Honorable Mentions: 141-150
OK, let’s get this party started!
(If you’re wondering about the parameters and what we’re doing, you can find them HERE)
150: Tom “T-Bone” Stankus – “Existential Blues” (1980)
I love novelty songs, and this is the one novelty song in this countdown. It’s a bit of stupid genius, made famous on the Dr. Demento Show. It’s one I loved when I heard it on Dr. D’s show back in college, and I’m dedicating this one to the memory of the late college friend and wedding best man Bill Miori, who loved novelty songs — especially this one — perhaps even more than me. So tighten up your shorts, pilgrim, and sing like the Duke.
149: The Real Kids – “All Kindsa Girls” (1977)
This is a song that I really SHOULD have known about when it came out in 1977. But somehow I didn’t discover it until Rhino included a volume on Boston-area performers in its DIY series of punk/new wave compilations in the early ’90s. Now I appreciate it as a nearly perfect piece of pub rock/garage rock/punk rock and also for its checking off Boston-area locales since I now know where most of them are, thanks to my favorite Boston librarian.
148: Roy Hamilton – “Don’t Let Go” (1958)
Most of the guys who have influenced Elvis have gotten their due, but Roy Hamilton never really did. Elvis was a big fan of Roy Hamilton. He was big back in the day, and he had a huge voice, but is largely forgotten today (he died at age 40 in 1969). I was introduced to this song by Commander Cody & the Lost Planet Airmen, then went back and searched out the original. It was pretty cool when, after I put it on a year-end cassette mixtape, my friends in Scott Carpenter & the Real McCoys added it to their live set.
147: Depeche Mode – “Behind The Wheel/Route 66” (1988)
“Route 66” is one of those songs I never get tired of hearing variations on. This is one of the coolest ones.
146: Arthur Conley – “Shake, Rattle & Roll” (1967)
Most people know him for “Sweet Soul Music,” but I love this horn-driven version of the rock ‘n’ roll standard. I do have a weakness for Big Joe Turner songs (his original smokes the Bill Haley version).
145: Freddie Cannon – “Tallahassee Lassie” (1959)
Freddie Cannon was kind of the king of cheese in the early ’60s, when he had some pretty big hits, including a Billboard No. 1 with “Palisades Park.” But he also had some pretty cool rockers, like this one and “Buzz Buzz A-Diddle-It,” his first of 29 pop chart hits. My favorite version of this is by the Flamin’ Groovies, but they’re represented elsewhere in this countdown.
144: Rivingtons – “Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow” (1962)
This is one that has just stuck in the back of my head since I heard it on a doo-wop compilation LP I picked up as a teenager. The bassman doing the Papa-Oom-Mow-Mows throughout the song sounds like a predecessor to human beatboxes. Meanwhile, this song and the Rivingtons’ “The Bird Is the Word” were the source material for the Trashmen’s “Surfing Bird” that the college-age audience knows from its use on “The Family Guy.”
143: Ian & Sylvia – You Were on My Mind (1964)
This was a big pop hit by the We Five, but it was originally a great piece of folk rock by the writers, Ian & Sylvia — the Tysons. This Canadian duo helped create country rock with songs like “Someday Soon” and their band the Great Speckled Bird. They split in the 1970s, but they’re both still kicking today.
142: Allison Krauss and Gillian Welch – “I’ll Fly Away” (2000)
This one is taken from the film “O Brother, Where Art Thou,” but I’ve got a couple of other reasons it’s close to my heart. It’s a song that my dad loved. It’s in regular rotation in our contemporary service at church and we also sang it at dad’s funeral. Krauss and Welch do a beautiful version.
141: Soul Brothers Six – “Some Kind Of Wonderful” (1967)
Most people will know this one from the Grand Funk version, but the original was by a Rochester, N.Y., soul group. I think it’s the cooler version and way funkier than Grand Funk. I interviewed lead singer John Ellison some 20 years ago when he was traveling through Buffalo; he’s never received the credit he’s due for making some great records over the years.
So there you have it, our first 10 honorable mentions on the way toward the Top 100. Enjoy!