The 22nd P&J Singles Poll!

Wow, that's a fantastic list! I went for "Ms. Jackson": after I first heard it on the radio, I ordered the album right away. I don't do that very often. But wow: "B.O.B.", DMX, Jay-Z, Coldplay, "Forgot About Dre", Aaliyah, hell I even loved "Who Let the Dogs Out?". I could vote for anything on here except David Gray.

AAAAANTE UP

the first P&J singles poll of its era that was more BET than VH1, so there's a lot more to choose from for me. nothing really jumping out that i definitely want to vote for, though. fuck it, "Ante Up" for me too.

Now THIS is a list. "Big Pimpin'," despite heavy competition.

...from Mystikal, N'Sync, Outkast, Madonna, Dylan, Destiny's Child, and De La.

At the time I would've chose "The Real Slim Shady." Now that has competition between "Forgot About Dre," "Try Again," and the two OutKast songs.

Yeah, this is a ridiculously great list! Went for "Big Pimpin'" cause that was the one I most felt like listening to today. On any other day, it could have been a fight to the death involving about a dozen or so others.

this is our classic rock

B.O.B.

"Thong Song" - imbuing the stupid (not even stoopid) with the magisterial so that we all have a shot at glory. Every time it came on the radio, it gave pause like it was freakin' "Papa Was a Rolling Stone." One of THE great singles.

Kudos to Madonna's last masterpiece to date (the tape malfunction at 3:27 between the three and the four was the most kinetic moment of the year), Britney's greatest single ever (hopefully not to date), and the natural wonder "Who Let the Dogs Out."

M.I.A.:

Aqua: "Cartoon Heroes" (MCA) - After all this time, I still cannot wrap my head around this song. I still say it's a nasty song about the ego ideals that are pop stars making fun of us lowly fans for possessing lesser motor functions and flabbier asses. But on another level, Aqua is making fun of themselves as you can see in the video where they get their asses kicked by a giant octopus. In any event, the song calls out for a Lacanian analysis stat! Xhuxk, get on it.

Barenaked Ladies: "Pinch Me" (Reprise) - If I had guilty pleasures, this would be one. But seriously - have you really listened to this song? It has one of the bleakest lyrics ever, doubly surprising since they're supposed to be nothing but dorks. And even at that, I say no one has ever explored the frightened, perpetually joking, nearly nihilistic inner world of the dork with more poignancy. I fact, I can't think any artist who's explored this.

2ge+her: "U + Me = Us (Calculus) (TVT) - The thin line between meta-pop and, well, pop.

Timbaland and Magoo: "We At It Again" (Virgin) - "Bounce." One word. That's all we're allowed before we get dropped in the middle of a hip-hop vision of Mark Hudson's novel The Music in My Head. And more than a little of its world historic accompanying soundtrack of chalky West African heat stroke. "Big Pimpin'" deserves to be up there. And the four Tim tracks on Vol. 3 . . . Life and Times of S. Carter are the most jaw-dropping things Jay-Z ever lent his name to ("It's Hot (Some Like It Hot)" was the kind of minimalism I craved ever since the dawn of g-funk). But this just might be the man's masterpiece under his own name.

The Lord works in mysterious ways. I also voted "Big Pimpin'," one of my all-time favorite songs. But deciding between that and "B.O.B." was really tough. The spring and summer of '00 was all about "Big Pimpin'" though, so that wins.

I'm crazy but I'd rather here "Thong Song" now than "B.O.B." (but "Ms. Jackson" craps all over "Incomplete").

I voted "B.O.B." but "Big Pimpin'" could have been my pick as well. Great list.

annual wtf slot: David Gray "Babylon"

Thong tha-thong-thong-thong.

Bad Touch too.

annual wtf slot: David Gray "Babylon"

-- da croupier, Thursday, October 25, 2007 4:37 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

lold people. my dad really liked this song

"Babylon" may have been the first of this decade's Starbucks/soccer-mom singles.

VH1 BLOCK STRIKES AGAIN!

I vote "BOB" because it was my first real musical mindfuck and I am forever indebted, etc., but these are all good-great:

OutKast: "Ms. Jackson" (LaFace/Arista)
Eminem Featuring Dido: "Stan" (Aftermath/Interscope)
OutKast: "B.O.B." (LaFace/Arista)
Madonna: "Music" (Maverick/Warner Bros.)
Nelly: "(Hot S**t) Country Grammar" (Universal)
Mystikal: "Shake Ya Ass" (Jive)
Destiny's Child: "Say My Name" (Columbia)
Aaliyah: "Try Again" (Blackground/Atlantic)
D'Angelo: "Untitled (How Does It Feel)" (Virgin)
Coldplay: "Yellow" (Nettwerk America)
Jay-Z: "Big Pimpin'" (Roc-A-Fella)
Common: "The Light" (MCA)
Erykah Badu: "Bag Lady" (MCA)
Destiny's Child: "Independent Women Part 1" (Columbia)
Jay-Z: "I Just Wanna Love U" (Roc-A-Fella)
M.O.P.: "Ante Up" (Loud)
De La Soul: "Oooh" (Tommy Boy)
Dr. Dre Featuring Eminem: "Forgot About Dre" (Aftermath/Interscope)
No Doubt: "Simple Kind of Life" (Interscope)
DMX: "Party Up (Up in Here)" (Ruff Ryders/Def Jam)
Blink 182: "All the Small Things" (Interscope)
Dead Prez: "Hip-Hop" (Loud)
Bloodhound Gang: "The Bad Touch" (Republic)
Lucy Pearl: "Dance Tonight" (Pookie)

