Top 500 Songs - Stevie Wonder, Dionne Warwick

Stevie Wonder is one of the greatest performers in American history. His musical library is tremendous, and has tunes that appeal to all sorts of audiences. I think this list is one that has probably fluctuated the most for me over the years, with Part-Time Lover, Superstition, and Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours all spending time in the #1 spot. After seeing High Fidelity twenty or thirty times though, there hasn't really been another contender for the top of the list.

I added USA for Africa and Dionne Warwick to this post because they were short list, and both of their lists were topped by songs featuring Stevie Wonder.

Stevie Wonder

1. I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever)
2. Uptight (Everything's Alright)
3. Living for the City
4. Superstition
5. Part-Time Lover
6. I Wish
7. Sir Duke
8. Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours
9. Higher Ground
10. For Once in My Life
11. You Are the Sunshine of My Life
12. Isn't She Lovely
13. My Cherie Amour

USA for Africa

1. We Are the World

Dionne Warwick

1. That's What Friends Are For
2. Then Came You

Top 500 Songs - Allman Brothers Band, Doobie Brothers, Michael McDonald

Long before I knew who the Allman Brothers Band was, one of their songs resonated deeply with me. Field of Dreams was one of a few movies that I remember distinctly from my childhood, and the song Jessica features prominently during a traveling period in the film. Then at some point in high school, I began to become more familiar with music in general, and learned about the band as a whole. Though none of their music ever surpassed Jessica, it turns out the Allman Brothers had put together quite the library of great tunes.

Let's ride!

Allman Brothers Band

1. Jessica
2. Midnight Rider
3. Melissa
4. Ramblin' Man
5. Whipping Post
6. Little Martha

Sometime in my early adulthood, I discovered a series of online videos called Yacht Rock (full series visible here on YouTube). That reignited my appreciation for the Doobie Brothers, a band I was aware of as a kid, but didn't really listen to.

A cool thing about the Doobie Brothers is that they had two distinct eras: one before Michael McDonald joined, and one after. The songs will be combined into a single list for our purposes, though. Combining all songs into one list is the whole point, after all. And we'll throw Michael McDonald's tunes in at the end of the list as well.

Doobie Brothers

1. What a Fool Believes
2. Minute by Minute
3. Long Train Runnin'
4. China Grove
5. It Keeps You Runnin'
6. Jesus Is Just Alright
7. Listen to the Music
8. Black Water
9. Takin' It to the Streets

Michael McDonald

1. Living for the City
2. I Keep Forgettin' (Every Time You're Near)
3. Into the Mystic

Top 500 Songs - Aerosmith

Aerosmith is a band that I've liked for roughly a million years. There was a period in high school and college when liking them became uncool, coinciding with their Nine Lives album and their prominence on the Armageddon soundtrack, but the joke was on high school cool kids; Aerosmith found themselves redeemed with Dream On's featured spot in Miracle.

The reality, of course, is that Aerosmith just rocked the whole time.

Aerosmith

1. Dream On
2. Rag Doll
3. Last Child
4. Sweet Emotion
5. Draw the Line
6. Come Together
7. Dude (Looks Like a Lady)
8. Love in an Elevator
9. Train Kept A Rollin
10. Janie's Got a Gun
11. The Other Side
12. Livin' on the Edge
13. Eat the Rich
14. Cryin'
15. Amazing
16. Crazy
17. Pink
18. Full Circle
19. Taste of India
20. What It Takes
21. I Don't Want to Miss a Thing
22. Fallen Angels
23. Same Old Song And Dance

Top 500 Songs - Pearl Jam/Soundgarden

Now then, where was I? Ah yes, top 500 songs. Today's lists are from Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, a couple of bands featured in my middle and high school years. Looking over Pearl Jam specifically, it's interesting to see how my tastes have evolved over the years. Early on, Better Man would've been one of my favorite Pearl Jam tunes, and now it only barely cracks the list.

Also, look at those titles for Pearl Jam's songs. They're all 1-2 words, except for that one mammoth title at the top.

