Stephen Mejias

What this competition is about is finding five songs from what I will loosely call the Rock Era (written anywhere, but only since 1954) that, in craftsmanship, musicality, intelligence, and emotional impact, can give the lieder and chanson traditions a run for their money.

Fun, right? Several of our readers came up with excellent lists, but one winning list that I found especially impressive came from Sarah Witkowski.

My name is Sarah Witkowski. When I read about your competition I was very excited! (And still am.) I'm 16 years old and I like to call myself an "apprentice" audiophile. My dad is an audiophile and he encouraged me to enter this because apparently all I ever talk about it music. I would LOVE it if you published my list because I'm not Stereophile's average reader, and it might be fun to compare my list to someone my dad's age. I'm the only kid I know with a turntable in their room. (It's pretty awesome; it has this really cool Grace tonearm on it.)

Last week, Sarah sent me an e-mail:

I compiled a list of 150 songs recorded from 1961 to 2008 that I consider to be some of the most epic songs in modern popular music. By "epic," I mean that the songs provoke emotion in the listener and that the composition has great dynamics; some songs might not have amazing dynamic composition but they still felt epic to me. The songs are sorted by date and split up into 9 groups: 1961-1967, 1968-1969, 1970-1973, 1974-1977, 1978-1989, 1990-1994, 1995-2001, 2001-2004, 2005-2008.

Wow! I was so impressed by Sarah's complete list that I asked her if I could share some of it here on the blog. Sarah agreed. The following songs make up a much abbreviated list—just the top ten songs from each time period. Some of Sarah's lists have up to 19 entries!

Sarah Witkowski's All-Time Most Epic Songs

1961–1967
1. Ben E. King: "Stand by Me"
2. The Beatles: "I Want To Hold Your Hand"
3. The Animals: "House of the Rising Sun"
4. The Righteous Brothers: "You've Lost That Loving Feeling"
5. The Beatles: "You've got to Hide Your Love Away"
6. The Righteous Brothers: "Unchained Melody"
7. Simon & Garfunkel: "The Sounds of Silence"
8. Simon & Garfunkel: "I Am a Rock"
9. Otis Redding: "Try A Little Tenderness"
10. The Beatles: "Strawberry Fields Forever"

1968–1969
1. The Byrds: "Wasn't Born to Follow"
2. The Doors: "The Unknown Soldier"
3. The Jimi Hendrix Experience: "Burning of the Midnight Lamp"
4. The Jimi Hendrix Experience: "1983…(A Merman I Should Turn To Be)"
5. Pink Floyd: "Jugband Blues"
6. Simon & Garfunkel: "America"
7. The Beatles: "Something"
8. Crosby, Stills, & Nash: "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes"
9. Led Zeppelin: "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You"
10. The Rolling Stones: "You Can't Always Get What You Want"

1970–1973
1. Cat Stevens: "Trouble"
2. Cat Stevens: "Tea for the Tillerman"
3. Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young: "Country Girl"
4. The Grateful Dead: "Attics of My Life"
5. Led Zeppelin: "Tangerine"
6. Pink Floyd: "Summer '68"
7. Simon & Garfunkel: "The Only Living Boy in New York"
8. The Beach Boys: "Feel Flows"
9. Pink Floyd: "One of These Days"
10. Ten Years After: "I'd Love to Change the World"

1974–1977
1. Genesis: "The Lamia"
2. Supertramp: "Hide in Your Shell"
3. Supertramp: "Asylum"
4. Fleetwood Mac: "Blue Letter"
5. Fleetwood Mac: "I'm So Afraid"
6. Led Zeppelin: "The Rover"
7. Led Zeppelin: "Ten Years Gone"
8. Lynyrd Skynyrd: "Simple Man"
9. Lynyrd Skynyrd: "Comin' Home"
10. Led Zeppelin: "Tea for One"

1978–1989
1. The Police: "Roxanne"
2. Juice Newton: "Angel of the Morning"
3. Rush: "Witch Hunt"
4. Prince: "Little Red Corvette"
5. The Outfield: "Say It Isn't So"
6. Simple Minds: "Don't You (Forget About Me)"
7. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: "Don't Come Around Here No More"
8. Berlin: "Take My Breath Away"
9. INXS: "Never Tear Us Apart"
10. R.E.M.: "The One I Love"

1990–1994
1. My Bloody Valentine: "Soon"
2. The Smashing Pumpkins: "Rhinoceros"
3. Stevie Ray Vaughn: "Little Wing"
4. Peter Gabriel: "Digging in the Dirt"
5. R.E.M.: "Nightswimming"
6. Red Hot Chili Peppers: "Under the Bridge"
7. Nirvana: "All Apologies"
8. The Smashing Pumpkins: "Disarm"
9. The Smashing Pumpkins: "Quiet"
10. The Smashing Pumpkins: "Soma"

1995–2001
1. The Smashing Pumpkins: "Galapogos"
2. The Smashing Pumpkins: "Thirty-Three"
3. The Smashing Pumpkins: "Thru the Eyes of Ruby"
4. The Smashing Pumpkins: "Stumbleine"
5. The Smashing Pumpkins: "By Starlight"
6. John Frusciante: "I May Again Know John"
7. Sarah McLachlan: "Do What You Have to Do"
8. The Smashing Pumpkins: "Ava Adore"
9. Blink 182: "Adam's Song"
10. Alkaline Trio: "Radio"

2001–2004
1. The Shins: "New Slang"
2. The Flaming Lips: "Fight Test"
3. The Flaming Lips: "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt.1"
4. Michael Andrews & Gary Jules: "Mad World"
5. My Chemical Romance: "Skylines and Turnstiles"
6. Nine Inch Nails: "And All That Could Have Been"
7. Red Hot Chili Peppers: "By The Way"
8. Cursive: "Staying Alive"
9. The Mars Volta: "Roulette Dares (The Haunt Of)"
10. The Mars Volta: "Televators"

2005–2008
1. Billy Corgan: "Tilt"
2. Bright Eyes: "Take It Easy (Love Nothing)"
3. Bright Eyes: "Land Locked Blues"
4. Bright Eyes: "Road to Joy"
5. Coldplay: "Fix You"
6. Death Cab For Cutie: "Marching Bands of Manhattan"
7. Death Cab For Cutie: "Soul Meets Body"
8. The Mars Volta: "The Widow"
9. My Chemical Romance: "Desert Song"
10. Silversun Pickups: "Lazy Eye"

A mighty impressive list, I'd say. And it includes some of my own all-time favorite songs: "Try A Little Tenderness," "Something," "The Only Living Boy in New York," "Never Tear Us Apart," and "Under the Bridge." Sarah also lists a few songs by bands I'd never even heard of, such as "I'd Love to Change the World" by Ten Years After and "Angel of the Morning" by Juice Newton. These are completely new to me, but you can be sure I'll check them out because Sarah says they're cool. Also, remember that this is an incomplete list. I was happy to see that Sarah had listed Sonic Youth's version of "Superstar" at number 15 among her most epic songs of 1990–1994.

Sarah obviously put a lot of effort into creating this list. The complete project not only includes artist names and song titles, but the albums on which the songs appear, the years during which the albums were released, and composer names. As John Marks said when he named the winners of his competition, this sort of passion and enthusiasm is just what our hobby needs.