Ones I might actually consider voting for:

Eminem Featuring Dido: "Stan" (Aftermath/Interscope)
OutKast: "B.O.B." (LaFace/Arista)
Nelly: "(Hot S**t) Country Grammar" (Universal)
Eminem: "The Real Slim Shady" (Aftermath/Interscope)
Britney Spears: "Oops, I Did It Again" (Jive)
Dr. Dre Featuring Eminem: "Forgot About Dre" (Aftermath/Interscope)
DMX: "Party Up (Up in Here)" (Ruff Ryders/Def Jam)
Dixie Chicks: "Goobye Earl" (Monument)

Other ones I like more than the other ones:

OutKast: "Ms. Jackson" (LaFace/Arista)
Mystikal: "Shake Ya Ass" (Jive)
Destiny's Child: "Say My Name" (Columbia)
Sisqo: "Thong Song" (Def Soul)
M.O.P.: "Ante Up" (Loud)
'N Sync: "Bye Bye Bye" (Jive)
Baha Men: "Who Let the Dogs Out" (Artemis)
Queens of the Stone Age: "Feel Good Hit of the Summer" (Interscope)
Destiny's Child: "Jumpin' Jumpin'" (Columbia)
Bloodhound Gang: "The Bad Touch" (Republic)
R. Kelly: "I Wish" (Jive)
3 Doors Down: "Kryptonite" (Republic)

I'm going to vote for the Dixie Chicks. What the hell.

Oops, left out "Big Pimpin'". That one should have been on one of those two lists, probably. (I like that other Jay-Z single too, but not as much).

What I actually voted for that year (including four that actually made the big list!):

Singles
1 Kid Rock "Only God Knows Why" Atlantic / Lava
2 DMX "Party Up (Up in Here)" Def Jam listen own it!
3 LFO "Girl on TV" Arista
4 Mya "Case of the Ex" Interscope
5 Dixie Chicks "Goodbye Earl" Monument
6 Britney Spears "Oops!...I Did It Again" Jive
7 Bloodhound Gang "The Bad Touch" Geffen/Republic
8 Shaggy featuring Ricardo "Rikrok" Ducent "It Wasn't Me" MCA
9 Carnival in Coal "Baker Street" Season of Mist
10 Detroit Grand Pubahs "Sandwiches" Jive Electro

Interesting -- So I was either overrating "The Bad Touch" then, or I'm underrating it now -- not sure which. I still like it, but I'd honestly forgotten that I liked it that much back then.

Definitely don't like "Only God Knows Why" as much as I did then (though I still think it's good).

Also overrated those Shaggy and Detroit Grand Pubahs singles, I think. But not the Mya or LFO ones.

"I Wish" makes me cry, but lots of those others are good too. And Kevin's OTM about "Pinch Me" and "Cartoon Heroes." I don't know about Lacan, but that song's totally beautiful.
All the David Gray hate makes me nervous, though--I'm thinking of pitching an EMP paper on that song!

"Case Of The Ex" = super underrated and deserving

"Optimistic" ain't the best thing here, but it does have one of my all-time favorite Radiohead moments, where the drums speed up just slightly towards the end. Hella terrifying.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

is this the closest any of these polls have come to mirroring the order of the P&J results?

DMX: "Party Up (Up in Here)" (Ruff Ryders/Def Jam) 0
Destiny's Child: "Jumpin' Jumpin'" (Columbia) 0
Mystikal: "Shake Ya Ass" (Jive) 0
Destiny's Child: "Independent Women Part 1" (Columbia) 0
Jay-Z: "I Just Wanna Love U" (Roc-A-Fella) 0

holy shit how did I miss DMX.

Totally would have taken that over Outkast, fuck!

"Jumpin' Jumpin'" (srsly, how did that get in, but "Lose My Breath" near miss?) sux ass, but otherwise groovemaaan otm.

Ha ha my ballot, for better or worse:

1 Atmosphere "The Woman With The Tattooed Hands"
2 Lucy Pearl "Dance Tonight"
3 OutKast "B.O.B"
4 Micranots "Culture"
5 Cannibal Ox "Iron Galaxy"
6 Femi Kuti "Black Man Know Yourself"
7 Destiny's Child "Say My Name"
8 Nelly "(Hot S**t) Country Grammar"
9 DMX "Party Up (Up in Here)"
10 Eminem "The Real Slim Shady"

I now think I picked the wrong Outkast, Micranots, and Atmosphere songs, and I should have voted for "Beautiful Day" (which I did here), and "Ante Up" is irresistable, but ultimately as repugnant and stupid to me as "Big Pimpin'" and "Stan."

