I have been working at a job this summer where I drive around a lot in
my car, which gives me lots of time to listen to classic rock radio.
(That's pretty much all there is, aside from a couple of country
stations, and NPR, and one AM station which simulcasts Rush Limbaugh
and Limbaugh Wannabes on several different AM frequencies.) There
seems to be a rather limited canon of songs which these stations play.
Does anyone know who drew up the original list, and does anyone know
how few songs are on the list?

I have a few observations about the list. It does seem to be limited
to acts and songs which charted high originally--- which means that
influential acts who have been popular for a long time but had few if
any
high-charting hits are excluded (e.g., the Ramones, Talking Heads, the
Clash,
the Cure, Iggy Pop, Bob Marley, etc.) But lots of acts and songs who
did chart high are also excluded.

But even given that limitation, the choice of songs is odd. For
example, Eric Clapton was a member of several notable bands---Cream,
Derek and the Dominoes, and Blind Faith--- but all of those bands are
absent (even Derek and the Dominoes who featured Duane Allman.) Only
his solo works are included amongst the half-dozen or so Clapton songs
in the canon. Three of Clapton's cnonical songs are inferior cover
versions--- i.e. his own solo version of Derek and the Dominoes'
"Layla," his cover of the Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and
his cover version of Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sherrif." (Clapton's
cover versions are not terrible, but they are rather bland compared to
the originals, which are preferable both from a musical and
pop-hookiness standpoint. And the Beatles cover is less frequently
repeated than the others, even though he in fact played on the
original...)

The pop-radio canon is full of inferior cover versions--- Elton John's
"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," Aerosmith's "Come Together", and
Manfred Mann's "Blinded by the Light" and "Spirit in the Night."
(None of those four cover versions are horrible, but the Beatles and
Springsteen originals are better, and hookier, and more popular!) In
fact, another amusing example of the inferior cover version is Elton
John's song "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me," which is played not in
its original version but in a live version by George Michael where
Elton John makes a guest appearance on the last chorus!

To get back to Clapton's few songs, I see that there is no attempt to
pander to 2004 sensibilities. When Clapton recorded the song
"Cocaine", cocaine use was socially acceptable. It isn't acceptable
today, and yet the song is played over and over and over again. Elton
John's "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" is another example: in addition
to not being one of Lennon and McCartney's greatest songs, it is about
LSD, and the Beatles version is better and more popular. And yet,
this is one of the few hundred tracks in the canon. Weird....

Comments, anyone?