How to Write Your Top 5 List
Here are some items from different Top 5 lists I've done in the past to to help you as you put your own Top 5 together.
This is an example of how I might present the "about you" information and photograph that you would submit with your top five list
Mary Johnson lives in Anytown, USA and decided to submit a list of her Top 5 songs about dogs because not only does she love her own dog but as she says, "There is no more perfect example of reciprocal, unconditional love. Not only are there some really good songs out there about actual dogs but even more about people wishing the love they have with their life partner was more like the the relationship they have with their dog. So I chose my 5 favorite of both kinds of dog songs.
And this is how I might present what Mary told me about one of her song choices. I can play the entire song on the air but I only play a 30 second segment of a song on the website so if there's a particular part of the song you like be sure to tell me. Don't worry, I'll come up with the album cover art myself.
Listen to a Sample
John Hiatt: My Dog & Me
About this song Mary said, "this song absolutely had to be on the list. It's such a wonderful telling of a dog/owner relationship it makes me believe John Hiatt wrote it about his real-life dog. I love the way their entire relationship is summed up simply by the events that occur during a walk. Especially the part of the song where he sings, "Now she's runnin' up ahead to chase some deer, Comes back to tell me that coast is clear, It's a different world I see, When it's just my dog and me" because it's true, the world is a different place when we see things through our dog's eyes.
Here's an example from a Top 5 list of albums, not individual songs. This is from a list entitled, "top five debut albums by major artists that most people have never heard". Because this is an entire album you could choose up to three tracks to sample.
Listen to a Sample
The Doobie Brothers: The Doobie Brothers
Long before the Doobie Brothers scored their first Billboard Top 25 hit with "Listen to the Music" my brother bought this album at the Waxworks record store in Owensboro, Kentucky simply because he liked the look of the cover and the name of the band. We both fell in love with the album right away for it sound, it's singing and it's simplicity. I think Pat Simmons and Tom Johnston's ability to write great rock songs that were readily accessible lay in the fact that they can write songs that are not complex but not so simple as to be boring.
Your Top 5 list can even be made up of only small parts of songs like this one for "Top 5 Drum Licks/fills". But if you choose to do a Top 5 list of just a part of the song be really specific about where in the song that part is
