161. Free Falling (Tom Petty)
“Free Fallin'” was the first-completed and opening track from Tom Petty’s 1989 solo album, Full Moon Fever. Written in only two days by Tom Petty and his writing partner, it’s easily one of Petty’s most famous, most defining—as well as longest-charting—songs of all time. Petty famously performed “Free Falling” at the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards with Axl Rose and again at the 2008 Super Bowl XLII (New England Patriots vs. New York Giants) Halftime Show with The Heartbreakers; “Free Falling” was also prominently featured in the movie Jerry Maguire (1996).
Meaning of the Song: The lyrics to “Free Fallin'”describe the culture of Los Angeles, mentioning actual places there such as Mulholland, Reseda and Ventura Boulevard and implying that many of L.A.’s people tend to callously use others for personal gain—i.e. the narrator himself has just left a girl and doesn’t even miss her.
Accolades: Peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in January of 1990 and became Petty’s longest-charting single ever; RS/500, No. 177.
162. I Loved Her First (Heartland)
“I Loved Her First”, a mid-tempo ballad written by Walt Aldridge and Elliott Park and recorded by country band Heartland, debuted in June 2006 as the band’s debut single and attained the coveted No. 1 spot on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart in late 2006. Deborah Evans Price (Billboard magazine) claimed that “I Loved Her First” was a “beautifully written tearjerker that will hit home with dads everywhere who can’t believe their little girls have grown up so soon.”, calling vocalist Jason Albert’s performance “wonderful” and asserting that it “wrings every drop of emotion from the tender lyric.” The song was also accompanied by a popular music video, which displayed the group singing among people mingling at a wedding reception.
Meaning of the Song: “I Loved Her First” features a male father as narrator who’s talking to the man who’s about to take his daughter’s hand in marriage, explaining his trouble of giving her away because he, naturally, “loved her first.”
Accolades: Peaked at No. 1 on Billboard‘s U.S. Country Singles, No. 34 on the Hot 100 chart; No. 30 on Billboard‘s 2006 Year-End chart.
163. Any Man of Mine (Shania Twain)
A 1995 single by Robert John “Mutt” Lange and Shania Twain and recorded by Canadian country artist Shania Twain for the album The Woman in Me (later on Twain’s Greatest Hits CD), “Any Man of Mine” became her first number one hit on both country radio and pop radio (the latter a crossover hit) after making the U.S. top 40 charts; it also marked the Canadian singer’s first number one–as well as top ten–single.
Per Larry Flick of Billboard magazine: “Twain aims right for the dance clubs with this hi-tech hoedown. The lyrics are dancefloor dumb, but the song is undeniably catchy. Besides, any song that borrows a vocal hook from the Three Stooges can’t be all bad.”
Meaning of the Song: Its country woman/country lifestyle theme well-established lyrically and instrumentally, “Any Man of Mine”‘s narrator simply describes what characteristics “any man of mine [hers] better” have.
Accolades: Won Single of the Year at both the Canadian Country Music Awards and CMA Awards (1995); Grammy-nominated (1996) for Best Country Song and Best Female Country Vocal Performance; won Country Single of the Year at the 1996 Jukebox Awards; spent 20 weeks atop the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart, peaking at No. 1 number one for two weeks; was the first No. 1 song on the Billboard country chart performed by a non-American since 1986; its music video counterpart acquired the Canadian Country Music Award for Video of the Year and AOL’s Online Music Award for Hottest Country Video.
164. Hurt (Johnny Cash)
“Hurt“ is a Grammy-nominated (1996) song written by Trent Reznor and first released by his Nine Inch Nails’ band for their 1994 album, The Downward Spiral. In 2002, though, “Hurt” was covered by Johnny Cash to near universal, critical acclaim and was one of Cash’s final hit releases before his death; it was recorded for his album, American IV: The Man Comes Around. The major difference in the Nine Inch Nails and Cash version was in the lyrics: “Crown of shit”—due to both Cash’s devout Christian beliefs and there being a need for a censored-for-radio version—was changed to “crown of thorns” and its lyrics overall referenced Christ and Cash’s devout following of, therein. Cash, appearing frail and fragile, also did the introspective music video “Hurt” from his home in Hendersonville, TN.
