I'm actually trying to transition out of temping. Isn't that sad? Let me tell you about the novels I've never written.

The Tornados' "Telstar". Davey Graham's "Anji". Clarence Carter's "Strokin'". Jeez, David, we could do this all day.

The most recent few selections seem almost random. Why on earth is "Just Like Heaven" by The Cure there? It isn't influential or even particularly remarkable..."Just Like Heaven" by Dinosaur Jr. would have been a better choice, for crying out loud. The inclusion by Dre is hardly groundbreaking or influential; same with that of Spears. And maybe The White Stripes launched a hundred bad garage bands and can be considered "influential" that way...but I think that in time 2000's garage music will be considered as dated as 90's grunge and 80's hair metal (which render the selections by Nirvana and G'N'R pretty useless).

Past "Walk This Way" (more for the effect it had on rap than on rock) this list is close to a blank, save "Bring The Noise."

As an aside: I completely agree with the suggestions of Funkadelic and Carole King. Even us kids know.

More Than a Feeling? Boston???

so do you. so does RS.

Jeez Louise - don't they even have ONE Spanish, French or Portugeuse speaking intern over at RS?

Talk about a bunch of parochial, myopic, monoculutral, ethnocentric dopes...

The most important music ever recorded in the Western hemisphere was mostly recorded in Spanish.

So I'll start and stop with just two words: "Strange Fruit."

... I suppose we should be grateful that Arcade Fire wasn't included somewhere on the list.

Oh wait... that would be Spin, not RS... never mind!

Don't worry, all of you have convinced all of us that you can be a great Assistant to the Regional Director of Quality Assurance and STILL have the rockinest taste in music on the entire 4th floor of your office building! We're all very impressed.

I have to agree with pbrown. Patti Smith has got to be on the list. otherwise it is crap. You can argue lots of other artists, but she had the most influential debut album of all time.

I hate to say it, but there is a BeeGees song that should probably be on the list. It may not have been a good influence, but it left a huge footprint.

There should be a few Vietnam era protest songs. Music made a difference back then.

Spears? Please!

"Rocket 88" - pretty much the first rock n roll song ever.

But how come the "most influential songs" all come from the last 50+ years or so?

Let's face facts: it was Glenn Miller and Bennie Goodman who provided the popular soundtrack to the most pivotal era in modern American history. The G.I.s who stormed the beaches at Normandy weren't listening to Elvis or Bob Dylan or the Clash on the Armed Forces Radio Network.

Once again, the boomers over-estimate their importance in history.

It's hard to imagine a list of this nature without including a song from Carol King's Tapestry which, for years, was the biggest selling album of all time and which elevated the female singer/songwriter to new heights. I'd pick "I Feel the Earth Move" as the best one for this narrow list.

Maybe it's just me, but the only thing this song inspire me towards is humming the school boy version involving ownership of a shotgun...

Maybe it's my Gen X lack of historical perspective, but I just don't see how this song is truly that important. Maybe if you were a 60s flower child, but for the rest of us... it's just drivel and fodder for parody from schoolchildren.

I've got to go with something by the Beach Boys over Britney. Good Vibrations is a watershed, but Don't Worry Baby is one of the purest shots of bliss to hit the airwaves, and single-handedly invented Power Pop. And although it's minor, Barbara Ann did coin an entire foreign policy. For What It's Worth, as they say.

Sorry, Mr. M, but this is a white baby boomer's list. You can tell by the eager-to-impress, yet not-quite-hip token choices: the Stripes (the third record = the one RS finally noticed), Black Flag (is "TV Party" the proto-alternative choice? Cos it's goofy? "Nervous Breakdown" or even the hoary-but-potent "Rise Above" are much more representative of the Flag catalog), and Dr. Dre (love how RS goes with the ingratiating shorthand "Dre").

I understand that a list of "songs that changed the world" is going to have even more obvious choices than the typical Rolling Stone bagjob, but in Jann-land, the world was evidently called into being around 1955 (and I bet even including music from the 50s must be killing him inside). And I also get that there was a period from roughly 1964-1972 wherein - more or less - anything went, as far as rock expression/experimentation, so this era will always need to have heavy representation.

But I also know that any list without Louis Armstrong can kiss my ass. Ditto to Woody Guthrie (good call, Mr. M). Really good arguments ought to be made for Rhythim is Rhythim's "Strings of Life," Schooly D's "PSK," something from the Buzzcocks' Spiral Scratch EP, Neu!'s "Hallogallo," Minor Threat's "Out of Step," and about a hundred others. But krautrock doesn't really push the tequila, I guess.

Blitzkrieg Bop?

Rolling Stone mag nowadays is about as germane as..... zzzzzzz...

Sorry, nodded off there. That's how strongly they hold my interest anymore.

But still, a fun passtime, so I'll bite. Here's 10 I pulled off the top of my head:

-- "Rock Around the Clock," by Bill Haley and the Comets: Honestly people, is this that hard?

-- "Radio Free Europe," by R.E.M.: semi-officially introduced the college radio scene to the rest of us

-- "Rock Lobster," by the B-52's: from the album that inspired John Lennon to get back into the studio to record Double Fantasy

-- "Head Like a Hole," by Nine Inch Nails: adds Angst as a silent partner to Sex, Drugs, & Rock 'n Roll

-- "Stayin' Alive," by the Bee Gees: on the downside, they brought us John Travolta

-- "Born to be Wild," by Steppenwolf: Heavy Metal is born

-- "Enter Sandman," by Metallica: Metal goes mainstream

-- "Another Brick in the Wall," by Pink Floyd: from the mother of all concept albums

-- "Sexual Harrassment in the Workplace," by Frank Zappa: the birth (re-birth) of the nerd guitar god

-- "Caring is Creepy," by The Shins: this song will change your life! ;-)