Houston's Very Best Songs Ever

"I Can See Clearly Now" was the most famous and best result. Up until its release, no one reggae song had captivated mainstream listeners with as much force, and Nash belongs right up there with artists like Marley and Desmond Dekker as one of the music's foremost early popularizers. Not bad for a guy who only a decade or so before had been humping golf bags in Hermann Park. — J.N.L.

Willie Nelson

The Essential Willie Nelson

circa 1960

As the '60s dawned, Willie Nelson was fresh out of the Air Force and living in Pasadena with his first wife and three kids. He worked six nights a week backing local star Larry Butler on bass and DJed the seventh day.

Meanwhile, he was writing a few songs on the side in his car, while commuting between his digs in Pasadena and his gigs on the Hempstead Highway. He got hot one week and wrote three of the greatest songs in country music history: "Crazy," "Funny How Time Slips Away" and "Night Life," perhaps the most covered country song of all time.

And deservedly so. Lovable losers and no-'count boozers could hope for no better anthem than this resigned statement of near-suicidal intent. Sure, the barrooms might be full of people dreaming of old used-to-be's and reenacting scene after scene from the world of broken dreams, but just listen to the blues they're playing. The night life ain't no good life, but it's my life, indeed. — J.N.L.

1. "Tighten Up"

Archie Bell and the Drells

Tighten Up

1968

The very best song from Houston has to do it all. It has to be a great piece of music made by Houstonians still based in town, it has to mention Houston and it has to draw on native musical traditions. It also is known all over the world. And just for good measure, "Tighten Up" is also preeminently danceable and stands as one of the greatest party records ever put on wax.

"Tighten Up" does all that and even more. Somehow, it can almost make you feel our climate. Think about it. The way the timbre of the band — the T.S.U. Toronados — seems to breathe in and out. The balmy, sighing horns, the funky little electric guitar riff, the sweaty organ and a loping bass guitar with a tone so warm it seems to be grinning.

It's all as gracious and hospitable as springtime sunshine: The music on "Tighten Up" sounds the way a sunny April day in Houston feels. Playing it in your car can carry your mind from an exhaust-choked stop-and-go pileup on the Katy Freeway in the gray December twilight to a beery beach blanket picnic in the noontime sun on West Beach in May. Like Archie says, "Now make it mellow!"

Note: There's some controversy about Bell's intro, to wit, does he say, "We can dance just as good as we walk" or "We can dance just as good as we want"? I'm siding with "want," for two reasons. One, it makes more sense, and two, it is clearly what he actually does say. — J.N.L.

Criteria

Songs were selected on several criteria. First, there's "Houston-ness," by which we mean an indelible tie to the Bayou City. Songs composed by Houstonians are all eligible, though natives and long-term residents of the city scored higher than transients in this regard. For example, two-thirds of the principal members of the Geto Boys were born and raised here and remain in the city, while Willie Nelson spent three short, though creatively productive, years living in Pasadena. Thus the Geto Boys are more "Houston" than Willie.

Other ways to qualify include being signed to a Houston label (the Thirteenth Floor Elevators, for example), if the song is about Houston no matter where the author came from or if the song was recorded here. If a song combines several factors, it obviously scores higher in ­Houston-ness than those with fewer.

As for the aesthetics, this was not strictly a popularity contest, of course; it isn't merely based on what Houston songs sold the best. It also had to be both a great tune and at least somewhat historically important. And finally, to make the top 20, a song has to be at least five years old. True classics need at least a little time to prove themselves as such. — John Nova Lomax