Broken noses hung upon the wall; backslapping drinkers cheer the heavyweight brawl

Elvis Costello is one of the most prolific song writers in modern music history.  Choosing one of his songs for this list was a really difficult task.

I finally settled on Costello’s best album Trust.  Although it didn’t produce a major hit like many of his other albums did, Trust is his best work from start to finish.  And Watch Your Step is the best song on that best album.

It’s one of those songs that you wish was 5 minutes longer.

Don’t say a word…

http://youtu.be/c-175a-WZwY

-cj cheetham

52 songs for 52 weeks will get your music collection up to par. If you want to have a better music collection – check in each week . Add a song a week and in one year’s time your music collection will be the envy of all your friends.

There’ll never be another quite like you
I’m so involved with everything you do

If the Church had been based in London rather than Australia, they would be a household name in America.  As it stands, they are one of the top Australian bands of all time. 

One of the most consistently excellent bands of the last 30 years, the Church was always able to combine great vocals, catchy guitar hooks, and great lyrics.

Metropolis, released in 1990 is a fantastic tune.  Add it to your library, just so you can get the guitar into your head and keep it there.

http://youtu.be/NKKaBk-ea8A

And when you fell they fell down on their knees
And when you broke they scrambled for a piece
And when you spoke I felt their anger freeze

-cj cheetham

52 songs for 52 weeks will get your music collection up to par. If you want to have a better music collection – check in each week . Add a song a week and in one year’s time your music collection will be the envy of all your friends.

It’s time to walk the streets; smell the desperation

In 1983, Australia’s Men at Work ruled the airwaves with Overkill.  Although they only released a couple of studio albums – Men at Work filled those recordings with outstanding music.  None better than this one.

One of the measures of a song is:  do you get tired of listening to it?  This is one song I literally never get tired of – it is pretty close to being a perfect song.

If you need more evidence of the timelessness of this tune – my 17 year old daughter loves it too.

http://youtu.be/RY7S6EgSlCI

Ghosts appear and fade away

-cj cheetham

52 songs for 52 weeks will get your music collection up to par. If you want to have a better music collection – check in each week . Add a song a week and in one year’s time your music collection will be the envy of all your friends.

Chris Isaak proves – that sometimes sad songs are the best songs. 

I told her I’d love her; Now that it’s too late I see – I let her down

http://youtu.be/3kZWqUYTi9A

-cj cheetham

 52 songs for 52 weeks will get your music collection up to par. If you want to have a better music collection – check in each week . Add a song a week and in one year’s time your music collection will be the envy of all your friends.

On New Year’s Day 1981, the communists running Poland declared Martial Law in order to go after Lech Walesa and the Solidarity movement.  The Communists eventually lost.

You really can’t have a great song list without at least one U2 song.  This one has always been my favorite U2 song.  Outstanding piano on this one – mixed in with a killer guitar.

‘Under a blood red sky, a crowd has gathered, black and white, alls entwined, the chosen few, the newspapers say, its true its true, and we can break through

I was going to save this for January – but people are clamoring for more classic 80’s.  Great video to boot (featuring Soviet forces in WWII trying to destroy civilization).

http://youtu.be/8kx8wGRNZX4

Nothing changes on New Year’s Day…

-cj cheetham

52 songs for 52 weeks will get your music collection up to par. If you want to have a better music collection – check in each week . Add a song a week and in one year’s time your music collection will be the envy of all your friends.

Big Country exploded onto the music scene with their incredible song, In a Big Country and instantly earned superstar status and immediate comparisons to U2. 

Despite their electric start Big Country never achieved the fame that was predicted for them.  Who knows why?  It could have been that Scottish bands were over looked; it could have been poor promotion.  One thing is clear – they didn’t miss out on superstardom because of their music.

Big Country’s 1st 3 albums are as good as any in my record library and I’d say their song catalog is as good as any band – ever.

During the height of their popularity, Stuart Adamson and the band were asked to record the music for a Scottish film called “Restless Natives” – it wasn’t  a great film, but it does have an incredible sound track.  This is the title track.

http://youtu.be/tN6eZOS5wQ0

The eagle he was lord above and Rob was lord below

-cj cheetham

Check out the classic Restless natives film clip:

http://youtu.be/oaDBET0oij8

52 songs for 52 weeks will get your music collection up to par. If you want to have a better music collection – check in each week . Add a song a week and in one year’s time your music collection will be the envy of all your friends.

The Who put together some incredible albums.  None probably better than their tremendous album “Who’s Next” which featured some of their strongest songs.

To give you an idea how great Who’s Next was, let me submit for your approval Pure and Easy – a song originally recorded for Who’s Next but apparently not a good enough song to make the original album.

It was later released on Odds and Sods, a compilation of B-sides and rare tracks the Who released later in the 1970s.

Pure and Easy – a song that didn’t make the cut is one of my all time favorite songs by any band and certainly a reminder of the incredible talent in the Who.

There once was a note, pure and easy…

http://youtu.be/x430XNZhnWs

-cj cheetham

52 songs for 52 weeks will get your music collection up to par. If you want to have a better music collection – check in each week . Add a song a week and in one year’s time your music collection will be the envy of all your friends.

she tricks me into thinking
i can’t believe my eyes
i wait for her forever
she never does arrive

The Cars self-titled album, released in 1978, was an absolute treasure.  It produced multiple hits.  It had the cult song “Moving in Stereo.”

But the overlooked track on this incredible album was All Mixed Up which came right after Moving in Stereo and featured Benjamin Orr (R.I.P.) on vocals.  I can remember visiting my brother, at Bentley College in the early 1980s – and listening to this song on an incredibly loud stereo.  And it was a good thing.

http://youtu.be/E9d-1d0ltCM

If you don’t own the Cars first album – you really need to go get it.  But at the very least get this incredible song in your library. 

she says to leave it to me
and everything will be alright

-cj cheetham

P.S.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will be a joke until the Cars are admitted.

52 songs for 52 weeks will get your music collection up to par. If you want to have a better music collection – check in each week . Add a song a week and in one year’s time your music collection will be the envy of all your friends.

The Trash Can Sinatras have recorded some of the best albums of the last 20 years and hardly anyone outside the UK has even noticed.

I’ve Seen Everything is from their second album released in 1993.  I think Hayfever is probably the best song released by anyone in 1993. 

http://youtu.be/8qYXRDAsL7o

The songwriting is great; the vocals are outstanding; and these guys actually play instruments.  Imagine that?

-cj cheetham

52 songs for 52 weeks will get your music collection up to par. If you want to have a better music collection – check in each week . Add a song a week and in one year’s time your music collection will be the envy of all your friends.

Who wants to break the news about Uncle Joe?

When I was a young man, I didn’t listen very much to Bob Seger. 

But when you get a little older, and you get some miles on your odometer, you realize that Bob seger wrote an awful lot of songs that you can relate to.  He writes songs about life and so when you lived a little – suddenly Seger hits the mark, and you think “I get what he is singing about here.”

Fire Lake is about taking chances in life and all the excitement and fun associated with that risk.

Who wants to play those eights and aces?  Seger asks in reference to the famous “Dead Man’s Hand.”  Wild Bill Hickock was holding a pair of eights and a pair of aces when he was murdered during a card game in Deadwood South Dakota on Aug 2, 1876. 

I like that kind of stuff in songs.

http://youtu.be/B_9muTwzB-E

-cj cheetham

52 songs for 52 weeks will get your music collection up to par. If you want to have a better music collection – check in each week . Add a song a week and in one year’s time your music collection will be the envy of all your friends.