25. We Can Work It Out
24. She Said She Said
23. If I Needed Someone
22. Nowhere Man
21. A Hard Day’s Night
20. You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away
19. Norwegian Wood
18. Revolution
17. From Me to You
16. Help!
15. Yesterday
14. Ticket to Ride
13. Things We Said Today
12. Here, There and Everywhere
11. I’m Only Sleeping
10. In My Life
9. The Long and Winding Road
8. Twist and Shout
7. And Your Bird Can Sing
6. Blackbird
5. Eleanor Rigby
4. Two of Us
3. Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End
2. Here Comes the Sun
1. Let It Be

It was really hard putting Revolver so low on the list. But I want to keep it as themed and diverse as possible and realized early on that doing that wouldn’t be easy once I get down to the final 20. Had to improvise a little.

She’s Leaving Home… maybe my fav McCartney song.

I take exception to calling Got to Get You Into My Life as a ballad. You know it’s about marijuana, not a person? On a side note, I heard Earth, Wind & Fire’s version on the radio last month, and nearly drove off the road. Talk about awful.

How about this trilogy of songs? Eleanor Rigby, For No One, and She’s Leaving Home (from Sgt. Pepper).

I also forgot to mention the fact that nobody really cared that it was Darius Rucker who was leading this band, even though he was singing about racism, prejudice, and discrimination. I guess you could say he was the anti-Snoop and Dre, who were immensely popular at the time.

But I still feel like I understand why Hootie was so big. The “anti-grunge”–that’s what these guys were. They were fun and they were totally okay being fun, and kinda light, and kinda dorky. They wore shorts instead of ripped jeans. They were nerdy white guys and a black guy with a fade. They had the coolest, lamest music videos imaginable. There’s no way you can honestly dislike what it is they’re trying to do. And if you did, you were just trying to be “cool,” which was totally missing the point.

It may seem a little dramatic comparing these guys to Springsteen, but I get it. When you’re talking the Great American Revolutions in music, how do you NOT mention Hootie? These guys were the everyman’s rock band. They reminded people that the purity was rock wasn’t just based on anger–it was also, more importantly, about individuality. Enjoy what you do, live life, then sing about it–*that’s* rock n’ roll.

In 1964, Beatlemania swept the nation. They weren’t Elvis or the Everly Brothers. They brought a new sound. There were many bands similar to them, but never equaled. It was cool to like them. As they once said about The Stones and The Beatles, you could bring a Beatle home to your mother. But we all know that the Fab Four were just as dirty as The Glimmer Twins.

Hootie was the anti-Nirvana. I was in college, and everyone loved Hootie. You’d drink too much and sing. They made videos with ESPN anchors and Dan Marino. They were college guys. They didn’t look grungy like Eddie Vedder or strung-out like Kurt Cobain, but you know they could pound drinks with the best of them.

Fast-forward to 1984. Bruce Springsteen was the all-American hero, no matter what his liberal-leaning supporters will tell you. Everyone was wearing bandanas and fist-pumping Born In The USA and wishing to dance with Courtney Cox. All of a sudden, New Jersey was cool. Growing Pains even did a whole episode around going to a Springsteen concert without any band members being in the video. In 1994, South Carolina was cool and Friends did a whole episode based on going to a Hootie show. Ironically, Courtney Cox’s character hooked up (in some fashion) with a band member.

Unfortunately, Hootie never achieved the success of the bands mentioned, but they had a string of hits that enabled them to continue to put out repetitive albums for the next fifteen or so years. They’re not burning down the road. Darius Rucker has gone country. None of the band members got busted or died, thankfully, so a reunion is still possible.

It’s the same difference as hearing and listening. I hear music every day but only the good stuff keeps me listening.

The good stuff gives you the tools to reach the creator’s idea, and then leaves you at play to do with them as you wish. Hopefully you build the puzzle in the way that they imagined, but as long as you’re building and your happy with your picture then it’s a job well done. Or at least that’s how I imagine it.

Another thing, how the hell does a show like Party Down fly so low under the radar?! It’s an outrage! It gives me a glimmering hope that a masterpiece of a horror movie exists somewhere in a hay stack. All you can do is keep digging till you feel that sharp prick.