350. Groove Theory – “Tell Me” (1994)Despite growing up on 90's pop music, I first discovered this song two years ago. In fact, this song was indirectly the reason for The Yearbook. What happened was after the second episode of The Book Club aired where I spotlighted the music of Harry Chapin, I was on such a music discovery kick that I went on Archie Gramble's website on the Archive site and listened to several hits from the 90's that I didn't recognize, and I loved this instantly. Eventually I had the idea of doing it on air by year and then The Yearbook was born!
This is just such a fun, catchy pop song, and it reminds me a lot of another very underrated pop song - Joy Enriquez's "Tell Me How You Feel" from 2000.
349. Cat Stevens – “Peace Train” (1971)Come on, this is a 70's classic! I just find this one really catchy and I like the music to this one a lot. Although I started getting into Cat Stevens more in recent years, he does have another song still to come on this list that I always absolutely loved even before I became a 70's whore.
348. Poco – “Call It Love” (1989)I liked their 70's hits like "Crazy Love" and "Heart Of The Night", but nowhere near as much as this one. I heard it on the local AM (yes, AM) station here a few years ago and absolutely loved it, I Shazam'd it and added it to my library instantly. Excellent song!
347. George Michael – “Praying For Time” (1990)Yes, you're reading this correctly - the artist formerly known as George Ewwface has made my list. It's funny when you think about it - all the times I've made fun of him over the years, if you guys JUST PLAYED ME THIS SONG, I would've shut the f*ck up. Despite the fact that this was a #1 hit, I first heard this song last year when I was weeding out songs for the 1990 episode of The Yearbook.
You can hear my reaction to this song here, but as I said on the show, I thought when I'd listen to this that I'd be like, "Oh, I've heard this before," but it truly did not ring a bell. I would've remembered a song like this regardless of how I felt about the artist. Just a beautiful, well done ballad that made me gain a lot of respect for him after discovering it.
346. Eddie Money – “Shakin’” (1982)You know shit is real when this is only #346 because if you know me, you know that THIS is my f*cking JAMMMMMMM! I like a lot of Eddie Money's hits, but this is easily my favorite. It's so catchy and fun and should've been a much bigger hit than it was.
345. Harry Chapin – “Taxi” (1972)"Cat's In The Cradle" is great, but this is the song that made me interested in discovering more of his music (I will get into that more later as he has another song still to come on this list MUCH later). What I like about a lot of his songs is that unlike certain #2 hits from 1976, it tells a story without dragging the f*ck on for 80 years - yes, this is around the same length as said #2 hit that I'm shading, but at least Harry keeps it interesting and it's not the same melody and key over and over.
Just a really great song and the sequel to this - "Sequel" - is also very good.
344. Grace Slick – “Theme From The Movie ‘Manhole’” (1973)The first appearance from the queen of music herself!
This is the longest song in my library, clocking in at 15:09. It's a very epic song heavily inspired by one of her all-time favorite albums,
Sketches Of Spain by Miles Davis (in fact, she even sings in Spanish in parts of this song). As usual, she sings her ass off and her incredible talent really shines on this one - as they also do on the other 27 songs of hers still to come (that's including Airplane, Starship, and solo material).
343. Grace Slick – “Come Again Toucan” (1973)... And now there's 26 left! This is my favorite song on her first solo album,
Manhole, and I believe if this was promoted more could've been a hit for her as it's very in line with the stuff that was popular on top 40 at the time. Just a great soft rock song.
342. Madonna – “Ray Of Light” (1998)My Mom returned a curling iron she got me for Christmas because, as thoughtful as the gift was and as much as I wanted to try said curling iron, to be completely honest, the quality of it sucked, and she exchanged it for none other than this album on vinyl! I was so excited when I got it because this was the first Madonna era that I was around for (well, technically it was
Erotica but I wasn't listening to Madonna when I was an infant). I remember when the videos for this and "Frozen" and "The Power Of Goodbye" were out and this album is just very nostalgic for me. This song in particular is very nostalgic for me because back in the day, my Mom bought me cassette singles. The first one I ever got was Sarah McLachlan's "Adia", she also got me Celine Dion & R. Kelly's "I'm Your Angel", Gloria Estefan's "Heaven's What I Feel", 98 Degrees' "Because Of You", and this. And I just remember the day she got me this it was such a nice day. We listened to the song in her car, we got McDonald's for lunch, I don't know it doesn't sound like much on paper (or in this case, on screen), but it was just a nice memory, plus my Mom doesn't even like Madonna but she knew I really did. She could've easily been like f*ck that I'm getting you Bobby Goldsboro instead.
(Thank God she didn't!!!)
341. Jefferson Starship – “Play On Love” (1975)This was Grace's attempt at doing a love song similar to the ones Marty Balin was known for doing ("Miracles", "With Your Love", etc.). I always really loved this song and it's one of my favorite tracks on
Red Octopus, but the best memory I have of this song was when I first started getting into Grace and I drove
Unkie insane whenever I played this one or their 1982 song "Out Of Control".
340. Hot Daughtry remake!
339. Hot Matchbox 20 remake!
338. The guitarist from this band passed away in 2004.
337. An album track from my second favorite album of all-time (extra hint: it's a 90's album).
336. The first of two appearances from one of my favorite rappers; released in 1997.
335. HUGE #1 hit from 1996.
334. HUGE #1 hit from 1998, and it feels weird that it's been 20 years because I remember this song being everywhere.
333. The first of two appearances from an 80's heavy metal band featuring a frontman who I had a ridiculously huge crush on 10 years ago.
332. This song is from the same artist as #336.
331. Although this song is more associated with 2005, this went to #1 on my chart in 2004.