I'm writing this as I listen to my latest play list and I've come to the conclusion I don't have a favorite song.
When your play lists contain upwards of 1000 tunes, some of which are the same song by different artists, you don't have a favorite. I can't even narrow songs down to a favorite by a single artist. Or genre. Or any other parameter I can think of.
For me, there is no "best ever" song or artist. I've lived over 71 years now and seen music go from big band swing through the current trash that is called popular music and it seems to me that saying there is one or ten or a hundred all-time greatest songs is a waste of time. There's just too many to decide one ranks over another. I will exclude just about anything done in rap/hip hop since its beginning. I just don't like it so I don't listen to it and cannot in fairness say I have any favorite. Besides, I don't think this kind of music is written to have a lasting quality. Today's country music has the same problem and in my judgement will probably never have a classic again.
What gets on my list must have a classic feel to it, something that will be playable 30 or 40 years from now and will have new listeners and be recorded by new artist of the time. The Internet has shown me that there are new young artists out there singing swing numbers, standards, and covering the oldies of rock and roll. Not long ago I was worried that the music I grew up with would die, but that is no longer a concern. When current composers don't provide the quality then the artist goes back to an older generation and finds something good to record and makes it his/her own. Michael Buble and Josh Groban are just two fine examples of this.
The real problem is that radio just doesn't play anything that isn't current top 40. This is a poor business model, to my way of thinking. But, then, I'm not trying to make a buck in radio. Personally, I won't be limited to just 40 songs that will disappear forever in a few weeks. No, I want the top artists and songs all they way back to the cave. Fortunately, since the invention of the recording process we can all still enjoy the likes of Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey, Frank Sinatra (who were active most of my life) and the old country sing of Mother Maybelle, T. Texas Tyler and Hank Senior. Yes, there are artists and songs from before the folks I just mentioned that I like including Eddie Cantor, Al Jolson and Enrico Caruso. Although we can't get an original from Beethoven and Mozart, we have the great orchestras of the world that can bring us some damn good interpretations of their compositions. The oldest song in the English language is supposed to be "Greensleeves", a piece known and used by Shakespeare. It is still done today, both in its original words and, at Christmas, as "What Child is This". Five hundred plus years and still being performed. That's staying power! But, then, a truly good song will never die.
Though Latin isn't used much anymore, Gregorian and Anglican chant still is and at least for Gregorian Chant you get a date even older than "Greensleeves". May not be for everybody, but it has its moments.
By they way, have you noticed where Christian music is today? Nobody is doing Gospel or writing it for that matter. Just continuously repeating Bible quotations to a background of noise thought to be music. Called "praise music", it seems its purpose is to stir up the congregation to what ever is preachable. It comes across to me as rabble rousing and I don't like it much. And when they run out of the good quotes about peace and love they'll be stuck with the less appealing verses about war, rape and genocide. Look out when that happens. Jihad, anyone?
In summary, I won't be bound by genre, a mere 40 mindless tunes, or anything else. There is just too much beautiful music of lasting quality to limit myself to a short list of favorites or to one single all-time greatest (that doesn't exist, anyway).
Have a good day, a good night and a very good tommorow.
