#10 "More Than a Feeling" - Boston

Group leader Tom Scholz graduated from MIT and was working for Polaroid before releasing this song with Boston. We're not sure how good he was at engineering, but the slick brand of rock he created with Boston has a very long half-life. Fitting that it makes the bottom of our list - in Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest songs of all time, it was #500. (More Than A Feeling Songfacts)
~ nominated by Mindcrime


#9 "Break On Through (To the Other Side)" - The Doors

The song that introduced us to The Doors, it was also the leadoff track on their debut album. The band didn't have enough juice to fight their record company when they censored the line "She gets high," so Jim Morrison's vocal sounds more like "She gets uuuuuuggghh." The song wasn't a hit, but stirred up plenty of interest in The Doors. (Break On Through (To The Other Side) Songfacts)
~ nominated by Dappled


#8 "My Sharona" - The Knack

The Knack faded away, but their debut single was a potent piece of power pop, and the best-selling song of 1979 in the United States. Of the songs on this list, "My Sharona" made the biggest impact on Pop Culture, appearing in the movies Pulp Fiction and Reality Bites, being sampled on Run-DMC's "It's Tricky," and forever ruining the life of anyone named "Sharona." Think about it: "Sharona" would have become a Yuppie favorite like "Ashley" or "Kaitlin" if it weren't for The Knack. Also, it put Weird Al Yankovic on the map when Dr. Demento played his parody "My Bologna." (My Sharona Songfacts)
~ nominated by Miamisammy


#7 "Take It Easy" - Eagles

Every legendary band starts somewhere, and for the Eagles it was a song that Jackson Browne just couldn't finish. Glenn Frey put in the line about standin' on the corner in Winslow, Arizona and stretched out that first "E," so it became "take it eeeeeeeeasy." And Country-Rock was born. (Take It Easy Songfacts)
~ nominated by Lucky


#6 "A Whiter Shade Of Pale" - Procol Harum

Procol Harum took their words so seriously that their lyricist Keith Reid was an official band member, even though he didn't perform on the songs. He told us that the song is about a relationship, and he thought of it like a film, with vivid images conjuring a mood. It's quite an ambitious debut, and the band knew that the original 10-minute version wasn't radio friendly, so two verses had to go. Concert-goers were treated to the bonus content. (A Whiter Shade Of Pale Songfacts)
~ nominated by Lea


#5 "Alive" - Pearl Jam

Do you remember the first time you heard this? It's a licorice song: you either love it or hate it. But you definitely knew what Pearl Jam was about. Eddie Vedder growling through his childhood traumas with a backing of pure Grunge made P.J. a defining band of the '90s. Vedder wasn't even part of the band when they recorded the instrumental demo of the song, but the lyrics and vocals he added made it obvious that he should be the face of Pearl Jam. (Alive Songfacts)
~ nominated by cs 1987


#4 "Brown Eyed Girl" - Van Morrison

A fun little Pop nugget that every girl with brown eyes thinks was written about her, this was clearly not the direction Van Morrison wanted to go. His next album was the very intricate Astral Weeks, which didn't sell like crazy, but seems to please music writers, who keep listing it as one of the greatest albums ever. But if you're hanging out, having fun, maybe enjoying your favorite adult beverage at a place with no dress code, you're not going to hear "Madame George." It is, however, entirely possible that "Brown Eyed Girl" will be added to the soundtrack of your evening, and it will become an even better night. (Brown-Eyed Girl Songfacts)
~ nominated by Bluesboy


#3 "American Pie" - Don McLean

When you write your first song, you have a lot of material to pull from, and Don McLean emptied out the contents of his childhood in "American Pie," which deals with his memories of the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly. It quickly became one of our most-discussed songs, as folks tried to figure out if the guy who read the "book of Marx" was John Lennon or Vladimir Lenin, and if the "Girl who sang the blues" was Janis Joplin. At 8 minutes and 38 seconds, it took up both sides of the 45, so you had to flip it over to hear the whole song. It's probably the most uncoverable song on this list: when Madonna tried it in 2000 with disastrous results. (American Pie Songfacts )
~ nominated by Cyberjudge


#2 "Hey Joe" - Jimi Hendrix

Like Jimi himself, "Hey Joe" is a very mysterious song. It's unclear who wrote it or where it came from, and if there really was a Joe who did something very bad. We do know that Jimi Hendrix made it his first single and recorded the definitive version. Jimi had a way of extracting everything a song had to offer in his brilliant, inaccurate way. He played it for the first time at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, and used it to close out Woodstock in 1969. (Hey Joe Songfacts)
~ nominated by Lea


#1 "Sultans of Swing" - Dire Straits

If your fans are regular folks, it becomes a lot harder to find out what they're up to when you become famous. You can't just duck into a bar and check out the hapless band playing to a few drunks, which is what gave Mark Knopfler the idea for this song, which ended up on the demo tape that started a bidding war for Dire Straits. (Sultans Of Swing Songfacts)
~ nominated by Edna

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