Quote:1. The Rolling Stones - "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" (1965)
A brutal, cheeky, swaggering rejection of everything that middle class society held dear -- "I'm just not SATISFIED with any of this crap" -- fueled by one of the greatest guitar riffs of all time and Charlie Watts' implacable on-the-beat drumming. Simply undeniable. Listen

2. The Beatles - "I Want to Hold Your Hand" (1963)
Beatlemania exploded upon the United States with uncontainable fury and exuberance when this song was released just ahead of the Fab Four's first visit in early 1964. Nothing has been the same since. Listen

3. Aretha Franklin - "Respect" (1967)
The tightest, sweetest southern soul song of all time, sung by one of the finest female singers of the 20th century, the Queen of Soul. Aretha's gospel pipes were harnessed by her own brilliant arrangement of an Otis Redding song that became all the more meaningful and poignant from a female perspective -- bolstered also by the best background vocals (by Aretha and her sisters Carolyn and Erma) ever. Listen

4. Bob Dylan - "Like a Rolling Stone" (1965)
A seminal rock 'n' roll song mined from somewhere within Dylan's subconscious where the rich tradition of folk music met the pungent tang of the blues. Al Kooper's hypnotic organ and Mike Bloomfield's rhythm guitar dominate musically. Listen

5. Elvis Presley - "Hound Dog" (1956)
The King's explosive take on this Leiber/Stoller R&B tune is his hardest rocking recording ever: the drums punish and swing, the handclaps propel, Scotty Moore's guitar twists like a knife, and Elvis pushes himself exactly to the border where singing becomes shouting. Intense and liberating. Listen

6. Chuck Berry - "Johnny B. Goode" (1958)
The greatest guitar riff by the greatest creator of guitar riffs in rock history in the service of Berry's classic story of a country boy whose guitar playing magically sounds like "ringing a bell," and his vision of a future where that guitar will open all doors and he will be welcome. Listen

7. Marvin Gaye - "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" (1968)
Motown's greatest singer's greatest singing performance. With an insistent, furtive beat and strings swirling about, commenting, embellishing, Norman Whitfield's arrangement matches Gaye's thrilling vocal line-for-line as he sways through the stages of grief from suspicion, to anger, to hopeful denial to stunned acceptance. Listen

8. Bruce Springsteen and the E. Street Band -
"Born to Run" (1975)
Wherein the reality met the hype as a young Springsteen captures the raging energy at the nexus between adolescence and adulthood, the poignancy of dreams, and the magic of place. Listen

9. Nirvana - "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (1991)
The raging, disorienting crosswinds of adolescence are distilled into Kurt Cobain's jagged guitar roar, his hoarse sung/shouted contradictions, and the startling lightness of his song's verses. This defined an era. Listen

10. OutKast - "Hey Ya!" (2003)
Who says recent can't be classic? Andre "Dre 3000" Benjamin's charging, sui generis rabble rouser ecstatically updates '70s soul and the spirit overtakes the body, feeling overcomes reason, and all that is left to do is move to the flapping groove. Amazing. Listen

Keyser Soze Wrote:if anyone knows rock, its MSNBC and American Idol.

Quote:Oh, fuck off cynics. It's not a terrible list. Most of those songs were groundbreaking in their time and every single one of them still holds up today. "Greatest"? I don't know, but they're pretty great songs.

Keyser Soze Wrote:if anyone knows rock, its MSNBC and American Idol.