John Mellencamp reveals his 15 favourite songs
John Mellencamp bought heartland rock to the forefront of American music after spending decades trying to break the music industry. Although his start included a shaky glam-rock run, once he came into his own with the 1982 release of ‘Hurts So Good’, audiences fell in love with Mellencamp’s earthy vocals and politically conscious messaging.
With 24 studio albums to his name, Mellencamp has an incredible amount of material under his belt, once naming the 15 favourite songs of his own releases over the years during an interview with Rolling Stone. The most recent example he gave was 2010’s ‘No One Cares About Me’. In his typically dry way, Mellencamp said: “Feeling sorry for yourself is a number-one pastime here in America,” going on to explain how it resonated with him at the time”.
He added: “This song is a bunch of little vignettes about why nobody cares about this guy, but in the end, it’s that he really doesn’t care about himself. I was feeling that way in the moment, so the song is really about me.”
Mellencamp often used his own life as inspiration for his songs, like on ‘Small Town’, which was him lashing out at industry types who mocked his accent and Indiana roots. “I wanted to write a song that said: ‘You don’t have to live in New York or Los Angeles to live a full life or enjoy your life’,’ Mellencamp explained.
In the same vein is ‘Pop Singer’, a track taken from 1989’s Big Daddy. Again, this song smacked of frustration with the state of the industry. “Everybody was having to kiss everybody’s ass. If you want to be on MTV, then come here and do this. All these backroom deals were getting made. I was like, ‘I don’t want any part of this’.”
Mellencamp was accused of being an ungrateful star out of touch with his own fortune, but has always been a vocal advocate for not only himself – but others affected by the American socio-political system, as seen on ‘Love and Happiness’ and ‘Troubled Land’. The latter, Mellencamp, said was a “very easy” song to write because “any liberal can relate”, adding that he was speaking for a “certain silent generation” at the tail end of the Bush years.
“We were all exhausted,” Mellencamp said. “And couldn’t believe what was coming next.”
Using yet another president to fuel his ire, ‘Crumblin’ Down’ was based on Reagan’s run. “He was deregulating everything, and the walls were crumbling down on the poor.” But as his label made him painfully aware of, his political hits didn’t always translate to good air-play. That’s why ‘Jack and Diane’, had to be drastically changed.
“[It] was originally about race,” explained Mellencamp. “The song was my effort to make a song about that, but of course, the record company guy didn’t like it. He said, ‘Maybe if you put some horns on this song and really build the chorus up, then maybe you have a shot. But take the race thing out.’” Although its core message got changed, it has remained one of Mellencamp’s biggest hits, as well as one of his own favourites.
Check out John Mellencamp’s favourite 15 songs below,
John Mellencamp’s 15 favourite songs:
- ‘Jack and Diane’ (American Fool, 1982)
- ‘Pink Houses’ (Uh-Huh, 1983)
- ‘Small Town’ (Scarecrow, 1985)
- ‘I Need A Lover’ (John Cougar, 1979)
- ‘Crumblin’ Down’ (Uh-Huh, 1983)
- ‘Rain on the Scarecrow’ (Scarecrow, 1985)
- ‘Paper in Fire’ (The Lonesome Jubilee, 1987)
- ‘Between a Laugh and a Tear’ (Scarecrow, 1985)
- ‘Pop Singer’ (Big Daddy, 1989)
- ‘Jackie Brown’ (Big Daddy, 1989)
- ‘Love and Happiness’ (Whenever We Wanted, 1991)
- ‘Peaceful World’ (Cuttin’ Heads, 2001)
- ‘No One Cares About Me’ (No Better Than This, 2010)
- ‘If I Die Sudden’ (Life, Death, Love and Freedom, 2008)
- ‘Troubled Land’ (Life, Death, Love and Freedom, 2008)
