NPR: All Songs Considered: The Perfect Song

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From November 23, 2004:

Perfect Song: Staff Picks

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A songwriter can write a great song, but the perfect song is in the mind of the listener. Why someone falls in love with a song can be as much about the moment it's first heard as the talent of the artist. Something clicks, and somehow all the emotions swirling in your head are summed up in three quick minutes. We received megabytes of "Perfect Song" suggestions, all different and all perfect.

On three separate pages you'll find tunes picked by listeners, musicians, and All Songs Considered staff (listed below).

Hear all staff picks with the links above or individual songs below.

Go to Listener Picks

Go to Artists' Picks

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David Bowie

CD: Heroes
Song: "Heroes"
Label: Virgin Records

Listen to "Heroes"

"David Bowie wrote this song after moving to Germany in 1977. 'Heroes' is the 2nd part of a trilogy written with his creative musical partner Brian Eno. It is a song where the words, those moments of hope, are punctuated by a glorious and frenetic wave of guitars and synthesizers. It's a song that has brought me to tears in the poignant way it looks at life's impermanence, and makes me smile that for one moment, on any given day, there can be beauty and hope."

- All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

CD: Requiem
Song: "Lacrimosa"
Label: Legacy

Listen to "Lacrimosa"

"Mozart was near death and delirious with fits of anxiety, paranoia and partial paralysis when he began writing this piece. He died before he could finish and the task of completing it was left to one of his students. From the build-up in the opening verse to the soaring conclusion, hearing this piece makes me think there must be an interested and benevolent god somewhere in the universe. 'Ah, that day of tears and mourning! From the dust of the earth returning.'" (opening verse)

- Robin Hilton, Assoc. Producer All Songs Considered

Björk

CD: Telegram
Song: "Hyper-Ballad"
Label: Elektra

Listen to "Hyperballad"

"The song conjures an image of tiny Björk in a big woolly sweater standing on the edge of a mountain on a foggy Icelandic morning. She claims there's a beautiful view from the mountain, but in the morning the fog is so dense that she can't see the ground. She secretly throws 'little things off' and listens to reassure herself that she's still safe on earth. What would make the most exquisite sound but her own body, and would that sound be? The Brodsky Quartet answers her in this remix: you can hear her running to the cliff, peering into the fog, and floating away. The song is the perfect melding of sensual imagery, mystery and anxiety, and the most romantic use of 'cutlery' ever. "

--Marley Magaziner, All Songs Considered intern

Big Star

CD: Radio City
Song: "Back of a Car"
Label: Fantasy

Listen to "Back of a Car"

"Every aching note, every spidery riff, every rolling drum fill in this song (by legendary early '70s Memphis pop band Big Star) pulls you into its theme of pent-up teen angst and the first taste of emotional confusion. It's recorded so that the guitars glisten like sweat on skin, echoing singer Alex Chilton's yearning vocals. The first time I heard 'Back of a Car' I listened to it about 50 times in a row, and I'm still listening."

-- Meredith Ochs, NPR Reviewer

Radiohead

CD: OK Computer
Song: "No Surprises"
Label: Capitol

Listen to "No Surprises"

" A perfect song because, firstly, it has an absolutely gorgeous, indelible melody. It's built from the simplest ingredients - just two notes, really. And it builds gradually, with a structure that blurs the verse and chorus in a way that makes you feel like you're being carried along on a wave that crests, settles, and then buoys you up again (not unlike the best techno, though it sounds nothing like it). And against this beautifully melodic lullaby, articulated on guitar strings and gentle bells, are lyrics of absolutely unsentimental darkness - 'a job that kills you,' 'bruises that wont heal,' and the most timely of all, 'bring down the government... they don't speak for us' - delivered in the voice of a lost choir boy who's found a different way to voice his prayers."

-- Will Hermes, NPR Reviewer

Alfred Deller

CD: The Three Ravens: Elizabethan Folk and Minstrel Songs
Song: "Three Ravens"
Label: Artemis Classics

Listen to "Three Ravens"

"Perfect matching of poem and meaning to melodic shape and design. Whole creates a tiny universe of story and mythic meaning. Additionally made more perfect in that it is anonymous."

-- Tom Manoff, NPR Reviewer

Ella Fitzgerald

CD: The Cole Porter Songbook
Song: "Night and Day"
Label: Polygram

Listen to "Night and Day"

"On a pure structure level, the composers associated with the Great American Songbook probably get closer to 'perfection' (if there is such a thing where song is concerned) more often than anyone else. Their songs are compact little marvels, 32 measure journeys that transport listeners from a simple and often sappy initial declaration ('Night and day you are the one') into more nuanced exploration of the vicissitudes of love. The primary tools for this exploration are floating, innocent-sounding melodies and sly chord sequences, and just when you grasp the devices Cole Porter uses for 'Night And Day,' the melody slides up a minor third and the key changes. Suddenly what had been a fairly buttoned-down theme suddenly blossoms, on the bridge strain, into a wistful, confessional reverie. The episode only lasts 8 bars, and when the song snaps back, the change is (excuse the obvious) as vivid as night and day."

-- Tom Moon, NPR Reviewer

Leonard Cohen

CD: Songs of Love and Hate
Song: "Famous Blue Raincoat"
Label: Sony

Listen to "Famous Blue Raincoat"

"It's an exquisite example of the art of concealment in storytelling, and the fragile structure is perfect for the tale."

-- Jim Fusilli, NPR Reviewer

The Pogues

CD: If I Should Fall From Grace With God
Song: "Fairytale of New York"
Label: WEA International

Listen to "Fairytale of New York"

"Music can be cerebral, melodic, rhythmic, sad, uplifting, irreverent, bittersweet, poignant, timeless - but only rarely can it be all these things at once. This Pogues song (which is actually a duet Shane MacGowan wrote specifically to be sung with Kirsty MacColl) captures the harsh romance of New York City at Christmas time in a gutter-smart, drunken homage to dreams lost and loves found."

-- Mikel Jollett, NPR Reviewer

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