The WRIF air staff is looking through the music catalog and picking their favorite tunes A-Z. There’s only so much time each day to listen to your favorite tunes, and when you break down a 60 minute hour you can play your favorite 3:30 song about 17 times OR you can listen to a bunch of new music. Make sure you let us know your favorite songs from all these bands and hopefully we’re sharing some new tunes with you as well! This time around we’re starting with the letters C, D and E.
Candlebox:
Meltdown: “Change” and “Cover Me”.
Jade Springart: “Far Behind”. An obvious choice, but such a great classic song.
Aimee Brooks: “Change”.
Steve Black: “Far Behind” is my favorite and the live version even more so. The vibe and energy just found a new level that night.
Cort Freeman: “Far Behind” is my favorite by Candlebox. It’s a gut punch of nostalgia.
James Campbell: “You”
Anne Erikson: “Far Behind” – Can’t beat the hits!
Jonel Jaksa: “You”. I always thought this was such a heavy song. Melodically and lyrically.
Nathan Franklin: “Change”.
Collective Soul:
Meltdown: “The World I Know” – Great song. Singer Ed Rolland told me he wrote that song while walking through NYC on the way to meet a girl. At least that my recollection.
Jade Springart: “Where The River Flows”. Just a great song and one that isn’t played as often.
Aimee Brooks: “Heavy”. It reminds me of getting up at 5am for my first on air shift. I think the song came on every weekend to usher me into work.
Steve Black: I’m going with “Heavy” because I love what they did production-wise with the rhythm guitar switching its placement in the mix and combining them into a single pattern.
Cort Freeman: “The World I Know” is a classic that brings you back. Good for the end of the night after the party where you’re trying to shake it all off and just chill and relax the mind so you can hopefully get some sleep.
James Campbell: “The World I Know”
Anne Erikson: “Shine” – Wow. What a mammoth song. This is just a beautiful alt-rock song from one of my favorite eras of music.
Jonel Jaksa: “Where the River Flows”. Great riff. This song still hits hard.
Nathan Franklin: “December”.
Alice Cooper:
Meltdown: “The Ballad of Dwight Frye”, “Go To Hell”, “Dead Babies” ….I could go on and on.
Jade Springart: Hard for me to choose one. I am a HUGE Alice Cooper fan. As for favorite, it’s a tossup between “Welcome To My Nightmare” and “Only Women Bleed”. Both songs have such a great tune and rhythm but also the lyrics are just fantastic.
Aimee Brooks: “The Ballad of Dwight Fry”.
Steve Black: Uncle Alice is probably my all-time favorite artist so I cannot pick just one! However, in the spirt of cooperation (and time) I’ll take “Desperado” a song I always wanted to cover but never got around to it. Honorable mention to “Didn’t We Meet”, “Some Folks” and “Generation Landslide”.
Cort Freeman: “School’s Out” was always the perfect jam to kickoff summer and celebrate the end of the school year. Great idea for a song because it’ll be timeless. Marketing team had to have been stoked.
James Campbell: “School’s Out”
Jonel Jaksa: “Under My Wheels”. Alice has so many classics. Always loved the intro to this song and then it proceeds to rock from start to finish. It always reminded me of a David Bowie song.
Anne Erikson: “School’s Out”
Nathan Franklin: “No More Mr. Nice Guy”. I loved this song ever since I was a kid. I used to have this song playing in the background as I would play basketball alone outside, thinking I was tough because it was on.
Creed:
Meltdown: “Higher”, “What’s This Life For”, “One”.
Jade Springart: Of COURSE I owned My Own Prison and Human Clay. This band got a lot of hate, but we all know and love the songs. As a favorite, I’ll have to go with “My Own Prison.”
Aimee Brooks: “What if”. I secretly like this song.
Steve Black: I still find “What’s This Life For” to be haunting. I’m a much bigger Alter Bridge fan but I’m still glad the band still does shows from time to time.
Cort Freeman: It’s nearly impossible to use the phrase “With Arms Wide Open” and not sing it like Creed. Totally own the phrase now and that’s impressive.
James Campbell: “Higher” – This was my favorite song to do on karaoke night back in the day.
Anne Erikson: “My Own Prison”. I love Creed! They were totally my gateway band into finding more rock music. I heard Creed before I heard Nirvana. This is the first song I heard from them.
Jonel Jaksa: “Unforgiven”. I wasn’t the biggest Creed fan, but this one is a rocker. Mark Tremonti kills it on this tune.
Nathan Franklin: “With Arms Wide Open”.
The Cult:
Jade Springart: “She Sells Sanctuary”
Meltdown: “Sweet Soul Sister”, “Edie”, “Wild Hearted Son”. Another band I could rip off song after song. I have a lot of Cult on vinyl and play them often.
Aimee Brooks: I can’t pick. Impossible. I have a Cult tattoo, I learned to play guitar by learning the catalog. They’ve been my favorite since I was 12. This would be my “Sophie’s Choice”. (google it)
Steve Black: I have a few likes here as well, but my fav is still “Edie (Ciao Baby)”.
Cort Freeman: “Fire Woman” which was one of our 101 Riffs of Summer.
James Campbell: “She Sells Sanctuary”.
Anne Erikson: “Wild Flower”.
Jonel Jaksa: “Lil’ Devil”. Huge fan of The Cult. Billy Duffy had riffs for days. “Lil’ Devil” was always a personal fav. Great, bluesy feel and lyrics to match.
Nathan Franklin: “Wild Flower”.
Deep Purple:
Jade Springart: One of the greatest riffs of all time! “Smoke On The Water”.
Meltdown: “Anything off of Perfect Strangers. Killer album!
