100 Can-Pop Classics

I somehow never realised that Trans-X song was CanCon. It's great though.

1. Sloan - Twice Removed = 4.5
2. Neil Young - Harvest = 4.5
3. Joni Mitchell - Blue = 5
4. Tragically Hip - Up To Here = 4.5
5. Rheostatics - Whale Music = 3 [!!!!!!!!!!!!]
6. Tragiaclly Hip - Fully Completely - 4.5
7. Neil Young - After The Goldrush = 5
8. The Band - Music From The Big Pink = 5
9. Cowboy Junkies - Trinty Sessions = 4.5 [!!]
10. Lowest of the Low - Shakespear My Butt = 2.5 [!!!?!!!]
11. SARAH McLachlan - Fumbling Towards Ecstasy = 4.5
12. Neil Young - Rust Never Sleeps = 5
13. KD Lang - Ingenue = 4
14. Neil Young - Tonight's The Night = 5
15. Rush - Moving Pictures = 4.5
16. Rheostatics - Melvile = 4
17. Slow - Against The Glass = 4.5
18. Sloan - Smeared = 3 [!!!]
19. Leonard Cohen - Im Your Man = 4.5
20. Nomeansno - Wrong = 4.5

Other noteables:
21. Teenage Head - Frantic City = Not reviewed.
28. Doughboys - Whatever = 3
35. Eric's Trip - Love Tara = 3
42. Art Bergmann - Sexual Rolette = Not Even Review.
50. 13 Engines - Perpetual Motion Machine = 3
67. Circle C - S/t = 2
77. Art Bergmann - What Fresh Hell Is This = Not Reviewed
80. Hardsip Post - Somebody Spoke = 3
88. Bob Wiseman - In Her Dream: Bob Wiseman Sings Wrench Tuttle = 3
90. Art Bergmann - Crawl With Me = Not reviewed
94. Art Bergmann - S/t = Not Reviewed
98. Pluto - Cool Way to Feel = Not even a release date.

1. Bootsauce "Everyone's A Winner"
It seems a touch disingenuous to declare a Hot Chocolate cover the worst Canadian song ever, but the damn thing won a Best Dance Recording Juno in '92, so if the good Juno folks can honour it, we can surely provide our own special salutation as well.

2. Alannah Myles "Black Velvet"
A favourite amongst women who try too hard to be sexy and ultimately look like twats.

3. Crash Test Dummies "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm"
Brad Robert's tale, sung in his obnoxious bass vocals will only get him one thing, a place on this list.

4. Barenaked Ladies "One Week"
The chorus is bad enough, but BNL really embarrass themselves with that stupid rap. "I summon fish to the dish, although I like the Chalet Swiss?" Please.

5. Loverboy "Lovin' Every Minute Of It"
This song was so carefully calculated to appeal to the broadest range of vanilla heshers, its transparency couldn't help but backfire on the band.

Can-Pop classic: The Bells' "Stay Awhile". Dunno if Ned's familiar w/this song (it hit #7 in the U.S. in '71), but I can't describe how madly I would LOVE to hear MBV cover this song! It would shatter the heavens.

This song always reminds me of Twin Peaks.

Also I know it risks disqualification for still getting play on The Edge, but Killjoys "Today I Hate Everyone" is pretty classic pop IMHO.

[That wasn't poetic licence. Those were my actual thought processes as I typed.)

This is a timely revival because just yesterday on the Celine Dion thread I ranked Celine above BNL and Crash Test Dummies.

The moment it reaches her face is the ugliest moment in music video history.

As for the Bootsauce, mercifully I do not remember any of their other songs at all. This means that it was just the ONE horrible song that caused such trauma to my psyche - hence it is deserving.

Re: the Loverboy one also deserving its dishonour, all I'm gonna say is that 2-4 don't have washed up Three's Company actresses tarting themsleves around in their videos, now do they? And don't go trying the "but that's what made it!" line. This isn't 1997 you know.

Keep you language clean eh.

Just one comment for now.

I remember Bootsauce "Every One's A Winner" was not written by them.
It's was done by another artist. So I don't think that should be listed.

Stop The Music - Body Electric
West Coast Woman - Painter
Alaskan Shuffle - Bongo Fury
Dunrobin's Gone - Brave Belt
Peaceman's Farm - Noah

wow... not only had i totally forgotten this song existed (i remember hearing it on the radio a lot?) but i had no idea it was by Christopher Ward.

"So Long Baby Jane"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-A4WOUJs3kY

"I'm AN Adult Now" I mean... gah!