Pearl Jam

1. Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town
2. Alive
3. Black
4. Animal
5. Daughter
6. Jeremy
7. Leash
8. Dissident
9. Even Flow
10. Corduroy
11. Better Man

Soundgarden

1. Fell On Black Days
2. My Wave
3. Spoonman
4. Burden In My Hand

Chris Cornell

1. Sunshower

Temple Of The Dog

1. Hunger Strike

Top 500 Songs - Dave Matthews Band

This was always going to be the hardest of my band lists, because I like so many of DMB's songs, and have liked them so differently over the years. But here goes, an effort at my "all-time favorite" Dave Matthews Band songs (as well as a bonus list of just Dave Matthews songs).

It was close, but we've got a new #1 song! This one has a strong chance of finishing the whole list as #1 overall. I also made some tweaks to the list, as I'll continue to do over time, I'm sure.

Dave Matthews Band

1. Bartender
2. Mercy
3. Ants Marching
4. Jimi Thing
5. Stay (Wasting Time)
6. Lie In Our Graves
7. All Along the Watchtower
8. Two Step
9. Minarets
10. Say Goodbye
11. #36
12. The Dreaming Tree
13. JTR
14. Grey Street
15. The Best of What's Around
16. #41
17. Crush
18. Don't Drink the Water
19. What Would You Say
20. Typical Situation
21. Warehouse
22. Pig
23. Seek Up
24. Rhyme & Reason
25. The Last Stop
26. Digging a Ditch
27. Pay for What You Get
28. Cry Freedom
29. Tripping Billies
30. Dancing Nancies
31. Proudest Monkey
32. So Right
33. Granny
34. Where Are You Going
35. Rapunzel
36. Drive In, Drive Out
37. Help Myself
38. Too Much
39. Stand Up (For It)
40. Recently
41. Let You Down
42. So Much to Say
43. I'll Back You Up
44. Halloween
45. Lover Lay Down

Dave Matthews (no band)

1. So Damn Lucky
2. Gravedigger

Top 500 Songs - Billy Ocean, Dire Straits, The Pointer Sisters

Sorry for such a long delay between posts, work has been kicking my nuts. Back to work!...like, the other work. This work. You know what I mean.


Billy Ocean

1. Caribbean Queen
2. Suddenly

Dire Straits

1. Money for Nothing
2. Brothers In Arms
3. Sultans of Swing
4. Down to the Waterline
5. Telegraph Road
6. Walk of Life

The Pointer Sisters

1. Neutron Dance
2. Fire
3. Jump
4. Slow Hand
5. I'm So Excited

Bonus Songs

1. Florence + The Machine - Shake It Out
2. Jefferson Starship - Jane
3. Breaking Benjamin - Blow Me Away
4. Firefall - Strange Way
5. Christina Aguilera, Lil' Kim, Mya, P!nk - Lady Marmalade
6. Molly Hatchet - Flirtin' With Disaster
7. The Black Keys - Your Touch

Top 500 Songs - Mike & The Mechanics, Mr. Mister, Starship, Tears For Fears, Wang Chung

I finally figured out a way to format the titles of these posts, only took like a month! Here's some lists for some 80s bands. And, one of them is a new overall #1 song!

All of these songs have been integrated, as well as the Journey songs from last time, so we're up to date.

Mike & The Mechanics

1. Silent Running
2. Living Years
3. All I Need Is A Miracle

Mr. Mister

1. Kyrie
2. Broken Wings

Starship

1. Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now
2. We Built This City
3. Sara

Tears For Fears

1. Break It Down Again
2. Shout
3. Everybody Wants To Rule The World
4. Elemental
5. Power

Wang Chung

1. Everybody Have Fun Tonight
2. Dance Hall Days

Bonus Songs

1. John Parr - St. Elmo's Fire
2. Glenn Frey - The Heat Is On
3. Corey Hart - Sunglasses At Night

Top 10 Journey Songs, Bonus Songs

As an homage to my college days, I've decided to make my first big list out of songs by Journey. This big load of tunes gave me a real sense of how challenging it's going to be when this list gets huge. So I think I'm going to have two different sorts of content in these posts: lists and integrations.

Lists will be like what I've posted so far, the ranked list of songs by a particular artist. Integrations will be done after I put together a list, but I'm not ready to incorporate it into the big list. Eventually the band will get sorted into the big list, and I'll add a note to list post indicating that it's taken place.

