Some thoughts on #XPN2020

University of Pennsylvania public radio station WXPN yesterday completed its week-long countdown of the 2020 “greatest” songs of all time, based on listener votes. There was a lot of interesting information in their post-game show, which I won’t repeat here.

 

I was delighted that five of the ten songs that I voted for made the countdown:

 

Thunder Road – Bruce Springsteen (my #3, their #1)*

Slippin’ Into Darkness – War (5, 1689)

Over The Rainbow – Eva Cassidy (6, 923)

You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ – The Righteous Brothers (8, 142)

A Change Is Gonna Come – Sam Cooke (9, 32)

 

* -- For those of us who had followed earlier WXPN countdowns, “Thunder Road” finishing at the top of the heap was almost a given. Dan Reed, who hosted the last couple hours of the countdown, revealed on the wrap-up show that he had planned to shock everyone by instead starting to play “Escape (The Pina Colada Song)” by Rupert Holmes at the end, but at the last minute failed (twice) to push the right button.

 

Overall, 36 of my official “favorite 200” songs made the countdown. I was also pleasantly surprised that Gil Scott-Heron, Tom Rush, and Bruce Cockburn each had multiple appearances.

 

There was both good news and bad news for Carole King. On the one hand, Tapestry wound up being one of the 20 most-played albums in the countdown (based on number of tracks). On the other, she did not have any other songs on the list, beyond the six from that album.

 

I was disappointed and somewhat surprised that two of the acts who appeared in my own top 10 were completely absent from the countdown: Barenaked Ladies (“Brian Wilson”) and the Neville Brothers (“Fire On The Bayou”). (It must be noted, however, that Aaron Neville and The Meters each had one song listed.) Also missing in action were the Smithereens, Del Amitri, Graham Parker, Marshall Crenshaw, the Gin Blossoms, the Stray Cats, and Guster. For a Philadelphia-based station, however, there were two particularly notable omissions: the Roots (seriously?), and Boys II Men – “It’s So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday” is my personal favorite, but how could “Motownphilly” possibly escape notice?

 

Springsteen not only had the #1 song, but also wound up with the third most songs overall with 38, trailing only the Stones (43) and Beatles (67). It’s an interesting list; his first four albums are all well-represented, but only four tracks from his 1984 smash Born in the U.S.A. were included (no “Dancing In The Dark”, no “My Hometown”). Most perplexing to me, “Hungry Heart” (from The River) and “Jersey Girl” (!) were nowhere to be found.