17 by Niki Pop
ASLEEP - THE SMITHS CITY OF NEW ORLEANS - ARLO GUTHRIE CRYING - ROY ORBISON THESE DAYS - NICO ANOTHER GIRL ANOTHER PLANET - THE ONLY ONES BRING IT ON HOME TO ME - SAM COOKE DON'T STOP BELIEVIN' - JOURNEY I WANT TO BREAK FREE - QUEEN LIVIN' ON A PRAYER - BON JOVI HUSHABYE - THE BEACH BOYS LA VIE EN ROSE - EDITH PIAF CAN'T HARDLY WAIT - THE REPLACEMENTS AMAZING GRACE - ARLO GUTHRIE GOLD DIGGER - KANYE WEST MORE THAN A FEELING - BOSTON ROADRUNNER - THE MODERN LOVERS
THE SPOTIFY LINK
FILTER LOGIC:
“Amazing Grace” (1779) Performed here by Arlo Guthrie (bonus! Includes banter!): Not only the first song alphabetically, but also my favorite song of all time. According to Wikipedia (and Arlo Guthrie) Amazing Grace was written by John Newton, a former slave trader who found salvation in Christianity. The song describes the eternal possibility of redemption, which, you can imagine, would be appealing to a man who spent years stuffing human beings into a ship’s hold against their will for money. On Spotify you can find it performed by hundreds of artists across the musical spectrum, including Aretha Franklin, Sufjan Stevens, LeAnn Rimes, Rod Stewart, Ani DiFranco, Lee Greenwood (possibly the only thing the last two would ever have in common), the Soweto Gospel Choir, Elvis Presley, and the Dropkick Murphys. I picked the Arlo version because my mom played “Precious Friends” a lot when my brother and I were kids, and that’s how I first heard it.
“Another Girl, Another Planet” by The Only Ones (1978): A romantic one-hit-wonder punk song. I listened to this a lot in college. Features the cheesy, memorable lyric “You get under my skin. I don’t find it irritating” and gets away with it.
“Asleep” by The Smiths (1987): A lovely song about suicide sung by the world’s finest living crooner. Features the heartbreaking lyric “I don’t want to wake up on my own anymore.” If I could play the piano I’d play this all the time.
“Bring it on Home to Me” by Sam Cooke (1962): Once, I crossed the Hudson River and went to a Heartless Bastards show at Maxwell’s in Hoboken. I went with a guy I was dating from work named Paul and some other friends. Afterwards we met up with some of his college friends who lived in Jersey City, and we ended up partying and later crashing at their giant why-can’t-New-York-real-estate-be-like-this-house. When we walked in this song was playing on someone’s iPod. “What is this?” said naive younger me. “Who is this singer?” “It’s Sam Cooke,” said the guy whose house it was, sweetly. That guy was Justin Kiczek. I married Paul five years later.
“Can’t Hardly Wait” by the Replacements (1985): The Tim version on my Spotify 17 is less polished than the one that most people know, from the 1987 album Pleased to Meet Me, made famous by the film starring Jennifer Love Hewitt. The later remake is about how exciting it is to be a teenager who can’t hardly wait to leave high school. The Tim version is about suicide & ends with the lyric “Can’t hardly wait… til it’s over.” Either way, it’s a great song.
“City of New Orleans” performed by Arlo Guthrie (1971): Now, there are many fine songs about the great city of New Orleans. But this song is not about the city. No, it’s about the train called the City of New Orleans, which runs from Chicago to New Orleans. The original line is defunct, but Amtrak runs a Chicago-New Orleans line named in its honor.
“Crying” by Roy Orbison (1961): Morrissey only gets to be the world’s greatest living crooner because Roy Orbinson passed away. Good with whiskey.
“Don’t Stop Believin’” by Journey (1981): This is one of the planet’s most popular karaoke songs, probably because it’s fun to sing and has a wonderfully unspecific positive message. I can also listen to it 5,000 times in a row.
“Gold Digger” by Kanye West feat. Jamie Foxx (2005): I really debated whether or not to include this one given the (sexist) subject matter, but given the parameters of the 17 it would be dishonest of me not to. Every time I hear this song I want to twerk and laugh at the same time. And then I play it again.
“Hushabye” by the Beach Boys (1964): The Spotify version doesn’t quite capture all the acoustic richness and harmonic transcendence of the vinyl version (cue boos from audience) but you get the picture. This is like early Beach Boys distilled: wholesome, harmonic, warm, sweet.
“I Want to Break Free” by Queen (1984): There are many songs that make one marvel at Freddie Mercury’s vocal skill and this is one of them. File under songs about overcoming obstacles, rising up from oppression, going from bad to good.
"I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” by Otis Redding (1965): A song about being in love with someone who is falling out of love with you, sung in the way that makes you feel like that’s your life.
“La Vie en rose” by Edith Piaf (1947), also see “La Vie en rose” performed by Louis Armstrong: The tempo of this song feels like strolling through Paris with your lover on your arm, and the melody is unforgettable. I don’t speak French, but who cares?
“Livin’ on a Prayer” by Bon Jovi (1986): This song is so good an algorithm could have written it. Underdog story with promise of deliverance: check. Big harmonic chorus: check. Key change: check. It checks off all the dopamine release boxes in the brain. You can’t fight biology. People who claim not to feel anything when hearing this song are either lying or depressed.
“More than a Feeling” by Boston (1976): Look, I know I use this excuse all the time, but I grew up in Greece without the internet. If I spent my allowance on a 5,000 drachma Pixies CD I had no money left to go to McDonald’s. The only rock station on the radio played songs like this, and even then they used it to advertise Dewar’s. Every time that Dewar’s commercial came on you bet your ass I turned up the volume because this song made me feel like there was a bigger world out there and I was going to get to see it soon.
“Roadrunner” by the Modern Lovers (1976): Is there anything better than driving around at night with the windows down and the radio on?
“These Days” by Nico (1967): A song about missing all the good times you’ve had but didn’t appreciate when you had them.