CLASSIC ROCK TRACKS POLL voting thread -- deadline July 15 -- VOTING CLOSED

Prefer both Nilsson and Aimee Mann versions of "One" even though the TGN version is the famous one.

I was in high school in the 70s and Three Dog Night were considered soooooo uncool, like the only people I knew who liked them were backwards girls who still had Bobby Sherman posters in their bedrooms.

I like Eli's Coming, tho.

I saw them at a huge stadium show in Pittsburgh in 1972 or 1973. My cousin and I went only because OPENING ACT LEON RUSSELL. We left after about the second Three Dog Night song, we had reputations to maintain.

Love that commercial calling them "The Three Dog Night." It did remind me of "Out in the Country," another key link back to definitely legitimate forms of late 60s/early 70s rock. I will concede that "The Show Must Go On" is dire.

Leon Russell has been ill-served by classic rock, as I discovered when I got his greatest hits off a friend (see thread). "Tight Rope" is good, and his biggest hit, but definitely not his best. Keep waffling on including it in my 100 as a token representing his whole branch of the CR family tree.

backwards girls who still had Bobby Sherman posters in their bedrooms

^^^ possible future doctor casino display name

I can't think of Bobby Sherman without giggling like Lisa Simpson.

http://i.imgur.com/P4p7p.gif

Doc, vote for Tight Rope if only for the awesome saloon piano solo at the end.

Dan Rydell: Eli's Coming.
Casey McCall: Eli?
Dan Rydell: From the Three Dog Night song.
Casey McCall: Yes?
Dan Rydell: Eli is something bad, a darkness.
Casey McCall: "Eli's coming. Hide your heart, girl." Eli is a inveterate womanizer. I think you're getting the song wrong.
Dan Rydell: I know I'm getting the song wrong. But, when I first heard it, that's what I thought it meant. Things stick with you that way.

Einstein meets Freud.

youtube.com/watch?v=Yb8A9UBXYF0

we should really poll AM Gold soon. God I love that series.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AM_Gold

I would like an AM Gold poll very much.

Also I always sing, "Eli's coming. Hide your hat, girl" because it amuses me.

I'm all for an AM Gold ballot poll sometime down the line, maybe doing like some dude and using the Time-Life series as a basis for further noms?

Also feel very strongly that LimbsKing should do a modern/alternative rock poll but it may be "too soon."

Seems clear that "Mama Told Me Not To Come," "One" and "Joy To The World" have boiled down as their signature songs, kinda funny given how many hits they really did have. "Black and White," one of their #1s, is almost never heard on any format at this point.

And hasn't been for a long time as far as I've heard. The disappearance of "Celebrate" seems more recent.

I remember hearing it a lot in the '80s on oldies radio, maybe into the '90s.

"Shambala" too.

Yeah, I didn't really grow up with "Black or White" even. Maybe it's just one of those things that started to seem really hokey really quickly, and maybe the moms and dads that went for it as a pleasant statement rapidly became an undesirable demographic or something. "Celebrate" I definitely used to hear, and it's missed.

Used to hear "An Old Fashioned Love Song" on oldies radio too.

yesssss

ugh, no!
that song is basically the antithesis of what i want from a love song, old fashioned or otherwise. it's borderline lawrence welk hokey.

aaaaaaannnnnnnd Shambala bumps "Going Mobile"

"Going Mobile" seemed like one of the biggest Who songs when i lived in Delaware but i don't hear it nearly as much elsewhere

Old Fashioned Love Song is a Paul Williams composition, which makes it pure solid gold imo.

"Going Mobile" virtually the only 70s Who song I'd actually turn up on the radio. Love all the bigguns, just fucking burned out as shit on them. Might go back and rejigger things, would be great to get "Eminence Front" in there.

OMG, I finally have this down to 100. It really was impossible until I enforced some hardcore limits on inclusion: with one exception, no act gets more than two entries, even if their other songs are better than half the stuff in the countdown.

