McCain and Obama’s Top 10 Songs

McCain and Obama’s Top 10 Songs

Barack Obama’s top 10:

1. Fugees - Ready Or Not
2. Marvin Gaye - What’s Going On
3. Bruce Springsteen - I’m On Fire
4. The Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter
5. Nina Simone - Sinnerman
6. Kanye West - Touch The Sky
7. Frank Sinatra - You’d Be So Easy To Love
8. Aretha Franklin - Think
9. U2 - City of Blinding Lights
10. will.i.am - Yes We Can

John McCain’s top 10:

1. ABBA - Dancing Queen
2. Roy Orbison - Blue Bayou
3. ABBA - Take A Chance On Me
4. Merle Haggard - If We Make It Through December
5. Dooley Wilson - As Time Goes By
6. The Beach Boys - Good Vibrations
7. Louis Armstrong - What A Wonderful World
8. Frank Sinatra - I’ve Got You Under My Skin
9. Neil Diamond - Sweet Caroline
10. The Platters - Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

Personally, I prefer Obama’s, though I don’t know what he’s thinking with 7,9 & 10. As for McCain… seriously, Dancing Queen? (Sorry Tobis.) My feelings about the list are in tune with Guardian commenter Martyn Bone:

When I saw this “news” item on NME.com yesterday, I just knew there would be a Guardian blog on it. And that it would be run by one ex-NME hack and feature comments by other ex-NME hacks. If you’re gonna do this kind of thing on the Guardian blog, why not do a comparison of, say, Obama and McCain’s respective books, w/ one of the Guardian Books section bloggers in charge? There might be something worth saying and discussing there.

Mind you, I concede that more voters might be swayed by these Hornbyesque lists of pop songs than by reading Obama or McCain’s books…And you can’t help but ponder the racial connotations of their choices. McCain chooses three African American acts, but all of them date back to the 1950s or earlier…