ILM POLLS THE 20TH CENTURY'S BEST TRACKS ››› YOUR RESULTS THREAD ‹‹‹

It's a pretty sensible basis in a poll based on an era imo

I'm pretty sure multiple nominations killed the chances of Satchmo though, especially considering that his most iconic and well-known tune ("What a Wonderful World") isn't the one people were likely to vote.

One could rather clearly say that Satchmo's biggest hit and most famous song is obviously not very representative of the musical style he has otherwise become famous for.

I voted for stuff based on "historical importance" but I consider historical importance to be a fully subjective quality!

Also a matter of taste of course. My subjective taste is one hundred per cent about sound and zero per cent about context. Which means I like whatever sounds good no matter whether it is innovative and historically important or not. Thus, if Flower Kings makes something that sounds as good as Genesis or Yes at their best (I have to add they haven't quite done it yet), then I will rank them alongside Genesis and Yes. No matter how "derivative" they are.

But,really, historical importance is not just subjective. For instance, I love a couple of the albums Thompson Twins released in the 80s. But that doesn't mean that they have had any kind of influence of any of today's pop music whatsoever. No matter how good I, personally, think those albumsare.

Who are you and what have you done with Geir?

:)

Are you guys honestly surprised that a bunch of 20 and 30-something internet nerds' best-of-music list is heavily scewed to 70s and 80s art pop? This wailing and gnashing of teeth to me seems ridiculous, but also sooo ILX. Carry on.

I just voted for whatever I liked. To claim to somehow know which songs from before I was born were the most culturally significant seems a bit dishonest.

Coming up...#50...

50. SCREAMIN' JAY HAWKINS "I Put a Spell on You" (1956) [1,495 points, 17 votes]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGmXg6WYJ1U

I can dig it.

it's good but I WISH IT WERE OLDER

^^^this :(

the chord progressions in those horns are disturbing and awesome.

Really glad to see this one make it, I was getting worried it wouldn't. It was in my top 20.

also I sorta got burned out on the original and decided I preferred the CCR version for a while, but now I am back to appreciating them both!

I like the Nina version best. It's so sad.

I voted pretty canon, so not surprised to see a lot of my choices showing up. This one has the distinction of having made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Doesn't quite hit that spot for me anymore, but my 16-year-old self is ecstatic to see it make the list.

only waltz to show up so far?

49. THE VELVET UNDERGROUND "Sister Ray" (1968) [1,551 points, 12 votes, 1 first place vote]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDtqbS7DK2s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EfSapCA5ls

yay!!

OH YEAH. This was my #1 vote, so much music I love can be traced back to "Sister Ray". I love the (apocryphal?) story that Lou Reed and John Cale disliked each other so much at this point, neither wanted to be the first to stop playing...

Utterly useless bit of trivia: this is the highest-placing track with 12 votes.

with screamin' jay, that's 14 of my votes to show up so far. which seems like a lot, but i didn't go for many head-scratchers. would be happy to spend some time with a mixtape of these songs, as they're cheerful, varied and a bit absurd.

thought about voting for sister ray, but didn't. now i'm glad, as it would fuck up my imaginary mixtape.

speaking of two-part youtubes, somebody should post the real jenny ondioline, so people don't go around thinking the stereolab fans are insane

yeah wait'll they hear that it's actually 6 minutes of the same shit and then 4 minutes of the same shit slowed down

j/k I love jenny ondioline

TOO LOW

48. SLY & THE FAMILY STONE "Family Affair" (1971) [1,558 points, 15 votes]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MY-a4QbfT7U

Such an iconic track - I voted "Sing a Simple Song" and "Thank You Falettinme...." instead, but yeah.

Way too low. This was my number three and is probably going to be the highest of mine to appear.

I lol when people say way too low, because there were 2,190 nominations. Placing #48 out of that many is pretty good, no?

Voted for a different Sly & The Family Stone song but this is great; never been a huge fan of 'Sister Ray' but I can't really begrudge it placing; 'I Put A Spell On You' is a nice surprise.

agree w johnny, nice showing for sly. another of my picks, probably should have thrown it a few more points (wound up in the unranked hinterlands).

Just listened to Sister Ray in full, gonna play it again!

seandalai are you a fan of simply saucer ?

Never heard of - will check out in about 13 minutes' time. Thanks!

47. NEW ORDER "Blue Monday" (1983) [1,571 points, 14 votes]

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

Family Affair should be higher. One of the greatest vocal performances you'll ever hear.

Inevitable, I guess. Decent tune.

It's still my favorite New Order track, at least when I'm not stanning for "Dream Attack" and "Vanishing Point" (like those two ever had a chance).

46. DESMOND DEKKER & THE ACES "Israelites" (1968) [1,591 points, 15 votes]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWv9sraaCVA

shit yeah! love this song, and figured it for a long shot (no idea why). ILX going some distance to redeem this sorry morning.

I've never heard that Screamin Jay before but WOW. Fucking hell that is dope. Really should pay more attention to the og samples of records i love.

this poll got super fucking awesome in the past two days. sister ray! sly!

Yeah, I wish there were more "oh wow" moments like this. Not saying Dekker is a one hit wonder by any means, but I would've liked to have seen more of that instead of multiple appearances by some artists over and over.

Dekker is the nuts, obv :)

I lol when people say way too low, because there were 2,190 nominations. Placing #48 out of that many is pretty good, no?

― Lightning Is For Babies (Johnny Fever), Thursday, December 2, 2010 6:24 PM (32 minutes ago)

You're right, I was just hoping Family Affair would make the top ten it was one of the very few songs on my list I thought that had a chance but 48 is indeed a great result.

Scremin Jay Hawkins! Wow! Never heard it before and as such was surprised it didn't start with "Biggie!"

I can't imagine a Sly song that would get more votes than Family Affair.

just noticed that i've got four of my nominations in the list so far. advantage to getting your ballot in early, i guess...

xpost I had Hot Fun in the Summertime on my list too but yeah Family Affair will be the highest for sure.