My iPod Top 40, part 3

21. 16 Military Wives -- The Decemberists (at left): One of the few current rock bands I follow, this is a rare example of social satire in modern-day pop music (not so much anti-war or anti-military, but anti-media), plus it's catchy as hell, with a rousing march cadence.

22. Don Juan's Reckless Daughter -- Joni Mitchell: Toward the end of Joni's pop chart reign in the late 70's, this long song about dichotomies (good/evil, air/earth, skin/feathers) is wonderfully structured, well sung, and contains some of the best lyric writing of her career: "What strange prizes these battles bring/These hectic joys, these weary blues/Puffed up and strutting when I think I win/Down and shaken when I think I lose." My favorite Joni song that's not on the Blue album.

23. I Should Have Known Better -- The Beatles: Don't know why this is here; it's average early Beatles pop. Maybe because it brings back good childhood memories, but almost any song off of their first couple of albums does that for me.

24. The Windmills of Your Mind -- Dusty Springfield: The kind of loungy middle-of-the-road song I used to disdain in my youth which I have now come to appreciate for songwriting craft and, in this case, for a killer arrangement--slow and sexy in the beginning, and suddenly fast and furious near the end.

25. Suzanne -- Noel Harrison (at right): Another great Leonard Cohen song that's been done by countless artists. I like Cohen's scratchy, full-of-longing version best, but this one, sung by Rex Harrison's son, was the closest it came to being an actual top 40 hit. It's watered down but enjoyable, and his vocal is easier for me to sing along with.

26. Cruel to Be Kind -- Nick Lowe: Nick is supposedly a pop genius, and I've tried to like him, but I just don't. Still, this is a gem, with energetic acoustic guitar strumming and a great vocal.

27. Listen to the Radio -- Sloan: Canadian pop band who should be huge in the States (and surely would have been in the late 80's) but aren't. From an wonderful album called Never Hear the End of It, made up of 30 short songs which mostly segue together quite nicely. This one is just long enough to stand alone.

28. Under Pressure -- Queen & David Bowie: This song is good enough to forgive for inspiring Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby." Great sing-along in the car.

29. Bang-Shang-A-Lang -- The Archies: The first Archies album was a seminal work for me, and I mean that. It was a Christmas present when I was 12 and I played it to death. It's filled with fabulously crafted bubblegum and Ron Dante, the lead singer, has the archetypal bubblegum voice, much smoother than Joey Levine of the Ohio Express. One of my very favorite bubblegum songs of all time, and to my ears, more fun than their bigger hit "Sugar, Sugar."

30. Photograph -- Ringo Starr: The one Ringo solo song that will live forever, co-written with George Harrison, a great pop song about remembering, sad but peppy.

Below, lovely Dusty and and her windmills.