The Songs of the Century

Dimitris, our dear friend and correspondent from Greece, informs fellow tribers of a new book published in his country by Yiannis Petridis – a very well known and respected radio producer/record company manager/music genius – and his business partner
Kostas Zougris.

The book is called “The songs of the
Century” and contains 2004 songs from the
1910’s up to 2000’s. It is worth mentioning that Yiannis Petridis is one of the 500 members of the American “Rock and Roll Hall of Fame” institution (and has the right to
vote there) and that he was inducted in it by his dear friend, the very familiar to all Madonna fans
Seymour Stein.

As you can see by the scan below, Madonna is featured on the cover of the book with her “Like a Prayer” single cover.

The author says in the book’s prologue:
“It was not easy to pick the best songs that we
have listened to during the last 100 years. In order to get to the final list we had to listen to thousands of songs from the beginning of the 20th century. Meanwhile we read a great amount of books from well respected authors in order to comprehend the importance of each song – especially the ones that were recorded way before we were born. Our radio show listeners played an important role in compiling this list since for the past 28 years we have taken our show listeners’ suggestions very seriously. It would be a lie if we do not accept the fact that the list is highly influenced by our own preferences but the main criteria of choice for the songs was the amount of social, artistic and commercial success each song had when it was released and for the years after. There are many songs (especially from the rock field) that are not included. A future list is not out of the question though.
Yiannis Petridis & Kostas Zougris.”

In the 2004 list 12 Madonna songs are included. Here they are, in alphabetical order:
Crazy for You, Frozen, Holiday, Into the Groove, Like a Prayer, Like a Virgin, Live to Tell, Material girl, Papa don’t Preach, Take a Bow, True Blue and Vogue.

Each song has a small paragraph under its title
with facts or historical comments. Madonna ranks in 8th place according to the songs’ performers and how many songs they have in the complete list.

Here is the list of the performers ranked by how many songs they have in the list – Madonna is once again the top female artist in a list of this kind:

1) Beatles (31)
2) Bing Crosby (28)
3) Frank Sinatra (20)
4) Elvis Presley (19)
5) Glenn Miller (17)
6) Rolling Stones (15)
7) Nat King Cole (13) / Benny Goodman (13)
8) Marvin Gaye (12) / Madonna (12) / Paul Whiteman (12)
9) Guy Lombardo (11) / Stevie Wonder (11)
10) Michael Jackson (10) / Elton John (10)
11) Louis Armstrong (9) / Fred Astaire (9) / Tommy
Dorsey (9) / Aretha Franklin (9) / Supremes (9)

Here’s what they say about “Crazy for You” and “Frozen”:

Crazy for You (1985)

Crazy for you played an important role in Madonna’s career since it established her as a ballad singer along with her success in the dance
floor. CFY was heard in the movie Vision Quest and
when the song writers heard from the producers that Madonna was going to sing it they couldn’t
believe their ears because CFY was totally different
from what Madonna had sung since then. CFY put Madonna in alternative radio stations’ play lists in USAmany of which never played a Madonna song before.

Frozen (1998)

By 1998 Madonna’s image had changed
dramatically! Many important occasions changed her
life, like the birth of her daughter and her Golden
Globe for Evita. All these gave her another perspective and helped her grow even greater distance from the Material girl image. Her love for electronic music led her back to William Orbit, the producer of Frozen. This song is inspired by the movie “Sheltering Sky”.

Special thanks to our Team member Dimitris