Your Top 5

Songs you'd like played when you enter a room

High Fidelity (2000)

We’ve all seen or read High Fidelity, right? Assuming you landed here because you troll the halls of Music Stack on the reg, you have. Anyway, in both the book and the film, Rob, Barry, Dick, and sometimes supporting characters all list their “top 5” of something. Most of the lists are fragments or are incomplete or the reader is meant to imply what may be on it. An example of this is Barry’s top five musical crimes perpetuated by Stevie Wonder in the '80s and '90s. The question is never fully answered, but we all know at least “I Just Called to Say, I Love You” is on it.

It occurred to me that it might be fun to ask some other writers to list their top 5 whatever each week—mostly related to music, but hey you never know what my brain may dredge up. Now, the way this works is that the guest picks 5 with some commentary and then I’ll give my 5 with some commentary—bonus if any rando puts their 5 in the comments—we could all write a whole ass listicle book!

So, without further adieu, I asked the great Kevin Alexander of On Repeat Records to give me his Top 5 songs he’d like to hear when entering a room for the inaugural Your Top 5 post.

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Kevin’s Top 5

Talking heads- This Must Be the Place

True story: I wrote a college paper based entirely on this song's lyrics in college. For my money, it's one of the best the band ever did, and given how many all-timers they had, that's saying something. In the paper, I talked about what home means, what coming home literally or figuratively might look like, and how we always think of 'home' as where we grew up. It can really be anywhere--more a state of mind than anything. Home is where I want to be, but I guess I'm already there, right?

For this exercise, I'd undercut all that and have it be the track playing as I walked into the house I grew up in.

New Order-Blue Monday

You know you're in trouble when your love for a band becomes a running joke on a social media platform (or two, but who's counting?). It's a running theme in real life, too, and if you asked anyone in my circle to have something playing ahead of my arrival, it'd be one from this band.

Discussing how the work of Ennio Morricone inspired the iconic bass riff, bassist Peter Hook said, "I'd been listening to Ennio Morricone. [His bassline] sounds great on the film the Clint Eastwood film (For a Few Dollars More), and it sort of stuck in me, it's one of those riffs that you carry 'round with you."

The beat is infectious, the bass is propulsive–and concussive–and the synths are glorious. There's a reason why this is the best-selling 12" of all time. It's definitely one you carry with you. And if the room you're carrying it into happens to be a packed, sweaty dance floor, well, that's all the better.

The Cars- Just What I Needed

The Firestone Bar was not a clean, well-lit place. It wasn't the kind of bar you took a date to (or where you looked for one).

It had worn carpet, dirty windows, and a rogues gallery of regulars nursing bottles of Michelob and playing Keno. It was close(ish) to a college but not a college bar. You paid covers at those and went on Friday or Saturday nights. This was the place to go on Wednesday afternoon.

And I loved it.

They also had a great jukebox, which guaranteed you would hear "Just What I Needed" at some point. We knew what we liked. The bartender was a little guy with big hair, and like clockwork, he'd sing along every time. I misspent a lot of my youth there, and it's the closest I ever came to being a regular anywhere. 

The building is gone, razed long ago in the name of progress, but if it were still standing, this would be playing loud enough to hear its muffled sounds out in the parking lot, and as I walked in, all my old friends would raise a glass as they finally hit a 5-spot.

2nd II None- More than a player (Instrumental)

I can count on my hands the times I've played baseball and still have a couple of fingers to spare. I can't hit, can't field, and never really figured out if I throw right or left-handed. I'm in a fantasy league this year, and my most significant contribution is making everyone else feel better about their lineups. When your team's biggest asset is its name, that's a tell. I'm like this year's White Sox. It's that bad.¹

Still, like most other kids who grew up in the U.S., walking up to the plate in a packed stadium full of screaming fans was a fun daydream. When I'm sitting in the cheap seats at Miller Field, my brain cooking in the Midwest sun, it still is. With DJ Quik putting his (literal) spin on Al Green's "Love and Happiness," giving it just the right amount of swagger, West Coast funk, and bass for days, this is a lock. I want a flyover, too.