I'm also going to occasionally include one-hit wonder type songs, just noted in one list together. Of course some of them won't be true "one-hit wonders;" more so, they'll be individual songs that are the only song by the artist that I like/know. Elvis Costello has lots of songs, he just happens to only have one that I really like. We'll call them Bonus Songs. See below for an example.

Top 10 Journey Songs (not yet integrated)

1. Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'
2. Ask the Lonely
3. Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)
4. Don't Stop Believin'
5. Any Way You Want It
6. Faithfully
7. Be Good to Yourself
8. I'll Be Alright Without You
9. Open Arms
10. Wheel in the Sky

Bonus Songs (integrated)

1. The Droge and Summers Band - Two of the Lucky Ones
2. Panic! At The Disco - Nine in the Afternoon
3. thenewno2 - Crazy Tuesday
4. EMF - Unbelievable
5. Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah
6. Elvis Costello - Alison
7. Snow - Informer
8. Lucas - Lucas with the Lid Off

The First Top X Lists for the Project - Top 3 Songs by MGMT, Top 2 Songs by The J. Geils Band

So it took me some time to get going, but I've finally put together the first Top X List for my massive project. MGMT is a fun little band that I've always wanted to listen to more of, but never got around to. But they had three big songs, and all three might make my final top 500.

1. MGMT - Electric Feel
2. MGMT - Kids
3. MGMT - Time to Pretend

And to show how this will all work, I'm also going to add in my favorite songs by the J. Geils Band:

1. The J. Geils Band - Freeze-Frame
2. The J. Geils Band - Centerfold

Now look over on the sidebar and you can see how these two lists interact. And I'm going to do my best to not second-guess my rankings through the whole process...good luck to me lol.

The Biggest Project Ever

I have a new idea, something to get me thinking more, listening to more music, and making blog posts more frequently, though with not probably a ton of writing.

The idea is to make a list of my top 500 favorite songs.

"But Joe, why would that involve a bunch of blog posts?" Good question. I'm not going to do like all the websites do these days, make you click through 500 times to see each individual song in a ranked list. That's annoying as hell.

No, my idea is to create the list organically as I make blog posts. So, the idea is to segment out categories of music. For example, a blog post might be Top 4 Weezer Songs or Top 31 Dave Matthews Band songs (yeah, there could definitely be that many in my top 500). So, I'd post those songs, and then update an as-yet-uncreated sidebar, mixing those songs into the running list.

You'll get the hang of it when you start to see it in action.

GoodPointJoe's Top 5 Gaming Bundle Sites

Seven years ago, my friend Anthony brought to my attention a promotion called The Humble Indie Bundle. It was a collection of games from small-time developers that I had mostly never heard of, and the proceeds would be split between the developers and a couple of charities. This of course spiked a conversation about the concept of charity and whether anyone could be truly charitable, but dmore importantly, it started my journey into bundle-shopping.

That first bundle included six games: Aquaria, Gish, Lugaru HD, Penumbra: Overture, Samorost 2, and World of Goo. In what would set the tone for my next seven years (plus) on Steam, I have only played two of those games (stay tuned to find out which!...just kidding, World of Goo and Gish), but I was hooked on bundles.

Since then, some bundle sites have come and gone. Indie Royale always had some really interesting games, but their prices tended to be higher than most of the other sites. Blink Bundle had great bundles, but seemed unable to keep their business model afloat.

But plenty of sites are still chugging along, offering multiple games at a minimal price. So, in the interest of continuing my tradition of doing a Top 5 list about anything, here are my Top 5 Gaming Bundle Sites.

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5. Indie Gala

https://www.indiegala.com/

Now don't get me wrong. Indie Gala is far from a perfect bundle site. In fact, if you said that you knew about Indie Gala and hated Indie Gala, I wouldn't fault you. Indie Gala puts out a lot of crummy bundles, sometimes even bundles without a single game that really deserve more attention.

BUT.

They generate a shit ton of bundles. And while a lot of them can be junky, they also occasionally put out a really solid set of games. Or, they'll put a gem in a bundle, and it makes you end up checking out a few games you might not have normally given a second thought. They do a good job of persisting in one of the most useful purposes of bundling games, which is to jointly benefit from the games' individual popularities.

