The JayTunes Jam

For those of you following the Jam via feed, I just added Ben Lee as my artist of the month for May 2010.   Here are my favorite songs from the clever Aussie:

• Catch My Disease (That’s the Way I LIke It)
• Gamble Everything for Love
• I Love Pop Music
• Into the Dark
• Is This How Love is Supposed to Feel?
• Ripe
• Rise Up
• We’re All In This Together
• What’s So Bad (About Feeling Good)?
• Whatever It Is

Did I get any wrong?  Leave a comment to let me know.  Also, please check out my other song selections for May 2010 from Ozomatli, The Weepies, Colin Hay, Shai, and Tower of Power.

There hasn’t been much rain this April, but there are a lot of great songs with the word “rain” in the title.  Here are my favorites:

• Fire and Rain by James Taylor
• Have You Ever Seen the Rain by Creedence Clearwater Revival
• I Love a Rainy Night by Eddie Rabbit
• Mandolin Rain by Bruce Hornsby and the Range
• No Rain by Blind Melon
• Rain, Rain, Beautiful Rain by Ladysmith Black Mambazo
• Raincoat by Kelly Sweet
• Rainy Day People by Gordon Lightfoot
• The Rainy Season by Marc Cohn
• Save It for a Rainy Day by The Jayhawks

There were a lot of other contenders for my top 10, including Gord’s “Early Morning Rain”, Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”, Zep’s “Fool in the Rain”, Mellencamp’s “Rain on the Scarecrow”, Peter Gabriel’s “Red Rain”, and (of course) Prince’s “Purple Rain”. 

To listen or download songs, check out the complete list here.

What do you think?  Did I miss your favorite?  Leave a comment to let me know.

For those of you following the Jam via feed, I just added Green Day as my artist of the month for April 2010.  I like Dookie and 21st Century Breakdown, and I think American Idiot ranks among the best rock albums ever.  Here are my favorite songs from the band:

• American Idiot
• Basket Case
• Boulevard of Broken Dreams
• Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)
• Holiday
• I Fought the Law
• Know Your Enemy
• 21 Guns
• Wake Me Up When September Ends
• When I Come Around

Did I get any wrong?  Leave a comment to let me know.  Also, please check out my other song selections for April 2010 from Tyrone Wells, Ben Lee, JJ Heller, The Buffalo Bills, and The Budos Band.

The newest inductees are The Stooges, The Hollies, Genesis, Jimmy Cliff, and ABBA.  I do like certain songs from each of the latter four, but I really don’t care much about any of them.  What I do think is interesting, however, is a Boston Herald article listing 15 acts that should be in the Hall of Fame.  Here they are:

15. Three Dog Night (no, they don’t deserve it)
14. Heart (yes they do)
13. Randy Newman (yes!)
12. Harry Nilsson (no)
11. The Commodores (maybe)
10. Dire Straits (yes!)
9. Def Leppard (maybe)
8. Laura Nyro (who?)
7. Yes (maybe)
6. Tom Waits (maybe)
5. Neil Diamond (yes!)
4. Chicago (yes!)
3. Rush (yes!)
2. KISS (yes!)
1. Stevie Ray Vaughn (yes!)

Obviously I care the most about the (linked) artists I’ve made lists for, but come on… ABBA before KISS?  That’s just not right.  What do you think?  I’d have to say that last year’s class of Metallica and Run DMC was a lot stronger.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to you!   Here are my top 10 “Green” songs:

• Bitter Green by Gordon Lightfoot
• Green and Grey by Virginia Coalition
• Green Flower Street by Donald Fagen
• Green Hornet by Al Hirt
• Green, Green by The New Christy Minstrels
• Green, Green Grass of Home by Tom Jones
• Green Onions by Booker T and the MG’s
• Green River by Creedence Clearwater Revival
• Greenville by Lucinda Williams
• Leaves That Are Green by Simon and Garfunkel

Not a lot of huge hits here, but plenty of good music.  “Green Hornet” and “Green Onions” are classic instrumentals, “Green Flower Street” is jazzy pop, “Green River” is rock and roll, and the rest are folk of one sort or another.  Of course, honorable mention goes to any song by Green Day (top 10 list coming soon), Al Green, and songs from R.E.M.‘s Green album (especially “Stand”).

To listen or download songs, check out the complete list here.

