The Pecan Park Eagle

A funny thing happened on my way to the blog this morning. My 26-year old son Neal hit me with a piece he had just developed over the past 72 hours as his choices for the greatest songs of the 20th century, by year. It’s an Internet play list that anyone could put together by either buying the albums that contain these songs – or by purchasing the rights for their individual use on an MP3 album. 

Neal got no help from me on the list. It’s simply a manifestation of his ever-expanding good taste for what I like to think of as “real music.” He did manage to leave out my favorite song of all time from his playlist. I won’t say what that one is, exactly, but I will hold out hope that he realizes this minor error of his ways, as time goes by.

In the meanwhile, here is the “Best Music of the 20th Century by Neal McCurdy:”

 

 

In the past 72 hours, I embarked on a journey through time back to the year 1901. My objective: to collect one song, and only one song, from each year of the 20th century (1901-2000) and make an Internet play list of popular songs of the years. This is an idea I’ve had for quite some time, since about the late 90s. Thanks to the glorious internet and Google, I was able to locate a website “http://tsort.info/music/index.htm” that listed the top songs of all the years from 1900-2010. My interests were only in “The Twentieth Century.” My compilation is complete, and start to finish, the full running time for all of these, if they are ever played non-stop in some form, is 6 hours, 24 minutes & 27 seconds.

I may not have chosen everyone’s beloved favorite, as I was only born in 1984, but I chose them based on two prerequisites: #1, I must LIKE the song, and #2, it must be a song that expresses the “sounds of the time.” In doing this project, I have DRASTICALLY expanded my taste for different types of music. So, how do I know I “like” a song?

Personally, I’m not a fan of idle singing. I pay more attention to the beat of a song (I listen to a lot of house/techno music from the 90s). But in this journey through time, I have found that it isn’t really the “beat” of a song that grabs my attention. What gets me is this: the song must have either an attention grabber throughout the song, or a climatic point in the song, a “breakdown” if you will, prevalent to the 1929 song “Ain’t Misbehaving” by the late and great Fats Waller. It starts off cool and slow, and then goes CRAZY towards 3/4 of the way through. Great stuff!

What’s an attention grabber if not for a climax? Various things. Singing style is a major thing. I absolutely love close vocal harmony, especially that of the Modernaires in Glenn Miller’s “Chattanooga Choo-Choo.” Love it! It strums the strings of your soul and leaves positive vibrations. I don’t care for, however, glass-breaking vocal music such as that of Whitney Houston and Celine Dion. That diva scream. Seriously ladies, I’ll call you if I lock my keys in my car.

Now that the objective has been thoroughly explained, what was the purpose of making this list? To study the humble beginnings of modern music and enjoy hearing the evolutionary course of music throughout a period of 100 years; to simultaneously artistically and scientifically listen to the evolution of society as a whole. One observation I have noticed is that it seems that each time we hit a war in the 20th century, we see a major change in the mainstream.

Also, and this goes without saying, but music is of course reflective of the ways of society at the time. One thing today’s society seems to be lacking to me is originality and character, and that is directly reflected in the sounds played on today’s radio stations. Sure, the people of the 1900s were saying that about people of the 1920s, and the people of the 1920s saying that about the people of the 1940s, and so on. Every generation has been saying that about every upcoming generation, but, in defense of the future, I don’t think we ever will understand what creates sentimentality in the minds of the upcoming generation. Either this statement proves true or we really ARE near the end of times.

Anywhoo, without further ado, I’d like to present my list of songs of the 20th century, from 1901-2000, and let it be noted that I thoroughly enjoy every single song on this list. Songs are listed as “year,” “artist,” then “title.”

Example:

1900 Artist – Title

And now, here’s the list…

“The 20th Century”

1901 Metropolitan Orchestra – The Gridiron March

1902 Scott Joplin – The Entertainer

1903 The Haydn Quartet – In the Good Old Summertime

1904 The Haydn Quartet – Sweet Adeline

1905 JW Myers – Come Take a Trip in My Air Ship

1906 Billy Murray – Grand Old Rag

1907 Florrie Ford – I Do Like to be Beside the Seaside

1908 The Haydn Quartet – Take Me Out to the Ballgame

1909 Henry Burr – I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now

1910 Henry Burr and the Peerless Quartet – Let Me Call You Sweetheart

1911 Guido Deiro – Dill Pickles Rag

1912 Al Jolson – That Haunting Melody

1913 Walter Van Brunt – Ghost of the Violin

1914 Victor Military Band – Ballin’ the Jack

1915 James F. Harrison – My Hula Maid

1916 Victor Dance Orchestra – Somewhere a Voice is Calling

1917 Harold Veo’s Orchestra – Don’t Leave Me Daddy

1918 Original Dixieland Jazz Band – Tiger Rag

1919 Selvin’s Novelty Orchestra – I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles

1920 Mamie Smith – Crazy Blues

1921 Paul Whiteman – April Showers

1922 Paul Whiteman Orchestra – It Had to be You

1923 Tennesse Ten – Gulf Coast Blues

1924 Paul Whiteman Orchestra – It Had to be You

1925 Lee Morse – Yes, Sir! That’s My Baby!

1926 Jan Garber’s Orchestra – Baby Face

1927 George Olsen & His Orchestra – Blue Skies

1928 Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians – I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream For Ice Cream

