The Best Songs Our Readers Discovered in 2023

Dear listeners,

A few weeks ago, I asked readers to share the best older song they discovered — or rediscovered — in 2023. As usual, the Amplifier community did not disappoint.

Today’s playlist is a compilation of some of the best submissions along with your (condensed and edited) explanations of why these songs resonated so deeply. The track list is an eclectic mix, featuring rock, soul, jazz, hip-hop, folk, punk and just about everything in between. Quite a few of you introduced me to artists I’d never heard before, like the British singer-songwriter Labi Siffre, the Los Angeles punk band the Brat and the underrated North Carolina-born soul singer Bessie Banks. I’ll definitely be seeking out more music from all of them.

I was especially struck by the stories about rediscovered songs. Sometimes a piece of music we’ve known for decades (or, in the case of one reader’s story about a Rosemary Clooney song, about as long as we can remember) boomerangs back into our lives with poetic and fortuitous timing. A classic Chiffons hit becomes an anthem for a freshly resumed relationship; a wry Liz Phair song becomes more earnest in the light of new parenthood. Some of these narratives are fun and playful, while others are powerful reminders of the ways that music can buoy us through our darkest times.

Thanks to every one of you who submitted a song and a story. I wish I could have included hundreds of them, but I settled on these 13. Also, on a personal note, reading through them all provided a welcome distraction this week. Remember in Tuesday’s newsletter when I mentioned I was coming down with a cold? That “cold,” I learned shortly afterward, turned out to be Covid. So once again, like the earliest days of the pandemic, I spent my week in isolation — but at least I had all your submissions to keep me company.

I hope today’s playlist helps you kick off 2024 right. Here’s to another year of music discovery!

Listen along on Spotify while you read.

1. Badfinger: “No Matter What”

While wandering the aisles in a supermarket this year, I heard this song and launched a mini investigation into why it had such a Beatle-esque sound (answer: recorded at Abbey Road and released on Apple Records). Recently, I was pleased to hear it included in Alexander Payne’s movie “The Holdovers.” The harmonies and hooks really evoke the ’70s for me, just like that film’s nostalgic rhythms and interiors. — Cathy Boeckmann, San Francisco (Listen on YouTube)

2. Bessie Banks: “Go Now”

When I read that Denny Laine of the Moody Blues died, I immediately thought of his greatest hit, “Go Now.” When I went online, I found out that an American woman, Bessie Banks, recorded it first. It’s fantastic — no disrespect to Mr. Laine, but it is tremendous. Should have been a hit. — Finn Kelly, Long Beach, Calif. (Listen on YouTube)

3. Labi Siffre: “Crying, Laughing, Loving, Lying”

It seems like a perfect encapsulation of the roller coaster that was 2023, pushing through a rainbow of emotions and holding close what matters most. It’s also just an excellent song from an artist that too few people know. — Jeremy Kotin, Milan, N.Y. (Listen on YouTube)

4. John Prine: “Souvenirs”

At 69, I am starting to think more about mortality and memories. This song evokes both. It also evokes the memory of Steve Goodman, one of my favorites, who recorded it with Prine. — Dennis Walsh, Media, Pa. (Listen on YouTube)

5. The Chiffons: “One Fine Day”

This song, written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King, resonated this year because a former girlfriend and I got together after being apart for many years, and we are now so happy! — Nick Lange, Cambridge, Mass. (Listen on YouTube)

6. Liz Phair: “Whip-Smart”

My wife and I had our second child this year, our first boy. I am constantly thinking about how to raise both of my kids in this world and then I rediscovered this song, which flips the script on centuries of raising macho, stiff-upper-lip boys. — Ryan Humphries, Millersville, Pa. (Listen on YouTube)

7. Big Maybelle: “My Country Man”

This song swings so hard and has an appreciation for proper farming technique. It is a welcome burst of elemental pleasure in a year with a lot of bleakness. No one can remain motionless with this on. — Brent Bliven, Austin (Listen on YouTube)

