Mentioning the Honorable

Howdy!

When I put together the HondoJoe Top 200 Songs, I was surprised as to how few songs actually fit into a Top 200. 200 seems like a big number. It really does. It's bigger than 47. It's bigger than 183. If you took one song a day, it would take more than six months to get up to 200. 

Surely, I could easily fit all of my favorite songs into a Top 200.

Nope. (I guess I just love too much.)

So, here are some of the songs that didn't quite make the cut.

As I said, I have about 350 "5-Star" songs, which meant 150 of them had to be eliminated. Some of the songs were pretty easy to cross off the list, like "Girl, You Know It's True," by Milli Vanilli. It's a fun song, but it's clearly not a Top 200 song. Others were more difficult.

A while back I made an iTunes playlist of my Top 40 albums. As much as I love being able to play songs at "random," sometimes it is good to just put a whole album on and listen to it from start to finish. Sometimes it's nice to have a recognizable flow of songs. 

But, when I finished the HondoJoe Top 200 Songs, I realized that some of my favorite albums weren't able to get a single song into the Top 200. Some of these albums include:

"Full Moon Fever" by Tom Petty--Some great songs, like "I Won't Back Down," "Free Fallin'," Running Down a Dream," "Yer So Bad," all came close, but couldn't make the cut.

"90125" by Yes--The album is incredible. The first five songs ("Owner of a Lonely Heart," It Can Happen," "Changes," "Hold On," and "Leave It") are all great. But none of them made the cut.

"Voices" by Hall & Oates--Another great album. "You Make My Dreams" came close, but didn't make the cut. (The album includes other great songs like "Kiss On My List," You've Lost That Loving Feeling," "Africa," "Diddy-Doo-Whop (I Hear the Voices)," and others.)

"No Jacket Required" by Phil Collins--Another album full of great songs that just didn't quite make my list. ("Take Me Home," and "We Said Hello Goodbye" were the two toughest cuts, although "Sussudio," "Inside Out," and "Billy Don't Lose That Number" are great, too.)

"Purgatory Falls" by Parthenon Huxley--This little known gem of an album is incredibly beautiful (and sad.) Huxley (also known as "P. Hux") wrote the album after his wife died from cancer. If you ever want to listen to great pop music and get incredibly sad at the same time, this is a great album. (The song "4258" just missed the cut.)

"Weezer (Blue Album Debut)" by Weezer--This is quite possibly my favorite album from the 1990s. (Yes, better than "River of Dreams.") The songs "In the Garage," and "The World Has Turned and Left Me Here" were both in early drafts of the Top 200, but were both eventually bumped for more songs by Billy Joel and ELO. (The power of the Cognitive Triad is not to be trifled with.)

"Pieces of Eight" by Styx--Looking at my Top 200 list, Styx is easily the band most under-represented. I love "Pieces of Eight." But, "Blue Collar Man," "I'm OK," "Great White Hope," "Queen of Spades," "Pieces of Eight," "Sing For the Day," and "Renegade" all fell short. (Some of them just barely.)

 

Looking at the HondoJoe Cognitive Triad, there are only two Billy Joel albums that aren't represented in the Top 200. They are "The Bridge," with near misses "Running On Ice," and "Big Man On Mulberry Street." And, "Storm Front," with near misses "And So It Goes," "We Didn't Start the Fire," and "I Go To Extremes."

 

Meanwhile, ELO and They Might Be Giants each have about half of their albums represented and half of them not. Probably the most notable album snubbed is ELO's "Time," which features "Twilight," and "Hold On Tight."

 

Of course, the honorable mentions that didn't make the Top 200 didn't all come from great albums. There are plenty of one-hit wonders and other songs that just missed out. Here, in no particular order, are some of the other honorables worth mentioning:

 

"My Girl (Gone, Gone, Gone)" by Chilliwack. (Ah...Chilliwack!)

"Rubberband Man" by the Spinners (Pep band bliss!)

"You Take My Breath Away" by Rex Smith (Sing-along fun!)

"Give To Live" by Sammy Hagar (Closer to making the Top 200 than anything by Van Halen or Van Hagar!)

"Sea of Dreams" by Kelly Groucutt (From the solo album of ELO's bass player!)

"Video!" by Jeff Lynne (From a solo effort by ELO's lead singer/songwriter!)

"Band On the Run," "Getting Closer," and "Flaming Pie," by Paul McCartney (He's pretty good!)

"Instant Karma," "Watching the Wheels," and "Nobody Told Me" by John Lennon (He's pretty good, too!)

"When We Was Fab" by George Harrison (He wasn't too bad, either!)

Nothing by Ringo Starr (Not even close!)

"Stars on 45" by Stars On (Whatever happened to the "medley" genre? I really liked the "Beach Boys Medley," too!)

"Mingo, the Man with the Bullwhip," "Luck Be a Lady," and "Happy Heart" by Ed Ames (I can almost sing along to his deep baritone!)

"Mr. Roboto," "Lady," and "Fooling Yourself" by Styx (Along with the songs from "Pieces of Eight" mentioned above!)

"Crazy Little Thing Called Love," "Keep Yourself Alive," and "Don't Stop Me Now" by Queen (Because Freddie Mercury is awesome!)

"Zak and Sara," "Annie Waits," and "Fred Jones Part 2" by Ben Folds (He's a very talented foul-mouthed little troll!)

"Why Part 2" by Collective Soul (Because you can't have too many "Part 2"s!)

"Don't Pay the Ferryman" by Chris DeBurgh (Don't even fix a price!)

"I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues" by Elton John (My favorite Elton John song!)

"You Can Call Me Al" by Paul Simon (Made better by the video with Chevy Chase!) (Back when Chevy was actually funny.)

"Sellout" by Reel Big Fish (Because some good ska is a nice change of pace every once in a while!)

"Convoy" by CW McCall (Is it still fun to use CB lingo? That's a big 10-4!)

"Robot Parade," "I've Got a Fang," "Yeh, Yeh," and "Working Undercover For the Man" by They Might Be Giants

"Hello My Old Friend," "Mandalay," "Need Her Love," and "10538 Overture" by ELO

And

"Scandanavian Skies," "Surprises," "Christee Lee," "It's Still Rock and Roll To Me," and "The Longest Time" by Billy Joel

(So yes, that's right, with any song that appears on the HondoJoe Top 200, I imagine you will be scoffing and saying "There's no way that song is better than "It's Still Rock and Roll To Me" or "The Longest Time!" And you'll probably be right.)

 

COMING UP NEXT: Is this idiot ever going to actually start the list? Yes! (And you will get every penny's worth. But it will cost you a dollar first!)