460George Harrison, 'My Sweet Lord'
Writer:HarrisonProducers:Harrison, Phil SpectorReleased:Nov.
'70, Apple14 weeks; No. 1The first hit for an ex-Beatle, it
featuresHarrison's teardrop slide licks and a melody virtually
identical to the Chiffons' "He's So Fine." After a lawsuit,
Harrison had to pay $587,000 to his former manager Allen Klein, who
then owned the rights to "He's So Fine." "It made me so paranoid
about writing," Harrison said. "I thought, 'I don't even want to
touch the guitar, in case I'm touching somebody's note.'"Appears
on:All Things Must Pass(Capitol)RELATED:100 Greatest Guitarists of
All Time: George Harrison500 Greatest Albums of All Time: George
Harrison'sAll Things Must Pass 459Guns N' Roses, 'Paradise
City'
Writers:Guns n' RosesProducer:Mike ClinkReleased:Aug. '87,
Geffen17 weeks; No. 5For nearly seven minutes,Axl Roseexpounds on
the joys of green grass, pretty girls and toxic chemicals. The song
was written in the back of a van as the band drove home to L.A.
after a gig in San Francisco, with all the members tossing in
lines. In a typically tastefulG n' Rmove, the video has footage of
the band's 1988 gig at Castle Donington in the U.K. where two fans
were crushed to death.Appears on:Appetite for
Destruction(Geffen)RELATED:100 Greatest Artists of All Time: Guns
n' Roses500 Greatest Albums of All Time: Guns n' Roses'sAppetite
for Destruction100 Best Albums of the Eighties: Guns n'
Roses'sAppetite for Destruction 458Sam Cooke, 'Cupid'
Writer:CookeProducers:Cooke, Hugo and LuigiReleased:July '61,
RCA17 weeks; No. 12Cooke's producers had asked him to write a song
for a girl they had seen on a Perry Como TV show but once they
heard her sing, they kept "Cupid" for Cooke to do himself. It was
Cooke's idea to drop in the sound of an arrow being fired "straight
to my lover's heart."Appears on:Greatest Hits(RCA)RELATED:100
Greatest Singers of All Time: Sam Cooke100 Greatest Artists of All
Time: Sam Cooke 457Chubby Checker, 'The Twist'
Writer:Hank BallardProducer:Karl MannReleased:Aug. '60,
Parkway39 weeks; No. 1"The Twist" began as a B side for Ballard and
the Midnighters in 1958. But in 1960, former chicken plucker
Checker covered it at Dick Clark's suggestion. "Going crazy is what
I was looking for where the music is so good you lose control,"
Checker said. "'The Twist' did that."Appears on:Greatest Hits(Prime
Cuts) 456The Beatles, 'Penny Lane'
Writers:John Lennon, Paul McCartneyProducer:George
MartinReleased:Feb. '67, Capitol10 weeks; No. 1AfterLennoncomposed
"Strawberry Fields Forever,"McCartneywrote his own snappy memoir.
Penny Lane was a Liverpool bus stop where Lennon and McCartney
often met. "John came over and helped me with the third verse, as
was often the case," McCartney said. "We were writing recently
faded memories from eight or 10 years before."Appears on:Magical
Mystery Tour(Capitol/Apple)RELATED:100 Greatest Artists of All
Time: The Beatles 455The Velvet Underground, 'Heroin'
Writer:Lou ReedProducers:Andy Warhol, Tom WilsonReleased:March
'67, VerveNon-SingleThis seven-minute, two-chord track spiked out
its territory with lyrics about shooting up until you felt like
Jesus' son. "It wasn't pro or con,"Reedsaid. "It was about taking
heroin from the point of view of someone taking it. I'm still not
sure what was such a big deal. So there's a song called 'Heroin.'
So what?" Drummer Moe Tucker disagreed: "I consider it our greatest
triumph."Appears on:The Velvet Underground and
Nico(Polydor)RELATED:100 Greatest Artists of All Time: The Velvet
Underground500 Greatest Albums of All Time: The Velvet
Underground'sThe Velvet Underground and Nico100 Greatest Singers of
All Time: Lou Reed 454The Shangri-Las, 'Leader of the Pack'
Writers:George "Shadow" Morton, Jeff Barry, Ellie
GreenwichProducers:Morton, Barry, GreenwichReleased:Oct. '64, Red
Bird12 weeks; No. 1Morton found the inspiration for this song at a
diner in Hicksville, New York. "Bikers, hot rodders, gum-smacking
ladies," he said, "not careful at all about their language." He
brought a bike into the studio for the motorcycle sounds.Appears
on:Myrmidons of Melodrama: Definitive Collection(RPM) 453Toots and
the Maytals, 'Pressure Drop'
Writer:Toots HibbertProducer:Leslie KongReleased:Feb. '73,
MangoDid Not ChartToots and the Maytalswere already reggae stars
they coined the word on 1968's "Do the Reggay" before "Pressure
Drop." They were rumored to be Chris Blackwell's choice overBob
Marleyand the Wailers when he wanted a group for his Island
label.Appears on:The Harder They Come(Hip-O)RELATED:500 Greatest
Albums of All Time:The Harder They Come 452Nirvana, 'Come As You
Are'
Writers:Kurt Cobain, NirvanaProducers:Butch Vig,
NirvanaReleased:Sept. '91, Geffen18 weeks; No. 32"It's just about
people and what they're expected to act like,"Cobainsaid. "The
lines in the song are really contradictory. They're kind of a
rebuttal to each other." The song is driven by a simple riff that
Vig goosed with a flanged, subaquatic guitar effect. Cobain
apparently lifted it from a 1985 song by U.K. art-metal band
Killing Joke, whom Dave Grohl paid back 12 years later by drumming
on their 2003 album.Appears on:Nevermind(Geffen)RELATED:100
Greatest Guitarists of All Time: Kurt Cobain100 Greatest Singers of
All Time: Kurt Cobain100 Greatest Artists of All Time: Nirvana500
Greatest Albums of All Time: Nirvana'sNevermind 451Sonny and Cher,
'I Got You Babe'
Writer:Sonny BonoProducer:BonoReleased:July '65, Atco14 weeks;
No. 1Late one night, while Sonny andCherwere living in their
manager's house, Bono woke up Cher and asked her to listen to "I
Got You Babe" and to sing the lyrics, which he had written on a
piece of shirt cardboard. She thought it was OK but really wanted a
song that modulated. So he changed the key at the bridge and woke
Cher up again hours later to hear it; she was delighted.Appears
on:The Beat Goes On: The Best of Sonny and Cher(Atlantic)
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