Some Favorites from Indie Gala:

• Knights of Pen and Paper +1 Edition
• Jolly Rover
• Zombie Driver HD

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4. Go Go Bundle

https://gogobundle.com/

Go Go Bundle is an interesting site. They don't make any claims about the quality of the games they provide, they just promise a cheap set of games. The big difference for Go Go Bundle is that they offer a reduced price if you buy larger quantities of the bundle.

This might not seem useful if you're just a person who plays games, but if you're a person who plays games and streams them on Twitch, this can be very handy. The amount of discount you can receive on bulk bundle purchases is substantial; usually you can pick up 50 bundles for $20. This equates out to anywhere from 300-500 Steam keys, each of which you can use as a giveaway on your stream.

Sometimes the games are shovelware, sometimes they aren't. But most Twitch viewers who are turned on by giveaways don't mind if it's a no-name, unexceptional game. Intentionally or unintentionally, Go Go Bundle is helping Twitch streamers add another layer of fun to their broadcasts.

Some Favorites from Go Go Bundle

• 12 Labours of Hercules II: The Cretan Bull
• 12 Labours of Hercules III: Girl Power

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3. Bundle Stars / Fanatical

https://www.fanatical.com/en/

Bundle Stars recently rebranded itself, and the site is now named Fanatical. I haven't delved too deeply to see what's changed, but at first blush, it seems to have the same types of deals and bundles as it always did.

Bundle Stars had frequent bundles of varying quality, but overall I'd say the games they offer are of a higher quality than Indie Gala or Go Go Bundle. Additionally, they sometimes have excellent deals on individual games. I was able to scoop up the complete Shadow of Mordor pack for a mere $3.00 a couple months ago, and while I still haven't played the game, I know it'll be good when I do.

Overall, I like the games, the interface, and the overall vibe of Bundle Stars/Fanatical. While it's a little trite to say, it really does feel like a site that's been developed by gamers, for gamers.

Some Favorites from BundleStars / Fanatical

• Hoard: Complete Pack
• Pixel Puzzles
• Pixel Puzzles 2
• Trapped Dead

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2. Groupees

https://groupees.com

Groupees has this one weakness that keeps them from ranking higher on my list: the games aren't that good. While Groupees doesn't have noticeably worse games than a site like Indie Gala, nor do they have games that seem to be any better. They have their fair share of shovelware, and it's not often that they post a bundle with any sort of surprisingly good game. So why is Groupees one of my favorite bundle sites?

Music!

While many Humble Bundles and some of the other bundles include game soundtracks as part of their content, Groupees regularly includes actual music albums in their bundles. In fact, some bundles have only music, no games. And while lots of the music is conventional rock or hip-hop, a lot of the music feels like video game music. There are chiptunes (think original NES music), orchestral themes, electronic songs, and all other sorts.

Groupees also dives into comics as much as any other gaming bundle site other than maybe Humble Bundle, giving you some more media to consume. Groupees also offers you the option of contributing a portion of your payment to charity, if you're into that sort of thing.

Some Favorites from Groupees

• 8-Bit Adventures: The Forgotten Journey
• Party of Sin
• Payday 2 - Clover Character Pack (to troll Chip)
• Assorted chiptune albums

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1. Humble Bundle

https://www.humblebundle.com

Ahh, the Humble Bundle. The founder of the feast. The one who started it all. There's no question that Humble Bundle remains the biggest name in bundled games, and deservedly so. They frequently have high-quality games available, uncommonly bundled games, and interesting partnerships. And because a portion of their proceeds go to charity, they'll always be looked upon favorably.

Are they perfect? No, of course not. The Humble Monthly Bundle has been sort of hit-or-miss; I subscribed for a month and wasn't really impressed with my results. And unfortunately, most (or all?) of their mobile bundles have been for Android only; my iPhone sits unattended by Humble Bundle.

Still, when it comes to quality and variety, you can't beat the Humble Bundle. I'm tuned in every Tuesday to see what they've got brewing, and when they partner up with organizations like Awesome Games Done Quick, they've got my full attention.

My list below is by no means exhaustive. HB has provided me with a load of great games.

