Tagged: hitlist + thebeatles

Filed under: The Hit List By definition, a coda, or end piece, concludes a song with an idea that does not repeat an earlier one. A good coda can complement or create contrast; it can be subtle or overt; it can build gradually or start abruptly. And, let's face it, sometimes the end is the best part of the song. Here are 20 of rock's best [...]

Filed under: The Hit List According to Malcolm Gladwell's 'Outliers,' the Beatles ' astonishing success was mainly due to the group's work ethic. Unknown outside their native Liverpool, the young Beatles were first invited to play in anything-goes post-war Hamburg, Germany, in August 1960. Gladwell estimates the group practiced and improvised onstage for more than 10,000 hours - the magic number, he says, that [...]

Filed under: The Hit List 15. The Beatles, 'Twist and Shout' ('Ferris Bueller's Day Off,' 1986) On his ninth sick day of the school year, Ferris Bueller takes over a float during Chicago's Von Steuben Day parade (even though the real event actually takes place in September). His spontaneous lip-synch of the Beatles ' cover of ' Twist & Shout ' inspires an entire city to cut a rug. We especially love when "Team Thriller" turns it out! -- JP [...]

Filed under: The Hit List For many fabulous folks around the globe, June is Pride Month, when queers of all stripes celebrate being out and proud. But despite the diversity, Pride parades frequently resort to the same played-out gay anthems. There are certainly other options in the queer musical canon: They just might not be quite as obvious. Some musicians create equally powerful songs by wrapping [...]

Filed under: The Hit List Say what you will about 30-something ' Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' and 'Through the Looking-Glass' author Lewis Carroll's relationship with his prepubescent muse, Alice Liddell -- you can't deny it made for great art. And in the 140 years since, Carroll's proto-surrealist work has also inspired hundreds of other artists -- from Salvador Dalí and James Joyce to the Care Bears . With the Tim Burton -directed ' Alice in Wonderland ' movie upon us, we've donned our Mad Hatter [...]

Filed under: The Hit List Of course, there's Snow White's classic ' Whistle While You Work ,' but for a select talented few, the whistling is their work. To spare you from spending the rest of your day whistling along to the Scorpions ' ' Wind of Change ' or Bobby McFerrin 's ' Don't Worry Be Happy ' hooks stuck in your head, we've put together an officially unofficial list of the top 10 songs featuring the art of whistling. So if they're new to you, [...]

Filed under: The Hit List , UK With Rage Against the Machine and Joe McElderry battling it out down to the wire for the right to take the Christmas number one crown for 2009, the fight for the Yuletide chart-topper has been more entertaining than any in the last five years. As pop commentators and music fans have been quick to point out, there used to be a traditional battle for the charts before 'X Factor' arrived to take it . 'Mad World,' Michael Andrews/Gary Jules (2003) -- [...]

Filed under: The Hit List , Canada Boiling 10 years down to 10 albums is a near impossible task. Even the list-maker can get bummed about the great records that got left off. But while the order can be questioned and favourites might not make the cut, what's less debatable is that these were all landmark albums that led the Canadian music scene from the desert to the concert hall of milk and honey. 10. Final Fantasy , 'He [...]

Filed under: The Hit List When an act names an album after itself, it's often introducing itself to the world, signaling a rebirth or telling fans that this record is its magnum opus. Either that, or they're just not very good at titles. Some ('The Byrds ') have failed to live up to their creator's name, while others (' Christina Aguilera ') have accurately signaled the birth of a star. (By the way, R.E.M.' s 'Eponymous' doesn't count -- that's a title.) And acts with multiple self-titled discs ( Weezer , [...]

Filed under: The Hit List Plenty of bands have taken their names from film titles, but it takes a special kind of movie nerd to rock a reference to some obscure character or snag a favorite line of dialogue for their moniker. Here are 20 bands that probably still pay to see movies in the theater. Duran Duran Here's a shocker: The stylish, oversexed British New Wave superstars borrowed their name from an "erotic science [...]

Filed under: The Hit List After posting our take on the very best and worst Beatles covers of all time, we took to Twitter to ask our readers to name their favorite Fab Four tributes. Take a look at some of the most popular submissions below. Don't see your cherished cover here? Leave it in the comments below! [...]

Filed under: The Hit List Once another band parodies your album cover, you know you've arrived. Once tens, even hundreds of other bands have done it, you know you're ... well, the Beatles . The Fab Four's iconographic legacy is so deeply ingrained in our collective unconscious that musicians old and new (and even the Beatles themselves) can't resist the urge to "cover" their covers. Here are just a few of our favorite Beatles album-art homages. The Beatles [...]

Filed under: The Hit List The summer of 2000 belonged to ' Thong Song ' and ' Who Let the Dogs Out .' The dog days of 1997 would have been unrecognizable without ' MMMBop .' But the truly timeless songs of summer are the ones written about the season itself. These all-time summer hits are hotter than black vinyl car seats in Arizona and more fun than running through the sprinkler. 10. ' In the Summertime ,' Mungo [...]

Filed under: The Hit List Spinner.com : 'Love Is the Drug,' Roxy Music sang. Yet when it comes to rock 'n' roll songs, drugs are often the drug. The creators of the following alleged dope ditties almost invariably deny it, so we're placing them on trial. Guilty or not? The question itself... Read more