The Himalayas

This section of Michael's website presents a list of songs which he has identified since the 1950's which attain the level of masterpiece for him.

The list takes the form of a table with a number of properties for each song.  The most important property or "field" is Rating.  This is the score that Michael has assigned to the song, reflecting its level of quality for him.  The following explains rating scores:

2 = don't like

3- = like

3 = really like

3+ = masterpiece

4 = orgasmic

5 = cosmic

The songs in the table are just those of levels 3+ or better.  The table is sorted so that the highest level (the 5's) comes first, followed by the 4's, and then the 3+'s.  Michael refers to songs of levels 3+ and better as "Himalayas."

The other fields in the table are fairly self-explanatory, e.g. Artist, Song, and Record.  Version is occasionally filled in when a special version of a song is listed.  The values for Version are abbreviated to a maximum of three characters.

When Record contains "=" that means that the record has the same name as the artist.

Format is blank when the song comes from a vinyl LP; otherwise it is filled in to give the type of source recording, such as

CD = compact disc

C5 = 5-inch CD single

C3 = 3-inch CD single

CA = cassette

CS = cassette single

12 = 12-inch vinyl single

7 = 7-inch vinyl single (generally 45 RPM but not always)

10 = 10-inch vinyl single

MP = mp3

Survey captures when Michael collected the item.  Survey 1 covers the period from the mid-1950's to 1974 (when Michael began documenting his song ratings).  Each survey after that covers 6 months.  For example, 2005 contained surveys 60 and 61.

Ins is "I" when the song is an instrumental, and Liv is "L" when the song is from a live performance.

The songs are sorted by artist within rating level, and by song title within artist.

So, here are the Himalayas!