Jimi Hendrix: Top 25 Songs

Posted 5/20/2019.

Legendary psychedelic-blues/rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix (click link for DMDB encyclopedia entry) was born Johnny Allen Hendrix on 11/27/1942 in Seattle, Washington. He was only 27 when he died of a drug overdose in London on 9/18/1970.

He first worked as a sideman with Rosa Lee Brooks (1964), Isley Brothers (1964), Buddy & Stacey and the Upsetters (1965); Little Richard, Curtis Knight, and Ronnie Youngblood. He formed Jimmy James and the Blue Flames in 1965. The next year he was discovered by the Animals’ Chas Chandler at New York City’s Café Wha? He went to London and formed the Jimi Hendrix Experience (1966-1969) with bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell. He also helmed the Band of Gypsys with drummer Buddy Miles and bassist Buddy Cox from 1969 to 1970.

His albums Are You Experienced (1967) and Electric Ladyland (1968) are featured in the DMDB book The Top 100 Albums of All Time. His cover of Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” (1968) is featured in the DMDB book The Top 100 Songs of the Rock Era 1954-1999.

To celebrate his birthday, the DMDB compiled a list of his top 25 songs.

1. All Along the Watchtower (1968)
2. Purple Haze (1967)
3. Hey Joe (1966)
4. Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) (1968)
5. Little Wing (1967)

6. Crosstown Traffic (1968)
7. Foxey Lady (1967)
8. Fire (1967)
9. The Wind Cries Mary (1967)
10. Red House (1967)

11. The Star Spanged Banner (live, 1969)
12. Are You Experienced? (1967)
13. Freedom (1970)
14. Burning of the Midnight Lamp (1967)
15. Dolly Dagger (1970)

16. Stone Free (1966)
17. Manic Depression (1967)
18. Angel (1970)
19. Up from the Skies (1967)
20. Castles Made of Sand (1967)

21. Like a Rolling Stone (live, 1967)
22. If 6 Was 9 (1967)
23. Gloria (live, 1968)
24. I Don’t Live Today (1967)
25. Wild Thing (live, 1967)

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Cover Songs: Top 100

image from subhtube.com

Cover songs have long been a staple of music, although listeners tend to favor the originals. However, there have been some covers which outshone the original – in some cases, to the point that people may not realize the song with which they’re so familiar is not recorded by the original artist. Here, according to the rankings in Dave’s Music Database, are the top cover songs of all time:

1. Bill Haley & His Comets “We’re Gonna Rock Around the Clock” (1954)
2. Whitney Houston “I Will Always Love You” (1992)
3. Aretha Franklin “Respect” (1967)
4. Marvin Gaye “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” (1968)
5. Elvis Presley “Hound Dog” (1956)
6. Artie Shaw “Stardust” (1941)
7. Gene Austin “My Blue Heaven” (1927)
8. Al Jolson “Swanee” (1920)
9. Elton John “Candle in the Wind 1997 (Goodbye England’s Rose)” (1997)
10. Artie Shaw “Begin the Beguine” (1938)

11. Ethel Waters “Stormy Weather (Keeps Rainin' All the Time)” (1933)
12. Bessie Smith with Louis Armstrong “St. Louis Blues” (1925)
13. Bobby Darin “Mack the Knife” (1959)
14. Haydn Quartet “Sweet Adeline (You’re the Flower of My Heart)” (1904)
15. Billy Murray with the Haydn Quartet “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” (1908)
16. The Animals “The House of the Rising Sun” (1964)
17. Dooley Wilson “As Time Goes By” (1942)
18. Fats Waller “Ain’t Misbehavin’” (1929)
19. Joan Jett & the Blackhearts “I Love Rock and Roll” (1981)
20. Sinead O’Connor “Nothing Compares 2 U” (1990)

21. The Harmonicats “Peg O’ My Heart” (1947)
22. Coleman Hawkins “Body and Soul” (1940)
23. Patti Page “Tennessee Waltz” (1950)
24. The Righteous Brothers “Unchained Melody” (1965)
25. Chubby Checker “The Twist” (1960)
26. Haydn Quartet “In the Good Old Summertime” (1903)
27. Cliff Edwards “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” (1928)
28. Paul Whiteman “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” (1933)
29. The Kingsmen “Louie Louie” (1963)
30. Vaughn Monroe “Riders in the Sky (A Cowboy Legend)” (1949)

