Rolling Stone Radio's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time"
Written Jun. 27, 2006 by Larry Rosin in Internet Radio with 1 Comment
On a tip from a friend, I went to the Rolling Stone Web site (www.rollingstone.com) to check out their radio offerings. They don't make it easy to find your way to their radio offerings (a teeny 'listen' button on the home page) and even when one gets to their 'listen' page it is not entirely clear what is going on -- there seems to be some kind of combination of co-op deals with Rhapsody and their own playlists served through Real Player.
Anyhow, through some clicking around I found my way to a 'Rhapsody Radio Station' called 'Rolling Stone 500 The top 500 songs of all time, as picked by a five-star panel assembled by Rolling Stone magazine.' (http://www.rhapsody.com/radio/station?stationId=sta.8648164).
Rhapsody Radio Stations are Ad-free, presumably the model is to get one to sign up for the Rhapsody pay service. To their endless credit, they do not ask for any info...just download the player and you're listening.
And, Rolling Stone 500 is simply a GREAT radio station. You get the combo of (mostly) great songs with the feeling of "How in the WORLD did a panel pick THAT piece of dreck for the Top 500?" That question overwhelmed me when Foreigner popped up as the fifth song. As of the first hour of listening, this is essentially a Classic Rock/Classic Hits station -- in line with the Rolling Stone brand, one might suppose -- but were no "greatest songs of all time" written after 1985?
Within the free player, one cannot skip forward. If you try to, you get an ad saying: "Upgrade to the Rhapsody Premium Service to skip songs." Fair enough.
| Sam Cooke | "You Send Me" |
| Bee Gees | "Staying Alive" |
| George Harrison | "My Sweet Lord" |
| Cure | "Pictures of You" |
| Foreigner | "I Want to Know What Love Is" |
| Jimi Hendrix | "Foxey Lady" |
| Spencer Davis Group | "Gimme Some Lovin'" |
| Supremes | "Where Did Our Love Go" |
| Don Henley | "Boys of Summer" |
| Muddy Waters | "Mannish Boy" |
| Black Sabbath | "Paranoid" |
| The Troggs | "Wild Thing" |
| Rolling Stones | "Tumbling Dice" |
Reader Comments
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Thanks for the link to this station, I have never bothered with Rhapsody before. In answer to one of your last comments, I just heard a post '85 song, Fake Plastic Trees by Radiohead so not all is lost! Maybe it was slipped in by one of the Rolling Stone staff's grand-kids?