If you want to make New Year’s Eve sound really new, ditch your fossilized Guy Lombardo MP3 and forget about “1999,” because that’s sooo two-thousand-zero-zero. Here’s a list of 10 tunes – some classic, some recent, and obscenely obvious – we suggest for your New Year’s Eve podcast, CD, or even mixtape.
“In the Year 2525 (Exordium and Terminus),” Zaeger and Evans
This may be the greatest New Year’s anthem of all time, including the distant future. On the cosmic scale of weirdness, this song – with its predictions of mankind becoming limbless globs of flesh existing on food pills – gets a full-on 10. And musically, this one-hit wonder duo from Lincoln, Nebraska, knock it out of the park, packing the song with verse-by-verse modulations, mariachi horn flourishes, and a vocal performance that stacks crescendo atop crescendo. “In the Year 2525” sold four-million singles, hit #1 on the Billboard chart in 1969 and was nominated for science fiction’s highest honor, the Hugo Award. Even The Beatles can’t claim that troika of victory.
“Big Day Coming,” Yo La Tengo
How many alternative rock bands write love songs bristling with innocence and hope? These Hoboken heroes are masters of that game, and this 2003-released tune is a timeless anthem of both – a perfect New Year’s Eve attitude adjuster, with a gorgeous wash of guitars to boot. “Let’s be undecided/Let’s take our time,” frontman Ira Kaplan sings. “We’ll be on the outside/We won’t care/’Cause we’re together/That’s somewhere.”
“Next Year,” Foo Fighters
In 2000, Gibson six-string hero Dave Grohl’s Foo Fighters made this astronaut’s love song the final single from There is Nothing Left to Lose. With its soft notes of romance and acoustic foundation, it’s perfect to set the mood for a midnight kiss under the mistletoe. (Oops! Wrong holiday!)
“This is the Day,” The The
Englishman Matt Johnson’s operation The The has undergone all kinds of musical evolutions since he founded the project in the early ’80s, but his 1983 debut album Soul Mining remains a synth-pop classic on the same high tier as Depeche Mode’s early recordings. With its images of calendars, a sleepless night and wistful hope for the future, this song, a pure burst of melody with a slight undercurrent of melancholy, is a perfect ode for any new year.
“Monkey Dog,” O.V. Wright
If you’re hosting a New Year’s Eve party you need a great dance song that hasn’t been played out. This classic by one of the forgotten greats of American soul is perfect. It’s a dance craze number – half “the dog,” half “the monkey” – with zippy double-entendre lyrics. Best of all, Wright breaks into barking at the tune’s apex. Forget “the swim” and dive into the “Monkey Dog.”
“New Year’s Day,” U2
Too obvious? C’mon, don’t be a cynic. This number – overplayed as it is – bursts with the promise of love and a belief in the triumph of hope over hopelessness, and that’s a beautiful thing. Save your bad attitude for next December and give this song the spin it deserves.
“What are You Doing New Year’s Eve?” Ella Fitzgerald
Classic American songwriter Frank Loesser penned this popular beauty in 1947 and Fitzgerald then knocked it out of the park. Again, the theme is the desire for love and the inherent romance of New Year’s Eve, all broiled into a nugget of graceful perfection thanks to Fitzgerald’s flawless execution.
“Auld Lang Syne,” Jimi Hendrix
Hendrix kicked off the second set of the Band of Gypsys’ historic New Year’s Eve concert at New York City’s Fillmore Auditorium with this chestnut – but he roasted it! This song is the most played number at New Year’s celebrations in the U.S. and U.K., but relatively few know its origins. “Auld Lang Syne” is based on a poem written by the Scottish poet Robert Burns in 1788, which was, in turn, based on a 1711 poem by James Watson. That might be considered post-modern if it didn’t happen centuries ago. For Hendrix, it was simply the “Star-Spangled Banner” of midnight, December 31, 1969.
“New Year’s Eve,” Tom Waits
Waits’ latest album Bad As Me revisits his early, emotion-drenched ballad style with this track, a poignant account of a night full of break-ups and change, not necessarily for the better. Nonetheless, like Waits’ best meditations on the human heart, it’s bittersweet and irresistibly touching. It even includes a chorus of “Auld Lang Syne” that’s perfect for a whiskey-sodden midnight sing-along.
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