Can a stadium count as a room? Anything's possible when you've been in the heat long enough.

Note: I'm specifically choosing the instrumental here because the song's lyrics aren't exactly family-friendly. At all.

Jawbreaker–The Boat Dreams from the Hill

Do they still have house parties anymore? It doesn't seem like it, but maybe I'm not the best person to ask. At any rate, this track opens one of the best records from one of my favorite bands—and one of the favorites in my friend circle. Hearing this as I walked into the room would signal that my people and some good times were on the other side of the door.

Spirited music discussions lousy with pedantry and minutiae, tons of fantastic records, and plenty of fabulous people—what could be better?

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My Top 5

Rage Against the Machine—Freedom

Back in high school, I was not very popular, but like most teenagers, I was the main character in my own mind. So I thought that by walking into a room, I could command attention with my personality, which as it turns out was not the case. I was pretty shy, a little aloof, and definitely kind of a jerk.

But not in a purposeful way, more like a didn’t-know-how-to-act-way. You see, I went to Catholic school until around middle school and as we all know, Catholic school kids are the worst. It kind of gives you the idea of what group of people I was around—and definitely didn’t belong to. Anyway, since I thought all eyes should be on me when I walked into class, I always imagined that absolute banger of a riff from RATM’s “Freedom.”

All I Do Is Win (Feat. Ludacris, T-Pain, Rick Ross, & Snoop Dogg)—DJ Khaled

I was once a litigator, and I was somewhat mediocre. I prefer the transactional side of the law. It was, as they say, a way to pay the mortgage. In those days of litigation though, I liked to pump myself up before every motion, hearing, conference, etc. by listening to this song. While I didn’t always win, I wanted to feel like I did—this song definitely makes me feel like that.

Low Rider—War

I can’t take full credit for this one, and while technically not one I want played when entering a room, it’s one that is going through my head when entering a certain kind of room. That room is the one where you have an interview. Back in 2013, I was going to interview for my first job out of law school and I was talking to my best friend about it.

Me: “I am a little nervous—I need to get a job to pay these student loans.”

Him: “You know what song I play before every job interview?”

Me (cheekily): “Sugar” by System of a Down?”

Him: “No, “Low Rider,” it makes me feel like a badass before walking into an interview.

I have since played “Low Rider” before every job interview I have ever had, and I will let you in on a little secret: I have a winning record in job interviews because of it.

1812 Overture: Grand Finale—Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Who wouldn’t want to walk into a room during the crescendo of this song? One of my good friends and I used to go to fireworks shows and tried to sync up the finale with the crescendo. It didn’t always work, the music with the fireworks, because as you can imagine the fireworks really drown out the sound—even in played through headphones

Still an excellent piece of music if you are feeling triumphant entering or exiting somewhere in my opinion.

Can’t You Hear Me Knocking—The Rolling Stones

Back in the day, before widespread internet usage, for school and sports we’d always get that yearly order form and magazine from Gertrude Hawk or some other fundraising thing. Nowadays, they have personalized links for your organization that people can log on and order stuff. 25 years ago, I had a magazine and a sheet with the attached yellow carbon copy thinger.

My parents would, of course, always buy. They would take it to work to hornswoggle folks into buying as well. That was never enough for me, the young entrepreneur who once made $20 at his Kool-Aid stand on a rural route in one day (some guy dropped a $10 bill in my hand for a 50 cent cup of watered down Kool-Aid and my parents gave me $5 as till). Nay, I wanted to fundraise like I was a juggernaut.

My parents then suggested that I go door to door in my neighborhood, probably because I was attempting to guilt them into buying more. I don’t recall a lot of success (Remember, rural route). Thinking about that now, all I can hear is Mick and Keith singing “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” as I tried in vain to ply my chocolates to neighborhood folks.

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Stay tuned next week for another edition featuring another special guest from the Music Stack community—and please let us know your top 5 in the comments!

1. Chris here—as someone on the opposite end of said fantasy league, I can confirm that Kevin’s team name is much better than his team’s performance.