The best double-sided singles

So! This category is bound to create confusion. According to the rules (draw your own conclusions), a double A-side is a single in which both sides are designated the A-side; the B-side counts as much as the A-side. The problem, of course, is that 45 rpm singles and cassingles only have two sides: you can

Ranking #70 hits, U.S. edition: 1983-1987

The peak of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis’ early style, Hearsay gleams. Alexander O’Neal, the best male vocalist they ever worked with, offers a pebbly base for his epicene tone; he can belt, croon, or hang behind the beat. Jam and Lewis didn’t write the burbling “Criticize,” though: the honor belongs to former Time colleague

Ranking #1 alternative songs, 2001-2002

Convinced that I needed a hazmat suit, a spear gun, and a talent for quashing memories of the early Bush II years, I approached this batch carefully but wound up shocked how many songs were defensible and I didn’t care for, how few songs sucked, and how ready I was to hear things to salvage.

Ranking #80 singles, U.S. edition: 1969-1973

One of those albums that documents the warmth between audience and performer, Live at Carnegie Hall is the aural equivalent of swapping stories with a friend about beloved relatives (the most haunting song: “Grandma’s Hands”). Bill Withers included new tune “Friend of Mine,” and I park it front and center because of its anomalousness in

Ranking #74 singles, U.S. edition: 1986-1993

I regret “Shake It Like a White Girl” and “Voice of Freedom” flopped, for Americans missed the chance to go on Sally Jesse Raphael’s show to share their experience with two terrible singles. Exploiting Tone-Loc writing credits into a recording contract, Jesse Itzler took the moniker Jesse Jaymes and released Thirty Footer In Your Face

Ranking #1 alternative songs: 2004-2005

When 2000’s Warning failed to go platinum despite two good singles I thought Green Day had begun their slow decline. Well, look what a war and the reelection of our second worst president will do to goose up a band’s commercial and cultural fortunes. Suddenly “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” sounded like The Way We Live

Ranking Modern Rock hits 1991-1992

When George H.W. Bush expired in a manner incommensurate with the misery he had caused hundreds of thousands of people, I thought, as William Wyler did on hearing about the death of the cinema’s supreme choreographer of elegant comedies, no more Poppy Bush Interzone.

Ranking the #1 modern rock singles: 1997

Boy, do I remember 1997, the true start of the High Clinton Years when the stock market was higher than Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction yet not as deep as record label arrogance.

Ranking #72 singles, U.S. edition: 1989-1993

Pet Shop Boys’ cover/medley of U2/Four Seasons was, I must stress, an eye opener for whoever heard it in 1991. Treating U2 and Frankie Valli as if they were equals? To give “Where the Streets Have No Name” a new sequencer carburetor? Never mind. This fusion of camp and poignancy represents the peak of Neil

Ranking #14 singles, U.S. edition: 1983-1986

Although I wouldn’t place it in my top hundred of the decade, “Digging Your Scene” has gained poignancy over the years. Thanks to thwhack-drums and Dr. Robert’s wide-eyed vocal, this #14 hit is one of the few queer-friendly songs to land on the American charts — a chronicle about loving gay life by a straight

Ranking the top ten adult contemporary hits of 1999

Flocks of angels sung adult contemporary hits to rest in the year of Y2K. Sarah McLachlan and Monica, sure, but God spent more time on their songs than in crafting one of N Sync’s earliest hits. It says something about this Ny-Quil OD of a year that Phil Collins’ Tarzan ballad sounds grand and stately

Ranking R&B #1 songs, 1976

“Boogie” invaded the pop and R&B charts a year and change before Saturday Night Fever, inspiring a Mingo Junction band to speed up a standard shouter. “Play That Funky Music” has its fans, though, so good for them. My most chilling experience was re-listening to “Just To Be Close to You, the most satisfying to