Friday Fun, Songs From Before My Birth--Honorable Mentions

New Friday Fun series.  I wanted to do some earlier songs, and for no particular reason I decided that the cut-off will be songs that were released prior to my birth--February 1978.  That's entirely arbitrary, but there you go.

A couple of ground-rules I just made up.  First, one song per artist or group, because otherwise it would be hard to justify not going with seven or eight Beatles songs.  Second, I'm going to come up with ten, but I'm not going to put them in rank order--it will just be ten songs that are from before 2/78.

But, before we get to the real ten, here are some that I thought about and decided not to go with.

 The Crystals, "And Then He Kissed Me" (1963)


If you know this song, it's probably because you heard it from the movie Goodfellas.  My memory of the song, however, comes from a different cinematic masterpiece, Adventures in Babysitting.  That movie is significant for me because it features my first celebrity/movie crush--Elizabeth Shue.  Shue sings along to this song at the beginning of Adventures in Babysitting, and I was completely in love.  Between Babysitting and The Karate Kid, Shue was the ideal woman to the young Mike.  It's a great song, as well.


Ritchie Valens, "Come on, Let's Go" (1958)

As you will see from the forthcoming posts, I really like the early 50s rock and roll sound.  I will probably rant about this in some later post, but people focus so much on Elvis that they forget all of these other, much better acts.  My own HOT TAEK is that Elvis Presley is the most over-rated musical act of the 20th Century.

Ritchie Valens, however, is not at all over-rated.  Most people know "La Bamba," and some folks know the ballad "Donna," but this one is my favorite.  It just has an infectious energy. 


The Temptations, "I Wish It Would Rain" (1967)

The Temptations are awesome.  I saw them live a few years ago at an outdoor concert.  I don't think it was the original lineup, and they don't exactly move like they did in the 60s, but it is was still great.  


Bob Dylan, "The Times, They Are A'Changin'" (1964)


This is a fantastically written song.  Like all Bob Dylan songs, it is a much better song when someone who is not Bob Dylan sings it.  I like Tracy Chapman's version the best, but there are several good ones.

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