I guess the Byrds figured, “The Beatles became superstars using a misspelled animal as their name, why don’t we try it?” I guess they also figured, “We had a hit with a song called Mr. Tambourine Man, why don’t we write another one called Mr. … um … Spaceman!” Apparently, originality was not the Byrds’s strong suit.
Rock
Buddy Holly
Don McLean’s ridiculously long, atrociously awful hit “American Pie” was inspired by the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly (“the day the music died”). The good news for Buddy Holly: Being dead, he never had to listen to the song.
Bruce Springsteen
BROOOOOOOOOOOOCE!! Nope, I don’t get it. Maybe it would make more sense if I liked girls named Wendy—or girls at all, for that matter. Points for being dependably lefty, though.
British Invasion
This is basically all the dudes who weren’t the Beatles, Stones, Who, or Kinks. I’ll get to the ladies—who have their own special awesomeness—a little later.
Bob Dylan
My favorite (only?) Bob Dylan memory is my mother and I watching him sing “Serve Somebody” on Saturday Night Live sometime around 1979. Which brings up the question, what was my conservative Catholic mother doing watching Saturday Night Live? And why did she let her 13-year-old son stay up to watch it with her?
Bjork/Sugarcubes
You know what’s fun? Sitting on the green at college with your friends singing along to “Birthday” (“singing” = humming during the verses and then screaming out the chorus, which is basically screaming). Also: swan dress. Go Bjork.
Beatles
Sure. YOU try picking a top 10 list for the Beatles. It’s bad enough they had 800 #1 hits. They also had 800 styles, genres, etc. The only no-brainer is “Here Comes the Sun”—that might be my favorite song of all time.
Beach Boys
The Beach Boys’ America and my America have just about nothing in common. I like the ones that aren’t about surfing or fast cars best. That pretty much leaves the ones about girls, but hey, I can pretend that “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” was an early call for gay marriage, right?
Band
I know exactly zero about the Band. I know they backed Dylan for a while. I know the Staple Singers covered “The Weight.” I know Joni Mitchell appeared in their concert movie “The Last Waltz.” OK, I guess I know three things about them.
Animals
The Animals are one of those groups that had a lot of hits and you would recognize them if you heard them, but if someone said, “Name an Animals song,” you would have no idea.
Playlist of the Day 