For the past few months on CBC’s radio two, Jian Ghomeshi has been doing this cool show called “50 Essential Tracks.” He went decade by decade through the 1900s, and with a “panel of experts,” chose five “essential” musical tracks from each decade.
After the 50 tracks were nominated, listeners were invited to call in and either nominate their own selections, or vote on the existing list. Last weekend they did a “countdown” where they took the 50 tracks (including some nominated by callers) and put them in order from, I guess, least-essential-essential-track to most-essential-essential track.
The most interesting part about the list was listening to the shows where they picked the tracks for each decade. The experts talked about each selection and why it was important to the history of music in the past century, and what it was about the song that made and impact on other musicians. It definitely helped to have some of the stranger selections put into context.
In any case, I thought you might be interested in seeing the final list and commenting on what you think is missing. Here’s the nomination/panel-of-experts list, and here is the ordered countdown list.
Some of the phone calls they got regarding the list were quite hilarious. My personal favourite was a guy who called in to say that his track list would never include a “totally unheard of, bogus band” like Joy Division. Hee! The host, Jian, said that women in general called in to say stuff like, “interesting list, here’s another idea,” while men called in to say stuff like, “if you don’t put Bruce Springsteen on the list RIGHT NOW, I will THROW MY RADIO IN THE LAKE.”
Anyway, enjoy the list and make your own nominations!
TurtleHead 
Well, I’ve only heard of about 40% of the songs up until the 1940s, so I can’t comment too much on them. I’m a little surprised that neither Count Basie nor Duke Ellington made the list, but maybe they never had those defining, essential songs in their careers. It wasn’t until I watched Ken Burns’ Jazz series that I really understood the importance of Louis Armstrong to the early American music scene.
I really love Bob Dylan, but I was just thinking last week how much I really dislike that song “Mr. Tambourine Man” and I can never understand why it’s always referred to in these lists of seminal music moments. The choice of “Like a Rolling Stone” is a much better one. I think it may have been the longest ever (in duration), number one song at the time. Music execs never believed a song over 6 minutes long could ever do so well. Dylan was also one of the first to politicize music (songs with a “message).
I’m a little surprised they left out Marvin Gaye. I don’t think you need both the Temptations and the Supremes — they were just different genders doing the same thing. Marvin spoke out about what was right and wrong in the world. Maybe for that reason he didn’t really represent the mainstream. I’m not exactly sure if that’s what this list is trying to capture.
I think “Imagine” is a totally overrated song. You gotta have the Beatles, but I wonder if “Yesterday” is a better choice, if maybe a little predictable. I think it was this song that made the rest of the world sit up and take notice — this was a bunch of guys with real talent and not just a flash in the pan. After this point, you had people from all different musical genres covering Beatles tunes.
I really think they kind of nailed the ’80s and ’90s (well, amongst the song titles I know), but it kind of made me wonder … here we are nearly half way through the decade and have there been any “essential” songs so far? I know it’s hard to define the moment when you’re in it, but what musical sounds separate us from the ’90s??
I know it’s hard to define the moment when you’re in it, but what musical sounds separate us from the ’90s?
Maybe the neo-emo bands like Coldplay and Pilate all the “The” bands… The Strokes, The White Stripes, The Hives, etc. Although, really, all that is either re-works of Radiohead or eighties rock.
So, I dunno.
I don’t know much about the pre-40s songs either, although I was surprised to find I did recognise a few more of the tunes once I heard them. I think most of today’s listeners are in that boat — hence the fact that Over The Rainbow is rated too high on the ranking list. I think the voters felt the need to recognise that yes, good music did come along prior to 1950, and Over The Rainbow was the only track they knew, so they voted for it! Although it was certainly a popular track then and now, I don’t see it as being particularly influential.
I totally agree with you about The Beatles, too. Unfortunately I didn’t hear the show when they talked about that decade, so I don’t understand why the panel nominated In My Life (a lovely, but relatively obscure track) instead of classic, essential songs like Yesterday (definitely a turning point in their career) or even Let It Be or All You Need Is Love. I was also really surprised to see the callers nominating A Day In The Life — an interesting track, and possibly a strong influence on other bands for it’s free structure, but not as strongly recognised as some of their big hits. Speaking of which, I thought that Hey Jude was the longest number one of all time — I’ll have to look that one up!
An interesting nomination in Marvin Gaye, too. I know very little about his music and life. I think a biopic is in the works, so I’ll definitely check that out when it comes out, and maybe download some of his earlier stuff. What would you consider to be his “most essential” song? Some of the songs on the list, I think, are more meant to represent an “essential artist,” than a particularly influential song, so maybe Marvin doesn’t have one single song that stands out…hm. I feel that way about Queen — I’d have really liked to have seen them on the list, but I can’t think of what song of theirs is the one that you *must* listen to. I guess Bohemian Rhapsody would be the usual choice.
As for the current decade, I’m so out of touch with current music I can’t imagine, either, what makes an essential track these days. Several people mentioned to me that they didn’t think Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean deserved to appear on the 80s list, but I thought it was an excellent choice — very representative of pop music at the time. But who is his counterpart these days? Would you describe “Baby One More Time” by Britney Spears as an essential track, because it was so popular and launched the careers of dozens of young-woman copycats? Or is it just too cheesy and derivative of a song to qualify? Hm…food for thought.
Hmmm, what’s neo-emo?
I’m sure you’re right about Hey Jude. I just meant that Dylan kind of preceded a lot of musicians in the stuff he did. He did his stuff. And then other people got influenced by it and did it even better in a lot of cases.
I think the Marvin Gaye album “What’s Going On” is the one that tends to make all-time fave lists. I think the song “What’s Going On” is the essential track. This is a very grooooovy record.
I agree with you about Queen. “A Night at the Opera” made my top 5 list when I tried to compile one after watching High Fidelity a few years ago. Yes, definitely Bohemian Rhapsody is the essential track there.
I have a really hard time taking the pop-princess movement seriously. I guess I’m hopelessly out of touch, but “Baby One More Time” doesn’t even strike me as a SONG. Obviously, billions of people disagree.
I searched for a year-end music summary site and found this one for the year 2000 (you can easily do 2001-2003 by modifying the link). The first thing that struck me was how many different genres are represented. Maybe we’re too diversified now to ever again have a single, decade-defining list of songs?