Candidates' Top 10 Songs: Advantage McCain

Blender magazine asked Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain each to name their top 10 favorite songs:

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


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

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In the 2nd straight upset of this kind, I'm going to have to declare John McCain the winner of the pop song derby. Longtime PM readers might recall Mitt Romney's surprise victory in the TV Guide Primary a few months back.

It was a close battle, and I encourage you to cast your own vote for who has the best list. Here's my take on the candidates' picks, and why I give the edge to McCain.

Hat tip to Diana for putting these players together.

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Let me start with Barack Obama's list. My overall problem: Too cool for school. I think his list is a little too calculated. For example, everybody knows that "Let's Get it On" is the best Marvin Gaye song ever, but Obama makes the "relevant" choice, "What's Goin' on?" (Actually, taken together, the two song titles form the basis for an amusing comedy skit.)

Throughout Barack's list, he takes a well-known artist, and deliberately eschews the more popular, obvious selection. This is exactly the strategy I would employ at a party if I was trying to score points with the cool girl in the glasses. I would have gone with a few "b-sides,"one mash-up, and at least one live record. Plus, you've got to invoke this phrase at least once: "...but only on vinyl, of course."

I give him points for his 10th selection, "Yes, We Can," a song made up of snippets of his own speeches. It shows a willingness to poke fun at himself. That, and it conjures the amusing prospect of a song made up of bits from McCain speeches.

McCain, on the other hand, gets major points from me for honesty. Any guy that can cop to not one, but two ABBA songs in his top 10 is OK in my book. That's pretty much what carried the day for McCain. As a fellow ABBA guilty-pleasurer, I am forced to surmise that McCain, like me, also takes every spare moment alone that he can to chair-dance to "Lip Gloss."

Perhaps I'm reading too much into this, but is his #8 choice, "I've Got You Under My Skin," an attempt at gallows humor by the GOP nominee? McCain is known to have an odd, dark sense of humor.

Also, I think the combination of nos. 4 and 7 form a sort of "musical prayer" for McCain's electoral fortunes. "If We Make it Through December," "What a Wonderful World."

His #6 pick, "Good Vibrations," might have been a cop-out to avoid evoking his "Bomb, bomb Iran" joke, or it could have been a warning to convention protesters about the now-legendary "Poo Cannon." Warning the protesters would also explain his #10 pick, "The Smoke Gets in Your Eyes."

Although I like more of the songs on Obama's list, I thought he played it way too safe. McCain, on the other hand, gave up a very fun list, and shows decent taste in music. You can say that he benefitted from lowered expectations, but hey, that's politics.


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