1. Julie – The Bobby Fuller Four – An iteration after the birth of rock, they should have come from Liverpool but were actually from Texas and a rock group in the same way the Beatles were a rock group and a pop group the same way the Beatles were a pop, “Julie”, a sweet and sexy and youthful and yearning pop song I first met when Marshall Crenshaw covered it, though I’m happy to have followed full to the original. It sounds like innocence lost in every sense.
2. Little Ole Wine Drinker me – Dean Martin – Self-evidently, the song works off Martin’s reputation as a heavy imbiber and I was watching the old Nartin roasts on Youtube the other day and his tipsiness is a little too studied to be entirely here. On this country song his slur blends effortlessly into his phrasing (though maybe not his voice).
3. Longer Than You’ve Been Alive – Rhett’s claim he doesn’t like songs that are too self-referential is something of a funning here, obviously the whole point is the song, and the album it comes off, is a through the past darkly and illuminated at the same time. It is cool to admit sometimes ion stage the band is watching the clock and it is even cooler to admit that being in a rock band is both a blast and a bore. But most importantly, the band takes pride in not doing what I have to do: work for the man.
4. Career Opportunities – The Clash – Off their first album, Mick Jones used to have a job opening potential letter bombs. Anything for another night with a roof over your head, right? In its own way, this is an explanation for “Longer Than You’ve Been Alive” –the call to freedom of a rock band.
5. Do It Again (featuring Destiny’s Child) – Cam’ron – His masterpiece because at its heart this is a very simple soul song with Destiny’s Child handling the hook with aplomb and also an introduction to the great rapper and a self portrait. A huge song for him and us.
6. Lua – Bright Eyes – After this song it was all over and for the next five years Conor ruled indie. I can’t imagine a more perfect mix of cool and otherness, of self abuse, sex and delivery on an all night party through the end of the night into the dawn.
7. Call Your Girlfriend – Robyn – Despite her many many gifts, Robyn only trounced Abba once and this is the song where she did it, a song which seems to insist on its freedom to be played in as many different styles as there are genres (1200 last time I looked) including a folie-indie take by Lucy Wainwright Roche.
8. We Are Each Other – The Beautiful South – I always found it beyond strange that Paul Heaton didn’t break here, this is one of those flawless pop songs that have flown through the Housemartins through the Beautiful South and continues to this day with his Jacqui and Paul collaboration. This is one of Paul’s very greatest achievements, a full on pop song UK style with a twisty lyric amd a kicker “too close for a lover”.