Although the lyrics of this tune are actually a little sad, you’d never know it from the good time everyone is having in this video.

It’s all about the lyrics here: “…I’m proud to be an Okie from Muskogee, a place where even squares can have a ball.”

Like most people, I thought “Philadelphia Freedom” was a salute from Elton John to America on the eve of our bicentennial. It wasn’t, but it was a damned good tune anyway.

Bruce Springsteen is a durable, beloved performer known for creating original, straight-up, un-gimmicky music with just a bit of his native New Jersey grit.

Penny Lane remains for me one of the finest songs of any genre ever written. Lennon and McCartney borrowed from the classical art song playbook.

This sweet, upbeat tune had legs of its own but it became a true phenomenon as a video in how it melded the modern band Weezer into the old TV show Happy Day“.

Paul Simon took a huge risk in putting music from South Africa on the map (during the last years of apartheid) in his “Graceland” album. We (as well as history) have been the better for it.

The real star of the video (in her brief appearance) is Billy Joel’s wife at the time, Christie Brinkley – the car, the outfit, and – oh yeah, those legs.

Chance the Rapper, a young Chicago native, is more than a “performer” — a force of nature might be a more accurate term.

These guys were all-around talents – solid instrumental licks, complex vocals, serious multi-tracking. In their sound, we all embraced the California myth.