1929 Fats Waller – Ain’t Misbehavin’

1930 Fred Astaire – Puttin’ on the Ritz

1931 Al Bowlly – Guilty

1932 Cab Calloway – The Scat Song

1933 Ethel Waters – Stormy Weather

1934 Bing Crosby – Love in Bloom

1935 Benny Goodman – King Porter Stomp

1936 Billie Holiday – Summertime

1937 Russ Morgan – The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down

1938 Ella Fitzgerald – A-Tisket, A-Tasket

1939 Judy Garland – Somewhere Over the Rainbow

1940 Cliff Edwards – When You Wish Upon a Star

1941 The Glenn Miller Orchestra feat. Tex Beneke & The Modernaires – Chattanooga Choo Choo

1942 The Glenn Miller Orchestra feat. Tex Beneke & The Modernaires – (I’ve Got a Gal In) Kalamazoo

1943 Bing Crosby feat. The Andrews Sisters – Pistol Packin’ Mama

1944 The Pied Pipers & Jo Stafford – The Trolley Song

1945 Duke Ellington feat. Joya Sherrill – I’m Beginning to See the Light

1946 Desi Arnaz – Babalu

1947 Tex Williams – Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)

1948 Nat King Cole – Nature Boy

1949 Vaughn Monroe – Riders in the Sky

1950 Teresa Brewer – (Put Another Nickel In) Music, Music, Music

1951 Ike Turner, Jackie Brenston – Rocket 88

1952 The Mills Brothers – The Glow-Worm

1953 Dean Martin – That’s Amore

1954 The Chordettes – Mr. Sandman

1955 Little Richard – Tutti Frutti

1956 Johnny Cash – I Walk the Line

1957 Elvis Presley – Jailhouse Rock

1958 The Everly Brothers – All I Have to do is Dream

1959 Ray Charles – What’d I Say

1960 Chubby Checker – The Twist

1961 The Tokens – The Lion Sleeps Tonight

1962 Booker-T & the MG’s – Green Onions

1963 The Beach Boys – Surfin’ USA

1964 Gloria Jones – Tainted Love

1965 The Beatles – Yesterday

1966 The Rolling Stones – Paint it Black

1967 Jimi Hendrix – Purple Haze

1968 Otis Redding – (Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay (1967)*

1969 David Bowie – Space Oddity

1970 Norman Greenbaum – Spirit in the Sky

1971 Led Zeppelin – Stairway to Heaven

1972 Hot Butter – Popcorn

1973 The Sweet – Ballroom Blitz

1974 Carl Douglas – Kung Fu Fighting

1975 Van McCoy – The Hustle

1976 Kool & the Gang – Open Sesame

1977 Meco – Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band

1978 Gerry Rafferty – Baker Street

1979 The Sugarhill Gang – Rapper’s Delight

1980 Blondie – Call Me

1981 Depeche Mode – Just Can’t Get Enough

1982 Michael Jackson – Billie Jean

1983 The Eurythmics – Sweet Dreams

1984 Ray Parker, Jr. – Ghostbusters

1985 ‘Til Tuesday – Voices Carry

1986 The Bangles – Walk Like an Egyptian

1987 M.A.R.R.S. – Pump Up the Volume

1988 Bobby Mcferrin – Don’t Worry Be Happy

1989 Technotronic – Pump Up the Jam

1990 Warrant – Uncle Tom’s Cabin

1991 Metallica – Enter Sandman

1992 Elton John – Simple Life

1993 Billy Joel – River of Dreams

1994 The Cranberries – Zombie

1995 Coolio – Gangsta’s Paradise

1996 No Doubt – Don’t Speak

1997 Chumbawamba – Tubthumping

1998 Aerosmith – I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing

1999 Ricky Martin – Livin’ La Vida Loca

2000 Red Hot Chili Peppers – Californication

* Otis Redding recorded this song three days before he died in a plane crash in December of 1967 at the age of 26, but remained a #1 hit on the charts for several weeks going into 1968. Turns out, he was originally going to re-record it when he got back and simply whistled that last part of the song as a filler to be replaced with spoken words towards the fadeout.

And that’s my list. All are easily found on YouTube. Enjoy!