Make That 520

There are some truly egregious omissions from the list below. I'll assume they passed up a number of Beatle gems due to overexposure. "Yesterday," "Something," "Let it Be," and "Imagine" at the very least deserve spots on that list. Here are some others:

• Chuck Berry - Brown Eyed Handsome Man, Memphis
  As Dr. Winston O'Boogie put it, "If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it Chuck Berry," and these are two of the reasons. Besides inventing an entirely new guitar style, Berry was rock's first singer-songwriter, and his best lyrics were poetry. A tender-hearted love song with a twist (the number he's trying to get from the operator is for his daughter, taken away from him by his babymomma), "Memphis" has one of my favorite all-time lyrics in "hurry home drops on her cheeks." "Brown Eyed Handsom Man" was a surprisingly subversive song for a man who claimed to be cynically writing about stuff that would appeal to white teeny boppers, "brown-eyed" being code for a black man -- specifically in the last verse, to a then still-controversial Jackie Robinson.
  


• Tom Waits - Jockey Full of Bourbon, Downtown Train
  Yeah, well, Rod Stewart almost ruined a lot of songs. "Downtown Train" still rocks. And "Jockey Full of Bourbon" is the sort of Tom Waits song I like best. Impressionistic lyrics paint a subterranean world I'm only half privvy to; I don't know what the two dollar pistol or the flamingo drinking from a cocktail glass are doing there, but I've been so full of bourbon I can't stand up, and on the lawn with someone else's wife, and the herky-jerky tango and off-kilter guitar of this song feel like home to me.
  


• Nick Lowe - Cruel to Be Kind
  You gotta blast that shit.
  


• Squeeze - Tempted
  They get a bit lazy in they 2nd verse lyrics and intentionally soil their own song with some odd vocal choices, which show that "Black Coffee in Bed" is really their best song.... But as Woody Allen (no stranger to temptation) said, "the heart wants what it wants," and I want to do 110 up the 5 blasting this song.
  


• XTC - Mayor of Simpleton, Dear God
  "Mayor of Simpleton" is a perfectly polished little pop jem. Andy Partridge originally left "Dear God" off the Skylarking album because he felt he failed to do the subject justice. Yeah, you and everyone else in the history of mankind, Ange, lighten up. Released as a B-side, it rightfully became a surprise hit and was included on all subsequent pressings of the US version of the record, replacing "Mermaid Smiles." Sarah McLachlan does an incredible cover on Testimonial Dinner, an XTC tribute record.
  


• Kinks - Rock and Roll Fantasy
  And about two dozen other Kinks songs, but Ray's mash note to his brother and the Kinks' legacy, in the context of the love/hate relationship he's had with both, always chokes me up.
  


• Smokey Robinson - Tears of a Clown
  The man used bassoon and piccolo on a pop record long before it was cool to use bassoon and piccolo on your pop record. Proper.
  


• Stones - Under My Thumb
  Sort of a dark-underside of Motown song, it borrows a page out of Smokey Robinson's book by starting out with one of your less rock-and-roll instruments, the marimba. And then proceeds to smack my bitch up.
  


• Creedence Clearwater Revival - Suzy Q
  The best thing to come out of San Jose (besides my wife), you can easily make a case for any of their hits, especially the tragically still-relevant "Fortunate Son." But Fogerty really rocks the mic on this one.
  


• Hollies - Bus Stop
  A band that was almost Zelig-like in its lack of identity, the Hollies changed styles with every passing musical fad. They put out one of the 10 best Creedence records with "Long Cool Woman (in a Black Dress)" but for the most part were stunningly adequate. But somehow they stumbled onto a great single in Bus Stop.
  


• Commodores - Brick House
  Lionel Richie did this!? Try to be in a bad mood to this song. 36-24-36, what a winning hand!
  


• Oasis - Wonderwall
  I interviewed Mike Watt in 1986 or 87, and he said "There are two kinds of people -- those who like Madonna, and those who won't admit they like Madonna." He was, of course wrong. But I'll say this: "There are two kinds of people, those who love 'Wonderwall,' and cock-biters." Don't be a cock-biter. Oh, and it's named for an obscure electronic music soundtrack by George Harrison, released on Zapple Records.
  


• Patsy Cline - Walking After Midnight
  One of the best songs ever, though inappropriately chirpy.
  

Let me know what else was left out!