A Big Helping Of The Best Two Word Songs Starting With "The"
The Box Tops Made The List With Their Most Popular Hit
After figuring prominently in every video she has made, Taylor Swift surprisingly does not make even a single appearance in her new release. Or so I thought. Most fans have by now viewed the short film, so I am likely to not be a spoiler by discussing the surprise at its end.
The main character in "The Man" is a moustached guy seen alternately in a business suit, bathing trunks, and casual wear. Scene after scene portrays him as rudely self-centered, shoving by sidewalk pedestrians and invading the limited space of fellow passengers on the subway.
When it finally reached the credits we learn that npt only was Swift the director, but she was also the star in the video. A series of short clips as the song fades out reveals the process that she underwent to transform herself into appearing like "The Man."
It is rather a complex video for a song with such a simple title, one which could join an impressive list of two word tunes that begin with The. Here are two dozen of my favorites.
1. The Letter by the Box Tops
Before he founded the highly influential Big Star, Alex Chilton could be heard declaring "Give me a ticket for an aeroplane, ain't got time to a fast train."
2. The Twist by Chubby Checker
Dancing to this tune was so rampant that the next summer Checker released "Let's Twist Again."
3. The Doctor by Loudon Wainwright
" Your body is a temple not a toy" the physician explains to the folk veteran on this track from the History CD.
4. The Boxer by Simon and Garfunkel
Other than the title track, this imagery-laden ballad is the biggest hit from Bridge Over Troubled Water.
5. The Bells by Phil Ochs
Edgar Allan Poe's famous poem was applied to acoustic guitar to make a highlight of the record All The News That's Fit To Sing.
6. The Joker by the Steve Miller Band
This title track served as a pop breakthrough for the group, who had been primarily knows as a blues-rock outfit.
7. The Imposter by Elvis Costello
Get Happy made a lot of fans happy, in that it delivered clever tracks like this one and a whopping nineteen others on one disc.
8. The Knack by Squeeze
Nearly as soon as this single and the rest of Cool For Cats hit record stores, a group using this title made their debut containing "My Sharona."
9. The Highwayman by Phil Ochs
As he did with Poe's poem, the folk singer here sets chords to the Alfred Noyes classic.
10. The Way by Fastball
Aided by a all-time video as well as a catchy melody, this hit from All the Pain That Money Can Buy remained ubiquitous in 1997.
11. The Beat by Elvis Costello
Not quite as infectious as album mate "Pump It Up," this track This Year's Model is however more indicative of Costello's witty wordplay and cynical outlook.
12. The Voice by the Moody Blues
" Won't you take me back to school, I Need to learn the Golden Rule" Justin Hayward pleads on this opening smash from Long Distance Voyager.
13. The Streak by Ray Stevens
No matter how hard he tried to warn Ethel, he could not keep her eyes from beholding the unclothed runner.
14. The Brunt by Ambrosia
Everything from elephants to car horns to bicycle spokes can be heard on this track from Somewhere I've Never Travelled, which serves as a metaphor for the human rat race.
15. The Weight by the Band
Although the title nouns is never mentioned in the song, the chorus does plead to "Take the load off."
16. The Wall by Kansas
For those fans who allowed Leftoverture to play beyond opening track "Carry On Wayward Son," they were treated to the sound of this underrated track.
17. The Factory by Warren Zevon
Years after ranting about werewolves and excitable boys, Zevon found horror in the rut of working in an automobile plant on this track from Sentimental Hygiene.
18. The Sheriff by Emerson, Lake, and Palmer
Trilogy is known to the single "From the Beginning," but this gem is far from a throw-away track.
19. The Walk by the Inmates
Based on the title from debut album First Offence, this dance might be one even I could do.
20. The End by The Beatles
It took longer for the Doors to finish their End, so I went with the closing track from Abbey Road.
21. The Entertainer by Billy Joel
To follow up his first album, the piano grabbed a guitar and scored with this hit from Streetlife Serenade.
22. The Army by Ben Folds Five
Instead of enlisting in the Armed Forces, the subject of this track from Reinhold Mesner forms a band that soon kicks him out.
23. The Door by George Jones
Like many hits by the country legend, this is a tearjerker that has him bemoaning the closing of the door.
24. The Picture by Loudon Wainwright
Wainwright recalls the photo of him and his little sister, who can tell him he is okay "when he is not so sure."
