Bonus Week: 420 to 30: A Music Retrospective - "The Next 60" (Honorable Mentions)
Before officially getting into my top five artists, I wanted to take a moment to recognize “The Next 60” that didn’t quite make my list. While some choices were obvious in creating my 420 Songs from 60 Artists countdown, many I went back and forth on who I could make the best top sevens for.
As such, I thought it would be worthwhile to list off 60 more artists that have been significant parts of my personal soundtrack in the first 30 years of my life, but that I just didn’t quite have the same depth of attachment to or knowledge of, and list one of my favorite songs from each. Some of these were early favorites of mine in my younger years that I just didn’t keep up with, and others have come later and I haven’t fully had the chance to dive too deeply into their catalog yet.
420 to 30: A Music Retrospective
Here's 60 of my favorites from 60 more of my favorites, in alphabetical order by artists’ names.
Bonus Week: THE NEXT 60
ABBA, “Waterloo” (originally from 1974, Waterloo)
The Alan Parsons Project, “Breakdown” (originally from 1977, I Robot)
Animal Collective, “Summertime Clothes” (originally from 2009, Merriweather Post Pavilion)
Louis Armstrong, “We Have All the Time in the World” (originally from 1969, On Her Majesty's Secret Service)
The Beastie Boys, “Sabotage” (originally from 1994, “Sabotage”)
The Bee Gees, “How Deep Is Your Love” (originally from 1977, “How Deep Is Your Love/Can’t Keep a Good Man Down”)
Black Sabbath, “Paranoid” (originally from 1970, “Paranoid/The Wizard”)
Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, “Home” (originally from 2002, Thug World Order)
Broken Bells, “After the Disco” (originally from 2014, “After the Disco”)
James Brown, “The Payback” (originally from 1973, The Payback)
Cage the Elephant, “Cigarette Daydreams” (originally from 2013, Melophobia)
Roberto Carlos, “Cama y Mesa” (originally from 1981, “Cama y Mesa/Emociones”)
Ray Charles, “Over the Rainbow” (originally from 1963, Ingredients in a Recipe for Soul)
The Crickets, “Oh, Boy!” (originally from 1957, “Oh, Boy!/Not Fade Away”)
John Denver, “Annie’s Song” (originally from 1974, Back Home Again)
Neil Diamond, “Solitary Man” (originally from 1966, “Solitary Man/Do It”)
The Four Tops, “Reach Out (I’ll Be There)” (originally from 1967, Reach Out)
Aretha Franklin, “I Say a Little Prayer” (originally from 1968, Aretha Now)
Gipsy Kings, “A Mi Manera (Comme D’habitude)” (originally from 1987, Gipsy Kings)
Al Green, “Love and Happiness” (originally from 1972, I'm Still in Love with You)
Guns ’N’ Roses, “Patience” (originally from 1988, G N' R Lies)
Al Hirt, “Sleepy Lagoon” (originally from 1962, Trumpet and Strings)
Joe Hisaishi, “The Path of Wind” (originally from 1988, My Neighbor Totoro)
Iron Maiden, “Run to the Hills” (originally from 1982, “Run to the Hills/Total Eclipse”)
Elton John, “Rocket Man (I Think It’s Going to Be a Long, Long Time)” (originally from 1972, “Rocket Man (I Think It's Going to Be a Long, Long Time)/Susie (Dramas)”)
Komeda, “Borgo” (originally from 1993, Pop På Svenska)
Lady Gaga, “Teeth” (originally from 2009, The Fame Monster)
Ludacris, “Phat Rabbit” (originally from 2000, Back for the First Time)
Madness, “Night Boat to Cairo” (originally from 1979, One Step Beyond…)
Madonna, “Like a Prayer” (originally from 1989, “Like a Prayer/Act of Contrition”)
The Mamas & the Papas, “I Saw Her Again” (originally from 1966, “I Saw Her Again/Even If I Could”)
Chuck Mangione, “Children of Sanchez (Overture)” (originally from 1978, The Children of Sanchez)
Dean Martin, “Everybody Loves Somebody” (originally from 1964, “Everybody Loves Somebody/A Little Voice”)
