “I Sought The Lord” (cover of traditional Christian hymn, YouTube only)
69. Jacques Brel - “La Valse Á Mille Temps”
68. Sister Nancy - “Bam Bam”
67. Goodie Mob - “Hold On”
66. Tune-Yards - “Bizness”
65. Eugene McDaniels - “The Lord Is Back”
64. Sleepy Brown - “You’re My Lady” (YouTube only)
63. Wu-Tang Clan - “I Can’t Go To Sleep” (ft. Isaac Hayes)
62. The Juggaknots - “Clear Blue Skies”
61. Haim - “Want You Back”
60. Kelis - “Forever Be”
59. The Foreign Exchange - “Daykeeper” (ft. Muhsinah)
58. Al Green - “Put It On Paper” (ft. Ann Nesby)
My original Al Green pick was “Tired of Being Alone”, which sat comfortably around #75 for many months.
57. Blackstreet - “No Diggity” (ft. Dr. Dre & Queen Pen) (the clean and dirty versions are equally good)
56. Seal - “Kiss From A Rose”
55. Montell Jordan - “This Is How We Do It”
54. James Brown - “Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag”
53. All Saints - “Pure Shores”
52. Jackson C. Frank - “Blues Run The Game” (the widely known downbeat 1965 acoustic version)
51. Trevor Jackson & KC Porter - “Take Me Home” (ft. Brina) (Bahá’í worship song, Bandcamp only)
50. Sister Rosetta Tharpe - “My Journey To The Sky” (ft. Madame Marie Knight) (November 1947 recording)
49. Ofo the Black Company - “Allah Wakbarr”
48. The Isley Brothers - “It’s Your Thing”
47. Solomon Burke - “Flesh and Blood”
46. Curtis Mayfield - “The Makings of You”
45. Toots and the Maytals - “Funky Kingston”
44. Ghostface Killah - “One”
43. The Jackson 5 - “I Want You Back”
42. Jackie Wilson - “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher”
41. Scarface - “Who Do You Believe In”
40. O.V. Wright - “That’s How Strong My Love Is” (ft. The Keys)
39. Black Thought - “Funk Flex Freeverse”
38. D’Angelo - “Left and Right” (ft. Method Man & Redman)
37. OutKast - “Liberation” (ft. Cee-Lo, Erykah Badu & Big Rube)
36. Saafir - “Light Sleeper” [main version]
35. Anthony Hamilton - “Do You Feel Me”
34. The Four Tops - “Bernadette”
33. Hanson - “Give A Little”
32. TLC - “Waterfalls”
31. John Prine - “In Spite of Ourselves” (ft. Iris DeMent)
30. Kathleen Edwards - “Sure As Shit”
29. Honeyman and the Brothers Farr - “When You Want”
28. Norah Jones - “Creepin’ In” (ft. Dolly Parton)
27. Munirih Sparrow - “Royal Falcon” (ft. Rosie and the Riveters) (Bahá’í Scripture set to music, Bandcamp only)
26. Sam Cooke - “A Change Is Gonna Come”
26. Bobby McFerrin - “Circlesong One” (YouTube only)
25. Barenaked Ladies - “Lovers In A Dangerous Time” (Bruce Cockburn cover)
24. Living Colour - “Solace of You”
23. Sam & Dave - “Hold On, I’m Comin’!”
22. Aretha Franklin - “Respect” (Otis Redding cover)
21. Otis Redding - “The Glory of Love” (Billy Hill cover)
20. Stevie Wonder - “Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours”
19. Christine Fellows - “Vertebrae”
18. The Magnetic Fields - “Love Is Like A Bottle of Gin”
17. Pete Rock & CL Smooth - “They Reminisce Over You”
16. Paul Simon - “Slip Slidin’ Away”
15. Dusty Springfield - “Spooky”
14. The Mountain Goats - “Matthew 25:21”
13. Anohni and the Johnsons - “Hope There’s Someone”
11. Marvin Gaye - “I Heard It Through The Grapevine”
F
10. Son House - “John The Revelator” (1965 Library of Congress recording)
D
9. 8. Desmond Dekker and the Aces -“Israelites”
E
9. Bill Withers - “Liza”
Bill Withers is rivalled only by John Darnielle as the very best songwriter I've ever encountered, and he has many, many stellar moments—“Grandma's Hands” is really special, as are “Make A Smile For Me”, “Harlem”, “I'm Her Daddy”, “Who Is He and What Is He To You”, and several others—but this is the one that kills me the deadest. Its simple, unadorned beauty is to die for. And as an uncle to two beautiful nieces... I mean, c'mon. This is simply one of the most sublime songs ever recorded. I defy anyone not to love it.
