Favorite Songs by Favorite Artists (Series Three): Introduction

/ J. Eric Smith

As a person known for my deep love and extreme intellectual engagement with music, one of the questions I’m most frequently asked is “Who’s your favorite band?” My pat answer is “I like anything done well.” Which is mostly true, as I’m a musical omnivore capable of happily jumping between styles and genres and eras. But because I’m asked that question so often in social settings, I’ve actually thought quite a bit about it over the years, both in terms of what it means to be a “favorite band,” and who might have filled that role for me over the years.

I’ve written a few essays on the topic, laying out my then-current answers to the question, the most recent of which is here. The first time I wrote about this topic, I thought it would be interesting to actually track my favorite bands over a lifetime of listening, to write some essays about my favorites, and to provide a sample of ten songs for each of them to provide some aural context. The bands so covered were:

Favorite Songs by Favorite Bands (Original Series)(Alphabetical):

I did this project before caving to streaming, but Marcia already had a Spotify account, so she set up a playlist of the 120 songs covered, here:

 

That was a satisfying little project, but when it was done, it felt like there two areas of my listening preferences and obsessions which hadn’t been covered: (a) solo artists, since the original list was restricted to bands, and (b) artists who have been long-time favorites, but who never met the criteria I established for claiming someone as a “favorite band” (or “favorite artist”). So I did a longer, second series of essays about these Favorite Artists, for each one discussing: (a) who they are/were, (b) when I first heard them, and (c) why I love them. Here were the artists covered in that second series, which ran its course in late 2021:

Favorite Songs by Favorite Artists (Series Two)(Alphabetical):

I’ve had a few occasions since then when I’ve been in conversations about artists I love, and have gone back to those lists to share links, and been surprised that I hadn’t covered them in one of the two “Favorite” series. I started jotting down a roster of such artists at some point, and as of today, there are 26 groups or performers who I’ve not given a documentary focus here.

So, in thinking about an interesting (to me, definitely, and hopefully to you) project for the website in 2024, I’ve decided to take on Favorite Songs by Favorite Artists (Series Three). The format will be the same as Series Two, laying out three consistent introductory elements, followed by links to the ten best songs in each artists’ catalog, to my mind and ear.

I may get through all 26, or I may not. I may remember others along the way and make some swaps, or I may add to the list if it’s trucking along in a satisfactory fashion. I’ll get the first post up within a week, and then we’ll take it from there. If nothing else, this might be a good way to increase my output here after a couple of years of lower post frequency than has generally been the case since I launched the first version of this website in 1995.

Sounds like a plan? I think so. Stay tuned. I’ll update this post with completed articles as we move along, to keep a single landing page for all of them.

Favorite Songs By Favorite Artists (Series Three): To Be Updated in Real Time

Leave a comment