Curtis Mayfield, “Move on Up” (originally from 1970, Curtis)
Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, “The Love I Lost” (originally from 1973, Black & Blue)
MF DOOM, “Dead Bent” (originally from 1999, Operation: Doomsday)
Nas, “N.Y. State of Mind” (originally from 1994, Illmatic)
Nelly, “Ride wit Me” (originally from 2000, Country Grammar)
Randy Newman, “I Will Go Sailing No More” (originally from 1995, Toy Story)
Roy Orbison, “Crying” (originally from 1961, “Crying/Candy Man”)
OutKast, “Ms. Jackson” (originally from 2000, “Ms. Jackson/Elevators (Me & You)”)
Pharcyde, “Runnin’” (originally from 1995, “Runnin’”)
Prince and the Revolution, “Purple Rain” (originally from 1984, Purple Rain)
Portugal. The Man., “Modern Jesus” (originally from 2013, Evil Friends)
The Ramones, “I Wanna Be Sedated” (originally from 1978, Road to Ruin)
R.E.M., “Man on the Moon” (originally from 1992, Automatic for the People)
Rodriguez, “Crucify Your Mind” (originally from 1970, Cold Fact)
Ringo Starr, “Snookeroo” (originally from 1974, Goodnight Vienna)
Schoolboy Q, “Gangster in Designer (No Concept)” (originally from 2012, Habits & Contradictions)
Paul Simon, “Kodachrome” (originally from 1973, There Goes Rhymin' Simon)
The Supremes, “You Can’t Hurry Love” (originally from 1966, “You Can’t Hurry Love/Put Yourself in My Place”)
Keiichi Suzuki & Hirokazu Tanaka, “Sunrise & Onett Theme” (originally from 1994, Mother 2)
The Temptations, “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” (originally from 1966, “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg/You’ll Lose a Precious Love”)
Traveling Wilburys, “Tweeter and the Monkey Man” (originally from 1988, Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1)
War, “The Cisco Kid” (originally from 1972, The World Is a Ghetto)
The Who, “My Generation” (originally from 1965, “My Generation/Shout and Shimmy”)
John Williams, “Luke and Leia” (originally from 1983, Star Wars: Episode VI — Return of the Jedi)
Bill Withers, “Lean on Me” (originally from 1972, “Lean on Me/Better Off Dead”)
Hiroshi Yoshimura, “Flora” (originally from 1987, Flora)
Neil Young, “Heart of Gold” (originally from 1972, “Heart of Gold/Sugar Mountain”)
420 to 30: A Music Retrospective
Week 2: The Jackson 5/The Jacksons
Week 3: A Tribe Called Quest
Week 4: Weezer
Week 5: Bob Dylan
Week 6: Led Zeppelin
Week 7: 2Pac/Makaveli
Week 8: Billy Joel
Week 9: Electric Light Orchestra
Week 10: Elvis Presley
Week 11: Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band
Week 12: The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Week 13: Nirvana
Week 14: The Doors
Week 15: The Rolling Stones
Week 16: Gnarls Barkley
Week 17: Gábor Szabó
Week 18: Galaxie 500
Week 19: Simon & Garfunkel
Week 20: Gorillaz
Week 21: Ennio Morricone
Week 22: The Moody Blues
Week 23: Koji Kondo
Week 24: Rob Zombie/White Zombie
Week 25: Paul McCartney/Wings
Week 26: George Harrison
Week 27: Phil Spector
Week 28: John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band
Week 29: Public Enemy
Week 30: The Love Language
Week 31: Barry White
Week 32: Frank Sinatra
Week 33: David Bowie
Week 34: Queen
Week 35: The Offspring
Week 36: Louis Prima
Week 37: The Notorious B.I.G.
Week 38: Nancy Sinatra
Week 39: Stevie Wonder
Week 40: Roger Miller
Week 41: Röyksopp
Week 42: N.W.A
Week 43: Sly and the Family Stone
Week 44: Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass
Week 45: Supertramp
Week 46: "Weird Al" Yankovic
Week 47: The Kinks
Week 48: Eminem
Week 49: Mort Garson
Week 50: Foster the People
Week 51: Pink Floyd
Week 52: David Wise
Week 53: Sam Cooke
Week 54: Wu-Tang Clan
Week 55: The Beach Boys
View the full list of "420 Songs" here: https://tinyurl.com/y8fboudu (Google spreadsheet link)