What’s your favorite song?

by Charles Long

What’s your favorite…er…album…er…CD…er…project?

What makes great music great? This is a fundamental philosophical question. Why do we like what we like? Why are our brains wired in such a way as to find some sounds appealing (we call these music) and other sound revolting (we call these ‘debates’)?

I recently discovered www.acclaimedmusic.net which is sort of a meta-list of all-time greatest songs and CD’s. For example, the top ten most recommended songs of ALL-TIME are…

1 Bob Dylan Like a Rolling Stone

2 The Rolling Stones (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction

3 The Beach Boys Good Vibrations

4 Nirvana Smells Like Teen Spirit

5 Aretha Franklin Respect

6 Chuck Berry Johnny B. Goode

7 Otis Redding Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay

8 Marvin Gaye I Heard It Through the Grapevine

9 Led Zeppelin Stairway to Heaven

10. Sex Pistols Anarchy in the U.K.

Hardly the list I would have come up with! There are two songs on the last I am not sure I have ever listened to all the way through. This says more about my age than the songs (Nirvana and Sex Pistols). I’d have added a Beatles song and probably some Springsteen.

That being said, here’s what’s cool about the acclaimed music list. It is strictly based on a statistical analysis of what the CRITICS write. (Imagine getting paid to listen to and comment on music! Nice work if you can get it…o wait…that’s what I’m doing…well, except without the paid part, but I digress). Back the list. Acclaimed music’s creator (Henrik Franzon) compiles critics’ lists from around the world and across the decades and then, after weighting the lists in a fair way, generates the top three thousand songs and albums. Pretty cool! The author of the site also publishes his PERSONAL top 100, so you can judge if he’s biased or not.

He must be biased…my favorite artist, Bruce Cockburn, isn’t anywhere to be found. Sigh.