Best rock song of all time? It's in the ear of the beholder

The WDVE Memorial Day 500 returns this weekend for the fourth year since taking a 20-year hiatus. It begins at 10 a.m. Friday.

Back in the day, it was a pretty good bet that Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” would come out on top. But a funny thing happened when the annual countdown of the top 500 rock songs of all time returned in 2019. Zeppelin’s perennial winner was knocked off its perch at the top by Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall.” Some listeners were shocked and outraged.

The reaction was understandable, but upon reflection, with so many rock songs, isn’t it reasonable to ask why the same song should be the most popular year after year? (By the way, “Stairway to Heaven” was No. 1 again in 2020 only to be beaten out in 2021 by AC/DC’s “Back in Black.”)

Rock songs are as varied as the fans who enjoy them. So it wasn’t too surprising when the Tribune-Review rounded up six local rock ‘n’ roll luminaries to ask which songs they would pick as their favorites and each one had a different response.

Scott Blasey, The Clarks

Blasey said some of his favorite rock songs are by artists like Elvis Costello and The Beatles. But when asked to narrow it down to one, he went with a musician he cited as a major influence.

“I would go with something off of ‘Damn the Torpedoes’ by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. If I had to pick one, it would be ‘Don’t Do Me Like That,’ ” said Blasey. “Prior to that, I loved FM radio and AC/DC and Prince and all of that stuff. But when I heard ‘Don’t Do Me Like That,’ I was probably 14 or 15 years old and that was the song that changed the way I looked at rock ‘n’ roll.

“It wasn’t hard rock like AC/DC. It wasn’t yacht rock, which I loved in the ’70s. It was melodic. It rocked — it’s just a great radio song — so, if I was pressed, I’d have to go with that because of the impact it had on my life and the way I listened to music going forward from there. It was a real watershed moment.”

Jimmie Ross, The Jaggerz

This was not an easy task for Ross, who really loves the Rolling Stones and was finding it nearly impossible to pick just one of their songs as his favorite.

“I love the Stones. They’re just a fun band, and I can’t pick just one of their songs. I like ’em all,” he said.

Finally, when informed that the rules of this exercise required him choose just one he relented.

“‘Brown Sugar,’ cause I just love the song” Ross said. “We used to play that years ago on stage. It’s just a great, fun dance song. I just like everything about the song — the chord changes, the words — everything about the song I just love. I think it’s a perfect tune.”

Johnny Angel, Johnny Angel & the Halos

Angel had a very quick response when asked to pick his No. 1 rock song of all time. But he said he had a hard time choosing between it and “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes.”

“Of all the ones I can think of, I definitely love ‘Carry On Wayward Son’ by Kansas,” he said. “I like it because, first of all, the harmonies. Any group like them or Styx that has that super great harmony to it, just lit me up. The way that record starts off, it doesn’t sound like it’s going to be a hard rock song, it doesn’t sound like it’s going to go there, and then all of sudden.…”

Angel cut to imitating the sound of a hard rock guitar.

“It’s got that build up, you know? There are a lot of rock songs that you hear and you sing along, you play along or whatever. But there aren’t that many songs that when you hear it, you stop and listen to the whole song. That’s one that when I hear it, I listen to it beginning to end. And it’s a long song.”

Mike Vale, Tommy James and the Shondells (Crystal Blue Band)

Vale remembers when rock ‘n’ roll began, and for his all-time No. 1 song, he picked the tune that started it all.

“I have to go with the first one, ‘Rock Around The Clock’ (by Bill Haley & His Comets),’ ” said Vale. “If it weren’t for that, I’m not sure where music would be.”

Vale pointed out that the song became the first No. 1 international rock ‘n’ roll song.

“There are others I like just as well, but I might as well go with the one that invented the whole thing,” he said. “It was (part of) a timeline that was fading from a big band sound to a combo sound with heavy drum and heavy bass. It was that transition period that introduced a whole new beat. Bill Haley was no slouch. He had a great group.”

Chad Tyson, WDVE afternoon drive host

Like many in this survey, Tyson had a hard time picking just one. But he was able to do it by identifying a song heard often on his classic rock station.

“You can’t go wrong with Lynyrd Skynyrd’s ‘Free Bird’ because that’s an iconic song. If you’re in a band and ask the crowd what to play next, chances are there is at least one person who is going to yell out ‘Free Bird,’ ” he said. “That’s not true for many other classic rock tunes.”

Tyson especially appreciates the song when he hears it live.

“If you’ve ever been to a Skynyrd show before and they play that, it just grabs you, man. You’re just in that song for 15 minutes when they do it live, and it’s just such an iconic record,” he said. “It has a really interesting buildup. It starts out kind of slow, and then they crush it toward the end, and it turns into a jam session.”

Michele Michaels, WDVE midday host

The WDVE Memorial Day 500 gets underway on Michaels’ show at 10 a.m. Friday, and her pick for the best rock ‘n’ roll song is not likely to disappoint her fans. She said it’s probably been the most requested song in the past 30-plus years on her show. But her decision was based largely on the emotional connection she felt when she first heard it as a teenager.

“This is a super tough decision. I really can’t narrow it, but if you make me, I would say it’s ‘Stairway to Heaven’ by Zeppelin,” she said. “I was in high school. I was probably about 16 the first time I heard ‘Stairway to Heaven.’ I was sitting at a picnic table at a high school graduation party, and this song came on and it starts out with this melodic, haunting Jimmy Page guitar and then there’s the harmonies of the guitars and vocals, and then it builds and keeps building and building to that tense conclusion.”

Michaels then describes what must have felt like an out-of-body experience.

“I had no idea at this point what my friends were saying to me at this party,” she said. “I was just sucked into this epic tune, and I don’t think any song has affected me the first time I heard it like ‘Stairway to Heaven.’

“I have other favorites, but I would have to go with that.”