1. The End- The Beatles

• "And in the end, the love you take, is equal to the love you make." While "Her Majesty" is the last song on "Abbey Road", "The End" serves as the album's musical climax. You can't really talk about this song in an isolated sense because it serves as the exclamation point on a musical score. While the first half (or so) of "Abbey Road" is made up of individual songs the better part of the second half is made up of songs that blend into one another (and borrow themes used previously on the album). It is fair to say that on "The End" The Beatles decide to give the drummer some. In the first part of the song we get to hear Ringo bang out a solo. Where else in The Beatles catalogue do we get to hear that? I don't care if it sounds like a drum solo I could perform with a little practice- it's iconic. If you know of any albums that are better than "Abbey Road" I'm all ears.

2. Who's The Mack?- Ice Cube

• "Straight gangsta mack. Who's the mack? Is it some brother in a big hat, thinking he can get any b*tch with a good rap, rolling in a f*cked up Lincoln, leaning to the side so it looks like he's sinking." In 1990 Ice Cube dropped the cargo known as N.W.A. and started making all the dough. The gangsta rapper teamed up with Public Enemy's Bomb Squad production team to release "Amerikkka's Most Wanted". The album is fast paced, hard hitting and Ice Cube is on the attack. "Who's The Mack?" stands out stylistically for sounding a good bit different than the rest of the album. Here we have a slow, smooth, laid back beat with a flute for extra flavor. The flute must have caught the ear of one Dr. Dre as he used it a few years later (see "Let Me Ride", "Lil' Ghetto Boy") on his "The Chronic" album. The great sample here is Shock G as Humpty Hump- "straight gangsta mack" from "The Humpty Dance". If you peep the "Who's The Mack?" video on YouTube you can see Ice Cube rock the jheri curl.

3. Magazine Called Sunset- Wilco

• "There's a magazine called sunset, and a tape machine that won't let, me ever forget this impossible longing for you. Or I'm a future fallout standing, in the present erase our phantom." The best artists know their best work from the rest of their work. Such is the case with Wilco and "Magazine Called Sunset". Recorded as a part of the sessions that produced "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" this song appeared in the documentary film "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart: A Film About Wilco" and the "More Like the Moon" EP. It did not make the final cut for "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot". The film "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart" chronicles the struggles Wilco endured to release "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot". Nonesuch records saves the day after the band is dropped from their label. In a "what have you done for me lately" world, Wilco announced earlier this year that they were parting ways with Nonesuch to do their own thing.