My apologies

Ummmm, this is awkward. It turns out that giving you great people a million song playlist doesn't work for my girlfriend, Amber, or my immediate family. 500 songs a day would probably take about 6 hours a night to prepare, and I would have to do this every day, non-stop, for the better part of 5 years. It's just too much time to put into something as trivial as a playlist.

So with that being said, I'm going back to the original plan of Fugazzi Grand ! Tomorrow night, you will get the top 20 songs that did not make the final list. Let me tell you a little bit more about Fugazzi Grand....

Back in 1999, I made a playlist of my top 100 songs of all time, and recorded them on cassettes. I recently re-created that playlist and saved it in my iTunes library, and have been enjoying it ever since. It got me thinking how much my tastes have changed in 11 years. So I thought it would be fun to do it again, only bigger. Back in 1999, Billy Joel had 20 songs in the top 100. He now has 53 songs in Fugazzi Grand, meaning he went from comprising 20% of the list down to 5.3%. Does that mean I like Billy Joel less now than I did 11 years ago? Absolutely not. It means I've expanded by musical taste buds. Alanis Morissette had 3 of 100 songs on my list in 1999, and now has 2 of 1000 in Fugazzi Grand. Does it mean I like Alanis Morissette less now? This is a bad example, because, yes, I like her less now. But I like 2 songs enough to include her on the list.

This list is not a "greatest hits" compilation. The list consists of 100 ten song playlists that build from song number 1000 to the eventual number 1 song. I tried to create a nice build up from 1000 to 1. Don't look to closely at the actual rankings of individual songs, because it's so hard to determine how much better I like #785 over #793, and I was trying to create a nice flow from song to song. I can tell you that any of the top 4 songs could have been #1. I went back and forth, and actually changed my #1 song several different times.

As promised, there is no Kiss, Nickelback, Bon Jovi, Richard Marx, or Jewel. There are also a ton of very talented artists that did not make the list. Not because I don't like them, I just couldn't put them in the top 1000. I'd rather you read on to see who did and didn't make the list, rather than alienate someone by saying a certain favorite is not included. There is plenty of Billy Joel, the Beatles, Elton John, Elvis Costello and Weezer. Those five artists will make up around 16% of the selected songs.

I want to reiterate that this is not my list of what I think the top 1000 songs are of all time. It's a list of my favorites. I'm not trying to stump you, or trying to impress anyone. I'm simply sharing my preferences with you, and hope I can entertain you, and introduce you to some great music. I hope to get good feedback from you, and would love to hear what you are listening to.

I have some people to thank. There are plenty of good people that make a list like this possible. These people have all introduced different kinds of music to me over the years, and I hope I've introduced some good stuff to them....

Todd Kemper, Tiffany Herrera, Matt Schewe, James Redding, Bobby Tanzilo, Stephanie Awe, Kevin Schneider, Howard Goldstein, Scott Radke, Mike Moser, Andy Fefer, Holly Wines, Jamie Armata, Allen Russell, Amber Koloske, my mom, dad, sister, and Paste Magazine (and anyone else I'm leaving out).

Come back tomorrow night for the top 20 songs that did not make the list, and Saturday night for the official premier of Fugazzi Grand !!