1001 Songs

YOU MUST HEAR BEFORE YOU DIE

Poke around your friends’ bookshelves, and you will almost certainly find a title from the 1001 ______ Before You Die series.

1001 Gardens You Must See Before You Die
1001 Whiskies You Must Try Before You Die
1001 Guitars to Dream of Playing Before You Die

The list goes on. Amazing places! Natural wonders! Never mind that most people don’t have enough time on god’s green earth to watch 1001 television shows, read 1001 books, or eat at 1001 restaurants. That’s not important. The 1001 series sells readers the fantasy of completion, and thus, mastery.

The best book of the series, in my opinion, is 1001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die. Mainly because it doesn’t take all that long to listen to 1001 songs, and if you permit yourself to skip around, you can mow down a huge swath of music history in, like, a week. Nice!

Now everybody knows I’m a fool, and so like a fool I challenged myself to create my own list of 1001 songs. My list is better than Mr. Dimery’s (no disrespect) because I have the greatest music taste of my generation, and I seldom repeat artists. Artists were allowed only one entry unless that artist enjoyed a long, varied career with multiple stylistic detours!

For example, Miles Davis has four songs on my list because he was active for a really long time and changed a whole lot over the course of his career. Iyaz, on the other hand, makes one appearance because he didn’t stick around long enough to top his lone global smash hit, “Replay.” Shorty’s like a melody in my head.

Furthermore, Fleetwood Mac earned three entries on my list because the band had three principal songwriters (no disrespect to Peter Green).

Oh and I also like whiny aughts pop-punk more than just about anybody, and so my list represents a a critical course correction for this much maligned subgenre. You’re very welcome.

WHY DID I DO THIS?

Man, I don’t know! Because sometimes it’s fun to turn off the part of your brain that worries about global warming, raising children, and buying groceries. I will admit that picking the first 800 songs took me like an hour. The last 200…not so much. This post has been sitting in my drafts for over a year. And so without further ado:

HERE’S THE LINK TO MY 1001 SONGS SPREADSHEET

And here’s the Spotify playlist:

I hope you like it. Share your thoughts in the comments or text me or whatever. I’m sorry I haven’t posted since 2021. I’ll see you all again in 2025.