The Hit List

What's the name of the song, and where you can get 'em!

Home Page - See That My Grave Is Kept Clean Blind Lemon Jefferson. From The Anthology of American Folk Music - Smithsonian Folkways Music. An excellent compilation of blues, country and folk music from early in the last century. Over 80 songs, and a fascinating piece of audio history. Compiled by Harry Smith, and originally released in 1952.

B - Biko Peter Gabriel. You might recognize that big drum sound floating in the background. Peter's former band mate and singing replacement in Genesis, Phil Collins, developed the sound you'll later hear in songs like "In The Air Tonight." A thoughtful, political song. From Peter Gabriel's third album and Shaking The Tree.

C- Polly Nirvana. Not the obvious Kurt Cobain track, but one of my favorites. From the album Nevermind.

E- Dream A Little Dream of Me The Mamas and the Papas. One of the last Mamas and Papas tracks, and the first to be released as a Cass Eliot solo single. Two quick things about Mama Cass. First, she didn't die choking on a sandwich, which was reported at the time. She had a heartattack. Second, she died in the same flat that Keith Moon would later die in. From Greatest Hits

F- I Fought The Law The Bobby Fuller Four. A classic track that wasn't as big a hit as you might have thought. It does stand the test of time, and you can wonder what Bobby Fuller would have come up with if he didn't have the misfortune of drinking gasoline. From the excellent Rhino collection, The Best of the Bobby Fuller Four.

G- I Know A Little Lynyrd Skynyrd. This Steve Gaines penned song is from the CD "Street Survivors", and is my personal favorite. How many times can you hear Freebird anyway? I was in high school when the plane went down, and remember staying up to watch the 11 O'clock News.

H- Not Fade Away Buddy Holly. I always think of Buddy as kind of a square guy, but if you take a close listen to the lyrics, you'll find that they're a little domineering. No wonder this was one of the songs the Rolling Stones covered when they were a "blues band." Strangely, there's still not a good Buddy Holly cd collection. This is from Buddy Holly from the Original Master Tapes.

J - They're Red Hot Robert Johnson. I don't know if he sold his soul at the crossroads or not, but listening to Robert Johnson certainly makes clear why this is the "Devil's Music." From The Complete Robert Johnson on Columbia. Many of the songs on here turned up, both credited and uncredited, on albums from Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

M - Cobwebs And Strange The Who. From the CD, A Quick One on MCA. One of the few songs written by Keith Moon. He had a solo album (Two Sides of the Moon) in the 70's, but I heard it was terrible, and I have no desire to track it down. In a side note, I missed seeing Keith Moon play drums with John Bonham (also Dead Before 40) at the Fabulous Forum in Los Angeles by one night. Led Zeppelin was my first concert when I was 13, and I was taken by my dad.

R - (Sittin' on the) Dock of The Bay Otis Redding. Written the day after Otis had played a career making set at the Monterey Pop Music Festival, (which also saw the beginning of Dead Before 40 members Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Keith Moon with the Who) while sitting on a houseboat in the San Francisco Bay. From The Very Best of Otis Redding on Rhino.

V - Pride and Joy Stevie Ray Vaughan. From Texas Flood on Epic. It's too bad, really. Stevie had gotten clean and sober, and was making some of the best music of his life. A helicopter crash ended it all.

Jesus Christ- Jesus The Velvet Underground. I almost went with Jesus Walking on the Water by the Violent Femmes, but decided on this quite Lou Reed song instead. About a dozen years ago, I had a radio show in San Luis Obispo, and one night (I would fill in for the Midnight to 5:30 shifts) I devoted 2 1/2 hours towards "God" songs, songs that in someway mentioned the dieaty. I'm not sure if it was theBorn Again Christian woman I was dating, or the other girls I was juggling or what. It wasn't one of my more popular shows, but lots of people called in voting against my theme. Jesus is available on the Velvet Underground box set, Peel Slowly and See or The Velvet Underground.

Bobby Darin - Splish Splash. Bobby Darin. My aunt swears she used to sing this to me in the bathtub, though I really don't remember. From The Bobby Darin Story, which features several interesting bits of commentary like the one at the intro of this song.

Dennis Danell - Playpen Social Distortion. The Posh Boy version, which is sitting on a 7" in my garage. This is from the cd Mainliner (wreckage from the past), on Time Bomb. I've been a Social Distortion fan for over 20 years, and I think this is their very first recorded release. Buy everything from Social Distortion, and be a happy punk rocker.

Bob Marley - One Love Bob Marley. From Legend on Island.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Rondo alla Turca Svetlana Stanceva, piano. From the CD Not Bad For A Kid, a compilation of Mozart tracks on Intersound Recordings. There are so many good recordings of Mozart's music, it would be hard for me, with my very limited background in classical music, to recommend any. Cruise down to a Borders and go through the Mozart section. Recordings on Sony or RCA are pretty safe, as are recordings by any artist who's name you recognize. But there are also plenty of budget discs that are very good, recorded in places like Czechoslovakia, Hungary or Poland. Be daring and try a few of those.

Jack Benny - Smoke Smoke Smoke Phil Harris. Phil Harris was a regulart on Jack Benny's radio show, and since I had this cd, I thought I'd use it. I first heard this song on Comander Cody's We've Got A Live One Here, from about 1977 or so. Phil Harris, as you 40 somethings may remember, was the voice of Baloo the Bear in the Jungle Book, Little John in Robin Hood, and my personal favorite, J Thomas O'Malley in the Aristocats. From Phil Harris at his Best, an English cd I bought off of E-Bay.

Rick's Pages - Theme From Endless Summer The Sandals. One of my favorite surf instrumentals. From Cowabunga: The Surf Box on Rhino, a primo surf primer, covering 35 years of surf tunes. If you've never seen the film, The Endless Summer, a movie about two guys who surf around the world, check it out. It's one of the first movies I remember watching with my father. Both of us enjoy the ocean, but neither of us surf. The Endless Summer II was pretty good, too. Most interesting was how different the world was 30 years ago.

The Hit List- Roll Over DJ Jet. From Jet's debut, Get Born. Cruising through my favorite store (Target), I saw the video for Are You Gonna Be My Girl? and thought it was one of the best songs ever. They had the cd for $6.99, and so I gave it a chance. It's one of the best cd's I've ever bought, which means something with my collection nearing 2000 CD's

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