Warning: this task will be absolutely agonizing for some. No cheating (you will know what I mean). No runner up lists. Bold and naked. 40; no more, no less.

Oh, and no sly slips in comments about your runners-up either. All mention of such are banned. heheh

My top 40 now is different from my top 40 yesterday and different from my top 40 tomorrow. I am a wishy washy ne'er-do-well.

Then you are just the person I want to participate, a_h. Cuz you know you could do it if you had to, but those demons on the way are scary.

Heh, I'll cut you a break and let you alphabetize the final list, rather than rate them too.

Ha!

In no order at all except how they popped into my head:

Collective Soul - Bleed
Leslie Spit Treeo - Angel from Montgomery
Days of The New - The Down Town
Cyndi Lauper - I Drove All Night
Vince Guaraldi Trio - Linus And Lucy
NIN - Closer
ZZ Top - Legs
CCR - Lookin' Out My Back Door
Warren Zevon - Sentimental Hygiene
Toronto - Your Daddy Don't Know
Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska
Toto Coelo - I Eat Cannibals
Amy Winehouse - Fuck Me Pumps
Don Henley - Boys Of Summer
Vangelis - Zhoras Retirement
Bruce Cockburn - Lovers In a Dangerous Time
Daft Punk - Around The World
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Don't Come Around Here No More
The Stranglers - Skin Deep
Bruce Springsteen - Atlantic City
Carl Douglas - Kung Fu Fighting
Viktoria Tolstoy - High Heels
Cracker - Low
The Police - Masoko Tanga
Willy DeVille - Storybook Love
Tori Amos - A Sorta Fairytale
The White Stripes - My Doorbell
The Smashing Pumpkins - Disarm
Gary Jules - Mad World
Cowboy Junkies - Sweet Jane
Cracker - Teen Angst
Jennifer Warnes - Song Of Bernadette
The Offspring - Gone Away
The The - Infected
John Prine - That's The Way That The World Goes 'round
Tomás Luis de Victoria - Requiem Kyrie
Donovan - Hurdy Gurdy
Ian Dury & The Blockheads - Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll
George Benson - On Broadway
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Free Fallin'
Houston Person - If

On review I can say I associate almost all with someone I love(d). About 20% of those are dead and about 60% I have lost contact with.

I'm sure that says something but I'm also sure it's less than it appears.

40 would be tough. VERY tough. I'll work on it, but I don't promise I'll succeed. :)

That's why I want to give a 2 weeks heads up.

Okay, I'll give it a shot. I got today off.

This would have been easier for me before I had to merge itunes and all my stars went away. I might give it a go.

The first 5 or 10 are pretty easy. It gets hard after that.

Wow. That's really hard. But an interesting challenge. I'm going to have to think about whether I'm going to fall on the side of best or best loved.

I'm with arse, my tastes are so eclectic that any list I could compile would change hourly . my mood, the time of day, the time of year, my energy level or what I'm doing on a given day precludes me from coming up with a any list where even 10% could remain consistent from list to list.

Super hard...but I'm ready! I'll try my best to not talk about the stuff I omitted too.

I wasn't going to try this, because most of my favorite music never made the charts... but this conversation made me re-evaluate. So I'll give it a shot!

Does anyone know a site that gives historical Top 40 charts? Billboard lists historical Top 10, but 30-40 appears to be subscription-only.

Interesting. I can never pick favorites, but 40 makes a good number for a bunch of them. My songs willbe ones that are iconic for me for some reason or other, rather than favorites that I could listen to over and over (which change all the time). Starting my list now...

I'm absolutely terrible about ranking things. I can't remember everything at once, and once I've got a ranking settled on, I keep thinking "but OH! I forgot this one!" and revising the list, and that process goes on indefinitely.

In the end, I'm glad we can love essentially unlimited numbers of things in their own moments.

"My songs will be ones that are iconic" - Ultimately, I had to grade each song on its actual impact on my life. My list grew to about 90 songs with about 30 that were no-brainers, but picking those last 10 out 50? Whew! I am glad I did it though, so far my list has held up for 2 years.

Also, for me anyway, this top 40 list is one hell of a playlist.

Much of my favorite music isn't in song form. Would it be okay to include orchestral works like overtures or even entire larger works like symphonies and oratorios? Other non-song forms might come under consideration, an entire raga or soundtrack, in a list of my all-time favorite music to listen to.

I'd be just as happy to stick with songs. I can tell you up front my favorite ever is popular group sing-along "Happy Birthday to You."

Oh, wow, I totally misunderstood: I though this was favorite Top 40 songs. Just listing my personal 40 favorites will be both a lot easier and a lot harder.

I had a hard time, partially because I wanted to include songs from my favourite bands...but ultimately, some of them didn't make the cut. I really tried to focus on the songs themselves and list the best 40 damned songs I know. I'm quite certain I've failed so far, and I'm kind of looking forward to reflecting on the list for the next couple of weeks.

Heh, Elsa, yeah, your personal Top 40.

Well, I tried to include some from when I was a wee little Mademoiselle-ina. But of course this is not exhaustive and doesn't include the classical or showtunes!