What do you think?  Did I miss your favorite?  Leave a comment to let me know.

Entertainment Weekly provided a list of the top downloaded singles of 2009.  Here they are:

1. Boom Boom Pow by The Black Eyed Peas
2. Poker Face by Lady Gaga
3. Just Dance by Lady Gaga
4. Right Round by Flo Rida
5. I Gotta Feeling by The Black Eyed Peas
6. Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It) by Beyonce
7. Gives You Hell by The All-American Rejects
8. Love Story by Taylor Swift
9. Heartless by Kanye West
10. I’m Yours by Jason Mraz

I downloaded exactly one of these songs and (as you may have guessed) it’s #10.  How depressing.  I do like Beyonce, however, and enjoyed the rendition of #6 on Glee.  Having recently chaperoned a high school dance I can appreciate the appeal of Lady Gaga and BEP (especially #5), but I don’t really get how a crappy remake of a crappy Dead or Alive song makes #4.  Number 7 is actually a decent tune, but the title isn’t all that appealing.  Taylor Swift is overrated and Kanye West just isn’t my scene (other than a little “Gold Digger” once in a while).  I hope I’m not totally shut out of the Top 10 in 2010!

For those of you following the Jam via feed, I just added Dave Matthews as my artist of the month for March 2010.  I really liked his first two albums and acoustic work with Tim Reynolds.  Here are my favorite songs of his:

• Ants Marching
• Crash Into Me
• Everyday
• Recently
• Satellite
• So Much to Say
• Stay (Wasting Time)
• What Would You Say
• Where Are You Going
• You and Me

Did I get any wrong?  Leave a comment to let me know.  Also, please check out my other song selections for March 2010 from Never Shout Never, Richard Julian, Iron & Wine, Todd Rundgren, and Alicia Keys.

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!  I know it’s kind of a contrived holiday, but at least we should get some good music out of it.  Here are my Top 10 You and I/You and Me Songs:

• Why Don’t You and I by Santana with Chad Kroeger
• You and I by Michael Buble
• You and I by Ingrid Michaelson
• You and I by Eddie Rabbit and Crystal Gayle
• You and I by Wilco
• You and I Both by Jason Mraz
• You and Me by Lifehouse
• You and Me by Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds (Live and Acoustic)
• You and Me by Neil Young
• You and Me and the Bottle Makes Three Tonight by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy

They aren’t all classics, but there are definitely some good tunes here.  The last one is from the movie “Swingers”, which is such a money movie it doesn’t even know it.  The Eddie Rabbit song is pretty cheesy, but I remember having the sheet music for piano, so I had to include it. 

Did I miss any good ones? 

Click here for links to listen or download on iTunes.

For those of you following the Jam via feed, I just added Natalie Merchant (with and without 10,000 Maniacs) as my artist of the month for February 2010.  Here are my favorite songs of hers:

• Candy Everybody Wants
• Hey Jack Kerouac
• Jealousy
• Kind and Generous
• Like the Weather
• These Are Days
• Trouble Me
• Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key (with Billy Bragg & Wilco)
• What’s the Matter Here
• Wonder

Did I get any wrong?  Leave a comment to let me know.  Also, please check out my song selections for February 2010 from Train, Bayside, Monsters of Folk, The Bills, and Barenaked Ladies.

 You have to love the classic rock songs that go on and on.  Here’s my list of the Top 10 Epic Rock Songs:

• American Pie (8:33)
• Blinded by the Light (7:07)
• Bohemian Rhapsody (5:55)
• Champagne Supernova (7:28)
• Hotel California (6:30)
• Living for the City (7:25)
• The Pretender (6:39)
• Scenes from an Italian Restaurant (7:35)
• Stairway to Heaven (8:02)
• Tiny Dancer (6:18)

I originally was going to limit this list to songs over six minutes long, but that would have meant excluding “Bohemian Rhapsody” and I just couldn’t do it.  Other candidates that narrowly missed the cut included “Free Bird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd, “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” by Meat Loaf, “Fanfare for the Common Man” or “Trilogy” by Emerson, Lake and Palmer, “Won’t Get Fooled Again” or “Who Are You” by The Who, ”Aja” or “Deacon Blues” by Steely Dan, and “Brothers in Arms” by Dire Straits.  What do you think?  Did I miss any?  Rock on and leave a comment to let me know.