1000 Greatest Songs - #990 - #981

#990 - "Feelin' Alright" - Traffic - Traffic - Cocker's version is more famous and a little better, but Winwood and Traffic created a great song for him to build upon. This is the first of two Traffic songs in the top 1000.

#989 - "Come Back" - Pearl Jam - Pearl Jam - The first of a list-best 25 songs for Pearl Jam, "Come Back" is the best ballad on their "comeback" album. Frankly, I don't think they ever went anywhere, but their latest is among their best, so let the masses think what they like.

#988 - "Casey Jones" - The Grateful Dead - Workingman's Dead - The first of three Dead songs in the top 1000 is the first one that I came across during my classic rock phase (the last few years of high school and the first few years of college, which was about 1997-1999), and while it's not my favorite, it's the first glimpse I had into the Deadhead phenomenon, which I think is still a bit out of proportion, but at least they have a handful of great songs unlike, say... Phish.

#987 - "Bad Reputation" - Joan Jett And The Blackhearts - Bad Reputation - Also known as the theme song to "Freaks & Geeks", Joan's first of three songs in the top 1000 is rivaled only by The Runaways' "Cherry Bomb" (lead vocals by guess who...) as the definitive riot grrl song.

#986 - "Clash City Rockers" - The Clash - The Clash - The first of 18 songs by the Clash in this list, "Clash City Rockers" was one of their first great songs and one of the early hits of the punk genre in the 70s. I discovered this along with every other Clash single on their Greatest Hits album that I bought used on a lark while working at Citibank. Oddly enough, the reason I had heard of them was because of songs on "Combat Rock", widely regarded as their worst album.

#985 - "Fall Back Down" - Rancid - Indestructible - The first of two Rancid songs on the list and the best off of their most recent album. If this is the last we hear from Rancid, at least they went out with a bang.

#984 - "The Man Who Sold The World (Unplugged)" - Nirvana - MTV Unplugged In New York - The first of 15 songs by Nirvana to make the chart and the first of several from their classic Unplugged CD, this Bowie cover expands greatly on the original, as pretty much every song from this set did on it's original version. I received this song on cassette for Christmas of 1994 and listened to it endlessly for the next few years.

#983 - "Ruby Soho" - Rancid - And Out Come The Wolves - The second and final Rancid song to make the top 1000, "Ruby Soho" is by far the most popular, and coincidentally the best, song by one of the best punk bands of the 90s.

#982 - "Undertow" - Tool - Undertow - The first of nine Tool songs on the list, "Undertow" is one of the first great songs from the modern masters of metal.

#981 - "My Wave" - Soundgarden - Superunknown - The first of eleven Soundgarden songs to make the list and one of many from their breakthrough album, "My Wave" doesn't get the glory that "Black Hole Sun" gets, but is still in the same league as one of the great songs of the grunge era.