Friday 5 April 2013

My Top Ten Shoe Songs


I could easily have gone a Top Twenty Shoe Songs... but the rules only allow ten, so I had to throw out the rest. Here are the sole survivors...


10. Arctic Monkeys - Dancing Shoes

The only reason that I came.

9. Traffic - Hole In My Shoe

Look, kids, just say no.

Of course, you may be of the generation that prefers Neil's version. Even John Peel seems to like it.

Oh no, what a really heavy bummer.

8. Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris - The New Soft Shoe

Somehow, I've managed almost a hundred Top Tens on this blog so far without any GP. Had to put that right.

See also Lambchop - The Old Gold Shoe. Because it's ace.

7. Shed Seven - Devil in Your Shoes

A forgotten classic. So good, it also made My Top Ten Devil Songs.

6. Paul Simon - Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes
And she said honey take me dancing
But they ended up by sleeping
In a doorway
By the bodegas and the lights on
Upper Broadway
Wearing diamonds on the soles of their shoes
One thing's for certain: that's no way to cure these walking blues.

5. Kirsty MacColl - In These Shoes?

Reasons we miss Kirsty, #704.
"In these shoes? I don't think so."
4. Elvis Presley - Blue Suede Shoes

Don't feel too bad for Carl Perkins who wrote and recorded this song originally. I'm sure he never went without them on his feet after Elvis took it to the top.

3. Elvis Costello - (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes

So many songs about red shoes, I could almost have given them their own Top Ten. The best came from...

Kate Bush (not sure what's more disturbing in this video, Miranda Richardson's eyebrows or the divine Ms. B's acting)

Tom Waits

and Loretta Lynn...

...but Elvis's red shoes even beat the other Elvis's blue shoes in my humble opinion. From his debut album, and his debut appearance on Top of the Pops too.

(OK, that was a cheat, but I had to shoehorn those songs in somehow.)

My grandma had a saying about women who wore red shoes... 

2. Adam Ant - Goody Two Shoes
You don't drink, don't smoke... what do you do?
Write comics and Top Tens, mostly.

1. Johnny Boy - You Are the Generation That Bought More Shoes and You Get What You Deserve

Probably a surprising choice (given the undeniable classics below), but Johnny Boy's greatest "hit" wins out for its Phil Spector swagger and for achieving the impossible: a song that sounds even better than its title.





Which are your dancing shoes?

8 comments:

  1. Ian Dury & The Blockheads - "New Boots and Panties!!"?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Would have Kirsty at #1 in this... and I bought Neil's Hole In My Shoe on 7".

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love Graceland - I could listen to it for ever BUT you have simply given me 'Tiger Feet' as an earworm. You can fall out with some people you know.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There you go again, blaming me not only for a song I didn't mention - but one that doesn't even fit the criteria! I just can't win...

      Delete
  4. KC and the Sunshine Band - Boogie Shoes! Mainly because its lighthearted...otherwise my real fave is Kirsty's In these Shoes

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sadly my boogying days are long behind me, but I've still got a lot of love for Kirsty.

      Delete

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