Best of the Rest of the Top 40: All-Time, 1956-2014

Cafe Society
1

The time has come to finally wrap up this series. (Apologies for this one being a few days late - the power supply on my PC burned out a few days ago and I’ve only just now gotten the new one installed.)

Anyway, these are the voters’ selections for best not-quite-number-one of each decade, the winner of which will go on to face the winner of the best #1 single poll series to determine the Official SDMB-Approved Greatest Top 40 Jam Of All Time.

What’s your favorite?

Previous polls: 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s

Best #1 single polls: 1955-56 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s All-time

2

Tough one. I like Bohemian Rhapsody best be Nirvana was such a game-changer when they released their album.

3

I looked at the list and asked myself “Of these, which one most surprises me that it was not a No. 1”. I went with Girls Just…

4
  1. Dylan, 2. Nirvana, 3. Jerry Lee

I like Queen, and appreciate Bohemian Rhapsody for what it is, but I don’t care if I never hear it again, and would never vote for it as a “best of” anything.

5

I’ve thought that Queen was going to be the overall “Best of the Rest” since it won the 70s poll and so far my prediction looks correct. As a result, I feel free to vote for another song. My ranking is:

Cyndi Lauper - Girls Just Want To Have Fun. Because it’s an über-catchy song that still sounds fresh and fun. Plus, childhood memories.

Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody. The most ambitious of the lot so bonus points for that. It’s a bit… too much, though and while I really like it, I can’t quite say that I love it.

Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit. Because it’s era-defining and it came out while I was in my last year at secondary school. Good memories but not as sweet as the ones from the 80s. Plus, I was sort of moving away from guitar-oriented music by the time (or more accurately, discovering genres that I had neglected until then).

**Jerry Lee Lewis **- Great Balls of Fire. Legendary and all that but merely OK as far as I’m concerned.

Bob Dylan - Like A Rolling Stone. Can I confess that I don’t care Dylan’s music at all? A very bland song in my book.

Gnarls Barkley - Crazy. OK but forgettable.

Lady Gaga - Bad Romance. HTF did it beat both Ellie Goulding’s Lights and Sia’s Chandelier? :confused:

6

I’m voting for “Great Balls of Fire” for the third time now. It’s not necessarily one of my favorite songs, but I like it more than the others. None of these other songs got my vote even once.

A fun little fact (at least for me) about “Bad Romance:” This song held the #2 spot in the Billboard Hot 100 for seven whole weeks, yet never reached #1. The #1 song for the majority of that time was Kesha’s “TiK ToK.”

In dead-ass last place for the third time :mad: is Cindy Lauper’s abomination.
Thanks again to Smapti for putting these polls together, and thanks again to Kesha for being so fucking awesome!

7

I could vote for any of these, but I ended up going with “Great Balls of Fire” simply because that’s such an iconic rock & roll song and it boggles my mind that it never reached number one. I suppose the same can be said for some other songs on the list, but that is just such a seminal early rock tune, that needs to get it.

8

I voted for “Bohemian Rhapsody”, my second time after the 1976 poll. For the 70’s All Time Poll I opted for “Nights In White Satin”.

But from this list it is the best one, though like many I have heard so many times. Another tiresome one is “Smells Like Teen Spirit”.

The other songs I am indifferent to.

9

Incredibly easy choice: His Bobness all the way.

The last four on that list just leave me shaking my head and going “Really???”

10

Dylan. The rest are also-rans for a reason.

11

This. It’s always rewarding when I find out silenus and Biffy agree wth me! :smiley:

12

This was hard. Oddly, I went with “Great balls of fire” because I think it’s the most fun, despite being from way before my time.

Thanks, Smapti, for doing these, I’ve enjoyed them.

13

I surprised myself by voting for “Great Balls of Fire” - perhaps I’ve heard many of the others just too many times and didn’t feel it for the last two songs.

Thank you, Smapti - I’m going to miss this series of threads. :frowning:

14

This is getting tighter than spandex on a 350-pound woman. Earlier today, it looked like Queen was running away with it, but Bob Dylan is making a big comeback.

15

Dylan.

And that’s all I have to say about that.

16

Both are good, and both are some of the oldest…

I wonder how this would look 30-40 years from now, when some of the newer entries could either be forgotten (and replaced with another song), or have become after all a “classic”.

17

I also went with Queen since it’s in my teen-age memories - it was very different seeing Wolfman Jack introducing it on The Midnight Special around 1976, before SNL and MTV.

Let me add my thanks to Smapti for the entire series of polls - it looks like it was a lot of work. I really enjoyed revisiting lots of the songs that I had forgotten about and see others’ comment. Now what’s next - worst #1 songs (or has that already been done?)

18

Thanks. This one was more complicated to put together than the #1s series, simply because of the process of double-checking every song to make sure it didn’t reach #1 (and I made a few mistakes, but too few to mention.) :slight_smile:

Once either Dylan or Queen pulls ahead by a significant margin (and I may run a tiebreaker in a day or two if that doesn’t happen on its own), there’ll be one more poll pitting it against the winner of the #1s poll. After that - I’ll probably wait a few months to run another music poll series so it doesn’t feel like we’re repeating ourselves too soon (I’m thinking either best #1s off the British charts, or the best of the Beatles discography since they didn’t make it to the finals of either of these series), but I may run something non-music related in the meantime. (Best of some long-running TV series, season by season, maybe?)