Step into the groove as music masters from the past show off their genius. This playlist is a whirlwind of legendary riffs, jazzy beats, and timeless tunes that prove that music legends never go out of style, no matter the decade!
| Title | Artist | Comment | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Free Electric Band | Albert Hammond | This song is written by Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood as a critique of societal norms; often seen as autobiographical. | |
| Give Life Back to Music | Daft Punk | “Give Life Back to Music”, features guitar by Nile Rodgers and Paul Jackson, Jr., keyboards by Chilly Gonzales, drums by John “J.R.” Robinson, and vocals performed by Daft Punk using vocoders. The song, written by Daft Punk and Nile Rodgers, reflects Daft Punk’s goal to create a light yet polished and elegant record | |
| It’s A Long Way To The Top (If you want to rock ‘n roll) | AC/DC | Written by Angus Young, Malcolm Young and Bon Scott, this song is famous for its use of bagpipes, representing Bon Scott’s Scottish heritage. | |
| Rock and roll music | Chuck Berry | Written and performed by Chuck Berry, this rock anthem, later famously covered by The Beatles and The Beach Boys. Blues legend Willie Dixon played bass on this track. | |
| Old Time Rock and Roll | Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band | Bob Seger recorded this song, written by George Jackson, and Thomas E. Jones III, after The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, who often backed Seger in his studio recordings, sent him a demo of the song during the recording of Stranger in Town. It is featured in the Risky Business film; a celebration of classic rock. | |
| Rock the Casbah | The Clash | Written by Joe Strummer, Mick Jones and Topper Headon, this song is inspired by bans on Western music in Iran; features a memorable piano riff. | |
| Dreiklangsdimensionen | Rheingold | A Neue Deutsche Welle (German New Wave) hit blending synths with existential lyrics, written by Rheingold band members Lothar Manteuffel and Bodo Staiger | |
| It Ain’t What You Do It’s the Way That You Do It (ft. Bananarama) | Fun Boy Three | Ska-pop cover of a 1939 Ella Fitzgerald song, adding a playful twist, written by Sy Oliver and Trummy Young. written by jazz musicians Melvin “Sy” Oliver and James “Trummy” Young. It was first recorded in 1939 by Jimmie Lunceford, Harry James, and Ella Fitzgerald and again the same year by Nat Gonella and His Georgians. | |
| Sugar Man | Rodriguez | Gained posthumous fame in South Africa, inspiring the documentary Searching for Sugar Man a 2012 documentary film about a South African cultural phenomenon, written and directed by Malik Bendjelloul, which details the efforts in the late 1990s of two Cape Town fans, Stephen “Sugar” Segerman and Craig Bartholomew Strydom, to find out whether the rumoured death of American musician Sixto Rodriguez was true and, if not, to discover what had become of him. | |
| La Boîte de jazz | Michel Jonasz | Written and performed by Michel Jonasz celebrating the culture and nostalgia of jazz clubs. | |
| The Joker | The Steve Miller Band | Steve Miller wrote this song, famous for its “pompatus of love” lyric, which became a stoner anthem. The first line of the lyrics is a reference to the song “Space Cowboy” from Miller’s Brave New World album. The following lines refer to two other songs: “Gangster of Love” from Sailor and “Enter Maurice” from Recall the Beginning…A Journey from Eden. | |
| Pop Muzik | M | M, British musician Robin Scott, wrote, produced and sung from the perspective of a disc jockey spinning records at a dance club. Quirky synth-pop hit exploring consumer culture and the music industry. | |
| Music | Madonna | A global hit blending dance-pop and electronic styles. Inspired by a Sting concert Madonna attended, it was written and produced by her with Mirwais Ahmadzaï. | |
| Moog Island | Bristol | Pioneering trip-hop track with Moog synthesizer sounds, originally performed by Morcheeba and written by Skye/Goodfrey/Goodfrey. Bristol is the project of Marc Collin, dedicated to the trip hop songs. | |
| Googa Mama | The Bongolian | “That is sheer musicality”, a Latin-flavoured jazz-funk odyssey with vocals by Louisa Hygate. The Bongolian is the alter ego of multi-instrumentalist Nasser Bouzida. | |
| While My Guitar Gently Weeps | The Beatles | This song, written by George Harrison, features Eric Clapton on guitar and reflects on personal and universal sorrow. | |
| L’aventura | Stone & Charden | A playful French duet with theatrical flair. Stone et Charden was a famous French musical duo made up of Éric Charden and his then-wife Annie Gautrat known as Stone, that became hugely popular with “L’Aventura”. | |
| Jive To The Beat | Arno | Belgian rock artist Arno wrote and performed this song, blending humor and funk. | |
| My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue) | Neil Young & Crazy Horse | Canadian musician Neil Young wrote this song addressing the cyclical nature of fame and rock culture. Its hard rock counterpart is called “Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)”. The line, “it’s better to burn out than to fade away” was taken from one of the songs of Young’s bandmate in the short-lived supergroup The Ducks, Jeff Blackburn. | |
| John Lee hooker | Johnny Rivers | Johnny Rivers (born John Henry Ramistella on November 7, 1942, in New York City) “Ode To John Lee (John Lee Hooker)” wrote and performed this tribute to the blues legend, mixing rock and blues influences. | |
| Woodstock | Matthews’ Southern Comfort | Joni Mitchell’s “Woodstock” is a song inspired by the 1969 Woodstock Music and Arts Festival, which she did not attend. She wrote it after hearing about the festival from her then-boyfriend Graham Nash and watching it on television, capturing the spirit of the event through her lyrics. Matthews Southern Comfort (MSC) is a British country rock/folk rock band, formed in 1970 by former Fairport Convention singer Ian (later Iain) Matthews. | |
| The Show Must Go On | Queen | Freddie Mercury’s powerful farewell anthem, recorded while he was gravely ill, written by Queen’s guitarist Brian May. | |
Sources
The information sources of the song facts include, but are not limited to, Wikipedia, songfacts.com, discogs.com, secondhandsongs.com, YouTube and artists’ related websites.
