The Rock Ballad
One thing that should be clear about me and the Random Victims section of my Substack: I love music. “Random Victims” itself—a compilation of hilarious and interesting outtakes from the Eagles’ Selected Works album—is a homage to the band.
To me, good music—mostly rock n’ roll and I like it— has three things:
A distinct voice
A distinct drum sound
Excellent lyrics
All three points consistently hit with my favorite bands and musicians. But most of my favorite music tends to be lesser-known songs. That’s not an exclusive statement but the trend is there. Of course, I appreciate the hits too, but they often lack substance in favor of catchy lyrics or sound.
Because lyrics matter to me, I am drawn to understand the original meaning of a song plus what it means to me. That duality has always been mindblowing to me. I love thinking about Bruce Springsteen writing a song from his point of view and for a certain purpose, only for it to hit me differently, and for it to hit someone else differently, too. The lyrics still capture the imagination. The music still inspires — original intent be damned.
For me, the perfect storm of music lines up the best in the “ballad” format. Webster defines a ballad as “a narrative composition in rhythmic verse suitable for singing.” Basically, a ballad is a more comprehensive narrative form of music. It’s not more complex or even only for the elite minds. But ballads take us deeper than the normal rock n’ roll song structures do.
Thus, I present to you my list of Top 10 Rock n’ Roll Ballads. The only rule was that an artist or band could only appear once. This is not an exclusive list. In fact, it was so difficult to parse to a list of ten that I made a Spotify playlist of all the honorable mentions and embedded it below. You’re welcome.
For each song, I’ll note what makes it meaningful to me. You don’t have to agree but I hope that you can understand. Maybe it’ll inspire you to listen to the song for the first time or in a new way. I’d also love to hear your thoughts on my picks or what you’d put in your top ten! Use the handy “comment” button below to get started!
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Alright, let’s rock n’ roll!
“Thunder Road” from Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen
This song is the only one to get a live version on the Spotify playlist. And for good reason — it is a BANGER when played live. It’s a pretty good studio version too—I particularly love the way Springsteen’s voice sounds—but as with most of Bruce’s material, the songs hit better when heard live.
I am drawn to many lyrics in this song, but the one that is tattooed onto me is “Throw roses in the rain.” In fact, I had a whole half-sleeve design around “Thunder Road.”
The entire song opens as an invitation, both as a singular entity and as an introduction to the rest of Born to Run. And then comes the powerful ending. Clarence Clemons's saxophone solo is iconic. Again, it’s best heard live, and it’s so fun to watch the love between Bruce and Clarence on stage, particularly during this song. You’ll have to check that out on YouTube — Clarence is, sadly, no longer with us. Sorrow aside, there’s nothing like a Big Man solo to end my all-time favorite rock ballad.
“Thunder Road” is the ultimate love ballad and deserves to occupy the top slot in my countdown.
“Wasted Time” from Hotel California by Eagles
This song is very out of place for a band like the Eagles. But Henley’s magic as a vocalist makes it work. Glenn Frey wrote in the liner notes to The Very Best Of The Eagles:
“I loved all the records coming out of Philadelphia at that time. I sent for some sheet music so I could learn some of those songs, and I started creating my own musical ideas with that Philly influence. Don was our Teddy Pendergrass. He could stand out there all alone and just wail. We did a big Philly-type production with strings — definitely not country-rock. You’re not going to find that track on a Crosby, Stills & Nash record or Beach Boys record. Don’s singing abilities stretched so many of our boundaries. He could sing the phone book. It didn’t matter.”
I believe Frey — I think Henley could sing the phone book and I would be entranced! His voice is that good.
“Wasted Time” also contains my second all-time favorite lyric: “Sometimes to keep it together/You’ve got to leave it alone.”
Again, this song has an iconic ending, as Henley sings, “So you can get on with your search, baby/And I can get on with mine/And maybe someday we will find/That it wasn’t really wasted time.”
P.S. This song inspired a podcast I started during the pandemic and will one day finish!
“We Don’t Have To Look Back Now” from Famous by Puddle of Mudd
This is the newest song to appear on the countdown. Unlike most of the other tunes, I fell in love with “We Don’t Have To Look Back Now” because of the music video. It wasn’t the only reason but that does give us a peek into how different avenues for music—or anything—can help spread awareness. Maybe I would have found this song anyway because of my love for Puddle of Mudd’s debut album. But while Famous is probably #2 for me in their catalog, I’m not sure it’s a powerful enough album to have just spoken to me alone.
Now, the music video? It’s not like it was a mind-blowing shoot. It’s pretty basic and simple — the band plays out in the sun on the beach while the world around them goes by. The specific focus of the punkish woman who wants the All-American man is what draws my attention. It’s adolescent insecurity being displayed in its raw state.
As the song picks up, the intensity ticks up too. “The world is rushing by” is met with the realization from the woman that she needs to return to the man, even if that means she can get hurt again, because she has to try. You don’t get to “We don’t have to look back now” if you have regret. I love that the woman in the music video takes control of her destiny. She can’t control all of the outcome but she’s not going to sit by and be a daydreamer, either.
Will our protagonists end up together? Will the pressure of high school popularity keep them apart? Check out the song and the video to find out!
“Amanda” from Third Stage by Boston
Whenever a song manages to use the phrase “I love you” without being cheesy then it instantly becomes a masterpiece. That’s exactly what Boston does in “Amanda” and it makes for a brilliantly romantic song.
“Amanda” is the highest-rated single from Boston which feels empty—it didn’t even get a Grammy nomination—but the vocals in this song are on-point. If you haven’t noticed, a particular trend I like in music is great backing and harmony vocals. The Beach Boys have it and so do the Eagles. Boston is another great band with a terrific sound, and that all culminates so well in this ballad.
