The Rolling Stone Playlist Issue: 50 Top Musicians on the Music They Love Most
The December 9th issue of Rolling Stone — available in the online archive — features fifty artists sharing lists of top ten songs from artists and musical mini-genres that they know, and love, deeply. Highlights include Yoko Ono on her favorite John Lennon songs, My Chemical Romance’s Gerard Way on the best glam rock tunes, Win Butler on Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith on Bob Dylan’s love songs. RollingStone.com has posted these and bonus, online-only lists, with streams of many of the songs as well as audio from interviews with some of the best-known list-makers.
The playlist issue started with an idea from Roots drummer ?uestlove. We asked him to tell us his favorite songs, but he said he wanted to go deeper. “In my eyes, what defines a true artist is their filler,” he said. “I happen to like the Stevie Wonder songs that aren’t hits. I can say the same thing for Springsteen and Bob Dylan. Prince’s hits are like a red carpet that he lays out to lead you to the good stuff.”
This week we’re posting the final playlists:
• Mick Jagger on Classic Blues
• Tom Petty on the Best of the British Invasion
• Elton John on New Pop Classics
• Sheryl Crow on ’70s Singer-Songwriters
• Ice Cube on West Coast Hip-Hop
• Jackson Browne on Bruce Springsteen’s Greatest Stories