I love the Kenny Rogers song (I clearly have a weakness for faux-hippie crap), and its cool quotient has gone way up since being used prominently in The Big Lebowski, the only Coen Brothers movie I unreservedly like.
Awesome list: great individual selections and surprising range. You are clearly a man of refined guilt.
(I could swear that Judas Priest song is "Another Think Coming." I could probably get Gary Farber to back me up on that.)
Well done, Steve. I've been looking forward to this and you've delivered. I'm feeling mildly guilty about everything you've chosen.
But isn't it "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes")? I know my AM radio oldies kitsch, remember.
Great job, Steve. Excellent list, and it's educational, too--I'd never have known Vehicle wasn't Blood, Sweat, & Tears.
Glad to see that Shriekback cover get its due. While we're on the subject of covers, Sharon Jones does a great version of Just Dropped In. The Butthole Surfers' cover of Hurdy Gurdy Man is pretty good, but they can't really out-weird Donovan on that one.
The Big Lebowski, the only Coen Brothers movie I unreservedly like
Huh. Of all the Coen brothers movies I like, that's the only one I feel embarrassed about liking. 
Oh, Freedy Johnston covers "Wichita Lineman," too.
Actually, Steve, you sure you aren't Freedy?
Didn't The Master Cylinder also cover Wichita Lineman? Or was that Blind Belly Whitefish?
Looked on eMusic and ended up downloading a pretty darn good cover of Vehicle by Adam West (not the actor, the DC punk band).
Of all the Coen brothers movies I like, that's the only one I feel embarrassed about liking.
I'm a big Coen bros. fan, but that's the one I could never understand why so many people loved it until I dug in for a repeat viewing. Actually, come to think of it, Miller's Crossing was the same way for me. I liked both of them a lot better after a second viewing.
Oh, Freedy Johnston covers "Wichita Lineman," too.
Urge Overkill covered it, too, but I don't remember it being anything special. Now if Killdozer had covered it...
Glen Campbell's recording of "Wichita Lineman" is one of my five favorite recordings of all time. Some days it comes in at #1.
Hey, thanks, everyone.
Hogan: I wish they had used the idiomatically correct phrase, but, sadly, no.
ahab: Correct, of course. I plead typographical insanity. (Corrected.)
Tom: I'll have to go to the vaults, but that's definitely The Master Cylinder's style.
The challenge would be to find a more deliciously cheesy set of pseudo-psychedelic lyrics written in earnest
"Pammie's on a Bummer" by Sonny Bono, perhaps?
(Great list, BTW.)
(I guess "Pammie" isn't actually psychedelic. Earnest, yes -- the most earnest song ever.)
No one has to feel guilty about enjoying Vehicle or Wichita Lineman.
That is all.
O/T, but good news, Rachel Maddow is getting her own show on MSNBC. 6 PM time slot. Olbermann announced it on Kos and will do so on his show tonite.
Wichita Lineman shouldn't be a guilty pleasure. It's a classic. Glen Campbell pre-drugs-and-hard-living had one of the most beautiful voices ever.
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