"Classic/overplayed" songs you still enjoy hearing

Mosh

Mosh

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A lot of people complain about certain "classics" being overplayed by bands with vast catalogs, be it live or on the radio. As members of an Iron Maiden forum, we're probably all very familiar with this. But what songs do you still enjoy whenever they come on no matter how "overexposed" they may be?

For me it would be:
Rush - Tom Sawyer (or anything from Moving Pictures side 1); There's something about this track that still excites me as much as I did when I first heard it. It's not Rush's best song but it deserves the high praise and "classic" status. I love how the drums build in intensity over the course of the song until they explode in the legendary drum solo before the final chorus. The 7/4 bridge is also lots of fun and reminds us that Rush hasn't lost touch with their proggy side. Plus the way that song starts with the blast of synthesizer and that infectious drum beat. Great song.

Iron Maiden - Number of the Beast, The Trooper; These songs really cement why Iron Maiden is my favorite band. From Bruce's stellar vocal performances to the incredibly tight performances from the twin guitar attack of Dave and Adrian, it's all here. The riffs and melodies of these songs are timeless and nothing here is dated. These songs could be written today and they'd still be awesome.

Judas Priest - Electric Eye; Maybe this one is a case of sentimental value, as Screaming For Vengeance was my first Priest album. Electric Eye was unlike anything I had heard before. It's surprisingly cinematic for being such a relatively straightforward song, but I think this has most to do with the production and the lyrics, which captivated me at a young age. Love this song.

Kiss - Strutter; There are a lot of Kiss songs that could fit this bill but I'm going to go with this one because it never fails to hold up for me. Every band member is doing something interesting here and the shortlived unity of this band really shows. Peter Criss' drum intro sets the tone perfectly and some of my favorite bass playing from Gene Simmons is on this track. Plus that unforgettable riff after the chorus. Simplicity at its best.

Cheap Trick - Surrender, I Want You To Want Me (Live); Cheap Trick had a unique brand of hard rock that blended the edge of Punk with the hooks and melodic nature of power pop in a way that no other bands that I can think of did. While neither of these songs are among my favorites from the band, I still have to turn up the radio whenever they come on.
 
All of the above.
But isn't this stealing the thunder from the survivor?
 
Pretty much all classics by Queen, Iron Maiden, Blue Oyster Cult, The Stranglers and AC/DC come to my mind.
 
Overplayedness makes no difference for me at this point, because I give songs from my favorite bands quite some time before I listen to them again. For example, it's been at least 5 months since I've heard Hallowed Be Thy Name.

If I'm going to complain about overplayedness, it will be because I don't think the song is worthy of the amounts it has been played. Applies to Iron Maiden, Sanctuary, Running Free, Wrathchild and Run to the Hills.
 
Since most music I like is from the 80's, and I'm now in my early 20's, it is of course possible to discuss what "overplayed" means for me. I like a lot of songs that I hear pretty much everywhere still, even though they're 30 years old or so, and some that were probably overplayed back in the day that I discovered when they were almost forgotten. The music around me right now is house, indie and rnb (?) or whatever that stuff is called. I don't listen to radio so I have no clue what is popular. Watched Swedish Idol, and apparently "It's My Life" is an old outdated song from the early 90's... Anyway:

Kenny Loggins - Danger Zone

Europe - The Final Countdown

Bon Jovi - It's My Life

Ozzy Osbourne - Crazy Train
 
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mckindog said:
All of the above.
But isn't this stealing the thunder from the survivor?
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Exactly what I was thinking. It depends a bit on how you would like to prepare it though. If people already write down their (individual) desired outcome of the upcoming game, it makes it a bit more predictable. Mosh sure meant it well, but I am not sure if it is very convenient if you already had some ideas of how you wanted to run the game.
 
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Most of the above. The reason some songs are 'overplayed' is they're actually quite good! I've never quite got the enthusism for Run to the Hills, though. If we're on Maiden, I think the likes of Trooper and Hallowed are quite deserving of a lot of attention, but I feel like I've missed some important point when people go wild for RTTH.
 
KISS: "Rock & Roll All Night"- overplayed, but still a good song.. Would be great if classic rock radio stations would realize that this is NOT KISS's only song, and certainly not their best, but whatever, I still like it

Ozzy: "Crazy Train"- overplayed as well, but still a good song, and the original version of course, not the terrible Pat Boone version used as The Osbournes theme song

Kansas: "Carry On My Wayward Son" and "Dust in the Wind"- both great songs, but again, if classic rock radio stations would realize that these are not the only 2 Kansas songs! They're both good, but my favorite Kansas song is "Point of Know Return"

Deep Purple: "Smoke on the Water"- same as above pretty much, but still a great song

Judas Priest: "Living After Midnight"- good song, but a bit overplayed and not the best Priest song ever.. my favorite one is "Take These Chains"

Queensryche: "Silent Lucidity"- I like this song but geez, every time I mention Queensryche to someone they just say "Oh yea, Silent Lucidity!" THEY HAVE OTHER SONGS!!!