Unless you’ve been burned in the past by an Amanda, how could you not love this song? Even if you have, replace the name in your head and sing along to this tune.
“November Rain” from Use Your Illusion I by Guns N’ Roses
Our first true “power ballad” has made an appearance. “Amanda” is listed in some places as a power ballad, but it pales in its “power” when compared to “November Rain.”
Whenever I listen, I’m always struck by how lonely the narrator sounds. It’s hauntingly sad. How to love “when even friends seem out to harm you;” “Love is always coming, love is always going;” “I know that you can love me when there’s no one left to blame.”
The want and need to be loved and accepted is so raw—so important—to this song. Thankfully, it ends with hope, “So never mind the darkness, we still can find a way/’Cause nothin’ lasts forever, even cold November rain.”
“Bohemian Rhapsody” from A Night at the Opera by Queen
“Bohemian Rhapsody” might be the most popular of all the ballads I list. The song has over two billion plays on Spotify alone. And it gave us this wonderful Super Bowl commercial:
“Bohemian Rhapsody” is full of smart lines and great vocals. I love the transition from just a ballad to a power ballad. The band rocks the lyrics at that point too, singing “So you think you can stop me and spit in my eye/So you think you can love me and leave me to die.”
When the lyrics “I don't want to die/I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all” are sung, I wonder if Freddie Mercury knew of his eventual terminal diagnosis. They could simply be the lyrics to a song. It does seem, at the very least, to be a song about struggle — and that is something we can all relate to.
“Faithfully” from Frontiers by Journey
“Faithfully” is the song that made me a Journey fan. The story isn’t all that inspirational to me—it’s a song about a married man and the difficulty of staying committed while touring—so it’s a song that hits me hard simply because of the music.
“Faithfully” is similar to “Thunder Road” in that there is no chorus but the word “faithfully” is strategically placed at the end of four different verses, whereas “thunder road” is only mentioned in the middle of Springsteen’s ballad.
Steve Perry’s vocals are amazing in this song but he wasn’t the writer. That credit belongs to Journey’s keyboardist, Jonathan Cain. Cain, shortly after the release of “Faithfully,” would divorce his wife.
We often put rock stars on pedestals and think their life to be nothing but glamorous. This song reminds us that the life of a musician is complex and confusing, just like that of any regular human being.
“The Wild One, Forever” from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
The easy pick here would have been “Free Fallin’” but “The Wild One, Forever” is one of Tom Petty’s most vivid stories. According to Rolling Stone, this song:
Tells the storyof a one-night stand that never got a chance to grow into something more, awistful sentiment amplified by subtle, majestic playing by Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench and, low in the mix, a cello part by Ron Blair.
Again, I don’t have a particular closeness to the actual theme of the song. But the sadness in Petty’s voice is undeniable and riveting. That’s what always made it stand out to me. It just happened to be the first song that played when I hit shuffle on the day Tom Petty went into cardiac arrest from a drug overdose. I had seen him and the Heartbreakers three months before and I was in disbelief. This song helped reality set in. It didn’t make me feel better but it helped me accept that the end was near.
Tom Petty was a great songwriter because he always wrote from the heart. “The Wild One, Forever” is the most heartful song on this list.
“I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” from Armageddon Soundtrack by Aerosmith
It’s fitting that the only soundtrack song on the list wasn’t even supposed to get radio play. The demand for the song made Columbia Records issue it commercially and “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” became Amerosmith’s biggest hit, reaching #1 around the world.
The fun continues: the song was written by Diane Warren, who envisioned it being performed by “Celine Dion or somebody like that.” Now, I’m sure Dion would have done a terrific job, but holy cow, this song gets its legs—its power—from Aerosmith!
Billboard wrote this review of the song and it’s the only thing you need to know:
Steven Tyler's signature belting is so intensely over the top that he frequently seems to be shrieking. It's a high-voltage performance that is matched by a collision of rock-styled instrumentation and grand, faux-classical orchestration.
“Piano Man” from Piano Man by Billy Joel
This song juuust makes the countdown with the hot take of being the best karaoke song of them all. No, I haven’t done it yet. Yes, I will do it one day.
Here’s something interesting. The song is “fictional” but it refers to real people in Billy Joel’s life. "John at the Bar" was a bartender, "Paul is a real estate Novelist" was a real estate agent named Paul who would sit at the bar each night working on his novel, and "The Waitress is practicing politics" refers to Joel's first wife Elizabeth Weber, who worked at The Executive Room as a waitress while Joel played the piano.
Maybe it’s the Cheers fan in me, but every time I hear this song I can see a bunch of happy people in a bar, singing in unison, with no worry about what’s happening in the outside world. In its simplest form, I believe all transformational music does that to us — it helps us get lost in a world outside of our own, and for the adventurous spirit in each of us, that’s what’s so special about music.
Honorable mention: “Truly Madly Deeply” from Savage Garden by Savage Garden
I have “Truly Madly Deeply” on here for sentimental purposes. It’s also a funny story.
When we were in high school, my best friend, Ethan, used to ask me to drive him around. This wasn’t only because I had a car — Ethan took YEARS to get his driver’s license. I was his Uber before Uber was a thing.
One day, we were driving when this song came on my iPod shuffle. It’s been more than fifteen years since this happened, so forgive me if the details are a bit hazy. But Ethan, who is so bougie when it comes to music—especially classical music—went into this long soliloquy about how amazing the song was. His words were along the lines of “This is the most beautiful and simple song of all time.” The “all-time” part is what has made this stick out in my head so many years later.
I recently asked Ethan if he wanted to comment on his statement and he simply said, “I remember loving that song as a kid, but don’t remember saying that precisely haha.”
What a schlub.
