I was chatting recently
about old rock 'n' roll records with a fellow sitting next to me on a plane. We seemed to
have fairly similar tastes, and at one point he asked me what I thought was the best rock
single of all time. It's an unanswerable question, really, which is probably why he was
surprised when I came up with a candidate immediately.
In fact, I had given the matter some thought several years
ago in connection with my newspaper column. In it, I talked about a survey conducted by an
oldies radio show, in which listeners were invited to send in their picks as the best
records ever. The program then published a list of the top 50 songs, according to the
response.
I ran the list in the column and asked my own readers to
submit their choices. I found it interesting that, although the program set time limits of
1955 to 1975, the overwhelming majority of songs dated from the late '50s and early '60s.
The only tracks from the '70s were "Bridge Over Troubled Water" (1970) and
"American Pie" (1972) which is, after all, about '50s music.
Here's the full list:
- Del Shannon "Runaway" (1961)
- Righteous Brothers "Unchained Melody" (1965)
- Roy Orbison "Pretty Woman" (1964)
- Otis Redding "Dock of the Bay" (1968)
- Ben E. King "Stand By Me " (1961)
- Bobby Darin "Mack the Knife" (1958)
- Simon & Garfunkel "Bridge Over Troubled Water"
(1970)
- Marvin Gaye "I Heard it Through the Grapevine"
(1968)
- Righteous Brothers "You've Lost That Lovin'
Feeling" (1965)
- Everly Brothers "All I Have To Do is Dream" (1958)
- Elvis Presley "Don't be Cruel" (1956)
- Beatles "Hey Jude" (1968)
- Fats Domino "Blueberry Hill" (1957)
- Aretha Franklin "Respect" (1967)
- Platters "The Great Pretender" (1956)
- Roy Orbison "Blue Bayou" (1961)
- Jackie Wilson "Lonely Teardrops " (1958)
- Rolling Stones "(Can't Get No) Satisfaction"
(1965)
- Drifters "Save the Last Dance for Me" (1960)
- Drifters "Under the Boardwalk" (1964)
- Don McLean "American Pie" (1972)
- Five Satins "(I Remember) In the Still of the
Night" (1956)
- Diamonds "Little Darlin'" (1957)
- Paul Anka "Diana" (1957)
- Elvis Presley "Heartbreak Hotel" (1956)
- Procol Harum "A Whiter Shade of Pale" (1967)
- Animals "House of the Rising Sun" (1964)
- Dion "Runaround Sue" (1961)
- Platters "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes " (1958)
- Bill Haley & His Comets "Rock Around the
Clock" (1955)
- Doors "Light My Fire" (1967)
- Beatles "Twist & Shout" (1964)
- Beatles "Yesterday" (1965)
- Buddy Holly "Rave On" (1958)
- Elvis Presley "Jailhouse Rock" (1957)
- Chuck Berry "Johnny B. Goode" (1958)
- Roy Orbison "Only the Lonely" (1960)
- Van Morrison "Brown Eyed Girl" (1967)
- Mamas & Papas "California Dreamin'" (1966)
- Beach Boys "Good Vibrations" (1966)
- Shirelles "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" (1960)
- Dell-Vikings "Come Go With Me" (1957)
- Buddy Holly "Peggy Sue" (1957)
- Percy Sledge "When a Man Loves a Woman" (1966)
- Coasters "Yakety Yak" (1958)
- Beach Boys "California Girls" (1965)
- Platters "Only You" (1955)
- Buddy Holly/Crickets "That'll be the day" (1957)
- Beach Boys "Fun, Fun, Fun" (1964)
- Jerry Lee Lewis "Great Balls of Fire" (1957)
I'd like to hear what you think. Please e-mail your choices
to me at ian@mastersonaudio.com, and I'll run
the responses next time around. Some tiny rules: the songs have to come from 1955-1970,
they have to have hit the Top 40 in Billboard, and please keep your list to three
tracks apiece.
For the record, my seatmate chose Meat Loaf's
"Paradise by the Dashboard Light." While it's certainly a classic, I thought it
a bit late (1978), and more of an album track. It just nudged its way into the Top 40,
peaking at 39. My own fave was the Dell-Vikings' "Come Go With Me," surely the
quintessential doo-wop track.
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