Thirteen Popular "Step" Songs
Mickey, Davy, Peter and Mike Made The List Twice
You Could Call This A Thirteen Step Program For Listening Pleasure
Once upon a time in the NBA there was a rules violation called traveling, which penalized any ball handler who took more than two steps without dribbling. It still sometimes prompts a whistle in college basketball games, but far too often NCAA officials choose to ignore the rule.
In today's version at the professional level, referees have adopted what I call the Lynyrd Skynyrd approach to the traveling call. It is "Gimme Three Steps", based on the title of the hit from the Southern rock band's first album.
While that particular tune seems the best one to describe the NBA, it is far from the best song with the word step in its title. Here are thirteen others that fit that description, including two by a singer named Elvis.
1. Watch Your Step by Elvis Costello
Side one of the Trust album ends with this warning, quite appropriate since the follow up turned out to be the country tribute Almost Blue.
2. One Step Ahead by Split Enz
The Finn brothers scored numerous hits, the most popular of which is this classic from the Waiata album.
3. I'm Not Your Stepping Stone by the Monkees
Numerous Sixties band did versions of this tune, including Jimi Hendrix, but Mickey Dolenz and his three band mates made the most enduring.
4. One Step Closer by Asia
"Only Time Will Tell" and "The Heat of the Moment" were huge hits from the self-titled debut, but this side one track is every bit as good as those two.
5. Tiny Steps by Elvis Costello
Recorded during the Get Happy sessions, this delightful tune about Cuban heels finally popped up on the Taking Liberties compilation.
6. Steppin' Out by Joe Jackson
After lamenting the importance of early MTV, Jackson's poignant video helped make this single from Night And Day huge hit.
7. Stepping Stone by the Headboys
Everybody alive in 1980 knew "The Shape of Things To Come", and those few who bothered to play the rest of the debut album would have fallen in love with this song.
8. Step Stone by Woody Guthrie
Traveling was a big part of the folk singer's life, so that very topic serves as the root of this track from Poor Boy.
9. Footsteps by Pearl Jam
Eddie Vedder and his band followed in the tracks of grunge rock, and then managed through songs like this to transcend into an entirely different genre by the mid Nineties.
10. Every Step You Take by Sting
Stalker-like lyrics have not kept the huge hit from the airwaves, even twenty doc years after its release.
11. Take a Giant Step by the Monkees
Perhaps Neil Armstrong had this hit going through his mind when, several years after its release, he walked on the moon.
12. Step On Me by the Cardigans
This band had several hits in the Nineties, including this catchy single.
13. Two Step by the Dave Matthews Band
At first glance it looks as if the noun in the title should be pluralized, until you realize it is not about moving forward or backward.
