The Greatest Songs EVER. According to Rolling Stone. (449-440)

To kick things off, we start with a little diddy I like to call...

449. "Penny Lane"-The Beatles

I wasn't crazy about this song in my early years, but as I got older I learned to appreciate it a little more. It's very jaunty and happy, as Paul McCartney reminisces about the street where he would meet John Lennon when they were younger, and about the Liverpool of his youth in general. A lively horn section really lifts the song and gives it a more distinctly British feel. His vocals are filled with a certain happy quality that fills the speakers. I highly recommend this track if your having a bad day.

448. "Heroin"-The Velvet Underground

I never liked the Velvet Underground much, I prefer Lou Reed's solo albums better than anything he did while he was in this band. This track has beautiful instrumentation, but it takes a lot more than that to hold my attention for a whopping 7:13 that this song comes in at. The other thing that I couldn't get past was the fact that it's actually promoting the use of heroin, which obviously is a huge turn-off.

447. "Leader of the Pack"-The Shangri-La's

This track starts out with a rather ingenious talking portion. This song is really just the age old story of the good girl falling for the bad boy, told with excellent harmonies. It's really simple at heart, nothing overwhelms anything else. A good track overall, I like it much better than the other girl group tracks I've reviewed so far.

446. "Pressure Drop"-Toots and the Maytals

I had heard OF this song before, but I had never actually heard it before. Even then, I was only familiar with the fact that The Clash did a version for the B-Side of "English Civil War". Even if you don't particularly like reggae, this song is just right to appease you. It isn't a heavy reggae jam, it only comes in at 3:48. My only beef with this song is that it's really just the singer repeating the words "Pressure Drop" over and over.

445. "Come As You Are"-Nirvana

I'll say it again, I really don't like Nirvana at all. All their songs sound the same to me, because they all follow the same structure. There's a few verses of partially nonsensical lyrics, and then Cobain just repeats the same word over and over until the song ends. Ladies and gentlemen, "Come as You Are"

444. "I Got You Babe"-Sonny and Cher

This song is just really a simple little diddy about young love and how everyone is just telling them their love isn't going to make it. But Sonny and Cher have each others backs, but Cher out-sings Sonny by a mile. She sounds crystal clear here, despite having to sing some slightly cheesy lyrics. The production on this record is actually similar to that of a girl group, but it works. The Pretenders also do a reggae version of this song with UB40.

443. "I Shot the Sheriff"-Bob Marley and the Wailers

Ahh, the many times I have made a joke related to this song. This is probably Bob Marley's best known song, and it really kind of broke reggae to the masses before the Clash came along. The song focuses on telling the story (obviously) of a man who confesses that he "Shot the Sheriff" but left the deputy. It isn't too terribly long, as songs of this nature can be (I'm looking at you Bob Dylan...) and it still manages to be commercial. Eric Clapton recorded a version shortly after the original came out, and I'm guessing that his is the better known version.

442. "Keep A Knockin'"-Little Richard

This track is classic Little Richard from the get-go. It has a rollicking piano riff and he's singing/screaming the few words at the top of his voice. There isn't much else to say, because this isn't the best song in his catalogue. Nevertheless, it's still a great fun track I'd recommend.

(More weird numbering I know!)

440. "Push It"-Salt N Pepa

Really? Salt N Pepa? Out of all of the infinity number of songs that have been written since the don of time, you chose this one? I really tried to be open minded about this, but I just couldn't. It's a generic 80's rap song. That's all. Why not put a song like, "Trudi's Song" by Mott the Hopple here?

My favorite of these? By far and wide "Penny Lane"