Everything on this list has a good 5-10 years of love behind it (except for Bad Romance, of course).

ABBA - Waterloo
Arcade Fire - Intervention
Beach Boys - God Only Knows
Beatles - If I Fell
Ben Folds Five - Kate (and everything else on Whatever and Ever Amen)
Boston - More Than A Feeling
Billy Bragg - Brickbat
Jeff Buckley - Last Goodbye (and everything else on Grace)
Dixie Chicks - Cowboy Take Me Away
Jason Falkner - Both Sides Now
Fantastic Plastic Machine - Lotto
Peter Gabriel - In Your Eyes
Guns 'n' Roses - Welcome to the Jungle
Handsome Boy Modeling School - Look At This Face (and everything else on So... How's Your Girl?)
Jamiroquai - Canned Heat
Tom Jones - Sexbomb (Peppermint Disco Mix)
Lady GaGa - Bad Romance
Cyndi Lauper/Strictly Ballroom - Time After Time
Led Zeppelin - The Immigrant Song
Loverboy - Working for the Weekend
Madonna - Cherish
Miriam Makeba - Pata Pata
Paul McCartney - Maybe I’m Amazed
Nico - The Fairest of the Seasons
Nine Inch Nails - Head Like A Hole
Liz Phair - Extraordinary
The Police - Synchronicity #2
The Police - Every Little Thing She Does is Magic
Queen & David Bowie - Under Pressure
Paul Simon - Boy in the Bubble
Simon and Garfunkel - The Boxer
Nina Simone - My Baby Just Cares For Me
Siouxsie and the Banshees - This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both Of Us
Squeeze - Annie Get Your Gun
Underworld - Born Slippy
Rufus Wainwright - The Art Teacher
Rufus Wainwright - He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother

Well, this is probably the closest I'm going to get to the exact list. This was fun to do. I kept it all pop/rock/standards because I just didn't feel like getting into showtunes or classical music. Maybe someday I'll do another list for those. These are in no particular order.

1. Photograph – Ringo Starr
2. Sailing – Christopher Cross
3. Just Help Yourself – Tom Jones
4. Happy Heart – Andy Williams
5. Rio – Duran Duran
6. All Of My Heart – ABC
7. Come Sail Away – Styx
8. 26 Miles (Santa Catalina) – The Four Preps
9. Scotch and Soda – The Kingston Trio
10. Dancing Queen – ABBA
11. I’m A Believer – The Monkees
12. Years – Barbara Mandrell
13. Even Now – Barry Manilow
14. Saturday Night – Bay City Rollers
15. Montego Bay – Bobby Bloom
16. Where Or When – Bryan Ferry (although almost anybody’s will do)
17. Goodnight Baby – The Butterflys
18. How Can I Tell You – Cat Stevens
19. Pilot Of The Airwaves – Charlie Dore
20. 24 Hours From Tulsa – Gene Pitney
21. Skateaway – Dire Straits
22. I’m The Fool – Mark Knopfler
23. Desperado – The Eagles
24. My Cup Runneth Over – Ed Ames
25. Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes) – Edison Lighthouse
26. You Don’t Know – Ellie Greenwich
27. Beach Baby – The First Class
28. Follow You, Follow Me – Genesis
29. Wichita Lineman – Glen Campbell
30. Closer to Home – Grand Funk Railroad
31. Swayin’ To The Music (Slow Dancin’) – Johnny Rivers
32. Get Down Tonight – KC and the Sunshine Band
33. Cynical Girl – Marshall Crenshaw
34. Question – Moody Blues
35. Tears Of A Clown – Smokey Robinson and the Miracles
36. What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted – Jimmy Ruffin
37. Mad World – Tears For Fears
38. I Saw The Light – Todd Rundgren
39. Forever Autumn – Justin Hayward
40. Lady – Little River Band

Perhaps those who post their lists now could make up a playlist of those songs, and then give that list a good hard listen over the next couple weeks. Then when we share in the big post, they can share any insight or experiences they have.

Ok, I started this project, and I deffo need a few weeks. Eeep.

There's no way I could possibly do this, but I'm way into reading other folks' lists.

rainbaby: QTF

C'mon, box, this is an excellent exercise in killing your idols.

I'm still in the "adding songs" phase right now. The deathmatches will begin next week.

Me too BoPo.

Hey, what about a tutorial in advance on how to link and share audio on metachat? I don't know if there is protocol. I know sometimes someone will yousend it, but I don't know how to do that to a website. YouTube links - but some of mine aren't going to have quality youtube, not that I'll link them all - just some of the more obscure ones, I think.

Pretty please, BoringPostcards?

Maybe my question wasn't clear. Due to matters of taste, my personal top 40 includes music tracks that aren't songs. Are they okay, or should I confine my list to songs?

Sure, Hugh, if the music means something personal to you, that level of connection. I can think of a few things that are musical in nature and that inspired me but are not classifiable as songs.

Cool, thanks for clarifying, Ardiril. I grew up around a classical music so some of my favorites aren't really songs. This will be fun! And difficult. Thanks for posting it.

It's a new night and i have a new top 40...