Aimee Brooks: “Hush”
Steve Black: “Child In Time”. It’s not for everyone but I remember seeing them back in 1984 at Atwood Stadium in Flint and being blown away. I recall the goosebumps I got when they played that song. I had never heard it before but looked it up soon after and added it to my record collection. Honorable mention to “Burn”.
Cort Freeman: “Smoke On The Water”, wish I could say something unique, but c’mon…
James Campbell: “Smoke on the Water” – I got one of my highest scores on Guitar Hero playing this song on hard.
Anne Erikson: “Smoke on the Water”
Jonel Jaksa: “Highway Star”. I was reminded how much I loved this song when it was used in the Bruce Campbell TV series Ash Vs The Evil Dead in 2015. Fantastic use of a great classic rock tune as Ash Williams hops into his 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88 Royale to go fight the undead. Good stuff.
Nathan Franklin: “Smoke on the Water”. To me this song has always been one of the most legendary guitar opens/riffs. All I need is the guitar, but the rest of the song just enhances it. I tried to play guitar as a kid solely because of this song.
Def Leppard:
Jade Springart: “Bringing on the Heartbreak”.
Meltdown: Very early DL is in my wheelhouse. I like their stuff, but the material before they became overly produced in the mid-80s is my favorite.
Aimee Brooks: “Let It Go”
Steve Black: “Let It Go”. The High & Dry album was my first Leppard album so most of my favorites are on it. I could have gone with 3 or 4 others but “Let it Go” is such a great way to start off a record.
Cort Freeman: “Hysteria” would have to be my pick. Love me a good slow jam.
James Campbell: “Pour Some Sugar on Me”
Anne Erikson: “Animal”. I love this song so much! It’s probably my favorite song from that era. It has an anthemic rock sound that you don’t hear often in that kind of arena rock music.
Jonel Jaksa: “Rock of Ages”. This might be the first Def Lep song I was introduced to. Early MTV played the heck out of this one back in the day. Also, kicking off the song with a Germanic-sounding count-off that doesn’t translate to anything? Priceless. “Gunter, glieben, glauten, globen”, indeed.
Nathan Franklin: “Photograph”. I like it over “Pour Some Sugar on Me” or others because of the pace of the notes. To me, this song is beautifully constructed.
Dio:
Jade Springart: “Rainbow In The Dark”.
Meltdown: Another artist I could list off several songs. “We Rock”, “Last In Line”, “Hungry for Heaven”, “Straight Through The Heart”, “Mystery”, “Evil Eyes”….many!
Aimee Brooks: “Rainbow in the Dark”. Knowing the title of this song got me free beer for the night at the German American Festival. Easiest free beer ever!
Steve Black: “Shame on the Night”. To me that was the song from the Holy Diver album that sounded most like Rainbow. It still stands out to me as a “different place” on a phenomenal record.
Cort Freeman: “Rainbow In The Dark” is a great riff.
James Campbell: “Holy Diver”
Anne Erikson: “Holy Diver”
Jonel Jaksa: “Holy Diver”. The title track of Dio’s debut album is still top notch. It’s musically like a march towards the unknown. For some reason I always envisioned crusaders on horseback galloping into battle when I hear this. Weird imagery, right? Speaking of imagery, the Holy Diver album cover remains an all-time fav of mine.
Nathan Franklin: “Holy Diver”.
Disturbed:
Jade Springart: Hard to choose one Disturbed song. I’ve listened to them for so long and have seen them so many times. I have an inside joke with one of my best friends that involves “10,000 Fists” so I have to go with that one.
Meltdown: I love their covers for the most part. Also, “Prayer”, “Indestructible”, “The Vengeful One” and more
Aimee Brooks: “Land of Confusion” Cover.
Steve Black: “Ten Thousand Fists” is a Rock & Roll anthem. Imagine how cool that must look from the stage to see 10,000 fists in the air.
Cort Freeman: Their cover of “The Sound Of Silence” is incredible and so different than the rest of their stuff. It really highlights their talent.
James Campbell: “Down With the Sickness”
Anne Erikson: “Prayer”. It’s one of the first Disturbed songs that I ever heard. I totally fell in love with the sound and meaning the moment I heard it.
Jonel Jaksa: “Stricken”. Great hook. Just the right amount of heavy. Amazing vocals from David Draiman and a solid guitar solo by Dan Donegan.
Nathan Franklin: “Down With the Sickness”. I’ll admit it. Being 25 years old, I knew this song as the “Oohh Waahahaa” song until I was a teenager. I love the tempo and the passion in the song.
Extreme:
Jade Springart: I’ll be honest, I don’t know a ton of Extreme. Their new one is a ripper though. “Other Side Of The Rainbow”.
Meltdown: “Get The Funk Out”, “Hole Hearted” and others. The new album seems pretty decent. Nuno is a God among us mere mortals.
Aimee Brooks: “Kid Ego”. I didn’t pay much attention to the band until I saw Nuno Bettencourt. I know I’m not alone.
Steve Black: “Rest in Peace” showcases the band’s vocal talents, arrangements, and includes strings. Nice touch.
Cort Freeman: “More Than Words” is one of the greatest ballads of all-time.
James Campbell: “More Than Words” – Do they have any other songs?
Anne Erikson: “More Than Words” – That song is just a beauty. It’s truly the perfect rock ballad.
Jonel Jaksa: “Decadence Dance”. Man, did I enjoy Extreme. Nuno Bettencourt is such a talented player. Loved this when I heard it as the first single off their 1990 album, Extreme II: Pornograffiti, and I still think it’s one of their best songs.
Nathan Franklin: “More Than Words”.
