What are your favourite songs?
A brief pick:
“Battle Hymn of the Republic”
“Lili Marlene”
“Christmas Waltz”
I’m going to assume you’re asking for a Top 3, since that’s how many you listed in the OP.
-
Free Bird–Lynyrd Skynyrd
-
A Pirate Looks at 40-Jimmy Buffet
-
Me & Bobby McGee-as covered by Janis Joplin
Numbers 2 & 3 might change if I was asked again tomorrow, but *Free Bird
*, which isn’t actually AKA “Oak’s Anthem” but should be, is always going to be #1.
Feel free to list as many as you wish.
**Statesboro Blues. ** I have at least five versions, and am partial to the Allman Brothers, but Taj Mahal, Alice Stuart, and, of course, Blind Willie McTell are great.
Rhapsody in Blue. Maybe technically not a song, but I love it. Favorite versions include the Denver Symphony, accompanied by George Gershwin (via piano roll), Oscar Levant (though I wish it were in stereo) and my Joan Brill’s (my aunt, who was trained at Julliard and plays professionally).
Rosalita – Bruce Springsteen
The Abbey Road Medley
My Old Town – Tom Lehrer
Summer '68 – Pink Floyd
Razzle Dazzle – Chicago (the musical)
Bride’s Lament – The Drowsy Chaperone (musical)
They Can’t Take That Away from Me – by George Gershwin
Sympathy for the Devil – Rolling Stone
Lola – the Kinks
Guitar and Pen – the Who
Killer Queen – Queen
I’ll stop now.
“Kid Charlemagne” - Steely Dan. A very bleak, powerful song that speaks to me in a lot of ways.
“Stairway to Heaven” - Led Zeppelin. Great song, and I don’t just like it for the solo (although it is my favorite solo… yeah, I’m just another man on the bandwagon).
“The End” - The Doors. Many people find this song extremely pretentious and stupid, but I find it poetic. I really like the rhythm as well.
Too many. Some off the top of my head:
The Divine Comedy - Tonight We Fly
Husker Du - Celebrated Summer
The Replacements - Unsatisfied
The Beatles - Strawberry Fields Forever; Tomorrow Never Knows
The Clash - Complete Control
Gang Of Four - At Home He’s A Tourist
The Jesus & Mary Chain - Just Like Honey
Elvis Costello - (What’s So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love & Understanding?
R.E.M. - Nightswimming
New Order - Ceremony
The Pogues - Fairytale Of New York
Talking Heads - This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)
XTC - Mayor Of Simpleton
Bob Mould - See A Little Light
Pulp - Common People
Morrissey - Interesting Drug
The dBs - Black And White
Otis Redding - Try A Little Tenderness
Way too many, but here a few that leap to mind:
“Pancho and Lefty” - Townes van Zandt
“All Along the Watchtower” - Bob Dylan
“Copperhead Road” - Steve Earle
“Plane Crash at Los Gatos” my favorite Woody Guthrie tune, covered by a zillion people. I like the versions by the Kingston Trio, Judy Collins, and the Byrds
“Something in the Air” - Thunderclap Newman
“Everybody’s Everything” - Santana
“Whipping Post” - Allman Brothers
“Do Your Thing” - Basement Jaxx
“Southern Cross” - CSN&Y
“Knock On Wood” - Eddie Floyd
Well known…
Bad- U2
Walk On - U2
Tales of Brave Ulysses - Cream
The End - The Doors
Cross Road Blues - Robert Johnson
The Thrill is Gone - BB King
Lesser known…
'59 Sound - The Gaslight Anthem (Actualy this whole album kicks ass)
Blue Collar Suicide - The Refreshments
Chloroform the One You Love - Flickerstick
A Six Pack, a Number and You - My Dad 
If I could only listen to one song for the rest of my life, it would be Hoagy Carmichael’s “Lazy River”, all the various incarnations, from the really slow (the Platters) to the really upbeat (Bobby Darin) and everything in between.
Fist bump to another wa-wa- psychedelia fan. . “Tiny purple fishes run laughing through your fingers…” I’ve loved this song since I bought Disraeli Gears when it first came out.
A DJ once said, after playing this…“we all went through the 60s, but Jack Bruce went through twice.”
Where to begin, where to begin…
Deacon Blues–Steely Dan
Midnight Rambler (live)–Rolling Stones
What Is Life and Wah-Wah–George Harrison
Follow You, Follow Me–Genesis
House of Stone and Light–Martin Page
Blazing Saddles–Frankie Laine
Comedy Tonight–B’way cast of “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”
Clampdown–The Clash
Scenes From an Italian Restaurant–Billy Joel
Learning to Fly–Pink Floyd
…and just about anything by The Beatles.
I’m a sucker for those overblown extended prog suites, especially:
“Xanadu” - Rush
“The Friends of Mr. Cairo” - Jon and Vangelis
“And You and I” - Yes
Recent favorites:
Dan Auerbach - Heartbroken, In Disrepair
David Byrne - Dance on Vaseline
Lo Fidelity Allstars - Battleflag
I can’t even keep my favorite albums straight, let alone songs.
IF my iPod is to be believed, the three songs I play most often are:
“Panama” by Van Halen
“You Wreck Me” by Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
“Hey Bulldog” by the Beatles
But I must add, the songs I play most often aren’t NECESSARILY the songs I like best. I like a lot of lengthy prog-rock songs from the Seventies, but if I’m in my car on a short jaunt, I may well skip past a long song, figuring I’ll never hear it all by the time I get where I’m going. I’ll almost never skip past a SHORT song I like.
So, while I like any number of Yes or ELP or King Crimson songs better than “Panama,” I’m less likely to play those songs in their entirety.
I’ve got a new favorite song, that’s probably 30 years old and somehow I never heard it before. My local morning djs drug it out of the closet this morning, and I was hooked. It is very catchy.
Saulsalito Summer Nights by Diesel.
I’m a fairly astute music fan, who was a fairly astute music fan in the actual 70’s, but this one totally slipped past me until this morning.
I should note … it is a very banal, poppy song … full of wall-of-sound double-tripe-quadruple tracked vocals and the lyrics are utterly inane … but it’s got this catchy little two-note, then two-note lead hook to it that just works for me.
Oh, I shall be i-Tuning tonight.
Then you should probably note that it’s Sausalito. Small town in Marin County, just at the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge.
I’m better at geography than I am at spelling.
Because Paul Revere and the Raiders were mentioned in another thread, my current favorite song is Time After Time.