Tonight's The Night (top 50 songs in reverse alphabetical order)
Tonight's The Night
Frank Kogan, top 50 songs in reverse alphabetical order
Posted originally at Rockcritics.com
The Shirelles' "Tonight's The Night" isn't about the night, it's the need for the night. And Debbie Deb, from her other dance hit, "Lookout weekend, here I come," not the party but anticipating the party. "When I hear music it makes me dance, you've got the music, here's my chance." Something about to happen, something asking to happen, something needs to happen; longing and fear of what might happen. This song is the ache, the need. Say you're gonna meet me (tonight's the night), but I don't know, I just don't know, I might...
On the other side there's the Stones, something twisted, something off: I'm watching my TV, a man comes on and tells me he can't be a man, I can't get no, no no no, the drums, wham wham, pop-pop-pop, and the guitar, the (in its day) subversion, the daring fuzz noise, the great drama (in its night), aggression and excitement, anticipation... Fast forward to Brazil, DJ Guuga, don't worry about your ex-wife, come to the cabaré. DJ Wesley Gonzaga - my friend David Cooper Moore's description, "For a good stretch this song is propelled primarily by a gun being cocked and a synth piano line that sounds like what happens when you're about to change the battery in your smoke detector and it chirps right in your face. And it fucking rocks." So the dance is no longer coming up from the bass but down from that high annoying screaming beep. And if you forgot or never knew what 1965 was like, the impact of the guitar, it was the piercing smoke alarm, the noise that Keith Richard unearthed, a man comes on the radio... the need, the night in the distance, I can't get no.
This list. It's all Shirelles and Rolling Stones, in different times and places, inhabiting different bodies, wearing different clothes. That's the trouble with best-of lists; it's a highlight reel, but a highlight reel isn't the game. So my list (top 50 songs, hah) not only doesn't represent the world, or music, it barely represents me, either. You wouldn't know that at age 9 I'd memorized every silly song on the 1st Allan Sherman record and the 3rd Tom Lehrer, or that from 2004 to 2016 my end-of-year lists had almost all female singers (on this list they get superseded by 2003 earlier and male Soundcloud creeps later), or that funk didn't just reorganize my sense of musical relations but of human relations.
Methodology: I was going to take 5 songs per decade from the 1930s to the 2010s, no more than 2 from the Stones; only 2 or 3 from the 1920s, 'cause I know fuck-all about the '20s, and anyway the record industry didn't rev up big until '25; and 1 or 2 from 2020-21 - so that's maybe a total of 5 from the '20s! - and if there are a couple spots left I'll give one more each to the '70s and '80s. Anyway, I got 2 from the 2020s and only 2 from the 1920s, and it turns out I also know fuck-all about the '40s, so only 3 there, and I know fuck-all about the '30s but have no shortage - so with 3 spots in hand I give one extra to the '70s, pass over the '80s, and give one more to the '10s and another to the '30s - and since I know fuck-all about the '30s I don't know the grumpy old peak achievements so instead I have fun, Billie swinging and Stanley yucking it up on behalf of Anne Boleyn and all the joke songs and show songs and folk songs I'd otherwise left off (first heard it on a Kingston Trio record), and we finally get our party.
Here's the playlist.
