681/1000 Queen, "Another One Bites the Dust" - Queen going disco-funk and exploring the possibilities of negative space, right after doing some rockabilly revival, shows how much range these guys had. Love the guitars that got distorted into something like chirping crickets. #brodystoprock1000
682/1000 Aretha Franklin, "Respect" - It's emerged as the consensus Aretha choice, though you'll see some of my own favorites ranked higher here eventually. But there's no denying the way Aretha transformed this song from Otis Redding's begging original into a confident demand. #brodystoprock1000
683/1000 Billy Idol, "Dancing with Myself" - Unlike most punks, Billy Idol scaled his sneer to mainstream success by assuming the results would be ridiculous. There's something funny about a grand new wave pop song that maintains its 4-note guitar solo from the punk original. #brodystoprock1000
684/1000 Billy Joel, "Sometimes a Fantasy" - Billy Joel, the piano man balladeer making nostalgic songs for suburban strivers, finds out that punk rock is eating his (critically-acclaimed) lunch and does his own take on it. It'll never be punk but it lets his neurosis hang out. #brodystoprock1000
685/1000 Norman Greenbaum, "Spirit in the Sky" - A Jewish guy writes a gospel song with an awesome fuzz guitar riff that gets key parts of Christian theology wrong (everyone's sinned doncha know) but it becomes a massive hit anyway, his only one. It just boogies! #brodystoprock1000
686/1000 The Soft Boys, "I Wanna Destroy You" - Brought back psychedelia with a tighter rhythm section, perhaps because their love of surreal sounds and harmonies didn't depend on tripping balls; they heard it with the ear of a critic, helping create college rock in the process. #brodystoprock1000
687/1000 Kenny Rogers, “The Gambler” - Kenny’s brand of lite FM country was a good fit for this yarn about a bettor trying to project confidence and seem chill and wise about it. The result is a fable that sounds old as time, and the rasp of Rogers’ voice makes it feel lived in. #brodystoprock1000
688/1000 Bobby Caldwell, "What You Won't Do for Love" - One of the sexiest songs of all time, a slice of jazzy blue-eyed soul sultry enough to serve as sample fodder for 2Pac (albeit probably unbeknownst to him). Pairs nicely with after-work drinks near a body of water. #brodystoprock1000
689/1000 Wire, "12 X U" - One of the first punk bands to sound like they were too cool for punk, even as they played the same bar chords and produced a bunch of songs that sounded equally tossed-off. Minor Threat eventually turned this into the hardcore song it also wanted to be. #brodystoprock1000
690/1000 Fine Young Cannibals, "She Drives Me Crazy" - I feel the late 80s in my bones when that drum machine and guitar riff come in. Throw in a groovy falsetto and you have one of the most fun pop songs of its time, as effervescent and free as roller blading in the right outfit. #brodystoprock1000
691/1000 Temple of the Dog, "Hunger Strike" - Kind of amazing that Soundgarden and Pearl Jam collaborated on a heartfelt tribute album to a friend of theirs who passed away before either group really blew up. This is probably my favorite ballad involving members of either band. #brodystoprock1000
692 Phil Collins, "In the Air Tonight" - The first few minutes create an atmosphere so creepy a whole lore was created out of the supposed tale of neglect told in the lyrics. And then the synth drums make a grand entrance with few peers in the annals of rock percussion. #brodystoprock1000
693/1000 Joe Satriani, "Summer Song" - Technically proficient but soulless guitarists proliferated in the 80s, turning hard rock into a boring attempted fireworks competition. But this song sounds like catching a perfect wave, doing a flip, and then landing on a moving skateboard. #brodystoprock1000
694/1000 The Byrds, "Turn! Turn! Turn!" - Maybe I watched a little too much of The Wonder Years growing up, but does any song communicate "I learned something profound growing up in the sixties about what self-realization really means" from its chiming opening riff? #brodystoprock1000
695/1000 The Marvelettes, "Please Mr. Postman" - I loved all the big Motown hits as a kid, went through a teenage phase where I was too cool for them, and then slowly rediscovered them in new contexts, like the great pool hall brawl scene in Mean Streets this classic soundtracks. #brodystoprock1000
