My Top 10 Canadian Singles

Last weekend's episode of CBC's The Vinyl Cafe featured the host, Stuart McLean listing off his top 10 Canadian singles of all time. Stuart McLean said that he was asked to come up with this list by Bob Mersereau, who is an arts journalist and author of the 2007 book The Top 100 Canadian Albums.

Today, I am going to present you my list of the top 10 Canadian singles of all time. Many factors were included in coming up with this list. Of course how much I like the song is a factor, as well as the amount of impact these songs have had on the Canadian music world. What I also considered in choosing these top 10 singles were how "Canadian" these songs and artists were. So here we go...

Number One: Heart of Gold by Neil Young off of his album Harvest (1972). This song if probably Neil Young's most well known song, and his album Harvest was listed as number one on Bob Mersereau's top 100 Canadian Albums list. Here's a video of him performing this song live in 1971, when this was still one of his new songs! : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh44QPT1mPE

Number Two: A Case of You by Joni Mitchell off of her album Blue (1971). This song is probably one of Joni Mitchell's most famous songs, and was in fact number two on the top 100 Canadian Album's list. Here's a link to a video on YouTube of her performing this song live (it's pretty quiet, but it's a great quality recording!): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QZioxCg20I&feature=related

Number Three: Wheat Kings by The Tragically Hip off of their album Fully Completely (1992). This was the first song that I ever heard by The Tragically Hip and it is a truly Canadian song that speaks of the vast prairies. Here's a great live, acoustic version of this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JjX-F7AFso

Number Four: Famous Blue Raincoat by Leonard Cohen off of his album Songs of Love and Hate (1971). I've always loved this song by Cohen, and it's one of my favourite's by him. Here's a great live version of this song from 1979: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrMR9lEeJEU

Number Five: Body’s in Trouble by Mary Margaret O’Hara off of her one and only album Miss America (1988). Mary Margaret O'Hara is truly amazing! She has released only one album, yet that album is up there in the top Canadian Albums list, and you could probably count the number of performances that she's done on two hands! I was lucky enough to see her perform live at the Edmonton Folk Fest a few years ago. Here's a link to the music video for this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z14wPTz6PdY

Number Six: Record Body Count by Rheostatics off of their album Melville (1991). I was introduced to Rheostatics a few years ago, and this was the first song that I heard from them. It's short, but great! Here's the promo video for this song (the quality's not too great): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_j7FUGV22I&feature=related

Number Seven: Hallelujah covered by k.d. lang off of her album Hymns of the 49^th Parallel (2004). This is an absolutely amazing, and probably the best cover of Leonard Cohen's song Hallelujah. Hallelujah is Cohen's most covered song. Here's a live version of her singing this song in 2005. She also sang this song during the Opening Ceremonies of the Vancouver Olympics: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_NpxTWbovE

Number Eight: My Favourite Chords by The Weakerthans off of their album Left and Leaving (2000). I first saw the Weakerthans perform at the Edmonton Folk Fest a few years ago and they instantly became my favourite band! I love this song because it's very simple, but also very great! Here's a link to listen to this song on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkBMpngSy3Y&feature=related

Number Nine: Underwhelmed by Sloan off of their album Smeared (1992). For some reason, Sloan seems to me like a truly Canadian band. This was the first song that I'd ever heard by this Halifax band. Here's a link to a video of the band performing this song on a TV show in 1992: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4VfIGhw4-I&feature=related.

Number Ten: Through and Through and Through by Joel Plaskett off of his album Three (2009). This is the most recent song on my list. I was lucky enough to interview Joel Plaskett at last year's Edmonton Folk Fest and this is probably my favourite song by him. It's a real "road trip" song, and it has a great music video! Here's a link to the music video for this song on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlNvx2Zl_0M

So those are just my top 10 Canadian singles of all time, or at least from 1971 to 2009. If you have any other ideas or if you'd like to share some of your favourite Canadian singles, just comment at the bottom.

So long for now!