Side A
Artist	Song
David Bowie	Life On Mars? (Hunky Dory 1971)
Bjork	Venus As A Boy (Debut 1993)
Ry Cooder	Married Man's A Fool (Paradise And Lunch 1974)
The Band	tears Of Rage (Music From Big Pink 1968)
Sex Pistols	Pretty Vacant (Never Mind The Bollocks...Here's The Sex Pistols 1977)
Johnny Cash	I Still Miss Someone (The Essential Johnny Cash 1992)
Hank Williams	I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry (40 Greatest Hits 1978)
The Byrds	Hickory Wind (Sweetheart Of The Rodeo 1968)
Chet Baker	The Thrill Is Gone (The Best Of Chet Baker Sings 1989)
Cannonball Adderly	Mercy Mercy Mercy (The Best Of Cannonball Adderly 1968)
The Small Faces	Itchycoo Park (The Immediate Years 1995)
Elliott Smith	Waltz #2 (XO 1998)
Side B
Artist	Song	Buy
The Beatles	For No One (Revolver 1966)
Marvin Gaye	What's Going On? (What's Going On? 1971)
Neil Young	Birds (After The Goldrush 1970)
U2	One (Achtung Baby 1991)
Television	See No Evil (Marquee Moon 1977)
Frank Sinatra	I've Got You Under My Skin (Songs For Swingin' Lovers 1956)
Nirvana	Lithium (Nevermind 1991)
Abba	Knowing Me, Knowing You (Abba Gold 1992)
The Smiths	Still Ill (The Smiths 1984)
Modern Lovers	Someone I Care About (The Modern Lovers 1976)
Beach Boys	Don't Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder) (Pet Sounds 1966)
Stevie Wonder	I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever) (Talking Book 1972)
Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band	The Dust Blows Forward 'N The Dust Blows Back (Trout Mask Replica 1969)

Comment:

Have you ever itched to have the perfect CD collection? Well, Elvis Costello has it! In the November 2000 issue of Vanity Fair, Elvis posted "500 albums that can only improve your life." He also named the specific tracks that made these albums special to him. This is volume one of a compilation of some of these tracks. I figured who could make a better mixtape than Elvis?
Just a few notes about his picks for those that didn't read the article:
There are plenty of "best of" and "greatest hits" collections. That's not taking the easy way out. Many of these people really only made "singles." No one "album" will give you all the Smokey Robinson and the Miracles or George Jones songs that you need.
You will see that sone very famous names are missing completely. There is nothing at all by Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Michael Jackson or Sting. You may love them. They just don't do it for me.
As for the hit records of today, maybe some of them will sound just fantastic in 20 years time. It's your life. So! No Marilyn, Puffy, Korn, Eddie Money-sorry, Kid Rock-Limp Bizkit, Ricky, Britney, Backstreet Boys, etc, etc, etc.
If you look in the C's, you won't find anything with my name on it. This is not false modesty. There are at least 500 records better than anything that I've made. I do make a few walk-on appearances as vocalist or producer.
(There will definitely be a volume 2, probably 3, and likely 4. And, for the record, if I were to make a 500 list, you can be rest assured that there would be several Elvis Costello records on it!)

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