I'm sure that, like the Oscars, this week's list will have some people crying foul at certain omissions. But at least, unlike the Oscars, it wasn't decided by a cabal of eminences grises with a taste for mushy middlebrow uplift. Also, it's the only awards-season list which doesn't feature Helen Mirren, so that makes a change.
I fear the B-list is just another chance for people to get annoyed but here it is anyway: Aimee Mann, Lee Marvin, Lulu, Peter Ivers, Isaac Hayes, Eminem, Nilsson, Louis Armstrong, REM, Björk, Air and the Soggy Bottom Boys. Moon River missed out on a technicality: the Audrey Hepburn version heard in the film isn't available as an audio track. Apologies to jubileeallsorts, whose witty format for posting songs about California I freely adapted for this week's column.
This time, I want songs about musical genres, or at least those which namecheck them. I'll accept anything which makes reference to rock'n'roll, blues, rap, reggae, acid house, etc, but as usual, it's the ones which shed some light on the topic which are most likely to end up on the list. Suggesting every song ever made with the word "blues" in the title won't do anyone any favours.
Kindly click this way for the A-Z and this way for the Readers recommend archive.