696/1000 Jimi Hendrix Experience, "Fire" - Jimi always gets accolades as the ultimate guitar soloist, but this song really highlights how well he wielded a power trio to get a funky groove going too. Drummer Mitch Mitchell goes nuts on this one, so many cool little fills! #brodystoprock1000
697/1000 The National, "Fake Empire" - A defining song of Dubya-era malaise, which at the time I thought would be a nadir in recent US history. A twinkling, winking, half-drunk response to a non-stop firehose of militaristic nonsense. Let's not try to figure out...anything at all. #brodystoprock1000
698/1000 Change, "The Glow of Love" - Goes down so smooth. One of Luther Vandross's earliest hits before he launched a solo career, and captures the moment disco morphed into something gentle enough for regular life off the dancefloor. The sound of solace. #brodystoprock1000
699/1000 The Coasters, "Charlie Brown" - These guys get dismissed as merely a novelty doo-wop group sometimes. But even with some goofy chipmunk and deep bass vocal jokes, this song rocks as hard as anything of its time. Though it has nothing to do with the Peanuts character. #brodystoprock1000
700/1000 Blur, “The Universal” - I never really cottoned to The Great Escape, but the orchestral swoon of this song always pulls my heartstrings. When Damon sings “It really really really could happen,” it’s almost enough to keep my stubborn inherent cynicism at bay. #brodystoprock1000
701/1000 The Castaways, "Liar, Liar" - A one-hit wonder garage rock classic that made the Nuggets comp. A driving four-chord organ riff, a ridiculous falsetto, a blood-curdling scream, a guitar solo you could probably learn on the fly, and in under 2 minutes it's all over. #brodystoprock1000
702/1000 Prince, "Kiss" - The spare sound of this nasty robotic funk groove does so much with only a few elements. The synths, guitar, bass, and drum machine are all muted and tightly wound. Not that falsetto though! Its negative space echoes all over streaming-era pop charts. #brodystoprock1000
703/1000 AC/DC, "You Shook Me All Night Long" - AC/DC's first (but not last!) pop hit, their catchier instincts given a boost from producer Mutt Lange's more polished take on their sound. Feels like an industrial-sized makeover compared to their earlier stuff, but it suits them. #brodystoprock1000
704/1000 Stan Bush, "Dare" - The Transformers cartoon movie soundtrack is such a good representation of bombastic 80s pop-rock songwriting and production that Paul Thomas Anderson used a song from it in Boogie Nights to illustrate hitting rock bottom. But he chose the wrong song. #brodystoprock1000
705/1000 Chuck Berry, "Maybellene" - Chess Records head Leonard Chess preferred this "hillbilly song sung by a black man" to Berry's blues material, and making it a hit helped turn rock & roll into a phenomenon. Love the grimy guitar and the motorvatin' beat. #brodystoprock1000
706/1000 XTC, "Generals and Majors" - One of the bubbliest anti-war songs of all-time, complete with whistling. The best songs by this band sound like they are made of rubber, steampunk Rube Goldberg industrial equipment, and a bit of mechanical gumption and grouchiness. #brodystoprock1000
707/1000 Peter Tosh, "Legalize It" - Amazing how moot this song has gotten over time. It's basically legalized! There's a bit of cringe here, but I respect Tosh just going for it and making the all-time anthem for this sentiment even if it is a little stereotypical and corny. #brodystoprock1000
708/1000 Alice Cooper, "I'm Eighteen" - Alice is remembered more as an arena rock god but this song has a ton of garage rock and punk attitude. A bit like a cleaned up Stooges? The Ramones and the Sex Pistols both cited this bratty and snotty song as an early influence too. #brodystoprock1000
709/1000 - Men at Work, "Down Under" - The flute snaking around the bouncy guitar nails the vibe of a homesick Aussie backpacking in far-flung locales desperate for a small taste of home. It also helps that I struggle to parse the Aussie slang. Vegemite's still not good though. #brodystoprock1000
710/1000 Jane's Addiction, "Been Caught Stealing" - This band spent a lot of time rocking hard and maxxing their rebel cred but they should've spent more time on jam band guitar progressions, rubbery basslines, and inane singalong choruses. The barking dogs are a nice touch. #brodystoprock1000
