12. “A Hazy Shade of Winter” by the Bangles
“A Hazy Shade of Winter” was first recorded and released as a single by Simon & Garfunkel in 1966, about a year-and-a-half before it took up residence deep on Side Two of their album Bookends. The song charted at #13 for the duo, making it their fifth straight entry in the Billboard Top 40. Around twenty years later, the Bangles were recruited to contribute a song for a movie soundtrack, because it was the eighties and that was what happened then. The band was still basking in the enormous success of their 1986 breakthrough release, Different Light, so they were an ideal choice to provide music to Less Than Zero. The movie itself had huge expectations attached to it, thanks to its source material novel standing as the sort of literary sensation now reserved for young adult adventure romances (and even creepier books that purport to ratify the existence of Heaven). The Bangles chose to cover a song that had been part of their repertoire for a while and delivered a surprisingly tough version of “Hazy Shade of Winter.” It wound up as one of the band’s biggest hits, peaking at #2 on the Billboard charts, just like “Manic Monday.” I have a friend who never let any natural opportunity pass to inform those around them that he saw the Bangles play this song live in concert and that their version was far better than Simon & Garfunkel’s. I realize that’s not an incredibly interesting anecdote, but members of my tribe were probably expecting it to be here, so here it is.

11. “The One I Love” by R.E.M.
There’s no question that “The One I Love,” the lead single from Document, is the demarcation point between the first and second phases of R.E.M.’s long career. They had absolutely ruled college radio throughout much of the eighties, but it wasn’t until this song, off of their fifth studio album, that everyone else decided they really needed to take notice. With that, it was the proverbial floodgate. The band didn’t just make their first appearance on the cover of Rolling Stone, but they were dubbed “America’s Best Rock & Roll Band” on that cover. They’d had only meager attention from commercial radio previously–even “Fall on Me,” which I erroneously think of a track that nearly crossed over, stalled out at an unimpressive #94 on the Billboard chart–which didn’t hinder “The One I Love” as it became the band’s first Top 10 hit. Document also proved to be R.E.M.’s last for I.R.S. records, and they moved on to major label Warner Bros. by the next year’s Green. They didn’t exactly become chart stalwarts after this, with only three more Top 10 songs and none as high as that after 1991. R.E.M. was still the artist that best represented how college rock could graduate to the big time (or at least quasi-big time) and still keep it’s independent spirit.

Previously…
An Introduction
40 and 39: “4th of July” and “Bizarre Love Triangle”
38 and 37: “Heartbreak Beat” and “Not My Slave”
36 and 35: “Alone Again Or” and “Absolute Perfection”
34 and 33: “Love Removal Machine” and “The Passenger”
32 and 31: “It’s Still Warm” and “Hourglass”
30 and 29: “Alex Chilton” and “We Care a Lot”
28 and 27: “Crazy” and “It’s a Sin”
26 and 25: “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” and “Rules and Regulations”
24 and 23: “Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before” and “Twenty Killer Hurts”
22 and 21: “We Close Our Eyes” and “Please”
20 and 19: “Rain in the Summertime” and “Behind the Wheel”
18 and 17: “The Sweetest Thing” and “Rent”
16 and 15: “Is It Really So Strange?” and “The Motion of Love”
14 and 13: “Where the Streets Have No Name” and “No New Tale to Tell”