Meaning of the Song: “Hurt” is, appropriately, a song about realizing consequence and regret–one that urges listeners to go through life wisely, because nothing is worse than being stuck with some kind of realized-beforehand pain (e.g. sickness, emotional loss, death) that will only leave one wishing things had been different and that different choices had been made.
Accolades: Won the 2003 CMA Single of the Year award in 2003; marked Cash’s only chart entry on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart, peaking at 33 in 2003; was voted No. 1 in UpVenue’s 2009 Top 10 Best Music Covers; was voted No. 60 on Triple J’s (Australia’s most prominent music poll) Hottest 100 (of all time); ranked No. 15 of the 50 best songs of the decade by Rolling Stone; No. 35 on NME‘s list of the 150 best tracks of the past 15 years list; the music video was named the best video of the year at the Grammy Awards (Best Short Form Music Video) and CMA Awards, and the best video of all time by NME in July of 2011.
165. I Walk the Line (Johnny Cash)
Writen and recorded in 1956 by Johnny Cash, “I Walk the Line” finally became Cash’s first Billboard hit after three prior attempts, as well as one of his most defining, most well-known songs. In Cash’s own words (via a telephone interview), “I wrote the song backstage one night in 1956 in Gladewater, Texas. I was newly married at the time, and I suppose I was laying out my pledge of devotion.”It is based upon the “boom-chicka-boom” or “freight train” rhythm common in many of Cash’s songs. In the original recording of the song, there is a key change between each of the five verses, and Cash hums the new root note before singing each verse.
Meaning of the Song: The song–whose unique chord progression for the song was inspired by backwards playback of guitar runs on Cash’s tape recorder while he was in the Air Force stationed in Germany–is very simple and like most Cash songs, the lyrics tell more of a story than the music conveys.
Accolades: No. 1 on U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles, No. 17 Billboard Hot 100; remained on the record charts for over 43 weeks; initially sold over 2 million copies; RS/500, No. 30.
166. Crash Into Me (Dave Matthews Band)
“Crash Into Me” was a song by the Dave Matthews Band for the 1997 album, Crash. Often mistaken for a traditional love song, but actually about a voyeuristic man, “Crash Into Me” is also featured on the Dave Matthews Band’s first compilation album, The Best of What’s Around, Vol. 1.
Meaning of the Song: On the TV show VH1 Storytellers, Dave Matthews described this song as being about “the worship of women,” but from a voyeuristic perspective; Matthews also did a humorous impression of the woman that he allegedly voyeured as she complained to the police, later claiming that he wrote a song about it instead of getting himself arrested. However, in the documentary “The Road To Big Whiskey”, he alternately explained that much of the song was inspired by the love of his life, wife Ashley Harper.
Accolades: Grammy-nominated for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals (1998); peaked at No. 7 on Billboard‘s Modern Rock Tracks chart.
167. More Than a Feeling (Boston)
A staple of classic rock, “More Than a Feeling” was written by Tom Scholz and debuted by the rock band Boston as the lead single (“Smokin'” being its flipside) from the group’s album, Boston (Epic Records, 1976). “More Than a Feeling”, Boston’s first-ever single, took writer Tom Scholz five years to complete, and according to him, was influenced heavily by The Left Banke’s “Walk Away Renee.” Critics have also noted that “More Than a Feeling”‘s main riff is alluded to in the Nirvana single, “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”
Meaning of the Song: Boston’s website claims that the song is about “the power an old song can have in your life.” Its lyrics express the writer’s discontent with the present and his wanting for a past love. Per Tom Scholz, it’s about “The thrill one gets while driving fast cars.”
