Top 10 Songs
Written on October 27th, 2025 by Dr Hobo
These are the songs that have soundtracked my life. The ones I never skip, the ones that hit different every time, the ones I’d defend to anyone. No ranking, just ten songs I really like. One rule: no repeating artists. As of October 2025.
Mr. Tambourine Man
Artist: Bob Dylan
Year: 1965
Big Dad influence, this one. I actually came to it backwards, fell for various covers before ever hearing Dylan’s own version. When I finally did, I got it. What keeps me coming back is the ambiguity: nobody agrees what it’s about, and that’s the point. I’ve always thought it’s about chasing inspiration, but I’m probably wrong and I don’t really care. The live version from the 1966 ‘Judas’ tour is the one. That harmonica solo still stops me in my tracks.
🎵 Favourite Rendition
For Crying Out Loud
Artist: Meat Loaf
Year: 1977
Another Dad influence. Emotional, over-the-top, absolutely, but it goes over the top and comes down the other side in the best possible way. The Steinman/Meat Loaf relationship was chaotic and messy, and you can hear all of it in this record. This is the album closer. It earns it.
🎵 Favourite Rendition
Tonight Is What It Means to Be Young
Artist: Fire Inc. (Jim Steinman)
Year: 1984
Jim Steinman without Meat Loaf doesn’t get nearly enough credit. His two-song contribution to the Streets of Fire soundtrack might be the purest thing he ever made. All the drama, the impossible romanticism, and underneath it something that feels genuinely desperate rather than just theatrical. If you’ve never heard it, start here.
🎵 Favourite Rendition
Always
Artist: Bon Jovi
Year: 1994
Probably the band that actually got me into music, beyond pop songs. My dad had a VHS of their 1995 Wembley show, and that tape was watched into the ground. That performance of ‘Always’ I must have seen fifty times. Years later I saw them live in Southampton in 2008, and when it came on as the encore, I was absolutely gone.
🎵 Favourite Rendition
Thunder Road
Artist: Bruce Springsteen
Year: 1975
Dad’s influence again with his love of ‘The Boss’. I nearly went with ‘No Surrender’ but this is Dad’s favourite, and the last line justifies the whole thing on its own. Springsteen builds it from almost nothing and by the end you’re convinced you could drive out of any situation. That closing line. Come on.
🎵 Favourite Rendition
Love Ire and Song
Artist: Frank Turner
Year: 2008
Ah Frank, Frank, Frank. I missed the boat entirely at uni, despite a mate who basically begged me to listen. Found him after graduation, during what I’d politely call my radical politics phase, and this was the song that got me. His early stuff became the soundtrack for most of my backpacking years. See him live if you can. He means it, and it shows.
🎵 Favourite Rendition
You Shook Me All Night Long
Artist: AC/DC
Year: 1980
My favourite rock song. That riff, those lyrics. I can’t really explain it much better than that. Three and a half minutes of exactly what classic rock is supposed to sound like. Nothing wasted. Nothing missing.
🎵 Favourite Rendition
Don’t Look Back in Anger
Artist: Oasis
Year: 1995
Can’t not have the Gallagher brothers in here. This one narrowly beats ‘Some Might Say’, mainly because I’ve ended too many nights out singing it with arms around whoever’s nearest, and it never gets old. It’s the song that makes you feel like everything’s going to be fine, even when it’s probably not. Nuff said.
🎵 Favourite Rendition
Pancho and Lefty
Artist: Townes Van Zandt
Year: 1972
My favourite country song. I can’t hear it without something pulling loose in my chest. The film it reminds me of (you’ll work it out) only makes it worse. Townes leaves half the story unspoken, and that’s where it lives. Willie and Merle did a fine version, Emmylou too, but the original is the one. Something in Townes’ voice just doesn’t translate.
🎵 Favourite Rendition
American Girl
Artist: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Year: 1976
That guitar riff is just chef’s kiss. Not sure what else to say, really. Sometimes a song is just right, and this is one of them. I have no idea what it’s actually about but I’m fully convinced it’s about my life. Windows-down song. Magic.
🎵 Favourite Rendition
Honourable Mentions
These almost made the list, and on another day, some of them might have:
- I Hope That I Don’t Fall in Love with You - Tom Waits
- Someone Like You - Adele
- Vincent (Starry Starry Night) - Don McLean
- Streets of London - Ralph McTell
- Fat Lip - Sum 41
- I Wonder - Rodriguez
- The Passenger - Iggy Pop
- Life on Mars? - David Bowie
- A New England - Billy Bragg
- Only You - Yazoo
- Torn - Natalie Imbruglia
- Cryin’ - Aerosmith
- Have You Ever Seen the Rain? - Creedence Clearwater Revival
- Sweet Child o’ Mine - Guns N’ Roses
- Piano Man - Billy Joel
- Society - Eddie Vedder
- When the Sun Goes Down - Arctic Monkeys
- Ghosts That We Knew - Mumford & Sons
- Going Underground - The Jam
- Come Up and See Me (Make Me Smile) - Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel
- Dancing in the Moonlight - Toploader
- Kryptonite - 3 Doors Down
- All Along the Watchtower - Jimi Hendrix
- Since You Been Gone - Rainbow
- Don’t Believe the Bullshit - Beans on Toast
- Angel of Small Death & the Codeine Scene - Hozier
- Don’t Know What You Got (Till It’s Gone) - Cinderella
- Making Love Out of Nothing at All - Air Supply
- It’s the End of the World as We Know It - R.E.M.
- Total Eclipse of the Heart - Bonnie Tyler
- Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin
What are your top songs? What songs/artists might I also like? Drop a comment and let me know what I’m missing!