7. Amerie - “Gotta Work”
F
6. Chairmen of the Board - “Since The Days of Pigtails (and Fairy Tales)”
F
5. De La Soul - “I Am I Be” (ft. Fred Wesley, Pee Wee Ellis & Maceo Parker)
D
4. The Dixie Hummingbirds - “Trouble In My Way” (1952 recording) (to be found on YouTube only)
D
3. Deee-Lite - “Groove Is In The Heart” (ft. Q-Tip, Bootsy Collins, Fred Wesley & Maceo Parker)
D
2. The Meters - “Give It What You Can”
D
1. Lee Moses - “Time and Place”
Everything about this song sets me on fire – the vocal performance, which deserves a Grammy and a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame immediately; the horns, which are a perfect blast of sunshine; the guitar, the drums, everything. The gap between how obscure Lee Moses is and how famous and beloved he deserves to be is so gargantuan I can hardly even begin to contemplate it, let alone articulate it. Put this song in the Smithsonian. Put it in the Louvre. Erect a statue to it on the National Mall. Make it the national anthem. Beam it to Mars so the aliens can understand the zenith of human artistic achievement. You cannot say shit to me about this song, honey. I could die of how perfect it is. I just died of how perfect it is right this second and I'm typing this as a ghost from heaven right now.
THERE! DONE!
I don’t know how I did that without including Paul Robeson, Burning Spear, Gil Scott-Heron, Mary J. Blige, Bob Marley, Youssou N’Dour, Willie Nelson, Édith Piaf, Little Richard, Chic, Carole King, Bo Diddley, The New Pornographers, Chuck Berry, Parliament-Funkadelic, John Martyn, Betty Wright, Fleetwood Mac, Beck, Michael Jackson, Wilson Pickett, “God Only Knows”, “Got To Get You Into My Life”, “Build Me Up Buttercup”, “Stuck In The Middle With You”, or the 3-minute single version of “Magic Carpet Ride”, among others, but that will have to do for now. And of course several of my favourite rap songs are missing (but would have made the list were it slightly longer), including classics by UGK, Suga Free, Devin The Dude, Mos Def, Nas, Camp Lo, Funkdoobiest, and a variety of others – but if rap music is your jam you can always take a look at the rap-specific list I linked to above.
I will add a voluminous honourable mentions section later and draw y’all’s attention to that once it has been published. I recognize that the list as it is currently constituted features only 31 songs with any vocals by women on them at all, and that’s an imbalance I’m determined to correct.
It was difficult to be strict about including only one song per artist, but I’m glad I made that call, because otherwise the list would’ve been overwhelmed with classic jams by Stevie Wonder and even more classic jams by Bill Withers. Sam Cooke, D’Angelo, Curtis Mayfield, and Aretha Franklin would all have showed up twice. Ian & Sylvia might have done so as well. Scarface would probably have showed up three times. Sugar Minott would definitely have appeared three times. The Meters would’ve made the top 20 twice if I had allowed myself to list this.
This contest-winning Avett Brothers cover by my friends Honeyman and the Brothers Farr is immaculate, and so is this, but “When You Want” gets the nod because I just love the lyrics so much. If this song were credited to Ann Nesby featuring Al Green rather than the other way around, it would’ve ranked very highly indeed, and I might bend the rules a bit to throw it in later just ‘cause I can. I don’t have to tell you that this almost made the list, because unless your taste is truly atrocious, I know for certain that it would’ve made yours too, and the only reason it didn’t make mine is because the Otis Redding song I did choose is ever-so-slightly more sacred to me than this one. If not for the “one song per artist” rule, it would be there, and it would place highly, too.
Ghostface Killah has so very many worthy songs that picking just one is virtually fuckin’ impossible. It would’ve been pretty easy for me to make a list of 50 or even 100 songs I love exclusively featuring songs by The Mountain Goats – here are six more key gems. And it occurs to me that the artist I listen to most often who is not present here at all is almost certainly Carly Rae Jepsen, a Spotify playlist of my 15 or so favourite songs of whose is here.
A note on Bahá’í worship music. I am a Bahá’í, albeit an LGBTQ+-affirming and otherwise heterodox one, as I presume at least some of you know, so Bahá’í worship music is of course very important to me. There are two Bahá’í worship songs on the list as it stands, but quite a few more would be present if the list were slightly longer, and I’m compelled to include links to several of the most important ones, simply because I know I’m the only source from whom most of the people reading this will be able to access great Bahá’í spiritual music. So here are some key favourites: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. The seventh selection here is by my good friend Jasmine Michel, who would have made the top 25 with her setting-to-music of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s utterance “Unity, Unity!” if she hadn’t made it so that the Soundcloud link where it can be heard is strictly private. And this, which was composed by a team comprised of Dan and James Seals, Jack Lenz, and Kingsley Thurber for the Bahá’í World Congress that was held in 1992 to commemorate the centenary of the ascension of the Prophet Bahá’u’lláh to the realm of the Spirit, would probably be my favourite song of all fucking time if it stopped after the heavenly, bucolic first half. The overwrought, bathetic second half doesn’t work for me at all, at least not as music rather than as theology – but the first half is chef’s-kiss, one-single-tear perfect.
UPDATED, October 1st, 2021! Here is a Spotify playlist of my 100 favourite songs that are available to be streamed on that specific platform. It omits the joints on the original list that are YouTube- or Bandcamp-only, but it allows a maximum of three songs per artist, which means certain joints by The Meters, Stevie Wonder, Bill Withers, Sam Cooke, Curtis Mayfield, Otis Redding, Al Green, and D’Angelo that the rules of the earlier list obliged to me to leave off can now claim their rightful place. I would have to extend the length of the list in order to give artists like Aretha Franklin, Ghostface Killah, The Mountain Goats, and Scarface their proper due, and Carly Rae Jepsen sadly remains absent (which makes no sense at all in light of how often I listen to her music), but I suspect this will do for now.