The Final 20

I've posted about this list before, the top 200 songs that reached #1 on the charts. Each week I'd have the FP Gal try and guess the song from the teaser lyric that they would provide. She is a) pretty good at this and b) sad that the list is finally done. Because it is and they've revealed the final selection. I thought I'd share the final 20.

20. Stayin' Alive - The Bee Gees
19. Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) - Eurythmics
18. Sounds of Silence - Simon & Garfunkel
17. American Pie - Don Maclean
16. SexyBack - Justin Timberlake
15. Don't Be Cruel - Elvis
14. I Love Rock n Roll - Joan Jett & the Heartbreakers
13. Hey Ya! - Outkast
12. Sweet Child o Mine - Guns n Roses
11. Heard it Through the Grapevine - Marvin Gaye

Some solid songs and a few ridiculous ones. Both Timberlake and Outkast, well, ugh. I would have preferred a list that only went up to 2000. Would give us a chance to look back at least ten years to see how songs age. (Apparently they have such a list somewhere but I don't know where it is.) Anyway, continuing on:

10. Gold Digger - Kanye West
9. I Get Around - Beach Boys
8. Lose Yourself - Eminem
7. That'll Be the Day - The Crickets
6. Every Breath You Take - The Police
5. Hound Dog - Elvis
4. Satisfaction - Rolling Stones
3. Billie Jean - Michael Jackson
2. Respect - Aretha Franklin
1. I Want to Hold Your Hand - Beatles


Kanye West one is interesting but not even kind of historic. The rest I can live with, even Eminem. The only one of the top five that I guessed ahead of time was 'Billie Jean'. Hard to argue with the Beatles though.

Each post on the list included a link to the video. I watched them all, even the newer hip hop and rap ones. Found a few catchy tunes there that I otherwise wouldn't have missed so it was worth it. I had some disagreements but my personal list would have had about 100 songs from 1980 - 1987 and huge pushback from everyone else. I can step back and recognize that other songs are worthy or respect, even if I don't care for them.
One joy from this was hearing a whole slew of stuff from the 50's and 60's that the FP Gal loves. We'll probably make a disc of them for the car at some point. As I said before, it was a lot of fun and I'm sad to see it be over.