In one of those "we're in Canada now!" moments, this song came on the radio when I was approaching the Canadian border a week ago. It always frustrates me because I feel like it's supposed to say something either funny or insightful about aging and maturing but it never does. I still like "Hard to Laugh", though.

Just In Case You Wonder The Ugly Ducklings
Shadows of Your Mind The Plastic Cloud
Going To the City Bent Wind

Somehow I never knew this was Canadian. I had assumed it was by a California psychedelic band. According to Allmusic, it was a huge hit in Japan!

Yeah, I came across that song via that Oh! What a Feeling Juno compilation from the mid 90s.

tpoh

I played Love Junk on Spotify yesterday, feeling nostalgic for the singles. It has its moments for straight-ahead pop-rock, apparently. Produced by Rundgren! I only just got what the chorus of "Hard to Laugh" was probably describing:

Hard to laugh, when you know that she's been cheating
Had her hands around him and she's been giving it a beating

In my defence, I was 9 when it was released.

Had an urge to hear some Leslie Spit Treeo--a fabulous Toronto folky alt.rock band from the 90s--this afternoon, but my CDs are currently in another city, and I though there was no way I was going to find them streaming anywhere. Surprise, surprise--their debut album, Don't Cry Too Hard (1990), is actually on Apple Music. Not my very favourite album of theirs--that would be 1996's sprawling 2CD masterwork Chocolate Chip Cookies (also their final album)--but they never made a bad record in their brief career. Two album highlights, both on YouTube, are the expansive "UFO" and--sadly, timely--their raucous cover of John Prine's "Angel From Montgomery."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3Pb-5dWSn8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGbFD5dZbWY

I was going to add Bourben Tabernacle Choir and The Rheostatics cover of Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere but wanted to see how long we could stay Neiless.

Spoon, I'm So Green, Moonshake, I Want More, Half Past One, Mushroom...uhh maybe some others?? love this band but I don't think I could name 100 songs by them period

Didn't realize this thread was started by my friend...So yes, this could be the nominating thread when the time comes for the poll. I'll try to get a mod to modify the title.

i'm already curating a list in my head

I contributed a list to this book a few years ago:

https://i.cbc.ca/1.2070846.1381901652!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/top-100-singles-cover.jpg

Here's the full list of 100 songs:

https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/music/2010/10/02/the_whole_100single_list.html

I'm guessing I probably have no use for at least half the list, but it's a starting point.

They really tied themselves in knots making the list "singles only", since the only place "Hallelujah" was released as a single was in France, as a b-side, which is where it made approximately 0% of its impact as a song. The 100 Canadian albums book introduced me to Harmonium at least.

I like that they've got Teenage Head and the Demics and the Ugly Ducklings on there; no Haunted, though.

Wow, 20 years ago ilx (and probably irl) me was annoying. I stand by some of my nominations though.

Kim! Hope you vote.

Motion to have The Kings' "This Beat Goes On / Switchin' to Glide" counted as a single track? The only time I've ever heard them separated is the latter's appearance on Rhino's Just Can't Get Enough series (the Mersereau lists it correctly).

I think they're treated as one song on the radio, no?

Yeah. Only mentioned because I saw "Switchin' to Glide" listed by itself way upthread (actually, it was listed as "slip into glide" but someone immediately corrected that).

In the next few days, I'll start inputting songs mentioned here and songs from the Star list into a spreadsheet. To get a link to the spreadsheet at the top of the thread, though, I'll have to start a new thread.

NOW did a Canadian list 15 years ago or thereabouts, but I can't remember if it was albums or songs--albums, probably.

Another list:

https://indie88.com/the-top-150-canadian-songs-of-all-time/

I hope no one here is Alan Cross, because I want to say "God, I think that's Alan Cross's station."

I hope no one here is Alan Cross either.

I'll outline this later, but the qualifying criterion will be simple: either you were born in Canada or you weren't. Doesn't matter if you moved to L.A. when you were six months old and struck it rich there later in life, or if you were born in New York and left for Nova Scotia to do the same (the story of approximately no one). Neil Young is Canadian, Ronnie Hawkins is not. And it's the performer of the song--no complicated Cancon loopholes for producer/songwriter/whatever.

Bands are trickier. What do prospective voters think? If half or more of the band are Canadian, that counts?

Is half or more of The Band Canadian?

Will it go round in circles...4/5, I think--easy call.

Sorry, I'm being a smartass. I say that rule works.

I'm a lot more likely to vote for Skip Spence than K'naan, but some people might not like to see immigrants sidelined.

Sorry if it sounds like I'm trying to put a stick in the spokes every time you make a decision.