Why do people like to read top lists, in lists, out lists, year end chart lists, best of all time lists and whatever other kind of list there is, so much? I know that I do, but why? What is the interest. If I see a music magazine spouting "the top 100 rock records of all times", I grab it off the rack and take a look. Who is #1? Do I own it? Do I know it? What is there among the top 100 that I don't know? Hell, I even start to count how many of the 100 I have in my own record collection, which is anal in a very weird way. Yeah, record collector scum. But it is true about a lot of other things as well and a lot of people fall for lists of some way or another.

Now, what would be the rules to get into a list called the "5 most beautiful songs"? Quite easy, actually. When you hear a song and are suddenly urged to tell somebody "Man, this song is so beautiful, it is probably the most beautiful song ever sung. Or at least in the top 5!" You probably guessed it, this is the way this little entry came to existence in real life as well.

And then on top it should be a song that cou can hear over and over again, and if you have heard it a hundred times it is still beautiful. Songs like that, that you have heard many times and they still inspire the same feelings, then you get a song that will go into this list. But remember, there are many songs that check one of the two rules. For instance, "Sweet Home Alabama" or "Heroes" can definitely be heard a million times without losing any of their stature, but they are not exactly beautiful!

Then there are many beautiful songs, that you will like on and off, like "Mandy", but not ten times in a row. I once was in a restaurant where they played "The lady in red" over and over again for over an hour. That was tough, I tell you.

Now, here it is, my list, in no particular order, five songs that to me give all there is to give, over and over again.

"Hurt" as sung by Johnny Cash

"No woman no cry" as sung by Bob Marley

"Whiter shade of pale" as sung by Procul Harum

"It stoned me" as sung by Van Morrisson

"Halleluja" as sung by Leonard Cohen

Sorry, Nick Cave.

Georg Cracked, March 2009