Journey: "Don't Stop Believing"- if any classic rock station can go one hour without playing this song I'd be amazed.. still a good song, but nowhere near the best Journey song.. ditto with "Any Way You Want It"

STP: "Plush" a bit overplayed but still a good song

That's all I can think of for now, more to come as I think of them... and now here's a few that are overplayed and I DON'T enjoy hearing:

The Eagles: "Hotel California" the most OVERPLAYED classic rock song in history! I like The Eagles, but I just can't stand that song, I'll take "Take It to the Limit" over Hotel California any day

Lynyrd Skynyrd: "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Freebird": I love Lynyrd Skynyrd, but these 2 songs just make me want to change the station!

Tom Petty: "Free Fallin" Nothing against Tom Petty, but I'm just sick to death of this song

and, that's all for now
 
Silent Lucidity is another one for me. Love that song and it doesn't get played on the radio so much that I've gotten tired of it.
 
Here's a preliminary list for the Overexposed game.

Accept: Balls to the Wall, Fast as a Shark
AC/DC: Thunderstruck, Back in Black, Hells Bells, You Shook Me All Night Long, Highway to Hell, TNTAlice in Chains: Would, Rooster, No Excuses, Man IN A Box
Anthrax: Caught in a Mosh, Indians
Aerosmith: Walk This Way, Sweet Emotion, Dream On
BTO: Taking Care of Business
Beatles: Here Comes the Sun, Hey Jude, Let It Be, Revolution, Come Together
Black Sabbath: Paranoid, Iron Man
Blue Oyster Cult: Burning For You, Don’t Fear the Reaper, Godzilla
Bon Jovi: Livin On a Prayer
Boston: More Than A Feeling
David Bowie: Space Oddity, Suffragette City
Cheap Trick: I Want You to Want Me, Surrender
Eric Clapton: Cocaine, Layla
Cream: Sunshine of Your Love
Phil Collins: In the Air Tonight
Alice Cooper: School’s Out
Deep Purple: Smoke on the Water, Highway Star
Def Leppard: Photograph
Dream Theater: Pull Me Under
Dire Straits: Sultans of Swing, Money For Nothing
Dio: Rainbow in the Dark
Eagles: Hotel California
Foo Fighters: Everlong, Walk, Learn To Fly
Green Day: Basket Case, Know Your Enemy, Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Guns and Roses: Paradise City, Sweet Child O Mine, Welcome to the Jungle
Golden Earring: Radar Love
Guess Who: American Woman
George Harrison: My Sweet Lord
Heart: Barracuda, Crazy on You
Jimi Hendrix: All Along the Watchtower, Purple Haze
Iron Maiden: Number of the Beast, Run To The Hills, 2 Minutes to Midnight, Fear of the Dark
Journey: Don’t Stop Believing, Anyway You Want it
Judas Priest: Living After Midnight, Breaking the Law, Electric Eye, You Got Another Thing Coming
Kansas: Carry On Wayward Son
Kiss: Strutter, Detroit Rock City, Rock and Roll All Night
Lynyrd Skynyrd: Sweet Home Alabama
Live: I Alone, Lightning Crashes
Led Zeppelin: Stairway to Heaven, Black Dog, Kashmir, Whole Lotta Love, Immigrant Song, Rock n Roll
Metallica: Enter Sandman, Nothing Else Matters, The Unforgiven, Fuel
Megadeth: Peace Sells, Symphony of Destruction
Motley Crue: Looks That Kill, Dr. Feelgood
Motorhead: Ace of Spades
Mountain: Mississippi Queen
Nazareth: Hair of the Dog, Love Hurts
Nirvana: Heart Shaped Box, Smells Like Teen Spirit, Come As You Are, Lithium
Ozzy Osbourne: Crazy Train, No More Tears, Mama I’m Coming Home, Bark At the Moon
Oasis: Wonderwall
Pantera: Cowboys From Hell, Walk
Pink Floyd: Comfortably Numb, Another Brick in the Wall Part 2, Wish You Were Here, Money
Pearl Jam: Daughter, Jeremy, Alive, Even Flow
Police: Roxanne, Every Breath You Take, Message in a Bottle, Everything She Does Is Magic
Queen: Bohemian Rhapsody, We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions, Fat Bottom Girls, Somebody to Love, Another One Bites the Dust, I Want It All
Queensryche: Silent Lucidity
Rage Against the Machine: Killing in the Name of
Radiohead: Creep
Red Hot Chili Peppers: Californication, Scar Tissue, Under the Bridge
Rolling Stones: Satisfaction, Jumping Jack Flash, Start Me Up
Rush: Tom Sawyer, The Spirit of Radio, Closer to the Heart
Saxon: Wheels of Steel
Scorpions: Rock You Like a Hurricane, No One Like You, The Zoo, Winds of Change
Skid Row: 18 and Life, Youth Gone Wild
Slayer: Angel Of Death, South of Heaven, Raining Blood
Smashing Pumpkins: Bullet With Butterfly Wings, 1979
Bruce Springsteen: Born to Run
Steppenwolf: Born to Be Wild
Stone Temple Pilots: Vasoline, Interstate Love Song
Soundgarden: Fell On Black Days, Spoonman, Black Hole Sun, Outshined
Temple of the Dog: Hunger Strike
Thin Lizzy: The Boys Are Back in Town, You Really Got Me
Van Halen: Jump, Right Now, Panama, Running With the Devil
Who: Baba O'Riley, Won’t Get Fooled Again, My Generation, Who Are You
Yes: Roundabout, Seen All Good People
Neil Young: Rocking in the Free World, Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)
ZZ Top: La Grange, Sharp Dressed Man, Tush

