#043 Ben Folds Five - Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head

Original by B.J. Thomas (click)

"Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" is a song written by Hal David and Burt Bacharach for the 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, winning an Academy Award for Best Original Song. David and Bacharach also won Best Original Score. The version by B. J. Thomas was number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States in January 1970 for four weeks and the first number-one single of the 1970s. It also spent seven weeks atop the U.S. adult contemporary chart.^[1]

The song was recorded in seven takes, after Bacharach expressed dissatisfaction with the first six.

Ray Stevens had been first offered the opportunity to record the song for the motion picture, but turned it down. He chose instead to record "Sunday Morning Coming Down," which was written by Kris Kristofferson.Bob Dylan is also supposed to have been approached for the song, but he too reportedly turned down the offer.^[2]

The song is featured in the Leslie Nielsen movie Spy Hard, which parodies the scene in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid where the song plays. It also is featured on the soundtracks of Forrest Gump and thesuperhero film, Spider-Man 2, in the latter accentuating Peter Parker's blissful mood after abandoning his Spider-Man identity and its responsibilities. Most recently it was used in the Kevin Smith film Clerks II. It was also sung in The Simpsons episode, "Duffless". Also, the first episode of the second season from Grey's Anatomy is named after the song.

B.J. Thomas's version was listed at #12 on Billboard's Greatest Songs of all time.[1]

#042 Eric Clapton-Cocaine

Original by J.J. Cale (click)

"Cocaine" is a song written and recorded by J.J. Cale in 1976 and most widely known in a cover version recorded by Eric Clapton. Allmusic calls the latter "among [Clapton's] most enduringly popular hits" and notes that "even for an artist like Clapton with a huge body of high-quality work, 'Cocaine' ranks among his best."^[1]

Glyn Johns, who had previously worked with The Who, Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones, produced the Clapton recording, which was released on Clapton's 1977 album Slowhand and as a single in 1980. "Cocaine" failed to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 except as the 'B' side of "Lay Down Sally", which was a No. 3 hit in early 1978. "Cocaine" was one of several of Cale's songs recorded by Clapton, including "After Midnight" and "Travelin' Light".

#041 Paul Weller - Close to You

Original by The Carpenters (click)

"Close to You" is a popular song written by Jerry Livingston, Carl Lampl and Al Hoffman.

It has been recorded three times by Frank Sinatra; on June 7, 1943, again on December 26, 1943 for Columbia Records and on November 1, 1956 for Capitol Records. The 1956 version was issued as the title track of an album, Close to You and More, in 1957 for Capitol.

Close to You, the Willie Dixon cover, appears on many of The Doors' live releases, including originally on Absolutely Live in July, 1970.

This song should not be confused with the Burt Bacharach-Hal David song, "(They Long to Be) Close to You", a major 1970s hit for The Carpenters, which was also recorded by Sinatra on October 29, 1970 for his album Sinatra And Company.

#040 Alison Krauss - I Will (Live)

Original by The Beatles (click)

"I Will" is a song by The Beatles that was released on The Beatles. It was written by Paul McCartney (credited to Lennon/McCartney) and features him on lead vocal, guitar, and "vocal bass".

#039 10,000 Maniacs - More than this

Original by Roxy Music (click)

"More Than This" is a 1982 single by British art rock band Roxy Music. It was released as the first single from their album Avalon. The song peaked at #6 in the UK. Although it only charted at #103 in the United States, it remains one of their best known singles there, and was covered by 10,000 Maniacs in 1997 for a successful cover which hit #25, which outperformed Roxy Music's lone US Top 40 single "Love Is the Drug" (#30, 1976).

#038 Gladys Knight and The Pips- Hero (Aka Wind Beneath My Wings)

Popular version by Bette Midler (click)

"Wind Beneath My Wings" is the title of a pop song written by Larry Henley and Jeff Silbar.First recorded in 1982 by Roger Whittaker, then a country music hit for Gary Morris in 1983, it was covered six years later by Bette Midler. Morris' original was a Top Ten country hit, and it won the Academy of Country Music and Country Music Association Song of the Year awards that year. Midler's was a Number One Billboard Hot 100 hit which also won her a Grammy Award in 1990.

#037 Metallica - Stone Cold Crazy

Original by Queen (click)

"Stone Cold Crazy" is a song by English rock band Queen from their successful 1974 album Sheer Heart Attack. The song is the eighth track on the album. Although the song was never released as a single, it has been featured on Queen compilation albums and was played live on almost every show in their first ten years.

The song credit is shared between all the members of the band, although Mercury played it with his band Wreckage before Queen was created in the late 1960s. It was the first song Queen performed live in 1970, but the song underwent many changes musically and lyrically before getting recorded, resulting in credit going to the entire band. Early versions of the song were much slower, according to the band, although no bootlegs exist.

The lyrics feature a gangster theme, even mentioning Al Capone. A person is dreaming on a Saturday morning about being Al Capone committing various crimes, although the lyrics are very tongue-in-cheek and have humorous lines such as "walking down the street/shooting people that I meet/with my rubber tommy water gun".

In 2009 it was named the 38th best hard rock song of all time by VH1.

"Stone Cold Crazy" is featured in the music video games Guitar Hero: Metallica and Rock Revolution.

#036 Guns N' Roses - Live And Let Die

Original by Paul McCartney & Wings (click)

"Live and Let Die" is the main theme song of the 1973 James Bond film Live and Let Die and was performed by Paul McCartney and Wings on the movie soundtrack and on the soundtrack album. The song was one of Wings' most successful singles, and the most successful Bond theme to that point.Commissioned specifically for the movie and credited to Paul McCartney and his wife Linda, it reunited McCartney with Beatlesproducer George Martin, who both produced the song and arranged the orchestral break.

#035 Scorpions - Dust In The Wind (Acoustic version)

Original by Kansas (click)

"Dust in the Wind" is a hit single released by the American progressive rock band Kansas in 1977. It peaked at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart the week of April 22, 1978, making it Kansas' only top ten Billboard Hot 100 charting single. Written by Kerry Livgren, it was one of the band's first acoustic tracks; its slow melody and melancholy lyrics differ from their other hits, such as "Carry On Wayward Son" and "The Wall". The song's instrumental bridge contains a distinctive and highly memorable melodic line for solo viola played by Robby Steinhardt.

Kansas also released a live version of the song on their album Two for the Show.

#034 Guns N' Roses - Knocking On Heaven's Door

Original by Bob Dylan (click)

"Knockin' on Heaven's Door" is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan for the soundtrack of the 1973 film Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid. It reached #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. In 2004, representatives of the music industry and the press voted it #190 in Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time issue.