31. Red Nichols “I Got Rhythm” (1930)
32. The Weavers “Goodnight Irene” (1950)
33. Marion Harris “After You’ve Gone” (1919)
34. Les Paul & Mary Ford “How High the Moon” (1951)
35. Sophie Tucker “Some of These Days” (1911)
36. Perry Como “Some Enchanted Evening” (1949)
37. Ben Selvin “Happy Days Are Here Again” (1930)
38. Rudy Vallee “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” (1932)
39. John McCormack “It’s a Long, Long Way to Tipperary” (1915)
40. Larry Clinton with Bea Wain “Deep Purple” (1939)

41. Woody Herman “Blues in the Night (My Mama Done Tol’ Me)” (1941)
42. Gertrude Lawrence “Someone to Watch Over Me” (1927)
43. The Ink Spots “The Gypsy” (1946)
44. Kim Carnes “Bette Davis Eyes” (1981)
45. Arthur Collins with Byron Harlan “The Darktown Strutters’ Ball” (1918)
46. Ray Noble “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” (1936)
47. Fats Domino “Blueberry Hill” (1956)
48. The Jimi Hendrix Experience “All Along the Watchtower” (1968)
49. Judy Garland with Gene Kelly “For Me and My Gal” (1942)
50. Harry MacDonough “Down by the Old Mill Stream” (1911)

51. Ray Charles “Georgia on My Mind” (1960)
52. Paul Whiteman “Three O’Clock in the Morning” (1922)
53. Fred Astaire “They Can’t Take That Away from Me” (1937)
54. Ray Charles “I Can’t Stop Loving You” (1962)
55. Billie Holiday “Summertime” (1936)
56. Soft Cell “Tainted Love” (1981)
57. Glenn Miller “That Old Black Magic” (1943)
58. Bunny Berigan “I Can’t Get Started” (1938)
59. Bing Crosby “Silent Night” (1935)
60. Elvis Presley “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” (1960)

61. Fats Waller “Honeysuckle Rose” (1935)
62. Charles Harrison “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows” (1918)
63. Paul Whiteman “My Mammy” (1921)
64. Henry Burr “Beautiful Ohio” (1919)
65. The Flamingos “I Only Have Eyes for You” (1959)
66. Run-D.M.C. with Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler & Joe Perry “Walk This Way” (1986)
67. Peerless Quartet “I Didn’t Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier” (1915)
68. The Fifth Dimension “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” (1969)
69. Count Basie “April in Paris” (1956)
70. Ben Selvin “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles” (1919)

71. Mitch Miller “The Yellow Rose of Texas” (1955)
72. The Byrds “Mr. Tambourine Man” (1965)
73. The Five Satins “In the Still of the Nite (I’ll Remember)” (1956)
74. Cyndi Lauper “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” (1983)
75. Bing Crosby with the Mills Brothers “Dinah” (1932)
76. Vess Ossman “The Old Folks at Home (Swanee River)” (1900)
77. Bert Williams “Nobody’ (1906)
78. Haydn Quartet “Bedelia” (1904)
79. Missouri Waltz (Hush-A-Bye Ma Baby)” (1917)
80. James Harrison & Dick Haymes “I’ll Get By As Long As I Have You” (1941)

81. George MacFarlane “A Little Bit of Heaven (Shure, They Call It Ireland)” (1915)
82. Louis Armstrong “All of Me” (1932)
83. Bing Crosby with Trudy Erwin & Sportsmen Glee Club “People Will Say We’re in Love” (1943)
84. Elvis Presley “That’s All Right, Mama” (1954)
85. Bing Crosby with the Ken Darby Singers “Sunday, Monday or Always” (1943)
86. Willie Nelson “Always on My Mind” (1982)
87. Harry MacDonough “Hiawatha (His Song to Minnehaha)” (1903)
88. Perry Como “If I Loved You” (1945)
89. Henry Mancini with Audrey Hepburn “Moon River” (1961)
90. Kay Kyser with Harry Babbitt & Julie Conway “Jingle, Jangle, Jingle” (1942)

91. All-4-One “I Swear” (1994)
92. Ray Miller “The Sheik of Araby” (1922)
93. Bill Snyder “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered” (1950)
94. Art Mooney “I’m Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover” (1948)
95. Frank Stanley with Corrine Morgan “Listen to the Mocking Bird (aka “The Mocking Bird”)” (1904)
96. Ernestine Schumann-Heink “Danny Boy” (1918)
97. Rosemary Clooney “Tenderly” (1952)
98. Guy Lombardo “How Deep Is the Ocean?” (1932)
99. Ada Jones & Billy Murray “Come Josephine in My Flying Machine” (1911)
100. George Olsen “Who?” (1926)

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50 Years Ago Today: “Hey Jude” spent 9th week at #1, giving Beatles their biggest hit (11/23/68)

Last updated 4/7/2020.

