Top 50 Elvis songs

Elvis Presley recorded over 700 tracks. Writing in The Times last Friday, critic Bob Stanley ranked his top 50.

It’s an invaluable guide for anyone starting to explore Elvis’s catalogue or compiling a basic set of tunes. Here’s a taster of the listing:

1. HOUND DOG - The intro explodes into your ears, and into the public consciousness, as only A Hard Day's Night and Anarchy In The UK have since. So intense, two minutes of sustained viciousness and sheer malicious glee.
2. SUSPICIOUS MINDS
3. MYSTERY TRAIN
4. HEARTBREAK HOTEL
5. I JUST CAN'T HELP BELIEVING…

The highly recommended full article is here:

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article2186173.ece




Gerry Smith

Paul Weller for beginners

As main man in The Jam and Style Council and as a solo artist, Paul Weller has been a prolific songwriter, with over 300 songs already to his credit - and the flow shows little sign of abating.

Like many creatives, Weller’s early stuff is the most highly regarded. In a lengthy feature in the new (Sept) issue of UNCUT, the music and movies monthly, celeb muso votes for his best songs produce a top 30 which is two thirds Jam songs. And a top ten with 9 Jam songs.

The top three, fairly predictably, are:

1. Going Underground
2. Town Called Malice
3. That's Entertainment

If you need to catch up on Paul Weller (as I did), the new issue of UNCUT offers you an expert dissection of his work.

www.uncut.co.uk



Gerry Smith

Borders’ Top 50 albums – a mixed bag

With the demise of the groundbreaking Fopp chain, Borders is once again my retailer of choice. Its books offer is deeply impressive, and for magazines it has set new standards. I rarely leave a Borders branch empty-handed.

But I don’t often buy music there – the CD/DVD stock lacks depth and is often uncompetitive on price. Borders UK’s current competition asking customers to rank the top 50 CDs is laudable, but it underlines the lack of focus of its music offer.

Here’s the first half of the list of 50 albums from which readers are being asked to select. While it contains several masterpieces, some of the selections strike me as ill-chosen.

See what you think:

ARCADE FIRE - FUNERAL
BAND - BAND
BEACH BOYS - PET SOUNDS
NEIL YOUNG - HARVEST
BJORK - DEBUT
BLONDIE - PARALLEL LINES
BLUR - PARKLIFE
DAVID BOWIE - ZIGGY STARDUST
JOHNNY CASH - AMERICAN IV - MAN COMES AROUND
TRACY CHAPMAN - TRACY CHAPMAN
AMY WINEHOUSE - FRANK
LEONARD COHEN - SONGS OF LEONARD COHEN
MILES DAVIS - KIND OF BLUE
DIRE STRAITS - BROTHERS IN ARMS
DJ SHADOW - ENDTRODUCING
NICK DRAKE - FIVE LEAVES LEFT
WHO - WHO’S NEXT
FLEETWOOD MAC - RUMOURS
MARVIN GAYE - WHAT'S GOING ON
MICHAEL JACKSON - THRILLER
KEANE - HOPES & FEARS
CAROLE KING - TAPESTRY
LED ZEPPELIN - LED ZEPPELIN IV
LOVE - FOREVER CHANGES
MAROON 5 - SONGS ABOUT JANE



Gerry Smith

Top 10 classical recordings

Thanks to Cecilia Mort who sent the Classic FM Top 10 recordings - voted for by listeners and broadcast in the station’s annual Easter weekend countdown of the top 500.

Grown-up music ratio? On this evidence, about 50%.

1 (3 last year) The Lark Ascending Vaughan Williams
2 (7) Cello Concerto Elgar
3 (2) Piano Concerto No 2 Rachmaninov
4 (1) Clarinet Concerto Mozart
5 (4) Piano Concerto No 5 Beethoven (“Emperor”)
6 (9) Enigma Variations Elgar
7 (5) Violin Concerto No 1 Bruch
8 (6) Symphony No 6 Beethoven (“Pastoral”)
9 (8) Symphony No 9 Beethoven (“Choral”)
10 (11) Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis Vaughan Williams



Gerry Smith

Miles Davis tops poll by new jazz station

Surprise, surprise - So What, from Kind Of Blue, has just topped a poll for best jazz recording. And Miles has two other tunes in the top 10 - All Blues and Blue In Green.