Now...the 'worst' list. Yikes.

would be great to get "Eminence Front" in there.

yes it would!

Total car jam.

seriously, how did the who get so funky?

they killed keith moon

a shadowy criminal organization, the eminence front, saw to the details

i would LOVE an AM gold poll, fwiw

^^ yessss

so many quality soft rock jams here

AM Gold poll would be so much fun

Key thread: I need more AM GOLD

And, oh heck, I'll hawk it again - slowly expanding Spotify playlist: http://open.spotify.com/user/doctorcasino/playlist/6WzifvQ5j3RMO9gB1iTs12 (with big lapses for artists like Simon who I listen to heavily on LP). But save that for later - or take a quick dip I guess if you need a palate-cleanser in between rounds of some dude's killer classic rock playlist. My head is spinning from trying to actually get my top-, mid-, and bottom 33 in order.

This is interesting, every time I try to play "Baby I'm-A Want You," Spotify keeps hitting me with "Subterranean Homesick Blues." Perhaps a sign that rock holds the day for now.

You can do it Doc. I just moved my 100 over a column in excel, and cut & pasted chunks of 10. The Joe Cocker's of the world (#99) just naturally found their place.

AM Gold came to mind as I was thinking about Shambala, and wondering where the Bread songs were. For that matter, no Guess Who in my Classic Rawk top 100, but I'm pretty sure These Eyes would crack my AM Gold top 20.

Last night I dreamed i was hanging out with some guys and they got really stoked about the idea of doing a Three Dog Night style band, they wrote a song on the spot and I had some choice harmonies. But I was simultaneously playing a Batman video game that involved an inordinate amount of diving under water and searching for air pockets, Sonic-style, so I'm not sure if they felt I was really committed to the idea.

meanwhile, really hoping my ballot proves to be a game-changing missive from another planet (Joe Cocker at #13 currently).

some dude thanks for doing this, especially the spotify playlist. I think I spent a good couple of days on my list, so I imagine running this must be exponentially more time consuming. This poll inspired me to grab the FM Soundtrack, as I realize how incomplete my life is without Lido Shuffle.

man I could totally vote for every Boston track

random assortment today

janie's got a gun - aerosmith
hold the line - toto
whole lotta love - zep
boys of summer (live) - ole fartbag henley
moving in stereo - the cars
cisco kid - war

I voted for both Boys of Summer and Lyin' Eyes. Voted The Heat Is On in the worst poll, but could have been any solo Glenn Frey.

Pump is great, but I think that's where I got off the bus. I even like the Aerosmith album they disavow (Done With Mirrors).

some dude thanks for doing this, especially the spotify playlist. I think I spent a good couple of days on my list, so I imagine running this must be exponentially more time consuming. This poll inspired me to grab the FM Soundtrack, as I realize how incomplete my life is without Lido Shuffle.

― campreverb, Saturday, July 12, 2014 8:11 PM (34 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

no prob! it is definitely time consuming, but it's also stuff i can get done easily in between writing assignments and has been a fun distraction. tabulating a lot of ballots ahead of the deadline so i can tell gr80 some song titles to work up graphics for has been a good way to motivate me to spread the work out over time. the excitement of seeing how every ballot dramatically effects the results makes it fun.

re: Three Dog Night

My friend's father used to often talk about how he helped write "Joy to the World" when he hung around with Hoyt Axton. Dunno if it's true.

I remember "Shambala" mostly from this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=de8h27wsxpY&feature=kp

doesn't seem like the kind of thing you'd make up

Didn't know The Three Dog Night recorded "Never Been To Spain"; I only knew it from Elvis' overwhelming live version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PHp_o7zNp4

x-post

Oh, I don't doubt that he was friends with Hoyt Axton, but as for helping write the song... The guy was a bit of a storyteller; he also claimed that he slept with Linda Ronstadt while he was her limo driver.

just hit 30 ballots! keep 'em comin'!

I'm under 150 songs to review. I may actually get through this.

Ranking has been a slow process, but I'll definitely get a ballot in.