8. Billy Bragg: “A New England”

I like the lyric “I loved the words you wrote to me, but that was bloody yesterday/I can’t survive on what you send every time you need a friend.” It’s a short, cut-to-the-quick tune that I didn’t immediately take to, but now I’m always in the mood for it. — Kimberly Melinda Hogarty, Tucson, Ariz. (Listen on YouTube)

9. The Brat: “The Wolf (and the Lamb)”

The Brat were a Chicano punk band from Los Angeles that emerged in the early ’80s. As a fan of ’80s indie rock, I thought I knew all of the bands from that era, but this year I was astonished to hear this urgent, ferocious song for the first time. Had the Brat come around later, they likely would have been much bigger, but the music industry in 1980 was unwilling to accept a Chicano punk band with a female lead singer. Hearing this song, and this band, is a reminder of all that we’ve lost through the years when we ignore artists outside the mainstream. — Kelly Mullins, Seattle (Listen on YouTube)

10. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five: “Superrappin’”

It’s such an influential track that has been name-checked, sampled and quoted by so many artists, yet I’d never heard it until hip-hop turned 50 this year. I think it does a great job of capturing the vibe of what I imagine hip-hop was like its first decade. It’s hype, it’s a party track, and when I listen to the song I can see Flash and the crew performing it live at a rec room party in the Bronx. — Jack Kershaw, New York City (Listen on YouTube)

11. Doris Troy: “What’cha Gonna Do About It”

Doris Troy was part of the original lineup of the greatest ensemble I had never heard of, the Sweet Inspirations, whose members included Cissy Houston (Whitney’s mother) and her nieces Dee Dee and Dionne Warwick. There’s something about the staccato piano combined with Troy’s elongated “I love you”s that reassures me that love isn’t fireworks — it’s the world they illuminate as they ascend and break up the darkness. — John Semlitsch, Austin (Listen on YouTube)

12. Nina Simone: “Blues for Mama (Live at the Newport Jazz Festival)”

This year has been a lot. War, rockets, drones: All that I could hear and see in Kyiv as a civilian resident. One might be amazed at how people can adjust. This is a song I discovered when I was riding my bike to the hospital in Kyiv where I work. It was a morning after some powerful explosions overnight. But there was also sunlight and spring, and the tune playing in my headphones, forcing me to smile. — Nazar, Kyiv, Ukraine (Listen on YouTube)

13. Rosemary Clooney: “Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep”

A young woman I know recently posted a photo of herself and her newborn baby girl on Instagram with Rosemary Clooney’s rendition of this Irving Berlin song in the background. When my mother passed away and I was only 4 years old, her older sister, my aunt Edie, sang this song to me often as she tucked me in for the night. It’s a bittersweet memory, but now, 71 years later, it still reminds me of how fortunate I am to have had so much love in my life. — Norman Reisman, New York City (Listen on YouTube)

When they do the double Dutch, that’s them dancing,

Lindsay

The Amplifier Playlist

Listen on Spotify. We update this playlist with each new newsletter.

“The Best Songs Our Readers Discovered in 2023” track list
Track 1: Badfinger, “No Matter What”
Track 2: Bessie Banks, “Go Now”
Track 3: Labi Siffre, “Crying, Laughing, Loving, Lying”
Track 4: John Prine, “Souvenirs”
Track 5: The Chiffons, “One Fine Day”
Track 6: Liz Phair, “Whip-Smart”
Track 7: Big Maybelle, “My Country Man”
Track 8: Billy Bragg, “A New England”
Track 9: The Brat, “The Wolf (and the Lamb)”
Track 10: Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, “Superrappin’”
Track 11: Doris Troy, “What’cha Gonna Do About It”
Track 12: Nina Simone, “Blues for Mama (Live at the Newport Jazz Festival)”
Track 13: Rosemary Clooney, “Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep”

Bonus Tracks

Want to get an absurdly early head start on your Best Songs of 2024 list? Jon Pareles and I have compiled our first Friday Playlist of the year, featuring some notable new tracks from Béla Fleck, A.G. Cook, Mary Timony and more.