Some Favorites from Humble Bundle

• And Yet It Moves
• The Binding of Isaac
• BIT.TRIP.RUNNER
• Braid
• Defender's Quest: Valley of the Forgotten
• Dungeon Defenders
• Dungeons of Dredmor
• FTL: Faster Than Light
• Organ Trail
• Super Meat Boy

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Summary

The Humble Bundle has provided me with far more gaming entertainment than any other bundle site. In fact, I'd say that Humble Bundle rates behind only Steam and Blizzard in terms of the number of delivering enjoyable content to me. And Steam is cheating, since they're basically the hub through which half of my gaming goes.

But they're by no means the only game in town. I'm interested to see if Fanatical pushes out new and interesting ways to drop content, and if I ever get my Twitch stream going again, I'm sure I'll dabble into Go Go Bundle. And of course, every time Groupees releases a bundle full of chiptunes, they've got a customer in me.

Bottom Five WWF/WWE Entrance Themes

After doing my whole article on the best entrance themes, I decided that all that time spent researching should go towards at least one other blog post. And, because there have been some really unexceptional entrance themes in the history of wrestling, this was the most logical second effort.

As I mentioned in the top five post, WCW had a plethora of bad entrance themes. But that organization's general weakness helped to prevent any of their themes to be noticeably worse than the others. So while I don't think much of Ric Flair's or Glacier's or Dean Malenko's theme, they weren't conspicuously worse than the other themes you'd hear while watching Monday Nitro.

The WWF/WWE, however, has had some great themes, and by contrast, some really, really bad ones. Here are the five that in my experience have stood out as just terrible.

Honorable Mention: Right to Censor

I'm not going to put up a link to this "song" because A) it's miserable, and B) it's not really a song. It's just a bunch of alarms. It made sense thematically, but it was just brutal to listen to. I don't know who signed off on playing that 1-2 times a night, but they should've been fired.


5. The Shield/Roman Reigns



The Shield's version is slightly less appealing, but they're essentially the same song. The song has no rhythm, no excitement, and no flavor at all. Reigns also still has the gimmick of coming to the ring through the crowd, which is equally stupid. It wasn't cool when it was The Sandman, it wasn't cool when it was Raven and the Flock, it's just not an interesting move. In today's wrestling world, we should be able to demand a higher standard of quality when it comes to entrance music. It's not offensive, but it's bad.

4. Earthquake



I wouldn't have even thought that this was truly a "song," but when I check out the WWE soundtracks on Spotify, right there is Earthquake. It's basically just a slow march with rumbles around it. Unexciting and just not good.

3. Edge



I don't know what was wrong with Edge's initial theme song where they felt they had to change it. It wasn't amazing, but it was solid, and most importantly, it didn't sound like noise garbage. I'm sure some other people enjoy this theme, just as I'm sure some people enjoy this kind of thrash metal, but I am not one of them.

2. Billy Gunn "Ass Man"



This was during the WWE's period of trying to push the envelope sexually, with the premiere of the Divas as a regular part of the show, Val Venis who apparently came to professional wrestling by way of hardcore pornography, and as the counter, the above-mentioned Right to Censor. Billy Gunn's gimmick was an odd twist on "Bad Ass" Billy Gunn where...well no actually, Gunn was basically the same, it was just a weird, ill-fitting song. The tune itself is boring, with a particularly irrelevant beginning. No pop at all.

1. Rey Mysterio



Mysterio's theme song sounds like a nine-year-old kid put it together. The opening, which in wrestling is perhaps the most important aspect, is just completely dorky and dumb. I don't even know if the rest of the song is that bad; the beginning just kills me. That Mysterio was as popular as he was for as long as he was is a testament to the excitement of his wrestling style; he accomplished it in spite of having a terrible, terrible song.

Top 10 WWF/WWE Entrance Themes: #5-#1

Last time, we covered #6-#10 on my list of all-time best wrestling entrances. Technically I didn't put WCW in the title, but that's because WCW never had any good music. That's not my fault; that's on them. I also didn't put TNA or ECW in the title, but I've never seen any of either of them, so I have no excitement at any of that music.

