Paul McCartey

01 Maybe I'm Amazed 

02 Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey 

03 Smile Away 

04 Band on the Run 

05 Let Me Roll It 

06 Rock Show 

07 With A Little Luck 

08 Distractions 

09 That Day Is Done 

10 Flaming Pie 

11 Beautiful Night 

12 Fine Line 

13 Dance Tonight 

14 Junior's Farm 

15 Hi Hi Hi 

 

I am a big Beatles fan as any readers of my other blogs can tell and to choose 15 songs to represent them would be very difficult for me. even a double post of 30 would be hard. But solo Beatles is another story. I love each one on their own but they have just as much filler at times as any other artist. Paul is the most prolific of the four and therefore has the most to sort out. He has a few "perfect" albums in my eyes with Ram at the top of my list and one of my desert island discs. Band on the Run, Flowers in the Dirt and Chaos and Creation are also high up there. But for every perfect album there are several decent/good albums and the occasional so-so album. This is my list of must have McCartney songs.

Led Zeppelin

1. Going To California
2. What Is And What Should Never Be
3. All My Love
4. Your Time Is Gonna Come
5. Over The Hills And Far Away
6. Gallows Pole
7. Thank You
8. The Battle Of Evermore
9. Hey, Hey What Can I Do
10. Fool In The Rain
11. Friends
12. Tangerine
13. Ramble On
14. Ten Years Gone
15. That’s The Way (BBC version)

You would think with such a simple concept I would do these more often.

I love Led Zeppelin but as you can see from this list many of their biggest songs are missing. I could have swapped a few for songs like Dazed and Confused or Rock and Roll but Stairway, Whole Lotta Love and Black Dog have either been (in my opinion) overplayed or have elements I'm not fond of (I hate drum solos no matter how good the drummer is). This is actually an abbreviated version of a "best of" tape I made years ago that was adapted to fit on a CD but even then the above mentioned songs were left off. My brother borrowed the tape to play in the car for a while and his wife commented on the track list. When my brother said that I compiled the tape she responded with "Ah, I get it.".

Klaatu

1. Sub-Rosa Subway
2. A Routine Day
3. Juicy Lucy
4. Dear Christine
5. All Good Things
6. Knee Deep In Love
7. Blue Smoke
8. I Don't Wanna Go Home
9. December Dream
10. The Love Of A Woman
11. True Life Hero
12. Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft
13. Anus of Uranus
14. California Jam

Klaatu was a Canadian band from the late 70s. Their biggest claim to fame here in the US was that they were rumored to be the Beatles reunited under a new name. Like the "Paul is dead" theories there were many clues that supposedly pointed to their secret identity. Mostly, they kinda sounded like them. Similar voices and styles but never a direct copy. For me, after the second album (which is more of a concept album that I didn't care for) each album was better than the last but unfortunately they just could not shake the Beatles comparisons and they never took off beyond a cult following here. The picture above was the cover I made for my tape of favorites that I put together in the mid 80s.

Chuck Berry

1. Move It
2. Maybellene
3. Memphis Tennessee
4. Little Marie
5. No Particular Way To Go
6. Wee Wee Hours
7. Thirty Days
8. Sweet Little Rock 'n' Roller
9. You Can't Catch Me
10. Let It Rock
11. Brown Eyed Handsome Man
12. It's My Own Business
13. Back In The USA
14. Roll Over Beethoven
15. Too Much Monkey Business
16. Viva Viva Rock 'n' Roll
17. School Day
18. Oh Baby Doll
19. Down The Road Apiece
20. Reelin' and Rockin'
21. Johnny B. Goode
22. Bye Bye Johnny
23. Lady B. Goode
24. Around and Around
25. I'm Talking About You
26. Nadine (Is That You?)
27. Carol
28. Promised Land
29. Big Boys
30. My Dream

Here's a challenge for me and my first failure at keeping to my premise but this might still fit on one CD. I'm a huge Chuck fan and when I put him on, I find it hard to turn him off. My favorite way to listen to Chuck is to just put everything on shuffle and let it play. Even on my smaller iPod where I can only keep my favorites, Chuck's list is 40 songs long and I always feel I'm missing one or two. This list started with 25 songs and I struggled to cut it down to 15 so I added five to make it 30. I probably would have made a second post anyway. If you're unfamiliar with Chuck start with any best of package. Most focus on his work with Chess Records but he made some fine albums for Mercury in the 60s and released one album for Atlantic in 1979 which I highly recommend. His last album finished just before he passed is worth every penny as well. Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll!

The Alpha Band

1. Interviews
2. Cheap Purfume
3. Keep It in the Family
4. Wouldn't You Know
5. Arizona Telegram
6. Dark Eyes
7. Love and Romance
8. Adrenalin
9. Spark in the Dark (On the Moody Existentialist)
10. Rich Man
11. Back in My Baby's Arms Again
12. Boomerang*
13. Power of Love*

Formed out of Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue The Alpha Band proved to be the launching pad for T-Bone Burnette as a songwriter and producer. A strange and quirky trio consisting of Burnette, Steven Soles and David Mansfeild, their sound was filled with guitars, mandolins, violins and other unconventional instruments for a rock band. They made three albums before separating.

*Burnette's first solo album included some songs that were leftover from the last Alpha Band LP. I never really knew which songs were the leftovers but I included two of my favorite songs from that album.

Stephen Stills

1. Helplessly Hoping (CSN)
2. 4+20 (CSN&Y)
3. Change Partners
4. Do for the Others
5. Love the One You're With
6. For What It's Worth (Buffalo Springfield)
7. Johnny's Garden (Manassas)
8. Suite: Judy Blue Eyes (CSN)
9. Southern Cross (CSN)
10. You Don't Have To Cry (CSN)
11. Dark Star (CSN)
12. Find the Cost of Freedom (CSN&Y)
13. Haven't We Lost Enough (CSN)
14. Dear Mr. Fantasy (Stills & Nash)

Stephen Stills is my favorite all around, underappreciated guitarist and a fine songwriter to boot. From fine, delicate acoustic fingerpicking to loud screaming guitar solos, he does it all. The first and last songs on this list demonstrate this wonderfully. I still find it difficult to breath during some of the solos in Dear Mr. Fantasy.

Angel

1. Can You Feel It
2. Don't Leave Me Lonely
3. Feelin' Right
4. Tower
5. Anyway You Want It
6. Big Boy (Let's Do It Again)
7. Rock & Rollers
8. Over And Over
9. Telephone Exchange
10. White Lightning
11. Got Love If You Want It
12. On The Rocks
13. On & On
14. Flying With Broken Wings
15. Wild & Hot

With only five studio albums, one live album and one change in bass players between the third an fourth albums, and one of the coolest logos ever, Angel imploded after six years of activity. During that time they managed to reach headline status but never really broke out of the theater circuit and into arenas where their big production show and soaring hard rock synth/guitar driven sound would seem most at home. Definitely a band that deserved more than they got. A hard rock sound with hints of prog later albums were a bit more poppy than rock but the songwriting is strong and the production is big and clean. They have resurfaced with different lineups over the last decade and released new material.