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Final Five
OK, last of the Desert Island 15....
Not surprisingly, most of my most-listened songs tend to be ones that I've had the longest, so I suppose it's not too surprising that so many jazz entries predominant, since I 'discovered' jazz a few years ago thanks to the Ken Burns series, and a bunch of song files here are from the CD set associated with it. Look me up again in ten years and we'll see if they're still up there.
But really, I'd distrust any list I put together comprised mostly of recent (less than a year) songs because I don't think I could say if I was going to get tired of the music over a long period.
I maybe should have selected some of the Iggy Pop or Brian Eno or Beatles or Monkees or other music that I've listened to years before I started running all my music through iTunes, since surely I've listened to individual songs and collective albums many more times with my CD player on repeat. But that would involve guestimating... and anyway, I'm pretty sure you've all heard the Beatles by now, and honestly, Eno doesn't appeal to very many.
So here's the last of my 15:
11. Begin the Beguine, Artie Shaw -- if I could nominate one recording to be the most perfect and precise realization of a tune, ever, I might be tempted to go with this one. For all that it's almost geometric in the way the notes and melody proceed complexly together, it's also warm, happy, intelligent and danceable.
12. Blue's Theme, Davy Allen & The Arrows -- and from one kind of danceable to another. This is from the amazing Rhino Records Nuggets box set which is definitely a big pre-iTunes favorite that still influences me.
13. Crazy Rhythm, Roger Wolfe Kahn -- the only song that I haven't owned for multiple years, since it's from the Rhythm Crazy compilation that I ran into at the iTunes Store, all of 20s songs. What a crazy diamond this cut is, and after many listens, I wondered if the drummer had studied with Gene Krupa, so I went googling and found out that yes, it was a young Krupa on display here.
14. Rock n' Roll Girl, The Beat -- After so much jazz, I ran my finger down the column and found this worthy, rocky, poppy song lurking.
15. Sing Sing Sing, Benny Goodman -- and I'll end my 15 with this cut, the full version with all the Gene Krupa drumming that you could want.
And that's it, though since, I'm using Box.Net this time, I can give you a special link that will take you back to all of the zipped songs if you want.
(The stats, in case you're interested, are 8 jazz/ 8 rock songs (counting Harlem Nocturne as a twofer, 6 instrumentals (8 if you count The Mooche and The Millionaire's Holiday where the vocals are arguably an afterthought), and 3 of the non-instrumentals have female vocalists.)
Not surprisingly, most of my most-listened songs tend to be ones that I've had the longest, so I suppose it's not too surprising that so many jazz entries predominant, since I 'discovered' jazz a few years ago thanks to the Ken Burns series, and a bunch of song files here are from the CD set associated with it. Look me up again in ten years and we'll see if they're still up there.
But really, I'd distrust any list I put together comprised mostly of recent (less than a year) songs because I don't think I could say if I was going to get tired of the music over a long period.
I maybe should have selected some of the Iggy Pop or Brian Eno or Beatles or Monkees or other music that I've listened to years before I started running all my music through iTunes, since surely I've listened to individual songs and collective albums many more times with my CD player on repeat. But that would involve guestimating... and anyway, I'm pretty sure you've all heard the Beatles by now, and honestly, Eno doesn't appeal to very many.
So here's the last of my 15:
11. Begin the Beguine, Artie Shaw -- if I could nominate one recording to be the most perfect and precise realization of a tune, ever, I might be tempted to go with this one. For all that it's almost geometric in the way the notes and melody proceed complexly together, it's also warm, happy, intelligent and danceable.
12. Blue's Theme, Davy Allen & The Arrows -- and from one kind of danceable to another. This is from the amazing Rhino Records Nuggets box set which is definitely a big pre-iTunes favorite that still influences me.
13. Crazy Rhythm, Roger Wolfe Kahn -- the only song that I haven't owned for multiple years, since it's from the Rhythm Crazy compilation that I ran into at the iTunes Store, all of 20s songs. What a crazy diamond this cut is, and after many listens, I wondered if the drummer had studied with Gene Krupa, so I went googling and found out that yes, it was a young Krupa on display here.
14. Rock n' Roll Girl, The Beat -- After so much jazz, I ran my finger down the column and found this worthy, rocky, poppy song lurking.
15. Sing Sing Sing, Benny Goodman -- and I'll end my 15 with this cut, the full version with all the Gene Krupa drumming that you could want.
And that's it, though since, I'm using Box.Net this time, I can give you a special link that will take you back to all of the zipped songs if you want.
(The stats, in case you're interested, are 8 jazz/ 8 rock songs (counting Harlem Nocturne as a twofer, 6 instrumentals (8 if you count The Mooche and The Millionaire's Holiday where the vocals are arguably an afterthought), and 3 of the non-instrumentals have female vocalists.)