In no particular order:
Simon and Garfunkel - I Am A Rock; Mrs. Robinson
Carly Simon - You’re So Vain
Bruce Springsteen - 10th Avenue Freeze-Out; Born To Run
Prince - Little Red Corvette
Eagles - Already Gone
No Doubt - It’s My Life
The Trammps - Disco Inferno
The Gap Band - Whip It
John Travolta/Olivia Newton-John - You’re The One That I Want
ABC - The Look Of Love
Sex Machine - James Brown - The Godfather!
Play That Funky Music - Average White Band - I love funk.
Whiskey in the Jar - Thin Lizzy - a classic
Dream a Little Dream of Me - Mamas & Papas - from my mum’s collection
Long and Winding Road - Beatles - just one that popped into my head from the Fab Four
Get It On Bang a Gong - T Rex - Extraordinary
Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
Walk On By - Stranglers
Denis Denis - Blondie
Black Magic Woman - Santana
Now That We’ve Found Love - Third World
Southern Freeze - Freeze
I could go on …
Even though it feels like “Play that Funky Music” should be by the Average White Band, I believe it was actually by Wild Cherry.
That minor nit-pick aside, here are my 12:
I think you will find that **Up on Cripple Creek **that you remember was by The Band not CCR.
I am a big CCR fan and if they did this song, I would like a copy.
Solsbury Hill - Peter Gabriel
More Than This - Roxy Music
La Cienega Just Smiled - Ryan Adams
Don’t Think Twice - Bob Dylan
Cuts You Up - Peter Murphy
Coming Up Close - Til Tuesday
Don’t Stop 'til You Get Enough - Michael Jackson
Tonight, Tonight - Smashing Pumpkins
Criminal - Fiona Apple
She Sells Sanctuary - The Cult
Mr. Jones - Counting Crows
Young Americans - David Bowie
First 12 that came to mind:
Miracles - Jefferson Starship
Cinnamon Girl - Neil Young
Crazy on You - Heart
Time in a Bottle - Jim Croce
Can’t Find My Way Back Home - Procul Harem (I think)
Wild Horses - I like The Sundays’ cover
Personal Jesus - Depeche Mode
Night of the Swallow - Kate Bush
Oldest Story in the World - the Plimsouls
Tunnel of Love - Dire Straits
Southern Cross - CSN
Iris - Goo Goo Dolls (my wife sent me this song and it clinched me falling in love with her)
Tobacco Road, Nashville Teens version ( I had a K-Tel record with this song on it when I was a little kid and I LOVED this song): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGuZY6NVXqU
Time by Pink Floyd. As I get older and more reflective, I find this song more and more interesting. This is a pretty amazing live performance of the song sans Roger Waters if you’ve not seen it before (turn your subwoofer up!): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntm1YfehK7U
Nashville Cats by Loving Spoonful. Love the math involved in the song (“fourteen hundred and fifty two guitar pickers in Nashville”) plus it has some really tasty guitar work. Also off that K-Tel record I had as a kid. Love this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4p7prURvIk
Crimson And Clover by Tommy James and the Shondells. I don’t really know why but I just love the atmospheric feel of this whole song. Its trippy, and a love song.
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQ-P8Fgfhvk
Space Oddity by David Bowie. A song I would like played at my funeral. Also a song that really evinces a sense of loneliness in me. And those harmonies!
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhSYbRiYwTY
In The Meantime by Spacehog. This song just reminds me of old friends, a time in my life in the mid-1990’s and its just a cool song. I was always surprised these guys didn’t make it bigger than they did. Cool band! Channeling Bowie. Aliens among us!
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9AWGc0d8ik
Say It Ain’t So by Weezer. Don’t really know what to say about this, but it elicits an emotional response from me every time I hear it, and the harmonies are awesome.
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENXvZ9YRjbo
High And Dry by Radiohead. An example of a lonely, catchy, beautiful pop song that’s so well done and produced that I don’t know what else to say. Listening to it right now, my eyes are getting a little leaky, love lost and all that. I really like the video too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwSIdKYZ2t0
Do The Evolution by Pearl Jam. I like being the first mammal to have hands (and plans!). One of the best and creepiest rock videos ever, and an interesting take on humanity’s self-destructiveness. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDaOgu2CQtI
We Don’t Do That Anymore by The Sidewinders. Grow up kid, you’re in college now! Nobody remembers this band, but my friends and I used to play this song on the quad when I went (briefly) to George Mason U. Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aoykSVAALc
Burden In My Hand by Soundgarden. My favorite rock singer at work. I love the cynical aspects of this song, the lyrics are great (“its just a tumor in my head, its just an anchor on my heart”) and strike a chord with me. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmIqIVxUuKs
Would? by Alice In Chains. Its probably my favorite rock song ever. Very dark, very brooding. I love the hopelessness conveyed during the double-stop guitar part at the end (“Have I run too far to get home?”). Extra chills due to Layne Staley the singer being dead, as he has run too far to get home.
Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nco_kh8xJDs
Live (Layne in the obvious throes of heroin addiction at this point): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31a6HQUrAz0
ETA: Cool Thread! Really had me thinking, and YES I know I didn’t list a single Beatles song!
Crap, I have to add a 13th song…My Song by Jerry Cantrell. Its awesome!
Anything by Charlie Parker
Here’s Where The Story Ends - The Sundays
These take me back to college when I was figuring out who I was going to be…and kind of giving up on it preemptively. I made a wrong turn coming out, and it seems I just kept going. Probably too late to do anything about it now, but these remind me of a time when it wasn’t.
Safety Dance - Men Without Hats
Fascination - The Human League
These take me back to summer camp at a small college in Colorado. Same process as above, but I think I had a better handle on it then.
Thunder Road - Bruce Springsteen
No explaination needed.
Do not read the following unless you want to risk having this song ruined for yourself.
My outstanding memory of *Bettie Davis Eyes *is hearing it played during the intermissions of the first curling match I ever saw. To this day, I can’t hear it without thinking of these people in blue sweatsuits frantically sweeping the ice in front of this huge stone gliding toward its target.