Jumping Fences to Wichita: my 100 favourite songs

“It started with a playlist…I never thought it would come to this…” (with apologies to Hot Chocolate).

Well yes, I went quite a bit further with an early lockdown challenge amongst some friends to each compile a Spotify playlist of our 50 favourite songs (with only one selection by any single artist).  From an initial longlist of 379 such tunes – leading to various accompanying playlists in addition to my standard top 50 – I then started blogging about each choice.  Initially this involved pretty much one post every day throughout April and May for my favourite 50, before broadening this out to cover my top 100 songs and then blogging roughly twice a week from June to November.  And so a project that began near the start of the first lockdown comes to a conclusion towards the end of the second lockdown…

379: The Playlists

Starting with a friends challenge in early April to produce a Spotify playlist of my top 50 songs (with just one track per artist), I initially came up with a longlist of 379 tunes, all of which were then compiled into various Spotify playlists – so this page pulls all these playlists together into one place…

379 to 50: The Final Countdown (from numbers 50 to 1)…

I’ve now finished my lockdown inspired favourite 50 songs countdown, which started in early April.  All 50 tracks are listed below, with links to each accompanying blog.  There’s also a Spotify playlist with the songs in ranked order, plus 4 bonus tunes (my numbers 51-54) as my top 50 choices from My Bloody Valentine, Whiteout, Plush and The KLF are not available on Spotify.

379 to 50: #1 “Wichita Lineman” by Glen Campbell

The conclusion of my 379 to 50 favourite songs countdown and taking top slot is the wondrous “Wichita Lineman” by Glen Campbell, a number 7 UK hit in early 1969.

379 to 50: #2 “God Only Knows” by The Beach Boys

The godlike genius of Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys’ sublime “God Only Knows” takes the number two slot as my favourite songs countdown nears its conclusion.

379 to 50: #3 “Everything Flows” by Teenage Fanclub

The bronze medal slot in my favourite songs rundown goes to Glasgow’s finest, Teenage Fanclub, with the ramshackle charm of “Everything Flows”, their tuneful opening statement of intent from 1990.

379 to 50: #4 “Game Of Pricks” by Guided By Voices

There’s a ridiculously deep pool to choose from, but “Game Of Pricks” is my favourite song selection to represent Guided By Voices, as my 379 to 50 countdown nears the end…

379 to 50: #5 “Fight The Power” by Public Enemy

“1989, the number, another summer…” – time for my favourite hip hop song as my 379 to 50 countdown reaches the top 5, with “Fight The Power” by Public Enemy.

379 to 50: #6 “Strength Of Strings” by Gene Clark

A second Gene Clark composition in the top 20 of my favourite songs rundown – after The Byrds at #20, it’s “Strength Of Strings” from his solo 1974 masterpiece “No Other”.

379 to 50: #7 “Gold Soundz” by Pavement

Some more “Gold Soundz” in my 379 to 50 top songs countdown now, courtesy of Pavement from 1994 second album “Crooked Rain Crooked Rain”.