Top Eleven: Songs I Forgot About For My Top Twenty List

The problem with attempting to list the best (or just personal favorites) of anything is that there's people who know better than you and can connect you to other things they know you like.  Such was the case with my father, who called me out on forgetting a song I loved since I was young.

So, now in hindsight, I present the Top Eleven Songs I Forgot To Put On My Top Twenty List even though I know that math doesn't work.




#11)  Paul Simon - You Can Call Me Al

This was the song I got called out on.  This is one of the first songs I really remember knowing all the words to, and one of the few I'm willing to risk having stones thrown at me by singing along to it.  Plus, it has Chevy Chase lip-syncing.  

Now, I love most of the songs on Paul Simon's Graceland album, but this silly song was always my favorite from it.

#10)  Marvin Gaye - Heard It Through The Grapevine

...okay, that's a lie.  I actually really loved the California Raisins version.

Something about me not a lot of people knew: I dressed up as a California Raisin for Halloween one year when I was little.  I loved that costume (even if I did struggle to wear sunglasses at night, despite what Corey Hart says), and I was only mildly devastated and tempted to go home sad when I passed a mother and her child and the kid pointed at me and said "look, Mommy, a gorilla!"

#9)  Murray Head - One Night In Bangkok 

I never saw Chess, the Broadway show.  I only know this song from it, but whenever I heard it I found it to be the catchiest song I ever heard.  It's another I know by heart, and considering how hard it is for me to make out song lyrics (seriously, in "I Heard It Through The Grape Vine" I always thought the chorus was singing "if you'll break my knuckles, then be mine, baby") that says a lot.

#8) Alex Lloyd - Never Meant To Fail

I guess for a brief time I had what could be described as an "emo" phase.  I didn't wear black make-up or dress in all black clothes (...well, except for the times I did but that's because I thought black on black was fashionable.  It's the last time I take advice from Johnny Cash) or wear barbed jewelry.  And I never listened to Linkin Park.

But a song I did listen to whenever I was feeling low was this one.  I realize it's supposed to be about a relationship, but it just felt like it covered a lot of other areas of life as well.

#7)  New Radicals - You Get What You Give

On the flip side, we have a song that I used to listen to in order to help myself cheer up.

#6)  Phil Collins - In The Air Tonight

I always liked this song a lot growing up, and I don't know if there's a "remix" version of it or not, but there's one version I hear on the radio with a brass section, and one without.  I always preferred the brass section, because I always wanted to be able to do that part of the song when I was learning to play the trombone.

#5)  Animaniacs - Yakko's World

I'm still trying to memorize this stupid song.

#4)  "Weird Al" Yankovic - The Saga Begins

Sadly, I was late to the Weird Al fan club.  I knew about him, of course, but besides thinking "oh, he's the guy who writes those silly songs" it wasn't until this song let me actually look at how he constructs his songs and realize how much work he has to put into each one of them.

#3)  DJ Earworm - Funky Goes To Hollywood

This was the first real "mash-up" song I heard, and it's what got me started in exploring more and more of it.  Without this song, I wouldn't have discovered the works of DJ Earworm, and it wouldn't have lead me to all the other artists who are doing amazing things with already-produced works.

#2)  Barenaked Ladies - One Week

This song was my first introduction to the fact that "alternative" music didn't mean "alternative to good."  I know not everybody likes it, but when it came out it blew my mind that a song could have that many pop culture references and still be a hit without being made by someone like Weird Al.

#1)  They Might Be Giants - I Palindrome I

I'm an English nerd.  What more do you want?

Okay, a bit more.  I'm a huge fan of this group, and I've followed them since I discovered them in the 90's (when a friend loaned me Flood on cassette).  I loved their two music videos on Tiny Toon Adventures, I've followed their music ever since.

So there we go, eleven more songs that deserved a place in my top twenty (top thirty-one?).  I'm sure I'll think of more soon (or have more pointed out to me), so don't be surprised if I do a Top Eleven Songs I Feel Stupid That I Forgot About list.