In reverse alphabetical order:
Waring's Pennsylvanians "Love For Sale" (1931)
The Wailers "Jailhouse" a.k.a. "Good Good Rudie" (1966)
V.I.M. "Maggie's Last Party" (1991)
Hugh Roy (U-Roy) & Hopeton Lewis "Drive Her Home" (1971)
Trick Daddy & Trina "Nann Nigga" (1998)
Les Têtes Brulées "Têtes Brulées" (1990)
Teddy Yo "Gurage Tone" (2007)
t.A.T.u. "Kosmos" (2005)
T-ara "Lovey-Dovey" (2012)
Donna Summer "I Feel Love" (1977)
The Stooges "Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell" (1973)
Spoonie Gee "Spoonin' Rap" (1979)
Britney Spears "...Baby One More Time" (1998)
Slade "Cum On Feel The Noize" (1973)
The Shirelles "Tonight's The Night" (1960)
Sheck Wes "Do That" (2018)
The Sex Pistols "Anarchy In The U.K." (1976)
The Ronettes "Be My Baby" (1963)
The Rolling Stones "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" (1965)
Elvis Presley "Baby Let's Play House" (1955)
Playboi Carti "Magnolia" (2017)
Charley Patton "Mississippi Boweavil Blues" (1929)
Charlie Parker's Ri Bop Boys "Ko Ko" (1945)
Panjabi MC ft. Jay-Z "Beware Of The Boys" (2003)
The Orioles "It's Too Soon To Know" (1948)
Ninety One "Ah!Yah!Ma!" (2017)
MC Teteu "Dingo Bell Sou Seu Papai Noel" (2019)
Kim Wan-sun "The Dance In The Rhythm" (1987)
Mory Kanté "Yéké Yéké" (1987)
Lonnie Johnson "Tomorrow Night" (1948)
Blind Willie Johnson "Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed" (1928)
Little Willie John "Fever" (1956)
Stanley Holloway "With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm" (1934)
Billie Holiday "Swing! Brother, Swing!" (1939)
Hole "Violet" (1994)
Lefty Frizzell "Long Black Veil" (1959)
The Flamingos "I Only Have Eyes For You" (1959)
The Fall "Totally Wired" (1980)
DJ Wesley Gonzaga, MC Cyclope & MC Laureta "Sarra Nela Com Fuzil Na Bandolera" (2021)
DJ Guuga & MC Pierre "Cabaré" (2020) [flashing lights in the vid]
Debbie Deb "When I Hear Music" (1983)
Bing Crosby "Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?" (1932)
Alfred Cortot "Prelude No. 4 In E Minor (Opus 28 No. 4)" (1934) by Frédéric Chopin
Company B "Fascinated" (1986)
Jerry Byrne "Lights Out" (1958)
Brown Eyed Girls "Smile Chock Chock" (2009)
James Brown "Prisoner Of Love" live at the Apollo Vol. II (1968)
Baauer "Harlem Shake" (2012)
Louis Armstrong "Laughin' Louie" (1934)
50 Cent "In Da Club" (2003)
Full playlist:
This entry was originally posted at https://koganbot.dreamwidth.org/381545.html. Comments still welcome here, there, and anywhere.
Frank Kogan, top 50 songs in reverse alphabetical order
Posted originally at Rockcritics.com
The Shirelles' "Tonight's The Night" isn't about the night, it's the need for the night. And Debbie Deb, from her other dance hit, "Lookout weekend, here I come," not the party but anticipating the party. "When I hear music it makes me dance, you've got the music, here's my chance." Something about to happen, something asking to happen, something needs to happen; longing and fear of what might happen. This song is the ache, the need. Say you're gonna meet me (tonight's the night), but I don't know, I just don't know, I might...
On the other side there's the Stones, something twisted, something off: I'm watching my TV, a man comes on and tells me he can't be a man, I can't get no, no no no, the drums, wham wham, pop-pop-pop, and the guitar, the (in its day) subversion, the daring fuzz noise, the great drama (in its night), aggression and excitement, anticipation... Fast forward to Brazil, DJ Guuga, don't worry about your ex-wife, come to the cabaré. DJ Wesley Gonzaga - my friend David Cooper Moore's description, "For a good stretch this song is propelled primarily by a gun being cocked and a synth piano line that sounds like what happens when you're about to change the battery in your smoke detector and it chirps right in your face. And it fucking rocks." So the dance is no longer coming up from the bass but down from that high annoying screaming beep. And if you forgot or never knew what 1965 was like, the impact of the guitar, it was the piercing smoke alarm, the noise that Keith Richard unearthed, a man comes on the radio... the need, the night in the distance, I can't get no.
This list. It's all Shirelles and Rolling Stones, in different times and places, inhabiting different bodies, wearing different clothes. That's the trouble with best-of lists; it's a highlight reel, but a highlight reel isn't the game. So my list (top 50 songs, hah) not only doesn't represent the world, or music, it barely represents me, either. You wouldn't know that at age 9 I'd memorized every silly song on the 1st Allan Sherman record and the 3rd Tom Lehrer, or that from 2004 to 2016 my end-of-year lists had almost all female singers (on this list they get superseded by 2003 earlier and male Soundcloud creeps later), or that funk didn't just reorganize my sense of musical relations but of human relations.
