91. Here I Go Again (Whitesnake)
Originally from Whitesnake’s 1982 album, Saints & Sinners, “Here I Go Again” was re-recorded for the eponymous 1987 album Whitesnake. The chief distinction between the original song and 1987 version is the style of the music: that is, it transitioned from ‘bluesy-rock’ to then-hard rock. Whitesnake vocalist David Coverdale conceived and wrote the song while in Portugal.
Fun fact: In an interview, Coverdale claimed that he changed one of the words because he was afraid people would think he was saying “homo” instead of “hobo”.
Meaning of the Song: “Here I Go Again” While it’s typically thought of as an inspiring song about facing your challenges head-on, it’s really a song about heartbreak and the loneliness that comes with it. The song documents the breakdown of Coverdale’s first marriage to Julia, who he tied the knot with in 1974.
Accolades (For the 1987 re-release for the album Whitesnake): No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart; No. 9 on the UK Singles Chart; ’87 version also hit number one on the Canadian RPM Singles chart; named the 17th Greatest Song of the 1980s by VH1.
92. Poker Face (Lady Gaga)
Released as the second single from her debut album, The Fame, “Poker Face” is an ‘electropop’/dance-pop song that seems to blend almost seemlessly with Gaga’s first single, “Just Dance”–the former only with slightly more subdued, even suggestive themes. “Poker Face” made Billboard’s coveted Top 10 of its Hot 100 list, while Lady Gaga’s debut single, “Just Dance”, held at No. 5—making her the first solo female artist to have her first two chart toppers appear in the Top 10 simultaneously since Ciara did in 2004 with “Goodies” and “1, 2 Step.”
Meaning of the Song: “Poker Face” mainly refers to Gaga’s rock n’ roll boyfriends, and hints at bisexual concepts. Lyrically, though, “Poker Face” is all about ‘cockteasing’.
Accolades: Topped charts in twenty countries including the in the U.S., U.K., Australia, New Zealand, and Canada; is most downloaded song in British chart history, and among the best-selling singles ever with over 12 million copies sold; Grammy-nominated for Song of the Year and Record of the Year; won a Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording; ranked No. 96 on Rolling Stone‘s ‘100 Best Songs of the 2000s Decade’ list.
93. Lose Yourself (Eminem)
“Lose Yourself” debuted as the first single from the soundtrack to the 2002 movie “8 Mile”, and was written and produced chiefly by Eminem himself during filming of the movie. It also plays heavily to the themes of the movie. “Lose Yourself”–a mid-tempo, hardcore hip-hop song–would garner international fame as it became the first in its genre to ever win an Oscar for Best Original Song.
Meaning of the Song: The first verse pretty accurately sums up much of the movie’s plot. Based around the character Jimmy “B-Rabbit” Smith, Jr. (played by Eminem himself), the often-aggressive lyrics–that describe how he overcomes some fairly huge obstacles in order to gain other rappers’ respect–incorporate both the struggles of “B-Rabbit” and Eminem’s own life.
Accolades: Five Grammy nominations, with one Grammy win for Best Original Song; RS/500, No. 166 (of only three hip-hop songs on the list); over 5,000,000 U.S. downloads; certified quintuple platinum by the RIAA based on U.S. sales of 5,000,000 copies; peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart; spent 16 total weeks in the Top 10, 23 weeks in the Top 50.
94. Carrying Your Love With Me (George Strait)
A country tune by Steve Bogard and Jeff Stevens, American country music artist George Strait debuted “Carrying Your Love With Me” in 1997 as the second single from the album of the same name. Eddie Kilgallon, formerly of the band Ricochet, also helped write the lyrics to “One Night at a Time”.
Meaning of the Song: “Carrying” describes a man who must leave home for sometimes long periods of time, yet always bringing with him the loving thought of his lady wherever he went.
Accolades: Debuted at No. 72 and eventually topped the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart; RIAA-certified 3× Multi-Platinum for selling over three million copies.
95. Where Did Our Love Go (The Supremes)
Recorded by The Supremes for Motown’s Holland–Dozier–Holland label, “Where Did Our Love Go” was, from August 16 to August 29, 1964, a number-one hit, and also the first of five consecutive Supremes songs to attain that spot. The remaining four were “Baby Love,” “Come See About Me,” “Stop! In the Name of Love,” and “Back in My Arms Again”.
Meaning of the Song: Presumably, ‘Our Love’ is about a woman explaining a man that desires what he can’t have. No longer than after she falls for him, he wants out, hence the lyrics “But now that I surrender, So helplessly, You now wanna leave”.
