There were 1,046 songs across my weekly mixes of 2007. Here are my favorite 105 of them.
MF Doom's "Arabic Gum" is just a loop of the piano in The Doobie Brothers' "What A Fool Believes" with Michael McDonald's line "he came from" popping in a couple times. Simply brilliant. Ghostface Killah's "Back Like That (remix)" with Kanye West and Ne-Yo features a funny reference to the old Wu-Tang single "Ice Cream" and is just funny in general. Jens Lekman's "Black Cab" makes ingenious use of a sample of The Left Banke's "I've Got Something On My Mind". Paul Westerberg's "Born For Me" with Shawn Colvin is the prettiest song he ever wrote. I had to wait a few years to put it on a weekly mix, but I think I used it too soon. "Brooklyn Hard Rock" by Thirstin Howl III features an amazing cockney hook and is one of those songs that is as great-sounding as it is funny. "Cactus" by The Pixies is about the most lustful song they ever wrote. Marlene Dietrich's "Cherche La Rose" is so simply romantic. In 2007, I went on a big Roy Ayers kick and "Coffy Is The Color" was great dinner part music.
"Come On Eileen" by Dexys Midnight Runners reminds me so much of my little Catholic 8th grade class, when this song came out. Despite an aversion to 80s nostalgia, hearing it again in 2007 reminded me of how much I loved the song. And that I need to avoid Irish Catholic girls. "Dancing Queen" by ABBA has a similar pull on my childhood memories, as I remember hearing this on my little radio when it came out in the 70s. Another amazing song, I have fuzzy memories of dancing to this on New Year's Eve 2007. Donna Summer's music is also a big childhood memory and her "Dim All The Lights" is one of her more underrated songs. "Divine Hammer" by The Breeders is just a perfect pop song. I looked it up and read, with some confusion, that it was about searching for meaning in life. The double entendres seem more obvious that this reading. "Do You Realize??" by The Flaming Lips is such a beautiful song and on this "best of" I have versions by both Beck and a special more stripped-down version by The Flaming Lips. Speaking of stripped-down, next is an acoustic version of the 80s power ballad "Don't Know What You Got Til It's Gone" by Cinderella, which might be one of my favorite songs ever. Also spare is the cover of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" by Petra Haden, where she sings a cappella and provides all the sound effects with her multi-tracked vocals. The longer, unedited version of "Erotic City" by Prince is still the most...erotic song he has recorded in a career of provocative music. "Everything She Wants" by Wham! reminds me of high school, where as a macho teenager weaned on classic rock radio, I hated to admit how great this song is. But I was happy to hear it at dances. It's very catchy and was a perfect song for my 2007. As was Nico's "The Fairest Of The Seasons", which is so autumnal and romantic. Same goes for the standard "Falling In Love Again" sung by both Marlene Dietrich and Nina Simone. The former is her standard version, and across these mixes I've included a much earlier and later version. Nina's is so great, it sounds like a different song.
Paul McCartney wrote "The Fool On The Hill" for Aretha Franklin to sing. She tried it and felt it didn't work and so she didn't release it. In 2007, I picked up a new rarities compilation that includes her version in the studio and I respectfully disagree with her. The Beatles eventually recorded it, but here I have a demo version that is basically Paul alone on the piano. Amazing. "Friend Of The Devil" by The Grateful Dead reminds me so much of college. One of their best songs, I think. "The Game" by Common features a great backing track and some fierce lyrics. Aretha's version of the standard "Gentle On My Mind" might be my favorite, even compared to Dean Martin and Glen Campbell. "Gimme Shelter" is The Rolling Stones at their spookiest. Urge Overkill's cover of Neil Diamond's "Girl, You'll Be A Woman soon" is much better than the original, bringing a weird sense of menace to the tenderness. "Give Me Just A Little More Time" by Chairmen Of The Board might be the sweetest song ever. It appeals to the more innocent side of me. CDs often break up songs that should flow together into one piece, so it was a bit of wizardry to get a single mp3 of the end of The Beatles' Abbey Road: "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End". It's such stirring music. The acoustic version of "Good Woman" by Cat Power is one of the more heartbreaking songs I've ever heard. In 2007, I went on a big Creedence Clearwater Revival kick. I grew up with their hits, but also picked up every album later on. "Have You Ever Seen The Rain?" is as good as anything they ever did. No one sounds like them. Cat Stevens' "Here Comes My Baby" is his most romantic song, so hopeful and happy. I really like the soundtrack work of Henry Mancini and from the original Pink Panther film "Here's Looking At You Kid" has a great, spacey vibe. Nas' "Hip Hop Is Dead" has a crazy production to it, so much energy and wit. Even wittier is Nice And Smooth's "Hip Hop Junkies" which samples The Partridge Family. Lupe Fiasco's "Hurt Me Soul" has such great music that you almost miss his smart and thoughtful lyrics the first few times you hear it. "Hustle!" is a brilliant mash up of Rick Ross rapping over the classic Van McCoy disco track. I played this a lot in 2007.