Methodology: I was going to take 5 songs per decade from the 1930s to the 2010s, no more than 2 from the Stones; only 2 or 3 from the 1920s, 'cause I know fuck-all about the '20s, and anyway the record industry didn't rev up big until '25; and 1 or 2 from 2020-21 - so that's maybe a total of 5 from the '20s! - and if there are a couple spots left I'll give one more each to the '70s and '80s. Anyway, I got 2 from the 2020s and only 2 from the 1920s, and it turns out I also know fuck-all about the '40s, so only 3 there, and I know fuck-all about the '30s but have no shortage - so with 3 spots in hand I give one extra to the '70s, pass over the '80s, and give one more to the '10s and another to the '30s - and since I know fuck-all about the '30s I don't know the grumpy old peak achievements so instead I have fun, Billie swinging and Stanley yucking it up on behalf of Anne Boleyn and all the joke songs and show songs and folk songs I'd otherwise left off (first heard it on a Kingston Trio record), and we finally get our party.
Here's the playlist.
In reverse alphabetical order:
Waring's Pennsylvanians "Love For Sale" (1931)
The Wailers "Jailhouse" a.k.a. "Good Good Rudie" (1966)
V.I.M. "Maggie's Last Party" (1991)
Hugh Roy (U-Roy) & Hopeton Lewis "Drive Her Home" (1971)
Trick Daddy & Trina "Nann Nigga" (1998)
Les Têtes Brulées "Têtes Brulées" (1990)
Click to viewTeddy Yo "Gurage Tone" (2007)
t.A.T.u. "Kosmos" (2005)
T-ara "Lovey-Dovey" (2012)
Donna Summer "I Feel Love" (1977)
The Stooges "Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell" (1973)
Spoonie Gee "Spoonin' Rap" (1979)
Britney Spears "...Baby One More Time" (1998)
Slade "Cum On Feel The Noize" (1973)
The Shirelles "Tonight's The Night" (1960)
Sheck Wes "Do That" (2018)
The Sex Pistols "Anarchy In The U.K." (1976)
The Ronettes "Be My Baby" (1963)
The Rolling Stones "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" (1965)
Elvis Presley "Baby Let's Play House" (1955)
Playboi Carti "Magnolia" (2017)
Charley Patton "Mississippi Boweavil Blues" (1929)
Charlie Parker's Ri Bop Boys "Ko Ko" (1945)
Panjabi MC ft. Jay-Z "Beware Of The Boys" (2003)
The Orioles "It's Too Soon To Know" (1948)
Ninety One "Ah!Yah!Ma!" (2017)
MC Teteu "Dingo Bell Sou Seu Papai Noel" (2019)
Kim Wan-sun "The Dance In The Rhythm" (1987)
Mory Kanté "Yéké Yéké" (1987)
Lonnie Johnson "Tomorrow Night" (1948)
Blind Willie Johnson "Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed" (1928)
Little Willie John "Fever" (1956)
Stanley Holloway "With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm" (1934)
Billie Holiday "Swing! Brother, Swing!" (1939)
Hole "Violet" (1994)
Lefty Frizzell "Long Black Veil" (1959)
The Flamingos "I Only Have Eyes For You" (1959)
The Fall "Totally Wired" (1980)
DJ Wesley Gonzaga, MC Cyclope & MC Laureta "Sarra Nela Com Fuzil Na Bandolera" (2021)
DJ Guuga & MC Pierre "Cabaré" (2020) [flashing lights in the vid]
Debbie Deb "When I Hear Music" (1983)
Bing Crosby "Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?" (1932)
Alfred Cortot "Prelude No. 4 In E Minor (Opus 28 No. 4)" (1934) by Frédéric Chopin
Company B "Fascinated" (1986)
Jerry Byrne "Lights Out" (1958)
Brown Eyed Girls "Smile Chock Chock" (2009)
James Brown "Prisoner Of Love" live at the Apollo Vol. II (1968)
Baauer "Harlem Shake" (2012)
Louis Armstrong "Laughin' Louie" (1934)
50 Cent "In Da Club" (2003)
Full playlist:
This entry was originally posted at https://koganbot.dreamwidth.org/381545.html. Comments still welcome here, there, and anywhere.