The survey was carried out for new digital radio station theJazz.

Top 10
1 Miles Davis - So What
2 Dave Brubeck - Take Five
3 Louis Armstrong - West End Blues
4 John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
5 Miles Davis - All Blues
6 John Coltrane - My Favourite Things
7 Weather Report - Birdland
8 Jamie Cullum - Twentysomething
9 Duke Ellington - Take The 'A' Train
10 Miles Davis - Blue In Green



Gerry Smith

Bob Dylan’s Top Ten Dylan albums

Bob Dylan’s Top Ten Dylan albums, judging by the set lists of the first ten shows of the Europe 2007 tour, are:

1. Modern Times (2006)
2. The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (1963)
3. Highway 61 Revisited (1965)
4. "Love and Theft" (2001)
5. Another Side of Bob Dylan (1964)
6. Blonde on Blonde (1966)
7. John Wesley Harding (1968)
8. Nashville Skyline (1969)
9. Blood on the Tracks (1974)
10. Basement Tapes (1975)


Few surprises there, but ranking the playing of the back catalogue in more detail presents a few:

* Album rank – by different songs played

1. Modern Times (2006) 6
2. The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (1963) 4
3. Highway 61 Revisited (1965) 4
4. "Love and Theft" (2001) 4
5. Another Side of Bob Dylan (1964) 3
6. Blonde on Blonde (1966) 3
7. John Wesley Harding (1968) 2
8. Nashville Skyline (1969) 2
9. Blood on the Tracks (1974) 2
10. Basement Tapes (1975) 2
11. Under the Red Sky (1990) 2
12. Time out of Mind (1997) 2
13. The Times They Are A’Changin’ (1964) 1
14. Bringing it all Back Home (1965) 1
15. Oh Mercy (1989) 1
16. Greatest Hits v2 (1971) 1
17. Best Of v2 (2000) 1


* Album rank – by number of performances

1. Modern Times (2006) 47
2. Highway 61 Revisited (1965) 22
3. "Love and Theft" (2001) 16
4. John Wesley Harding (1968) 12
5. The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (1963) 11
6. Bringing it all Back Home (1965) 10
7. Blonde on Blonde (1966) 8
8. Under the Red Sky (1990) 8
9. Another Side of Bob Dylan (1964) 6
10. Blood on the Tracks (1974) 5
11. Nashville Skyline (1969) 3
12. Basement Tapes (1975) 2
13. Time out of Mind (1997) 2
14. The Times They Are A’Changin’ (1964) 1
15. Oh Mercy (1989) 1
16. Greatest Hits v2 (1971) 1
17. Best Of v2 (2000) 1


* Albums contributing no selections in first 10 shows

Bob Dylan (1962)
Self Portrait (1970)
New Morning (1970)
Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973)
Dylan (1973)
Planet Waves (1974)
Desire (1975)
Street-Legal (1978)
Slow Train Coming (1979)
Saved (1980)
Shot of Love (1981)
Infidels (1983)
Empire Burlesque (1985)
Knocked out Loaded (1986)
Down in the Groove (1988)
Good as I Been to You (1992)
World gone Wrong (1993)



Gerry Smith

Top 10 Miles Davis albums

Miles Davis expert Patrick Brown polled members of the jazz trumpeter's discussion list in 2001, to establish the rank order of Miles albums. Though the poll is six years old, the findings are still valid - Miles hasn't made any new albums since it was conducted!

Thanks to Patrick Brown.


1. Kind of Blue
2. In A Silent Way
3. Bitches Brew
4. Miles Smiles
5. Tribute to Jack Johnson
6. Filles de Kilimanjaro
7. Sketches of Spain
8. Nefertiti
9. Milestones
10. E.S.P.


BONUS: the next 10

11. ‘Round About Midnight
12. Miles Ahead
13. Live/Evil
14. On The Corner
15. Complete Concert 1964 (Four and More and My Funny Valentine)
16. Birth of the Cool
17. Porgy and Bess
18. Agharta
19. Get Up With It
20. Dark Magus