I'm currently collaborating (with Mark Hasty) on a response to the dreck that is the VH1 Top 100 of the Last 25 Years. As I try to compile the songs to whittle down to a hundred ("F**k The Police" in, "Don't Know Why" out...) I find I need to define the overarching question of a list like this: What makes a song great?
I've tried to come up with a musical equivalent of the Keltner List, a litany of questions that Bill James came up with to define whether a baseball player is worthy of the Hall of Fame or not. I think this works pretty well in separating the Police from the Winger, though it doesn't help with the ranking process. Since Bill James named his list after a marginal Hall of Famer, I should name my list after a marginally good song -- The "Wonderwall" List.
