Bath - Harry Nilsson

We've spoken about the illustrious Harry Nilsson before. His refusal to perform live. How he almost became a member of The Beatles. How his voice is one of the Greatest Gifts to Pop Music Ever.

Bath, the final track on Nilsson's third album Aerial Ballet is one of the greatest album closers of all time. It clocks in at just under two minutes, and is filled with jazzy rag piano, storming brass sections, and some of the best high notes Harry has ever hit. There are few better ways to end an album than a rag belter about having your faith in mankind restored after a late night visit to a brothel. Hell, it's a great ending soundtrack to pretty much anything. If ever I feel the need to pull down the shutters on That Song Blog forever (which I promise is not something in any way forthcoming), I'm going to embed some code so that every page you go to plays this song on an infinite loop. So it shall be.

Centerfold - The J. Geils Band

It's sunny as all get out this week in London. I have an affliction that tends to become quite pronounced in warm weather: I uncontrollably listen to enormous amounts of cheesy pop music- and it doesn't get much cheesier than Centerfold by The J. Geils Band. But damn it! If I'm going to listen to this stuff then SO ARE YOU.

Centerfold has one of the most memorable organ hooks in pop music. A bit bluesy, a bit americana, a bit glossy eighties pop rock, and every inch an unstoppable ear worm. The song may or may not have been written about lead singer Peter Wolf's at the time girlfriend, actress Angel Tompkins- it's never been totally confirmed but seems to fit.

Either way, allow this bouncing pop rendition of one man's mental anguish over his childhood sweetheart's Playboy debut to soundtrack your sunny afternoon out. Or in. Whatever. The hook is taking over my braiNAH NAH NAHNAHNAHNAH NAH NAH NAH NANANAHNANAHNAH

Mr. Richland's Favourite Song/One - Harry Nilsson

Harry Nilsson famously refused to ever perform live. Despite being gifted with an acrobatic golden voice and an ear for picking, plucking and perfecting pop songs of many genres, he simply would not do it.

There's a fair amount of speculation as to why such a talented artist would refuse to go on the road. Some simply chalk it up to nerves, others ego. Nilsson himself described it as not wanting to have to be 'on' for an audience. He said it was the job of other musicians to tour- not his.

Out of this blanket refusal came the 1971 BBC special The Music Of Nilsson. The BBC offered Harry full control over the studio space while recording live solo renditions of a number of his songs, alongside a few doctored with effects (such as a triple tracked harmony piece shown as three Nilsson's singing at a piano or fake audience sound effects).

The performance is a virtuoso showcase of Harry's talents, as can be seen in today's Best Song Ever- the medley of Mr. Richland's Favorite Song and Nilsson's famous hit One.

In just a little over three and a half minutes Harry allows his piano to twirl and tangle city streets and nightclubs around your ears as he sets down the fall of a pop singer to a blues rag. When he nimbly glides into the chorus of One, it becomes the song sung by the ill fated protagonist. Finally, as he draws the tale to a close he finishes with one of the Best Scat Solos Ever, a perfect balance of flair and elegance.

Sadly this record of Nilsson's live abilities has yet to be released in any official format. Forunately the good folks over at For The Love Of Harry have collated streaming and downloadable versions of the video alongside mp3's of the whole set for free.

Code Monkey - Jonathan Coulton

You probably know Jonathan Coulton. In some circles he is not just a musician, he is the musician. If nothing else you have almost certainly heard his contribution to the video game Portal: the ending song 'Still Alive,' which (while totally awesome) has gone viral-with-rabies and has since been mostly put down.

Coulton is an insanely prolific song writer. His 'Thing A Week' podcast ran from late 2005 to 2006 in which each week he would write and record a new song and release them into the wilds of the Internet. Simply managing to stick to the schedule would have been impressive in and of itself, but what's really staggering is how good every composition is. Coulton has cracked the art of the pop song in a head spinning myriad of styles and genres. From folky turns (A Talk With George) to choral ballads (When You Go) to manic acousti-punk (I Feel Fantastic) every song has slick arrangements and a decidedly powerful case of earworms (that's one of the most unpleasant compliments I've ever delivered). Every song causes itches of familiarity in your brain even upon a first listen because of how well they have cribbed, twisted and built upon the lexicon of popular music.

Coulton often gets branded as both a novelty musician and a geek-rock hero. In many ways these two titles are interlinked, and both are largely unhelpful in describing his music. He does look at social and pop culture touchstones which have become part of wider Geek culture (Cthulu-esque beasts, programming, math, zombies). Combine this with his initial breakthrough online and you have a match made in tech-pop-nerd heaven.

However taking Geek ephemera and singing about it does not necessarily make for awesome listening. The reason Coulton's numbers have become so popular and even beloved is because he has a remarkable ability for marrying the mundane with the epic in well observed ways. For example take 'Re: Your Brains' which frames the zombie apocalypse in an interoffice e-mail from the zombies to the survivors. Or 'Ikea' which turns a song about the flatpack furniture store into a power pop ballad about Vikings and home decorating. They are anthems for the everyday.

And they will make you laugh, which is where the novelty label rears its head. I think there's a tendency (and it's one true of many art forms but seems to come up particularly often with music) where if a song is funny we will often consider it to be a less valid piece of work. And Coulton is very funny (I've had to switch off listening to him in the background while writing this because of that problem). Yet he always marries the comedic with the heartfelt, the songs are funny because we recognize elements of ourselves in them (whether it's the cheerfully honest diplomatic e-mail sent from the zombies or in lines like 'You ruined everything in the nicest way.') It's because of this that in the Official Pantheon of Songwriters (definitely a real thing), Coulton seems less of a Weird Al Yankovich and more of a Loudon Wainwright.

All of this can be seen in today's Best Song Ever: 'Code Monkey.' The song is one of Coulton's better known numbers and a great slice of pop-punk. If nothing else, writing a song which will have you fist pumping along to the daily trials of a computer programmer is an accomplishment worthy of going on a tombstone. The fact that he knocked the song out in a week is just the icing on the cake.

Beatles Medley - Hank Handy

Continuing the Mashup Mood, today we have Hank Handy's Beatles Medley. The track takes segments from over forty separate Beatles songs and splices them together to create three and half minutes of kaleidoscopically splintered pop.

The whole experience feels like a giant Rube Golderberg machine. The disparate elements kick off one another in spiraling series of technicolor clockwork madness. The drum solo from The End cascades into helium speed vocal samples from Love Is All You Need just as Piggies harpischords begin stomping and chiming with Get Back's organs and blues licks. That describes twenty seconds. Nearly.

It picks and plucks song segments like a schizophrenic magpie but builds them all into a towering piece of sonic architecture, shortly before dropping said structure into an industrial strength blender.

Get it forever here.