Dave’s Music Database Hall of Fame: Song Inductees (January 2019)

Originally posted 1/22/2019. January 22, 2019 marks the 10-year anniversary of the DMDB blog! To honor that, Dave’s Music Database announces its own Hall of Fame! The first dozen inductees are the top songs of each decade from 1900-2010.

Billy Murray “You’re a Grand Old Flag (aka ‘The Grand Old Rag’)” (1906) Inducted January 2019 as a “Song of the Decade.”

“Perhaps no other American popular song composer did more to popularize the patriotic song than George M. Cohan.” PS “Grand Old Flag” became the first song from a musical (George Washington, Jr.) to sell more than a million copies. SB The Songwriters Hall of Fame gave the song its Towering Song Award and the version by Billy Murray, who has been called “the definitive interpreter of Cohan on record,” SS has been inducted into the National Recording Registry. Read more.

Arthur Collins and Bryon G. Harlan “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” (1911) Inducted January 2019 as a “Song of the Decade.”

This has been called the first ragtime song DS and “the song that most changed the direction of American popular music.” RCG It was the first big hit for Irving Berlin, LW who was “one of the great architects of popular music in the 20th century.” LW Eleven versions charted from 1911 to 1947, with the most successful being the duet by the comedy singing team of Collins & Harlan. Their version spent 10 weeks at #1 and has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Read more.

Gene Austin “My Blue Heaven” (1927) Inducted January 2019 as a “Song of the Decade.”

The song was introduced in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1927 by Eddie Cantor. JA It charted multiple times, including a #5 R&B hit from Fats Domino in 1956. However, Austin, whose tenor voice has been credited as the onset of the crooner revolution, DS had the biggest version with a five-million seller that was one of the ten best sellers of the first half of the century PM-631 and the second biggest non-holiday record seller of the pre-1955 era. PM His version was also inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Read more.

Judy Garland “Over the Rainbow” (1939) Inducted January 2019 as a “Song of the Decade.”

There are few songs more associated with a movie than “Over the Rainbow” is with The Wizard of Oz and then-sixteen-year-old Judy Garland’s performance of it. Surprisingly, Garland’s version was neither the first nor most successful to chart, but hers “became the most famous and beloved.” JA The Oscar-winning tune topped the American Film Institute’s list of movie songs and was named the top song of the 20th century by the RIAA. Read more.

Bing Crosby with the Ken Darby Singers “White Christmas” (1942) Inducted January 2019 as a “Song of the Decade.”

“White Christmas” doesn’t just top the DMDB’s list of Christmas songs, but the list of top songs all time, thanks largely to its 56 million in sales, making it the biggest seller of all time. Irving Berlin wrote the Oscar-winning song for the film Holiday Inn. He was often insecure about his work, but referred to “White Christmas” not just as the best one he’d ever written, but the best anyone had ever written. LW Read more.

Bill Haley & His Comets “We’re Gonna Rock Around the Clock” (1954) Inducted January 2019 as a “Song of the Decade.”

The blues number “My Daddy Rocks Me with a Steady Roll” was reworked in 1953 as “Rock Around the Clock” by Sonny Dae & His Knights and then Haley covered it in 1954. SJ When Haley’s version was featured in the movie The Blackboard Jungle, its rioting teen audience trumpeted it as their theme for alienation and hostility. SJ As the first rock song to top the Billboard charts and the best-selling rock record of all time, KL “Clock” is generally regarded as the place keeper that separates the pre-rock era from the rock era. Read more.

The Beatles “Hey Jude” (1968) Inducted January 2019 as a “Song of the Decade.”

As the first single from the Beatles’ new Apple Records label, “Hey Jude” was history’s highest debut (at #10) on the U.S. charts at that time. BR1 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 Lennon cheekily retorted, “They will if it’s us.” RS500 Read more.

John Lennon “Imagine” (1971) Inducted January 2019 as a “Song of the Decade.”

John Lennon considered “Imagine” to rate as high as anything he wrote with the Beatles. RS500 His “musical gift to the world” RS500 was a statement of what, as his wife Yoko Ono said, “John believed – that we are all one country, one world, one people.” RS500 The song peaked at #3 in the U.S. in 1971, but took four more years to hit in Lennon’s native England, reaching #6. It topped the UK charts after Lennon’s murder in 1980. Read more.

The Police “Every Breath You Take” (1983) Inducted January 2019 as a “Song of the Decade.”

If there was an award for misunderstood songs, “Every Breath You Take” would strongly contend for the prize. Police drummer Stewart Copeland explains, “People often choose this...as their wedding song. They think it’s a cheerful song. In fact...it’s a very dark song.’” KL Sting, the band’s primary singer and songwriter, told Rolling Stone that it is “a fairly nasty song…about surveillance and ownership and jealousy.” BR1 It was memorably sampled in “I’ll Be Missing You,” the chart-topping 1997 tribute to slain rapper the Notorious B.I.G. helmed by Puff Daddy. Read more.

Whitney Houston “I Will Always Love You” (1992) Inducted January 2019 as a “Song of the Decade.”

Dolly Parton’s original version was a #1 country song in 1974 and 1982. In 1992, Whitney Houston re-recorded the song for the soundtrack for The Bodyguard and it arguably became the biggest pop song of all time. Its 14 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 made it the biggest song in that chart’s history (although three songs have since passed it). Whitney also hit #1 with the song hit on the UK charts, Cashbox, and Billboard’s pop, R&B, and adult contemporary charts. Read more.

OutKast “Hey Ya!” (2003) Inducted January 2019 as a “Song of the Decade.”

The song’s rallying call for every demographic to flood the dance floor makes it, as Consequence of Sound said, “the decade’s ‘Teen Spirit,’ man.” CS PopEater.com said, “you could see yourself partying to in college just as easily as you could watch your parents sweat to it in spin class.” PE “‘Hey Ya’ exemplified something very few tunes of the time had; a sense of fun.” PE Its merge of genres suggested “the walls between rock and R&B and hip-hop were about to topple.” PE Read more.

Adele “Rolling in the Deep” (2010) Inducted January 2019 as a “Song of the Decade.”

Barry Walters of Rolling Stone commends “Rolling in the Deep” for its “British knack for rejiggering the sound of American roots music” WK while All Music Guide’s Matt Collar calls it a “propulsive gospel fever-blues anthem” AMG and “one of the best singles of any decade.” AMG Billboard said it was the biggest crossover tune from the last quarter century, with appearances on a dozen different charts. SF The song hit #1 in eleven countries and won Grammys for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. Read more.