Accolades: RS/500, No. 500; peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100, No. 4 on Canada’s RPM Top Singles chart; named the 39th-best hard rock song of all time by VH1; the Boston album itself has sold over 17 million copies.
168. Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd)
“Wish You Were Here”, a progressive rock song, is the title track on Pink Floyd’s 1975 album of the same name. David Gilmour and Waters collaborated to write the music, and “Wish” later appeared as the fifth track on A Collection of Great Dance Songs and as the 23rd track on the Echoes compilation. Pink Floyd lyricist and bassist Roger Waters once claimed that the song was based on a poem he’d written about Syd Barrett’s “break from reality”–a poem alleged that Syd’s friends regularly laced his coffee with LSD, gradually leading to his break from reality.
Meaning of the Song: The lyrics describeRoger Waters’ feelings of alienation from others. Like much of the album, “Wish” alludes to former lead vocalist and songwriter Syd Barrett and his trials and tribulations with schizophrenia. More generally, it describes the detached feeling most people wonder through life with—a commentary about how people deal with the world by physically or emotionally withdrawing from it.
Accolades: RS/500, No. 316; No. 1 in the U.S.; FMI-certified gold.
169. Master Of Puppets (Metallica)
“Master of Puppets” is a 1985 thrash metal song by the heavy metal band Metallica and the only single from the album of the same name. Preceded by “Battery” on the album, “Master of Puppets” is Metallica’s most-played song of all time. As lead vocalist James Hetfield was recounted as saying: “[Master of Puppets] deals pretty much with drugs. How things get switched around, instead of you controlling what you’re taking and doing, it’s drugs controlling you.” And as of 2012, the song has been performed over 1,400 times (the most recent being October 27, 2012 in New Orleans, Louisiana at the Voodoo Music Festival. Fun fact: In the 1990s, Metallica would often mix the song with “Welcome Home (Sanitarium)” in concert and call it “Mastertarium.”
Meaning of the Song: The “Master” of puppets is an allusion to drugs. Throughout the song, the “master” is who/what controls your life–hence, “chop your breakfast on a mirror” and “the Master Of Puppets is pulling your strings, twisting your mind and smashing your dreams.” Therefore, the drug is the ‘Master’ and the user is the puppet.
Accolades: VH1 ranked the song as the third greatest heavy metal song ever; Q magazine placed it at No. 22 on its 2005 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks list; Martin Popoff, in his The Top 500 Heavy Metal Songs of All Time book, ranked “Wish” at No. 2; No. 1 on the 100 Greatest Riffs poll conducted by Total Guitar magazine.
170. Go Rest High On That Mountain (Vince Gill)
“Go Rest High On That Mountain” is a 1995 country single from Vince Gill’s 1994 album, When Love Finds You. A eulogistic ballad, backing vocals were provided by Patty Loveless and Ricky Skaggs. Gill wrote the song following the untimely death of country singer Keith Whitley (who died in 1989), not even finishing it until years afterwards when his older brother Bob died of a heart attack. Deborah Evans Price (Billboard magazine) boasted about “Go Rest High” for it being “beautiful, majestic, and easily one of the best singles of Gill’s already distinguished career.” A music video to the song premiered in mid-1995.
Meaning of the Song: He explained he penned it after his older brother Bob’s death from a heart attack in 1993. “I wrote this song, and I didn’t have any idea if anybody would want to hear it, or like it. All I wanted to do was grieve for him and celebrate his life. That’s how I always process grief—sit down with a guitar and make something up. Turns out that if anybody remembers any of my songs, it’ll be this one.”
Accolades: Won the CMA‘s 1996 Song of the Year award; Country Music Hall of Fame-induction (2009); received a BMI Most-Performed Song award in 1997; garnered two Grammys for Best Male Country Vocal Performance and Best Country Song; debuted at No. 70 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks and peaked at No. 14; peaked at No. 7 on the equivalent Canadian chart.