"I Will Dare" by The Replacements is such an oddly hopeful song, it was perfect for me in 2007. Just as positive, and then some, is Gloria Gaynor's disco smash "I Will Survive". Although it was long ago swallowed by irony and piano bars, I still find it as moving as I did hearing it as a kid. "I Wonder" by Kanye West is also a real adrenaline rush. Tom Waits' "I'll Be Gone" appeals to the absolutely crazy side of me. It's such a statement of purpose and I can listen to it on repeat indefinitely. "I'm Gonna Give You Respect" is a very obscure Marvin Gaye song, left off his Let's Get It On album. It was written by the great Willie Hutch, and it just had its hooks on me in 2007. Frederick Knight's "I've Been Lonely For So Long" is so perfectly played and produced. His singing is fantastic. Bobby Darin's version of "If I Were A Carpenter" is the definitive one, and was such a big song for me in 2007. "If You Let Me (Metamorphois ver)" is a rare early Rolling Stones song that has so much innocence and romantic appeal. The sound of "Intergalactic Love Song" by The Diddys featuring Paige Douglas actually lives up to its title. As does Ice Cube's "It Was A Good Day". Barry White's "It's Ecstasy When You Lay Next To Me" is bedroom music, obviously. "Just What I Needed" is obviously an incredible song by The Cars, and as great as the production on that is, Scout Niblett's cover might be even better. So raw and carnal. Not at all carnal but very sweet and catchy is Hall & Oates' "Kiss On My List". I'm seeing that there are a lot of sensual songs in my 2007 "best of", so it must have been that sort of year. "Lay Lady Lay" is Bob Dylan in his great and too short-lived crooning phase. There is no more romantic a song than M. Ward's cover of David Bowie's "Let's Dance". The cover of The Kinks' "Lola" by The Raincoats actually rocks harder than the original. Don Covay's "Mercy Mercy" is a lesson in great soul singing. He's so underrated. Quasimoto's "MHBs" is an acronym for an unfortunate type of woman, against a dreamy production.
"More Love" by Smokey Robinson & The Miracles is one of my favorite Smokey songs, even more than some of his bigger hits. His singing and his lyrics are both just incredible. "Motown Tribe" is a mash up of "Stressed Out" by A Tribe Called Quest against Marvin Gaye's "What's Goin' On" and it really works. "My Brother Is A Basehead" by De La Soul features just brilliant production and such clever samples. "New York's My Home" by Ray Charles was a very inspiring song for me in 2007. Billy Preston's "Nothing From Nothing" is such happy music, silly but uplifting. Chris Clark's version of Harry Nilsson's standard "one" features the best "yeah..." ever about twenty seconds in. Jane Wiedlin wrote "Our Lips Are Sealed" for The Go-Go's, and I lover her solo acoustic version here. Madonna's "Papa Don't Preach" might be her best song, or most honest. I love the strings. "Papa Was In the Rolling Stones" is a mash up of The Temptations' "Papa Was A Rollin' Stone" against "Jumpin' Jack Flash"' by The Rolling Stones and it just kicks ass. Another great mash up is "Reach Out For The Queen" which features The Sex Pistols' "God Save The Queen" against "Reach Out" by Burt Bacharach. It's incredible. Jackson Browne's "Running On Empty" was a favorite in 2007 around here, I remember it being turned up early on weekend mornings. "Sadly Beautiful" by The Replacements lives up to its title. "Satin Chic" by Goldfrapp kind of does, too. "Smiling Faces Sometimes" by The Undisputed Truth was one of many early 70s songs that were part of the "paranoid soul" mini-genre. I love how dense the production is.
George Harrison cribbed a line from James Taylor when he wrote "Something" for The Beatles. Not sure if Kurt Cobain had the same line in mind when he wrote "Something In The Way" for Nirvana, but this song haunted me in 2007, having never paid attention to it before. I got into Kool & The Gang's "Summer Madness" early in 2007, in the dead of winer, when it seems to have an even more alluring effect. "Suspicious Minds" has always been my favorite song by Elvis Presley and I loved hearing it again in 2007. The live cover of Franz Ferdinand's "Take Me Out" by Scissor Sisters completely reinvents the song. Part of Paul Weller's genius is finding an obscure Sister Sledge song, "Thinking Of You" to cover and make his own. Elton John's "Tiny Dancer" is a song that just never gets old. The next two songs, "Train In Vain" by The Clash and "Waterloo Sunset" by The Kinks are so great and have been such big parts of my life for so long that I can't believe they didn't make my top 11 of 2007. Roy Ayers' "We Live In Brooklyn, Baby" felt like my song in 2007, even though I was still in Manhattan. Aretha Franklin so totally owns her cover of "What A Fool Believes" you forget The Doobie Brothers did it first. Buddy Holly's official version of "What To Do" was one of my most memorable songs from 2007. As was "Whiskey, Mystics, And Men (ver 1)" by The Doors, a rare non-album track that encompasses the best of their weird shamanistic appeal.
In "Why?", Sadat X imagines his girlfriend's friend trying to make her a lesbian, to hilarious effect. "Wild Horses" by The Rolling Stones is the prettiest ballad they ever wrote and reminds me so much of my childhood. I am not at all an Oasis fan, but "Wonderwall" is undeniable. Smif-N-Wessun's "Wreckonize (remix)" makes great use of a Bill Withers/Grover Washington Jr. sample. Marlene Dietrich's "You Do Something To Me" reminds me of romantic car rides to the beach in 2007. Everyone heard Amy Winehouse's "You Know I'm No Good" in 2007, but the remix with Ghostface Killah is just more of a good thing. Van Halen's cover of The Kinks' "You Really Got Me" is just bad-ass. I really loved listening to Madeleine Peyroux's cover of Bob Dylan's "You're Gonna Make me Lonesome When You Go" in 2007, so I had to go back and enjoy Bob's version too. Tom Waits' version of the standard "Young At Heart" is a perfect end to my "best of 2007", so romantic and hopeful.
