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This top five list was our first anonymous submission as well as being our first submission from the West Coast as it came to us from Berkeley, California.
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Willie Nelson: “Ballad of the Redheaded Stranger”
It may seem unimaginative and cliché to use the title track from Willie’s classic 1975 concept album about a redheaded preacher who murders his wife and her lover and goes on the run from law enforcement but it would be horribly remiss to play anything else. If was Nelson’s first for Columbia Records and was strongly opposed by their Nashville A&R representative for being to stripped down and “un-Nashville”. But a Columbia VP decided to release it and it became the album that launched Nelson from songwriter to songwriter/recording artists and remains his most beloved and biggest seller.
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Van Morrison: “The Way Young Lovers Do”
This cut comes from Morrison’s most enduring album, 1968’s Astral Weeks. Martin Scorsese has said he based the first 15 minutes of Taxi Driver on the album. Philip Seymour Hoffman quoted it in his Oscar acceptance speech and legendary Creem magazine music critic Lester Bangs declared it the most significant record in his life, calling it a “mystical document.” And what most people don’t know is because of some “entanglements” Morrison found himself in the album was conceived, written and rehearsed on Boston.
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Daryl Hall: “One On One”
One of the progenitors of blue eyed pop soul music, and perhaps one of its greatest singers, Daryl Hall’s greatest success was during his partnership with John Oates. However, he has had a long and successful solo career, launched a music performance television show from his home studio and followed his passion for restoring 18th century homes in New York and Connecticut. Like Lennon and McCartney Hall & Oates shared songwriting credits on all songs despite the fact that a song might be mostly one or the other’s creation. Their 1981 Top 10 hit “One on one” was chosen because it was a song Daryl Hall wrote entirely on his own.
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Bonnie Raitt: “Something to Talk About”
Despite glowing critical reviews of her records and a devoted following of listeners it was almost 20 years before Bonnie Raitt finally broke into major stardom territory saw the kind of record sales and accolades that come with it. With “Something to Talk About” Raitt won her second consecutive Best Female Pop Vocal Performance Grammy and 1991’s Luck Of The Draw earned her second consecutive Best Rock Vocal Performance Grammy. In the years that followed Bonnie Raitt with earned a total of 13 Grammys on 31 nominations, would receive a Lifetime Achievement Grammy and see herself inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame.
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David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust: “Starman”
Our anonymous submitter acknowledged that Bowie is not a natural redhead but felt like the character Ziggy Stardust deserved inclusion in their list of Top 5 Redheads. The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars is a concept album about a young rockstar who is sent to Earth as a saviour before an apocalyptic disaster and while Ziggy wins the hearts of fans he suffers a fall from grace after succumbing to his own ego. Bowie came up with the idea of a concept album after all the songs were already recorded. “Starman” was one of the three songs Bowie wrote for inclusion in the album to help it follow his new narrative. Legend has it the chorus to Starman was inspired by the chorus to “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”.
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