WXPN, the fine public radio station out of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, has been asking listeners to help pick the 885 greatest songs by women artists.
(Why 885 songs? WXPN is 88.5 FM. They’ll play them all on their annual end-of-year countdown.)
I thought about it for a few days, then waded in at pretty much the last minute. Went through all my LPs and compiled a preliminary list of a couple of dozen songs by women. Then I trimmed that list to 10 songs and filed my ballot on the last possible evening. Deadlines spur action, you know.
We were asked to rank our top 10 songs, with 1 the best and so on.
Here’s my list. Yours will be different. Mine is highly subjective, 10 songs I like, not the 10 greatest songs of all time.
10. “California Nights,” Lesley Gore, 1967. I dig Lesley Gore, and she sang this on “Batman.” A moonlit slice of mid-’60s pop co-written by Marvin Hamlisch.
9. “Lady Marmalade,” Labelle, 1974. A powerhouse, produced by Allen Toussaint and sung by Patti LaBelle, Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash. Such a great song that Pink, Christina Aguilera, Mya and Lil’ Kim — along with Missy Elliott — memorably covered it for the “Moulin Rouge” soundtrack more than 25 years later, in 2001.
8. “Oh Happy Day,” the Edwin Hawkins Singers with Dorothy Morrison on lead vocals, 1968. A great pop gospel song. I picked the original over the Aretha Franklin/Mavis Staples version from Aretha’s “One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism” LP from almost 20 years later, 1987.
7. “Free Your Mind,” En Vogue, 1992. Funk meets metal, delivering a message that remains necessary to this day, more than 30 years later, sung fiercely by Terry Ellis, Dawn Robinson, Cindy Herron and Maxine Jones.
6. “Put A Little Love In Your Heart,” Jackie DeShannon, 1969. Another song 12-year-old me heard on WLS out of Chicago while cruising The Circuit in Janesville, Wisconsin, with my older cousins. Such a great song that it was a hit all over again when Annie Lennox and Al Green covered it almost 20 years later, in 1988.
5. “Love Is Like An Itching In My Heart,” the Supremes, 1966. Hadn’t heard this upbeat, lighter-than-air piece of Motown pop until introduced to it by my friend Larry Grogan not all that long ago. Quickly became a favorite, as did the LP from which it comes — “The Supremes A’ Go-Go.” (That said, I’m still not a huge Supremes fan.)
4. “The Nitty Gritty,” Gladys Knight and the Pips, 1969. When I learned that Gladys Knight got down to the real nitty gritty and wasn’t just the elegant pop singer of “Midnight Train to Georgia,” well, that blew my mind.
3. “Friendship Train,” Gladys Knight and the Pips, 1969. Yeah, I really dig Gladys Knight as produced by Norman Whitfield. Here, she comes out smoking again, and like En Vogue, delivers a message that remains necessary to this day, more than 50 years later.
2. “Turn The Beat Around,” Vicki Sue Robinson, 1976. Just try to sit still if this song is playing. Its Latin-tinged beat was a breath of fresh air on the dance floors of 1976 (and yes, I remember the dance floors of 1976). Such a great song that it was a hit all over again for Gloria Estefan almost 20 years later, in 1994.
1. “One Less Bell To Answer,” the 5th Dimension with Marilyn McCoo on lead vocals, 1970. It starts cool but turns into a scorcher of a torch song. Marilyn McCoo is such a powerful, evocative and versatile singer. Written by the legendary team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David.
Tough to leave off any of the other women artists on my working list: Bananarama, Barbara Lynn, Bobbie Gentry, Carlene Carter, Donna Summer, Tina Turner, Tracey Ullman, Martha Wash and Izora Armstead (the Weather Girls), Annie Lennox (with Eurythmics), Joan Jett (with the Blackhearts), Petula Clark, Chaka Khan (with Rufus), Aretha Franklin, Mavis Staples and Nancy Sinatra.
Even had one last moment of indecision when my friend Larry Grogan played the Marvelettes’ “He Was Really Sayin’ Something” on his Funky 16 Corners streaming show last night. Oh, that’s a good one, too.
Then you have great and/or interesting and/or fun women artists who didn’t make either of my lists (and this, too, is far from complete): Dolly Parton, Kate Bush, Alison Moyet, Freda Payne, Dionne Warwick, Betty Everett, Nina Simone, Betty Wright, Patti Smith, Chrissie Hynde (with the Pretenders), Debbie Harry (and Blondie), Bonnie Raitt, Erma Franklin, Carolyn Franklin, Darlene Love, Mary Wells, Kim Weston, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, Merrilee Rush, the Donnas, Ann Wilson and Nancy Wilson (with Heart), Shirley Bassey, Lea Roberts, Merry Clayton, Kim Shattuck (with the Pandoras and the Muffs), Gayle McCormick (with Smith), Chi Coltrane, Janis Joplin, Honey Cone, the Three Degrees, the Sweet Inspirations, Laura Nyro, Laurie Anderson, Melanie, Dusty Springfield, Millie Jackson, the Pointer Sisters, Sharon Jones, Linda Ronstadt, Wanda Jackson, Cher, Dee Dee Sharp, Ann Peebles, hell, even Charo. My friend Jerry probably would put 10 Francoise Hardy songs on his list.
Ask me tomorrow and my top 10 list might be entirely different. But I will be interested to see where my 10 songs wind up among the 885 songs in XPN’s year-end countdown.
Reader’s note: My friend Charlie over at Bloggerhythms has been all in on this, writing a series of solid blog posts about the top 10 songs by women artists on his ballot. Go check them out.
AM, Then FM 