Anyways, less about what's not on the list, and more about what is on it. Here are my five favorite entrance themes of all time.

5. The British Bulldog


So I made a small concession from the "rules" I laid out at the beginning. Obviously Rule, Brittania! is not a song created especially for the WWE. However, I've been unable to find a version of the song that has as much pace and drum as the wrestling entrance song does. So, I'm denoting this song as unique, and allowing it on my list.

Which is good, because some of my strongest positive memories are from my younger days when the Bulldog was at his height. Maybe the best pop in WWE history was for the British Bulldog when he made his way down the aisle at Summerslam 1992 at Wembley Stadium. The song has a victorious, "good guy" tone, and when you're a kid watching wrestling, that's what you like.

4. The Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase and Money, Inc.


The laugh at the beginning is absolutely priceless, and the fact that Dibiase "sings" his creedo over the music is brilliant. "Everybody's got a price!" The tune is good, and it's got that old wrestling feel to it, reminiscent a simpler time, when good guys were good guys and bad guys were bad guys.

My favorite tag team back in the day was the Natural Disasters, and they feuded heavily with Money Inc, so I learned to hate this song. Now that I'm grown and I can appreciate how great those villains were, I find the song delightful.

3. Triple H (The Game)


It's taken a long time for me to get into any of Triple H's music. First he had that prissy tea-drinking music, and that was obviously not much fun. He then moved to DX, and while that was a bit better, it still wasn't quite my style. He later used the "Cerebral Assassin" theme, which sounded odd and grating; obviously I wasn't a fan.

He finally landed on The Game, and a mere fifteen years into his professional wrestling career, I think he's finally found the right theme song. It's got a big pop (as you may remember, that's huge in my book), it's heavy, and it fits great as a soundtrack for a march to the ring. I watched this year's Royal Rumble, and seeing Triple H stomp towards the ring to this song had an epic feel to it.

2. John Cena



I actually missed most of the John Cena era in professional wrestling. The majority of my exposure to Cena and his music has been through YouTube, video games, and my occasional run through all previous Royal Rumbles on DailyMotion (this has happened more than once). But every time I've seen him make his entrance to this song, the pop in the crowd has been unbelievable. The opening builds great, and the song itself is great. The song actually kind of needs the crowd sounds surrounding it for full effect (which is why I chose the clip above), but it's awesome either way.

1. Hulk Hogan



It's pretty unfair that Hogan is at the top of this list, but the truth is the truth. There's never been a guy who consistently gets the level of pop at his music that Hogan does. He was the dominant figure in wrestling for 15 years, and every time his (WWF) music played, the crowd went crazy. It turns out he's a little bit crazy in real life, and maybe not the hero that he was in the ring, but he'll always be The Real American in our hearts and minds.

Top 10 WWF/WWE Entrance Themes: #10-#6

There are a few things in sports/entertainment that just seem like the coolest home-team experiences ever. Baseball has hitting a walk-off home run or striking out a guy to end the game. In football, returning a punt or kickoff for a touchdown is electric. An overtime goal in hockey makes the home crowd explode.

Professional wrestling has always tried to capture this feeling a couple times every week through two main methods. The first is through surprise wins like the small package or quick roll-ups. These are especially effective in title matches, and can be a launching pad for a great rivalry (see the entire career of the 1-2-3 Kid).

The other way is through judicious use of entrance themes. Some high-heat heels are outnumbering and pummeling a weaker opponent, and then a big-time face's entrance theme pops and he runs down the ramp and intervenes, to the delight of the fans.

The first type of moment relies on an interesting scenario and maybe a fun rivalry. But the second type only needs great music and a good wrestler. I've always loved a great entrance theme, and since I'm back blogging again, it's a great topic.

A couple of rules I set for myself:

1. I eliminated songs that I recognized before they were entrance themes. This eliminates, for example, CM Punk's use of Cult of Personality (even though it was such a ridiculously awesome fit). This also bumps the Macho Man's Pomp and Circumstance from the list.
2. I tried my best to set aside the quality of the wrestler. This wasn't totally possible, since some of that electricity comes from the crowd's reaction. But for example, The Rock's theme song is bland, so while the crowd loves him and cheers loudly upon hearing his music, his song won't be on this list either.
3. It's a subjective list. Some people will tell you the DX theme is a must-have on the list. I just didn't like it much, so it's not here. This is truly "my" list, not an attempt at a universal "correct" list.

