alphabet of greatness

So, for whatever reason, I started thinking about making a list of the greatest artists and/or bands at each letter. Below is what I came up with. Bare in mind that it is an extremely biased list and I’m happy to hear your own thoughts on anybody I might have missed. Before I begin, I have to point out the tragedy of letters like B, J and T which had, to say the least, stiff competition.

At letter A we have Aretha Franklin. This is a popular vote, for obvious reasons, but I chose her because of an aria I once heard her sing on short notice. She was unbelievable and I knew that night that she was among the greatest singers in the world. Having said that, honourable mention goes out to Al Green, Annie Lenox, and AC/DC. Somebody will want to mention Alanis Morresette here and, while it’s true that Jagged Little Pill is one of my all time favourite albums, Alanis has had only a handful of good songs since.

At letter B I’ll break my own rule and choose an artist who was actually in a band, Brian Wilson. I went with Wilson simply because he was The Beach Boys. He wrote all the songs and did all the arrangements. It wouldn’t have mattered who the other members of the band were, they’d have sounded just like The Beach Boys did. That band might as well have been called The Beach Boy. Having said that, honourable mentions go out to Barry Manilow (completely underrated and the KING of sad songs), B.B. King, Billie Holiday, Billy Joel, Billy Idol, Bob Marley (if only for his political importance), and the Beastie Boys.

At letter C I’ll go with Curtis Mayfield and throw shout outs to Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young, Coldplay, and, the greatest voice in modern day rock n’ roll, Chris Cornell.

At letter D I’ll take a relative newcomber, but one whom I think will probably be recognized as the new Frank Zappa, and that’s Danger Mouse. I do have to throw out honourable mentions to Dire Straights, however.

E for Elvis.

At F we have none other than Fleetwood Mac. Sigh. Why can’t these guys just get along?

G is for Guns N’ Roses.

At H I’ll risk abuse and take Hall & Oates, another couple of underrated song writers. Honourable mention goes out to Hank Williams and, in my opinion, the greatest female group and one of the most underrated groups of all time, Heart.

Next I took Isaac Hayes. I’m not an Iggy Pop fan.

And then there was J. Sigh. Let me start off by saying that I’m not going to pick John Lennon. To me Lennon and McCartney were never as good as when they were in The Beatles. A few others I really considered were Johnny Cash and James Taylor. I’m also a Jackson Brown fan, a Jerry Lee Lewis fan, a Joni Mitchell Fan, a Journey fan (Steve Perry is Chris Cornell’s only competition), and I recognize Jay Z’s skills. But you really can’t take anybody over James Brown can you?

At K I went with Kermit the Frog, and if anybody mentions anything about KISS in the comment section, your comment is getting deleted!!! If Heart is one of the most underrated bands of all time, KISS is absolutely THE most overrated bands of all time!!! Kermit wins hands down!!!

At L I’ll take Little Richard but throw props to Led Zeppelin and Lauryn Hill. I’m not a big Lou Reed fan. Props to LL Cool J.

At M I’ll take Marvin Gaye on principle, but admit that Michael Jackson is clearly the front runner, followed by Madonna. Special shout outs to Mariah Carey (remember when she wasn’t crazy and slutty?), Mary J. Blige, Mindy Smith, Metallica, and, of course, MC Hammer.

At N I’m actually going to shock the world and take Neil Young. As big a fan as I am of Nirvana, we’ll never know just how good they were. Kind of like Jimmy Hendrix, in my opinion. Honourable mentions go out to Nas and Notorious BIG.

At O I just don’t know enough about Otis Redding so I took Oasis. I might just be a slacker for that pick.

At P I just have to take Pink Floyd. Ridiculous. But I really wanted to take Pearl Jam. As a child of the 80’s I also have to mention Phil Collins, the Pretenders, and Prince. I’m also a big Pete Yorn fan but don’t think he quite qualifies yet.

At Q I struggle because I’m not actually a big Queen fan, but couldn’t think of anybody else besides Quincy Jones, who’s solo music I don’t actually know a whole lot about.

R is easy with Ray Charles but I will mention both Radiohead and Run-D.M.C. I don’t actually think that Run-D.M.C. were that good, but I loved them as a kid and they did usher rap into the suburbs.

S is another easy one with Stevie Wonder but Sam Cooke is no slacker. I also loved Sting, and, of course, Stryper!

At T you have The Beatles. Enough said except that you also have The Beach Boys, The Eagles, and The Rolling Stones (in that order!).

U2. C’mon.

At V I couldn’t think of many artists besides Van Halen, so I’ll go with them but only during the Sammy Hagar years.

At W I’ll take Willie Nelson. The guy just has too many hits as both a solo artist and writer for other people. I’ll also mention the White Stripes, the Wu-Tank Clan, and Waylon Jennings.

At Y the only band I could come up with was the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I’m a moderate fan at best.

Z was tough because I’m not actually a Frank Zappa fan and would be embarrassed to go with ZZ top. Discuss this one amongst yourselves.

And finally there are the bands with numbers in their names. For this I went with 10,000 Maniacs. How awesome was Natalie Merchant?

So there you go. Your thoughts?