Hey Jude The Beatles

Writer(s): John Lennon, Paul McCartney (see lyrics here) Released: August 26, 1968 First Charted: September 4, 1968 Peak: 19 US, 17 CB, 14 HR, 41 AR (1990 live version by Paul McCartney), 12 UK, 13 CN, 113 AU (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): 4.0 US, 1.06 UK, 10.0 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 3.0 radio, 226.5 video, 84.74 streaming

Awards:

Review: The birth of “Hey Jude” is a story familiar to anyone versed in Rock and Roll History 101: Cynthia Lennon was soon to be the ex-wife of the famous Beatle. To soothe the couple’s young son, Julian, John’s band mate Paul McCartney offered words of encouragement in the best way he knew how – through song. However, there are alternative versions of the inspiration for the rock-and-roll era’s greatest single. In his autobiography, Many Years from Now, McCartney asserted the song was really about himself. KL Meanwhile, Lennon concluded the song was Paul’s commentary on the strain that John and Yoko’s relationship put on the bond between John and Paul. RS500 Regardless of its origin, “‘Hey Jude’ kicks ass on a par with Van Gogh or Beethoven in their prime.” WI-137 As the first single from the Beatles’ new Apple Records label, it was history’s highest debut (at #10) on the U.S. charts at that time. BR1-247 It became the best-selling single of the sixties and the Beatles’ biggest U.S. hit. At over seven minutes, “Hey Jude” was the longest single ever released. SF This made producer George Martin wary that radio wouldn’t play it, to which John cheekily retorted, “They will if it’s us.” RS500 When Lennon’s assumption proved correct, the real winners were DJ’s who could take longer bathroom breaks as the listening public absorbed similarly lengthy hits like “American Pie” and “Layla.” More than half the song’s length is borne out of the “na na na“ fade-out coda that repeats 19 times. The featured orchestra was paid double their usual fee just to clap and sing along. RS500 Resources and Related Links: The Beatles’ DMDB Encyclopedia entry BR1 Bronson, Fred (2003). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits (5th edition). New York, NY: Billboard Books. KL Kutner, Jon, and Spencer Leigh (2005). 1000 UK Number One Hits: The Stories Behind Every Number One Single Since 1952. London, Great Britain: Omnibus Press. Page 143. RS500 Rolling Stone (12/2004). The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. SF Songfacts WI Williams, Paul (1993). Rock and Roll: The Best 100 Singles. New York, NY: Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc.

50 years ago: The Beatles released The White Album

Last updated 9/18/2020.

The Beatles (aka “The White Album”) The Beatles

Released: November 22, 1968 Peak: 19 US, 18 UK, 112 CN, 116 AU Sales (in millions): 9.5 US, 0.3 UK, 21.5 world (includes US and UK) Genre: classic rock

Tracks: Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. You can check out the Beatles’ complete singles discography here. Disc 1: Back in the U.S.S.R. [2:43] (7/10/76, 19 UK) Dear Prudence [3:56] Glass Onion [2:17] Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da [3:08] (11/20/76, 49 US, 39 AC, 19 CN, 1 AU) Wild Honey Pie [:52] The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill [3:14] While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Harrison) [4:45] Happiness Is a Warm Gun [2:43] Martha My Dear [2:28] I'm So Tired [2:03] Blackbird [2:18] (10/20/90: solo live version by Paul McCartney, 90 UK, #35 AR) Piggies (Harrison) [2:04] Rocky Raccoon [3:32] Don't Pass Me By (Starr) [3:50] Why Don't We Do It in the Road? [1:41] I Will [1:46] Julia [2:54] Disc 2: Birthday [2:42] Yer Blues [4:01] Mother Nature's Son [2:48] Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey [2:24] Sexy Sadie [3:15] Helter Skelter [4:29] Long, Long, Long (Harrison) [3:04] Revolution 1 [4:15] Honey Pie [2:41] Savoy Truffle (Harrison) [2:54] Cry Baby Cry [3:01] Revolution 9 [8:22] Good Night [3:11] Songs by John Lennon and Paul McCartney unless noted otherwise. Total Running Time: 93:33 The Players: John Lennon (vocals, guitar) Paul McCartney (vocals, bass) George Harrison (guitar, vocals) Ringo Starr (drums, vocals)

Rating: 4.526 out of 5.00 (average of 25 ratings) Quotable: “This makes for a frustratingly scattershot record or a singularly gripping musical experience, depending on your view.” – Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide Awards:

