Looking Back On The Song Tournament...

Funny what you think about while vacuuming.  And to be honest, I don't have as many examples of this as I should.  Especially when it comes to the carpet on the stairs to the basement...those guys don't feel the vacuum all that often.

Today, my thoughts turned to my song tournament.

Back in the mid to late 1980's I had a notebook with a carefully designed 16-page bracket for a tournament of 512 songs.  I spent hours  and hours listening and re-listening to each pair of songs, carefully judging one against the other and then moving the best one on the next line of the bracket.  (and remember, this was in the time before CDs, so the rewind button got quite a work out on the cassette player!)

So today as I was cleaning those stairs, for whatever reason, I was trying to remember the final four songs in the tournament....which I actually remembered quite quickly.  So then my thoughts turned to how those songs hold up today.......

#4: The Safety Dance - Men Without Hats

Still love this one....but to be honest, if I was having a tournament of only Men Without Hats songs, I'm not sure this one cracks the top 10.  Seriously, check out that band's entire catalog sometime.  Many great tunes.  This one made them famous, but it's really not one of their best.  And wow, what a weird video.

#3:  Jessie's Girl - Rick Springfield

That guitar intro on that one still does it for me.  But as is the case with Safety Dance, in a Rick Springfield song tournament, Jessie's Girl doesn't make the top 10.

A little proud parent note on this one.  When my 6th Grade daughter was asked to bring in a song for them to listen to and discuss at school she chose this one.  :)
(unfortunately the lyrics did not pass the teacher's pre-discussion test...something about the "loving him with that body" line and the whole idea of wanting to steal your friend's girl.  So she took in Don't Talk To Strangers instead....which still was cool, but that may be my least favorite Rick Springfield song ever.)

#2:  Love Somebody - Rick Springfield

This one would have a fighting chance if the tournament were held today.  One of my favorite air guitar  solos (which I played ferociously on the stairs with the extendable vacuum hose).   The lyrics may not be all that deep...but this is a fun one to crank up loud in the car.  The video is very weak....it would be a first round loser if this was a video tournament.  And remember "Hard To Hold"...the movie it's from...I didn't think so.

#1:  Shades Of Gray - The Monkees

Opposite of Love Somebody in that it has wonderful lyrics but really not the one you want to crank in the car.  Also has the best frech horn solo of any song in my collection.  I still love this song, but I'm not sure how much of that feeling is from the highly emotional episode of The Monkees tv show where Davy's grandfather wants Davy to leave the group and come back to England.  (just noticed the first clip doesn't include the french horn solo....but I'm leaving it for the emotional "Davy contemplates leaving the group" tie in.  The second clip has the awesome horn part.)