Accolades: RS/500, No. 472; peaked at No. 1 on the Cash Box R&B chart; the group’s first single to go No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart in the United States, where it remained for two weeks.
96. Hound Dog (Elvis Presley)
A tune originally recorded by Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton in 1952, it was the 1956 remake by Elvis Presley that sent the famous song “Hound Dog” skyrocketing in popularity; it is also Presley’s version (of many, many other artists’ iterations) that’s the best known. In fact, Elvis performed the song twice on The Ed Sullivan Show, both times garnering a whopping 60 million viewers. “Hound Dog” stayed at the top spot on the charts until it was overtaken by “Love Me Tender,” also by the ‘King of Rock & Roll’.
Meaning of the Song: Different theories have been floated: One stipulates that the ‘other man’ in the story can’t get his own girlfriend, so he steals other guys’ girlfriends–and no ‘friend’ does that.
Accolades: RS/500, No. 19; No. 55 on Q Magazine’s ‘100 Greatest Guitar Tracks; topped several Billboard charts, including the country & westerns, pop, and rhythm & blues ones, and stayed in the Top 10 for a record-setting 11 weeks; initially sold over four million copies.
97. Stronger (Kanye West)
“Stronger” marks the second single from West’s third studio album, Graduation. It entails a vocal snippet of “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” by the neu-disco group Daft Punk (who received the songwriting credit, as well as had their costumes appear in the song’s music video). The song also became Kanye West’s third number-one single, preceded by “Slow Jamz” and “Gold Digger.”
Meaning of the Song: Friedrich Nietzsche’s famous dictum, “what does not kill him, makes him stronger”, seems to best sum up the meaning of “Stronger” and its moderate “Cola Bottle Baby”-esque (Edwin Birdsong) flavor.
Accolades: Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance; has sold over 4,848,000 digital copies in the U.S. (as of 09/2011); debuted at No. 47 on the Billboard Hot 100, peaked at No. 1.
98. Mountain Music (Alabama)
Debuting in 1982 on Alabama’s third album of the same name, “Mountain Music” was sung by the band’s lead singer Randy Owen. A sort of melding of Southern rock and bluegrass themes, it’s one of the group’s only songs where solo vocals can prominently be heard from members Teddy Gentry and Jeff Cook. “Mountain Music” is largely considered one of Alabama’s signature songs, and also the most popular.
Meaning of the Song: “Mountain Music”–which begins with a narration from an old mountain philosopher that dreams of one day ‘climbing a mountain’–has been described as a “contemporary country classic”, a style country music groups had struggled to accomplish. It references ‘chert’ rocks which, according to the band, is a lyric that’s often misunderstood and misinterpreted. In .
Accolades: Alabama’s sixth No. 1 song on Billboard’s Hot Country Singles chart; named the Top Vocal Group and Entertainer of the Year by the Academy of Country Music.
99. God Bless the USA (Lee Greenwood)
Lee Greenwood’s ultra-patriotric “God Bless the U.S.A.” first appeared on his group’s 1984 album You’ve Got a Good Love Comin. Since then, it’s been a staple of America-centric music, from being played at the Republican National Convention in 1984, to reemerging in popularity during the Gulf War years of 1990 and 1991, to regaining mass popularity yet again after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks and the subsequent 2003 Iraq invasion.
Meaning of the Song: In singer Greenwood’s own words: “I wanted to write it my whole life”. He and his producer chose Detroit and Houston (along with New York City and L.A.) to be a part of the song “because they both were economically part of the basis of our economy—Motown and the oil industry, so I just poetically wrote that in the bridge.”
Accolades: Peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard Hot Country singles chart; re-entered the chart at No. 16 after the 2001 9/11 terrorist attacks.
100. A Country Boy Can Survive (Hank Williams, Jr.)
Released in early 1982 by Hank Williams, Jr., “A Country Boy Can Surive” (from the album The Pressure Is On) became the country artist’s most enduring, signature song. In the wake of the 2001 9/11 attacks, Williams re-wrote and recorded an updated, patriotic version of the song entitled “America Will Survive” as a tribute to America. He also re-recorded the hit in 2007 for the 25th-anniversary of the 1982 debut.
Meaning of the Song: “A Country Boy” tries to capture, in detail, the everyday life of country people. In the memorable second verse, though, it describes the narrator’s unlikely relationship with a businessman from New York. Regardless of the their starkly different roots, they become friends and exchange gifts–hence “he’d send me pictures of the Broadway nights, And I’d send him some homemade wine”–and the untimely murder of his business friend for a mere $43.
Accolades: Peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot Country singles chart (original 1982 release); peaked at No. 45 with the 2007 re-release to commemorate its 25-anniversary.