I took top 100 lists from classic rock metal and alternative and filtered them through what I know about this board's tastes and what should be familiar, based on my rock radio listenings of the '70s, '80s, and '90s. I leaned toward more commercial songs, and radio/concerts standards and away from epics. Stuff that showed up on some lists that had done real well in survivors (Painkiller, Stargazer, One) was deliberately cut.

I'm not looking for huge lists of nominees, but feedback would be appreciated about acts that I've overlooked, or songs that don't belong for whatever reason.
 
I'd throw Freewill by Rush in there too. I dunno about Walk by Foo Fighters. It's relatively new and I haven't heard it on the radio since Wasting Light's promo cycle ended.
 
Very similar to my game's list. Almost identical.

In fact, it was my understanding, when setting up my game with Night Prowler, that this game was going to be about overexposed metal songs like Run To The Hills. Not classic rock - I started my game on being told your list would be different. Your list is at least 80% the same as mine.

Most importantly: your source was radio stations: That is exactly my game. I was given to understand that you would be using just nominations from members here. You're literally using the same data I've already mined.
 
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SinisterMinisterX said:
Very similar to my game's list. Almost identical.

In fact, it was my understanding, when setting up my game with Night Prowler, that this game was going to be about overexposed metal songs like Run To The Hills. Not classic rock - I started my game on being told your list would be different. Your list is at least 80% the same as mine.

Most importantly: your source was radio stations: That is exactly my game. I was given to understand that you would be using just nominations from members here. You're literally using the same data I've already mined.
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Not sure where you're getting all that from. This was our initial discussion on the subject:
http://forum.maidenfans.com/threads/survivor-discussion-thread.22968/page-26#post-486322

That said, I don't have a problem stepping aside if you want to run the game.
Use or lose whatever you want from my list. :)
 
Just trying to do some clearing up / reconstructing:

SMX, do you mean with your game: your Classic Rock Clue Game that is currently running?

If not, then I'm afraid that Night Prowler and/or you might have misunderstood (or forgotten about) something: the "overexposed game" was indeed mckindog's idea and he was planning to run it himself. Another post about it:
http://forum.maidenfans.com/threads/survivor-discussion-thread.22968/page-26#post-486328

What things could have made more complicated is this:
Mosh said:
I had a similar idea for a survivor including songs culled from different "top 100 rocks songs" lists. Basically a survivor version of this thread.

Could be the same game.
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plus -as mckindog noticed in different wording- this thread we're posting in, right now.

So, after mckindog came up with it first, perhaps both Mosh and SMX were planning to do something in the same vein as well(?)
 
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Mckindog said he was going to pull songs from the internet, not use nominations from members. He was pretty clear about this.
mckindog said:
That was a cool game.
I was going to draw on Internet top 100 classic rock and metal lists for my songs.
And I like NP's title. Sums it up perfectly.

Sounds like you like it. When do you want me to get started.
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I'm not sure why there's any confusion, or why my post complicates anything.

Edit: This is also why I didn't think opening a thread like this would clash with Mckindog's game. He was already pulling from songs selected from internet lists, maybe people would mention songs that aren't on that list.
 
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