After starting this series of articles last week, it started to sink in that a lot of my favorite bands won't be represented in my "25 Favorites" list. The missing parties include folks from my "top tier" of all-time favorites like Rage Against the Machine, Anthrax, and Helloween, as well as great acts like Slade and The Darkness. But this list is really as tight as I can make it and these selections are truly my favorites of all time. On with the countdown!

20: "Withered and Died" by Elvis Costello (ghost track from the 1995 Rykodisk reissue of the 1984 album Goodbye Cruel World)   lyrics

For years, I only knew of the Elvis Costello cover of this song. I first heard it in 1997 when I bought the Rykodisc reissue of Goodbye Cruel World. When I came across Richard and Linda Thompson's album I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight some years later, I was pretty surprised to find the original song because I never even knew that the Costello version was a cover. Linda Thompson's performance was very nice, as was the rest of the album, but I was always drawn back to the Elvis Costello version. Some years later, I would sing this song to baby Z. when she was just a newborn. It's kind of a strange song to sing as a lullaby, but on afternoons and evenings in the Spring of 2004, I used to take Z. out in our back yard and rock her to sleep sitting on our swing. As I held baby Z. in my arms, I would look at our neighbor's tall trees and watch them sway back and forth against the spring sky and I would think of this verse from the song: Once I was bending the tops of the trees/Kind thoughts in my head, kind voices to hear. So in a very odd way, I will always associate this sad, sad song with one of the greatest times in my life.

19: "Prelude/Angry Young Man" (Live) by Billy Joel (from the 1987 album Концерт - Concert: Live in Leningrad)   lyrics

I have been a closet Billy Joel fan ever since my sister bought his Greatest Hits double LP back in 1986 or so. I remember going to a record show with my pal "Nate the Great" when I was in college and kind of admiring the fact that "Nate" was so open about how much he liked Billy Joel. I think he even bought some kind of big promotional poster featuring Joel that day. Because I have always been drawn to "edgier" stuff like metal and punk, I kept my fondness for Billy Joel a well-kept secret for many years. I started buying Billy Joel albums en masse in the late 1990s after his catalog was remastered and Thomai bought me a handful of his stuff for my birthday one year. Concert was one of the ones she got for me and I was especially taken with the way the concert kicked off: First with the thunderous "Odoya," then the fierce "Prelude," followed by the painfully honest song "Angry Young Man." I found a lot to identify with in the lyrics of "Angry Young Man." Years later, I remember listening to this on a long drive and K. affectionately referring to the song as "Daddy's song." Nice. Concert is an amazing album. Billy Joel's performance of "Back in the USSR" gets an honorable mention as one of my all-time favorites that didn't make the top 25. Baby Z. loves Joel's cover of the song so much that when I tried to play the original Beatles version one day, she told me to turn it off and play the "real Back in the USSR"!

This is, by the way, probably the only "favorite songs" list where you will ever find Billy Joel rubbing elbows with the likes of the Sex Pistols and Venom. 

18: "Afterglow (of Your Love)" by Quiet Riot (from the 1993 compilation album The Randy RhoadsYears)  lyrics

As I mentioned in my recent article on the untimely passing of Kevin DuBrow, I have been a Quiet Riot fan since 1983. I really enjoy all of their stuff whether it's new or old, with the exception of the material from the period of DuBrow's absence. I was really excited when DuBrow was finally able to release The Randy Rhoads Years compilation in 1993. The Japanese Quiet Riot albums had always been out of reach for me, commanding up to $200 for a single LP at record shows (although I did ultimately shell out a fair amount to get both Quiet Riot and Quiet Riot II on CD around 2003). So back in '93, I hadn't heard any of the Rhoads era material yet and when The Randy Rhoads Years was released, the stuff was every bit as good as I had expected it to be. "Afterglow" was a favorite of ours back when Thomai and I were dating and we even played the song at our wedding reception. It's worth mentioning here that my favorite Quiet Riot song is actually a cover of a song that was originally writen and performed by DuBrow's favorite band, Humble Pie.

17: "Sanctuary" (Live) by Iron Maiden (from the bonus disc of the 1995 reissue of the 1984 album Live After Death)

I saw Live After Death on home video at a friend's house back in 1988 or so and I was totally hooked. I knew a couple of folks who had the video and I borrowed it a few times here and there before I finally bought my own copy. "Sanctuary" was the final number on the home video and I have always thought of it as just a humongous, incredible metal performance in every possible way, from Bruce Dickinson's incredible vocal range to the blazing guitar solos of Adrian Smith and Dave Murray (note the very effective use of fingertapping and tremolo in Adrian's solo). When I bought the cassette version of the performance, I was disappointed that "Sanctuary" wasn't on the tape, because it was actually the final number from the home video and it was by far my favorite performance from the show. It wasn't until the 1995 re-release of Live After Death on CD that I finally got my hands on a high-quality audio recording of "Sanctuary" live, as it was included on the bonus disc of the reissue. The cut on the Live After Death bonus disc was originally a B-side to a single and it is a slightly edited version of the performance on the home video. One afternoon in 1997 or 1998, I actually destroyed a large pair of tower speakers while cranking this song. We lived in a new development that wasn't really well-inhabited at the time, so I could get away with opening all the windows and blaring music for several hours each afternoon. On the particular day in question, I was apparently overcome with my appreciation for the tune and I turned up my stereo volume higher than I ever had before. I think I was well into the song before the end came – a loud pop, a sizzle and then everything went pretty much quiet from there. I can still remember smelling a hint of electricity and a bit of smoke in the air as I disconnected the speakers from the receiver. It was every bit as cool as it sounds. Man, those speakers were expensive. Horns up!

16: "Get Back" by The Beatles (from the1970 album Let It Be)   lyrics

It wasn't until the Anthology television series of 1995 that I finally started to appreciate the Beatles. Let It Be is said to more or less chronicle the break-up of the band, but it's really my favorite album by The Beatles. I prefer the versions of songs on Let It Be to some of the alternate takes that were used for singles. "Get Back" is really great on Let It Be because it is more or less a "stripped down" performance. The vocals and guitar stand out well,and this is probably because there isn't a lot of reverb, echo or studio polish in the tracks. Billy Preston's organ solo especially shines on the album version. It's kind of surprising that I have a "Paul song" instead of a "John song," but what can I say? It's a great song!