About the Album: “Some records have legend written all over them; this is one.” AZ “Beyond its stylish minimalism, the essentially blank cover of The Beatles, better known as the White Album, served a symbolic purpose. The band could find no honest way to visually represent itself as a coherent unit.” RS500 They “were now a tense alliance of daunting individual talents.” RS500 “The Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein was dead and…in the middle of these sessions, Ringo was the first Beatle to temporarily quit the band.” TL “Each of the three main songwriters was pursuing his own vision, with the other members, however reluctantly, serving as backup musicians.” RS500 The four “were seldom all in the studio at the same time.” TL As a result, “each song on the sprawling double album The Beatles is an entity to itself, as the band touches on anything and everything they can.” AMG This “became a double album in part because John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison all insisted that their favorite songs be included.” RS500 The result is “brilliant and amazingly eclectic, but long-winded.” JA “None of it sounds like it was meant to share album space together, but somehow The Beatles creates its own style and sound through its mess.” AMG It is “an exhilarating sprawl – some of the Beatles’ most daring and delicate work.” RS500 “Not all of its parts make perfect sense,” AD but “the cumulative effect of everything that’s here does create a masterpiece.” AD As Paul McCartney said, “I think it was a very good album…but it wasn’t a pleasant one to make.’” RS500 “This makes for a frustratingly scattershot record or a singularly gripping musical experience, depending on your view, but what makes the White Album interesting is its mess.” AMG “Producer George Martin fought hard to edit the project down to a consistent single album, but the Beatles were right to keep the scraps, experiments, and jokes – the tension and confusion of the time became central to The Beatles (which was originally called A Doll’s House, a fitting title for its odds-and-ends feel.” TL “Never before had a rock record been so self-reflective, or so ironic; the Beach Boys send-up Back in the U.S.S.R. and the British blooze parody Yer Blues are delivered straight-faced, so it’s never clear if these are affectionate tributes or wicked satires.” AMG “Clearly, the Beatles’ two main songwriting forces were no longer on the same page,” AMG but “Lennon and McCartney were still at the height of their powers, with Lennon in particular growing into one of rock’s towering figures.” AZ “Lennon turns in two of his best ballads with Dear Prudence and Julia.” AMG The former sports “harmonic experiments that put the Byrds to shame.” JA He also “pours on the schmaltz for Ringo’s closing number, Good Night; celebrates the Beatles cult with Glass Onion; and, with Cry Baby Cry, rivals Syd Barrett.” AMG He also delivers what has often been called “the worst thing The Beatles ever did.” AD Indeed, “the musique concrete collage Revolution 9” AMG was the Beatles at their “weirdest.” TL It was one of the few remnants of the studio experimentation which marked the Beatles’ studio work a year before. “McCartney doesn’t reach quite as far” AMG but “his songs are stunning – the music-hall romp Honey Pie, the mock country of Rocky Raccoon, [and] the ska-inflected Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da.” AMG He also proved he “could still rock.” AZ When he kicks off the album with the “exuberance” RS500 of “Back in the U.S.S.R.”, it is clear that “the production is much more ‘live’ here than either the Revolver or Sgt. Peppers’ recordings.” AD There’s also Birthday and “the proto-metal roar of Helter Skelter,” AMG which “reveals the Beatles at their hardest.” TL “Harrison still had just two songs per LP, but it’s clear…that he had developed into a songwriter who deserved wider exposure.” AMG On While My Guitar Gently Weeps, “Eric Clapton drops by to deliver a blistering guitar solo.” JA On “the haunting Long Long Long,” AMG George delivers “a mellow number in the style that would dominate his ‘70s work.” DBW He also offers “the canned soul” AMG of “the horn-powered rocker Savoy Truffle” DBW and “the silly Piggies.” AMG “Ringo turns in a delight with his first original, the lumbering country-carnival stomp Don't Pass Me By.” AMG “It’s such a simple song yet the bass lines and whole execution sounds so truly ludicrous that it works as a piece of entertainment.” AD Notes: A 2018 super deluxe edition added four discs of demos and alternate takes.

Resources and Related Links: The Beatles’ DMDB Encyclopedia entry AMG All Music Guide review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine JA John Alroy, Wilson & Alroy’s Record Reviews AZ Amazon.com review by Chris Nickson AD Adrian Denning RS500 Rolling Stone “500 Greatest Albums of All Time” TL Time Magazine’s All-TIME 100 Albums by Josh Tyrangiel and Alan Light (11/13/06). DBW David Bertrand Wilson, Wilson & Alroy’s Record Reviews