More of my thoughts on what are supposed to be the 100 greatest rock songs of all time.


80.  Fire and Rain:  James Taylor:  Oh, such a great song.  It's probably the definitive folk rock song.  It's actually quite sad, dealing with the death of a friend, drug addiction, and struggling with newfound fame.  It's been covered by a ton of other artists, but Taylor's is, and always will be, the best.


79.  A Hard Day's Night - The Beatles:  Ah, yes...the first appearance by one of my favorite bands on this list.  The title and theme of their first movie, this is one of their earliest hits and proved to America that they weren't one-hit wonders.  I prefer their later stuff myself, but it's The Beatles, so you know it's good.


78.  Blue Suede Shoes - Carl Perkins:  This song is a rockabilly classic.  Most people probably think of this as an Elvis song, but this is the original.  The song was inspired by both Johnny Cash and an incident Perkins observed at a dance where a young man told his date not to step on his blue suede shoes.  I love Elvis, but Perkins did it first and, arguably, best.


77.  Summertime Blues - Eddie Cochran:  This song deals with a young man facing frustration during the summer.  A real oldie, this song was written when the voting age was 21.  It's been covered by a ton of artists, probably most famously by Alan Jackson.


76.  California Girls - Beach Boys:  Apparently, Brian Wilson wrote the music for this one while on LSD.  Take a look at Brian Wilson now to see what that stuff will do to you.  But I digress.  It's a great song, another one that's been covered several times, most successfully by David Lee Roth.


75.  Sunshine of Your Love - Cream:  This British group, which featured Eric Clapton, was inspired by Jimi Hendrix when writing this song.  Hendrix actually covered this song later, as did others.  But nothing compares to the original, which is a rock classic.


74.  Good Golly, Miss Molly - Little Richard:  Recorded by Georgia's own Little Richard, covered hundreds of times.  Another rock classic featuring prominent piano instead of guitar.


73.  The Twist - Chubby Checker:  Originally recorded by Hank Ballard and the Midnighters, made famous by Chubby Checker.  This song kicked off the Twist dance craze of the '60s.  It became popular again in the '80s when The Fat Boys did a rap version of it.  Fun fact:  Chubby Checker picked his stage name as a goof on Fats Domino.  Okay, so it wasn't that fun.


72.  God Only Knows - Beach Boys:  One of the greatest, most beautiful love songs ever.  It was also one of the first pop songs to have "God" in the title.  Give this song a listen and if it doesn't move you, you have no soul.  Again, many covers have been recorded, but none of any great importance.


71.  Heartbreak Hotel - Elvis Presley:  And here we have The King's first entry on this list.  This is his first number one pop hit and one of his most popular songs.  Like most of these, it's been covered time and time again, perhaps most successfully by Willie Nelson and Leon Russell.

70-61 coming soon!