The Best Playlist Nobody Heard

Put it on SHUFFLE, and let ‘er go.  Five hours of memorable music.

I Say A Little Prayer    Aretha Franklin

Every Day I Have the Blues    B.B. King

Rag Mama Rag (edited)    The Band

The Shape I’m In    The Band

Don’t Do It (edited)    The Band

Do It Again    The Beach Boys

For You Blue    The Beatles

I Feel Fine    The Beatles

I Want To Tell You    The Beatles

Old Brown Shoe     The Beatles

Girl    Beck

Silvio    Bob Dylan

Dignity (unplugged)    Bob Dylan

Something to Talk About    Bonnie Raitt

Summer of ’69 (unplugged)    Bryan Adams

Mr. Soul    Buffalo Springfield

Last Name    Carrie Underwood

Another Saturday Night    Cat Stevens

I Feel for You    Chaka Khan

One Fine Day    Chiffons

Fill Me With Your Light    Clem Snide

Speed Of Sound    Coldplay

I Can’t Stand The Rain    The Commitments

Treat Her Like A Lady    Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose

Teen Angst    Cracker

Linger    The Cranberries

Girls Talk    Dave Edmonds

I Will Possess Your Heart    Death Cab for Cutie

Little Bribes    Death Cab for Cutie

Two More Bottles of Wine    Delbert McClinton

Peace Frog    Doors

Iko Iko    Dr. John

Hard Sun  Eddie Vedder

Ball & Chain    Elton John

Monkey to Man    Elvis Costello & The Imposters

A Little Less Conversation    Elvis Presley

I Don’t Wanna Talk About It Now    Emmylou Harris

Tears of a Clown    The English Beat

Would I Lie To You    Eurythmics

Shame    Evelyn “Champagne” King

I’m Walkin’    Fats Domino

Blueberry Hill    Fats Domino

Bright Future In Sales    Fountains Of Wayne

The Race Is On    George Jones    First Time Live!

Keep Your Hands to Yourself    The Georgia Satellites

Head Over Heels    Go-Go’s

Airstream Driver    Gomez

Bad Chardonnay    Graham Parker

The Golden Road    Grateful Dead

Samson and Delilah    Grateful Dead

Star Baby    Guess Who

Careful    Guster

Family Tradition    Hank Williams, Jr.

Sit Down    James    The Best of James

Come a Little Bit Closer    Jay And The Americans

Come Monday    Jimmy Buffett

You Can Leave Your Hat On    Joe Cocker

The Jet Set    Joe Jackson

Nobody Told Me    John Lennon

Pink Houses    John Mellencamp

Free Man in Paris    Joni Mitchell

Big Yellow Taxi    Joni Mitchell

Happy (live)    Keith Richard, Sheryl Crowe, Chrissie Hynde & Guests

This Is for Everyone    Klee

My Hero, Zero    Lemonheads

Dixie Chicken    Little Feat

Lagrimas Solitarias    Los Straitjackets

This Is Us    Mark Knopfler/Emmylou Harris

Nowhere to Run    Martha Reeves & The Vandellas

That’s the Way Love Is    Marvin Gaye

Can I Get a Witness    Marvin Gaye

Pleasant Valley Sunday    Monkees

Unknown Legend    Neil Young

Kodachrome    Paul Simon

My Baby Gives It Away    Pete Townshend & Ronnie Lane

Bike (edited)    Pink Floyd

Arnold Layne    Pink Floyd

Hallelujah, I Love Her So    Ray Charles

You Are My Sunshine    Ray Charles

Re-make/Re-model    Roxy Music

Mean Woman Blues    Roy Orbison

Tightrope    Stevie Ray Vaughan

Gloria    Van Morrison w/John Lee Hooker

A Certain Girl    Warren Zevon

I’ll take “Unattractive Singers” for $200, Alex

Everyone’s writing or talking about this, so I suppose I should to.  I got dragged (willingly) into this discussion by my genius friend Dennis Ryan, who has written about this from a different angle here and here.

Surprised that an angelic noise came out of Susan Boyle’s mouth?  Why?  Is it because she’s “visually challenging”?  It may come as news to viewers of the Country Music Awards, where all female performers look like Carrie Underwood (whom I love as a performer and find beautiful), among others that not every singer is Underwoodian in their beauty. 

Let’s look at this issue numerically:  Only 10% of the population can be “10s”.  There are a lot more of us 1 through 7s than there are 8s, 9s or 10s (2.3 times more to be exact).  This ain’t Lake Wobegon; the average person is a 5!

Perhaps this is a television phenomenon.  Since only beautiful people are allowed on television (no 5s, unless they’re being perp walked or are otherwise on “Cops”), the population’s sensibilities have been numbed to the notion that a) people that are numbers 1-8 actually exist and b) there’s a chance that at least some of them can sing.  Perhaps if the church choir wasn’t housed in the balcony at the back of the church where no one can see them, people might understand this notion better.

So, without further ado, here’s my list (one that will require frequent updates as I troll the musical catalog of my mind) in no particular order:

• Meatloaf
• Neil Young
• Amy Winehouse
• Willie Nelson
• Tom Petty
• Steven Tyler, and his separated at birth older brother, Mick Jagger
• Do I even need to say “Keith Richards”?
• Lyle Lovett
• Robert Zimmerman
• Rod Stewart
• Ozzy Ozzbourne (not sure this applies, since ol’ Oz probably doesn’t qualify as a “good singer”)
• Joe Cocker
• David Lee Roth (see also Ozzbourne, Ozzy)
• Kurt Cobain (no, I’m not mocking the dead)
• Vince Neal or any randomly selected lead singer from a mid- to late-80s hair band (also likely disqualified as “non-good singers)

 Feel free to offer further suggestions.