Nothing against "Music," Kevin, but what about "What It Feels Like For a Girl," "Love Profusion," "Mother and Father," "Get Together," "Hung Up," and "Sorry"?

I dig them fine but they're nowhere near as masterful as "Music."

anyone else think Christgau's #1 single is a ridiculous choice?

Sure, but no more ridiculous than "Rock the Casbah" (which was his number one a year later, right?)

For reference, here's his '00 list:

Singles

Eminem: "Kim" (Aftermath/Interscope)
OutKast: "Ms. Jackson" (LaFace)
Eminem: "Stan" (Aftermath/Interscope)
Eminem: "The Real Slim Shady" (Aftermath/Interscope)
Bruce Springsteen: "American Skin" (MSG)
Britney Spears: " . . . Oops, I Did It Again" (Jive)
Baha Men: "Who Let the Dogs Out" (Artemis)
Sisqó: "Thong Song" (Def Soul)
Nelly: "(Hot S***) Country Grammar" (Universal)
Pink: "There You Go" (LaFace)
M2M: "Girl of Your Dreams" (Atlantic)
Madd Anju: "Wah Dis Fada" (VP)
Mystikal: "Shake Ya Ass" (Jive)
Black Rob: "Whoa!" (Bad Boy)
Lee Ann Womack: "I Hope You Dance" (MCA)
3 Doors Down: "Kryptonite" (Republic)
Green Velvet: "Answering Machine" (F-111)

Never heard of Madd Anju -- reggae dancehall, I'm guessing (judging from being on the VP label)?

I forgot about "Rock the Casbah"--at least that's kind of listenable, though!

And I don't mean to say I don't think "Kim" is "effective" at what it is, but... single of the yr?

bad song from the right year > good song that's 20 years off

well, it's kind of a moot point--they're both ridiculous statements either way.

As I said above, I think his singles lists this decade have been lazy. But if anyone deserves to be lazy in these matters, it's him. Still, Xhuxk, do you know why he voted for "Rock the Casbah?"

because he liked it a lot?

It wasn't on his ballot in '82 (when it reached #3 on P&J).

His ballot that year was (largely) all about 9/11, no?

It's all about the oil.

I like the idea of him going "good lord, that Clash song is a jam, what corrective measure can I make for sleeping on it for 20 years?" more than using up one spot on his ballot to make some vague political statement (unless you think that repping the Moldy Peaches was about 9/11 too).

http://markbaars.files.wordpress.com/2007/08/docbrown.jpg

GREAT SCOTT! I'VE GOT TO BRING THE CLASH...TO THE FUTURE!

BTW, Chuck can probably fill us in on why the singles ballot went from being about singles to being about songs 'round about that time. Something to do with this little known activity called downloading, if I'm not mistaken. N@p$+3r to thread!

(Also: "Kim" is a great track!)

unless you think that repping the Moldy Peaches was about 9/11 too

"NYC's Like A Graveyard."

"Adam Green and Kimya Dawson are truly now twin towers of music, standing tall over the rest of New York City; may they never fall."

it can't be posted often enough:

http://www.america1st.org/wtc/eagle-crying.gif

The shareef don't like it
Rockin' the Casbah
Rock the Casbah
The shareef don't like it
Rockin' the Casbah
Rock the Casbah

xp
Can you perform some photoshop wizardry and exchange the text there with Christgau's singles list?

Now that would be truly beautiful.

It'd make more sense if the P&J top ten of 1985 were superimposed instead.

http://www.greatdreams.com/terror/Bush01_150.jpg

Pictured: King, Boogie Men

"The Dean is back, and he plans on kickin' some errorist ass!!"

xxp

My number one single this year will be "Last Kind Word Blues."

why the singles ballot went from being about singles to being about songs 'round about that time

Because more people started to vote for songs that weren't actually singles, and increasingly in a digital age, the distinction became harder and harder to parse? (I'm not sure when the change actually happened, but somewhere along the line -- maybe as early as the mid '90s -- the annual Pazz and Jop letter was ammended to allow "airplay tracks" which were not physically released as singles, as long as the voter "heard" said tracks as singles. Remember, airplay tracks that weren't technically singles per se' became eligible for Billboard's Hot 100 somewhere in there, too. But early on, only actual singles were eligible for Pazz&Jop, and the letter was very adamant about that. Personally, I kind of hate the move toward "favorite tracks" as opposed to "favorite singles" in year-end lists in general, but I've definitely been as guilty as anybody else when it comes to voting for non-singles. First non-single I remember ever seeing on a Pazz & Jop list printed in the Voice was "Civil War" by Guns N Roses on Doug Simmons's '91 list, I think.)

Remember, airplay tracks that weren't technically singles per se' became eligible for Billboard's Hot 100 somewhere in there, too.

Not 'til 98.