WXPN List 2023

WXPN 885 Best Songs

Top Songs By Women

Philadelphia, PA

December 2023

Each year, this radio station collects a list of best songs.  This year, the theme was Best Female Artists. And the general audience was encouraged to submit their top 10 songs.  Here is what I submitted.

• Joni Mitchell-Two Grey Rooms
• Joni Mitchell & Willie Mitchell- Water
• Joni Mitchel & Peter Gabrielle-My Secret Place
• Carol King- Tapestry
• Wendy Waldman-Love is the Only Goal
• Lana Del Ra- Let Me Be A Woman to You
• Patti LaBelle-New Attitude
• Robert Flack-First Time
• Nicolette Larson- Lotta Love

Favorite Albums

 Top Ten Favorite Albums

I used to buy albums all the time.  I bought my first album when I was 11.  It was a Mamas & the Papas album.  I paid $3 for it.  Since then, I've purchased thousands of vinyls  cassettes, and CDs. And most of them are all gone now. I gave them away, threw them away, left them behind with various moves.

And once music began to be streamed, I didn't buy music anymore.  And now that everyone can load their music up on youtube, there are just so many damn musicians to follow.  So I never, ever listen to albums anymore.  I know one or two songs per musician.  I don't buy music and it's an effort to keep up with the bombardment of options.

Blue - Joni Mitchell- My sister and I bought this album together.  And when she went off to college, she took it with her. But somehow I got it back and held on to it until 2021.  Then I gave it to my friend who still has a turntable.  It was hard to surrender to him.

Court and Spark- Joni Mitchell.- I would put this album on, pull the bar that allowed the album to buy forever and take a nap.  Someone from my dorm floor wold knock on the door after a while, barge it and change the album.  I guess listening to the same album side 10 times is more than some people can bear.

Rubber Soul- the Beatles- my grandparetns gave me this album as a chrisstmas gift in 1965.  I still have it. I cant play it because I dont have a turntable.  But i just cant give it up.

Italian Album- I bought this album in the spring of 1973 when I was a senior in high school and I was on a class trip to Italy.  We had a fantastic time and our guide played this album every time we got on the bus.  All 22 of us left with a copy of this album and we treated the album as if it was bad out of gold.

Hot August Night- Neil Diamond- my grandparents introduced me to this album.  They listened to it at my uncles house and came home and gave us a copy.  And now, 50 years later, I still like to listen to these songs.

Tea for the Tillerman- Cat Stevens - I loved his albums when I was in college. Then he wandered away from the mainstream and became a bit unAmerican and I lost interest in him.

Tapestry- Carol King- I got this album during the summer of 1970 and I listened to it every day, all day for over a year.

The Healing Game- Van Morrison- it's really hard to pick just one album from Van because he has been so prolific and his music has resonated with me.  But I think this is my favorite of his collection.

Miles of Aisles- Joni Mitchell- I'm not sure I should add this album because it is a collection of her greatest hits. But every song is great.

Nick of Time- Bonnie Raitt- I can't remember when I became a big fan but this woman has released some great albums and great songs.  She just released a song, Just Like That which won some of the year and it was well deserved.

Joni Mitchell

Joni Mitchell

I have an obsession with Joni Mitchell.  I have been a fan of hers ever since 1971 when I was in the 10th grade.  My sister just bought the Blue album and friends of hers came over to listen to it. They were in the den and I was invite in to listen with them.  I felt like I had entered a whole new world of adulthood.  I did, however, feel quite foolish when I asked why she wrote a song to her father.  My sister had to explain to me that My Old Man was her lover, not her father.  And with that explanation, all of my confidence of being cool vanished.

In college, I loved the Court and Spark Album.  I played in continuously on my cheap mono stereo. One day, I was stretched out on my dorm bed and I had the album playing.  The stereo arm was extended so the album would play and play and play to my heart's content.  After about the fourth time, someone from across the hall charged in to my room and turned the music off.   She didn't say a word to me and I didn't protest because she made a very good point.

In 1976, I was at the Brandywine River Museum and I heard Song For Sharon, a new song off her Hejira album. I ran out and got the album on my way home.

I found a CD that plays 10 different versions of Big Yellow Taxi.  Each version is so different that I love to hear all ten songs over and over again.  My favorite is the jazz edition.

When I got the Chalk Mark in the Rain Storm album, I immedialtey loved her duet with Willie Nelson.  When I went to work the next day, I wanted to tell my friend Mary Beth, also a Joni fanatic about this new album.  She already knew about it and said, "And you just have to be in love with Cool Water.  Don't you just love Willie Nelson's part?"

Man to Man is a song that spoke to me.  We all have unattainable love, someone who just can't be ours.  I listened to this song so many times, I had to stop before it made me depressed.

One year, two albums were released, Hits came out first. Then Misses was released. It annoyed me that anyone would refer to any of her songs as missed hits.

In 2000, she released her highly orchestrated album Both Sides Now. By this time, years of smoking had reduced her voice to a deeper, more serious octave. And the cover song mesmerized me. 

In 2003, I had a few rough weeks at work.  One of my colleagues wanted to give me something to cheer me up.  So he made me a compilation of Joni covers.  Cyndi Lauper sang Carey. I loved this compilation and listen to it every day for three years.  I lost the CD a few years back and still find myself looking for it from time to time.

I stopped buying CDs around 2008.  I had enough music to last me a lifetime and I wasn't listening to  much of my library.  But I was still buying Joni's music. I purchased her last album, Love Has Many Faces and I paid $50 for the 4 CD packet.  It pained me to pay that much money but it was Joni so I really didn't have any other choice.  However, I hate to play it because I don't want to damage it. So it sits with the rest of my collection which serves as my shrine to the only person who owns so much of my musical interest and heart.