And now, the list.

10. Matt Hardy


I actually really like Matt Hardy's theme music, probably higher than my 10th favorite entrance theme. But my WWF-watching experience only included the very beginning of Matt Hardy's career. So my personal experience of watching matches and being excited about the sound of Hardy's music is pretty limited. But the song is boss, starts fast, and stays loud.

9. Undertaker (original)


There's something to be said about the classics. There have been some twists on the Undertaker's music over the year. I enjoyed the Ministry of Darkness style (though the random Latin or whatever was a little over-the-top). His biker music was less my thing. But the original is always great, a memory of a younger WWF. The bell tolling is still a wonderful interruption that serves as the pop you need out of an entrance theme.

8. Jeff Jarrett


Jeff Jarrett's music has that perfect balance of attitude, fun, and volume. As is the case with most of my favorite entrance songs, it starts hard and fast. Long buildups are dangerous, because you lose the pop when the guy comes running out to save a tag-team partner or interrupt an interview. Jarrett did just fine in both regards.

7. Chris Jericho (Y2J)


I'll be honest, I wasn't the biggest Chris Jericho fan at the beginning. He feuded with Dean Malenko back in his WCW days, one of my favorite grapplers, and you weren't supposed to like him, so I didn't. He moved to the WWF and continued his cocky attitude, so I continued to dislike him. But with some time, and a couple of face/heel turns, I've come to appreciate Jericho's charisma immensely.

And now that I've got some distance from his younger days, I can really appreciate his entrance music. It's got such a head-bouncing beat that you can't help but appreciate it. And when they use the countdown, get outta here. That's half of the fun of the Royal Rumble, and you get it over and over when Jericho wrestles. Good stuff.

6. JBL


I've always been a fan of the theme songs that aren't just some rock song. JBL moved from a terrible song as a member of The Acolytes to an awesome deep country celebration that smacks of the old TV show Dallas. And if you've got any questions about JBL's validity as a heavyweight champion and not just a goofy placeholder, listen to that heat. Anybody the fans hate that much deserves the gold.

Initially I was going to include all ten on this post, but I've noticed that when a webpage loads a lot of embedded YouTube clips, it tends to suffer, sometimes substantially. So I'll do another post finishing out the rest of the top ten. Look for it soon!

An Update On My Rock Band Project

I just wanted to give you guys a quick update on my Rock Band project.

As you may remember, I set out to play old Rock Band and Guitar Hero games to try to investigate what features worked, what features didn't, and what felt lacking in each iteration, to try to determine what the next Rock Band game (assuming there is one) ought to have in order to be successful. I've played Rock Band, Rock Band 2, and Lego Rock Band so far, and I've taken a good number of notes on each of them. None of them was perfect, but each brought a feature or features to the table that elevated the fun you can have in playing the game.

I've still got a ways to go, as I haven't delved into the Guitar Hero titles yet, and there are a lot of them. I also technically own Rock Revolution, which I've never played, as it was widely panned (I got it as part of a buy one, get one free offer along with Crackdown, which was fun). But, if I'm hoping to get a full picture of what works and what doesn't, I should probably at least play a little of RR to see what it's all about. You never know; it could have the one feature that ties everything together.

Initially I was going to make a separate post for each game I played, but there isn't enough different between all the games for that to be beneficial. You'd end up getting bored from reading a lot of the same stuff, and I don't want that. Instead, I'll combine all of my findings into one or two posts, and then at some point after that, offer up my complete plan for Rock Band 4...or maybe Rock B4nd, depending on how hip I want to go.

It'll be ready when it's ready.

Next Rock Band

I saw an article this morning that saddened me a little bit. I've never been a big user of the Rock Band Network (which allowed for lesser-known songs to be added as downloadable content), but its closure today signifies another termination of the Rock Band experience that was so popular in the 00's. Now fans of the franchise are left hoping only that something beautiful is in the works, at least in someone's mind at Harmonix.

