Perfect Rock Songs
‘Devil With a Blue Dress On’: The Ultimate Party Song
Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels teamed with Four Seasons producer Bob Crewe for the 1966 hit recording, coupled with a Little Richard classic.
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Tom Petty—’American Girl’: Take it Easy, Baby
Though the second single from the Heartbreakers’ 1976 self-titled debut failed to chart on Top 40, its story about the girl alone on the balcony overlooking U.S. Route 441 resonates with his fans.
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Thin Lizzy’s ‘The Boys Are Back in Town’: Them Cats Are Crazy
The anthemic call-and-response chorus, sung repeatedly over a twin-Les Paul guitar riff, has to rank as one of rock’s all-time greatest earworms
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The Cowsills: ‘The Rain, the Park…’—Happy, Happy, Happy!
The feel-good song was as emblematic of its time as any of the psychedelic records that were starting to dominate rock in 1967.
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The Hollies’ ‘Long Cool Woman’: Admit It, You Don’t Know the Lyrics
It’s a song you’ve heard 100s of times. When it comes on the radio, you perk up because its instantly recognizable guitar introduces a welcome listen
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Stevie Nicks’ ‘Edge of Seventeen’ and That Chugging Guitar
The third single of her 1981 solo debut, Bella Donna, features many top-notch musicians though none stands out more than Waddy Wachtel and his chugging guitar
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The Doobie Brothers’ ‘China Grove’: Admit It, You Don’t Know the Lyrics
The band’s Tom Johnston credits the lyrics’ imagery to a fellow musician for helping start “the thinking process with this wacky sheriff, samurai swords, and all that”
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Blues Image’s ‘Ride Captain Ride’: A Tale of 73 Men
The singer and the keyboardist were having trouble coming up with a lead lyric for the new song they were writing. The answer was sitting right in front of them.
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The Doors’ ‘Love Her Madly’ – Perfection
An early review of the song described it as a “terrific new rocker… sounds like it will rank among their best single songs.” They were right
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When Tom Petty Presaged the #MeToo Movement
One of the great American rock songwriters of his generation wrote and recorded a song with lyrics that seem to have anticipated #MeToo by decades
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