While there's been no talk about a new Rock Band game in development, there are rumors and sideways mentions that get me excited from time to time. I know I'm not the only one who wants it to happen. But Rock Band and Guitar Hero hit a massive wall with their final releases. Guitar Hero utterly saturated the market with disc after disc of basically just song packs. Rock Band, meanwhile, kind of went as far as they could with their model with Rock Band 3. RB also made literally trillions of dollars (not literally) on individual song purchases. When I load up my RB3, it tells me I have something like 220 extra songs. That's at least $300 of bonus money I put into the Rock Band franchise. So, while the genre fell off, clearly it had some horses, and I strongly believe that it's got the potential to reinvent itself and become an exciting a profitable franchise once again.

But that of course begs the question: what does the next rhythmic playalong game have to look like in order to be appealing to both old and new Rock Banders?

I wanted to at least figure out what I would hope for out of a new Rock Band game. So, what I'm going to do (or at least, what I'm setting out to do) is to boot up as many games in the series as I can find, play around with them for a while, and try to isolate features/aspects/nuances that helped or hurt each game. Then, I'll take that information and try to come up with new ideas and adjustments for what I would like to think could be the new apex in the genre, which I'll call Next Rock Band.

Additionally, if you've got any initial thoughts, or any feedback on any of my findings, please feel free to contribute. Nay, feel compelled to contribute.

That's all for now. I'll report back when I've got some data.

Best. Concert. Ever.

I'm sure you read the title for this post and thought it'd be a report of some fantastic concert I went to this week. Bzzzt! Wrong! I was thinking about concerts and bands and everything, and I posed a question to myself, a question I now ask any of you who choose to read this blog:

What concert would you want to see, if you could see any band/performer from all-time in their prime?

There are a number of valid options of course. I think it'd have been great to see both the Jackson 5 and Michael Jackson at their apexes. I've heard that the tour that Elton John and Billy Joel did together was phenomenal. And I probably should've gone to see Dream Theater at some point while they had my lineup of preference. But choosing one band above all others took some thinking. In the end, though, there was only one answer.

Queen was really, really good. Plus, with Freddie Mercury having passed away, there's no chance for me to catch them in the original form. Here are the other reasons I'd choose them, and specifically why I'd choose them over a couple other bands.

Attention to Detail
I remember a conversation with my late uncle Paul about concerts, and he said that a lot of really good bands were "shit" live. His citation was Led Zeppelin, who seemed to devolve into jam sessions with relative indifference towards their audiences. There's also Van Halen, who have had their lead guitarist (the titular Eddie) show up drunk out of his mind for concerts. My counter was Dave Matthews Band, who I believe matched their studio quality in live performances. But Queen notably rose to the task in live shows. Freddie Mercury had a true flair for the dramatic. Which brings me to my next point...

Showmanship
There are plenty of good bands out there that don't offer anything extra from a live show. A friend told me he loved a Tom Petty concert because "everything sounds exactly like it does on the album." Well, that's fine, but if you just wanted to listen to the album, you could sit at home with Spotify and a six-pack. You want a little something extra from a live show. DMB added extensive instrumental parts and special guests. Queen, to my knowledge, gave each show a dramatic flair, and Mercury was an entertainer at heart.

Song Catalog
There are plenty of bands that I think a lot of that I wouldn't put on this list, simply because I don't know enough of what they've put together. The aforementioned Dream Theater would undoubtedly play mostly songs I'd never heard before. I went to a Bruce Hornsby concert and I didn't know 90% of the music. It was good music and a fun time, but familiarity is nice. Queen has a robust song catalog, and I'm familiar with a good deal of it. I would expect to know most songs they played.

Atmosphere
There's something to be said for atmosphere. It's the reason that some people enjoy bands like Grateful Dead, Phish, and DMB. While you could argue most of that is a result of narcotic influence, there's no doubt the performers have an impact as well. I think I'd enjoy listening to Tool or Megadeth live, but I'd have concerns about my fellow concert-goers in those circumstances. Not that they're bad people, they're just harsher bands. Queen is mostly light-hearted, friendly music. I have to think it'd be a really pleasant time to see that show.

Undoubtedly you have your own foolish ideas. Post your thoughts in the comments so I can razz you...or grudgingly accept your opinions as valid.