So I decided to ask a bunch of people that I know to give me a list of their 10 favorite songs. No real guidelines--not of any particular genre, not "the best" songs, just their favorite. It is understood that these lists are highly mutable at any given moment, and don't really hold any cosmic significance, but they are kind of telling of the type of people that I hang out with.

Jason Dettman: Game Designer, Combat Optometrist.

• Piano Man - Billy Joel
• Soul Cages - Sting
• Hell - Squirrel Nut Zippers
• Happy Phantom - Tori Amos
• Brand New Day - Sting
• Now or Never - Lisa Ekdahl
• Superman's Song - Crash Test Dummies
• Rick James - Jude
• Only Makes Me Laugh - Oingo Boingo
• King of Pain - The Police
• One Week - Bare Naked Ladies

Josh Duffin: D.C. Hipster, Economist.

• Ironclad - Sleater-Kinney
• Gigantic - The Pixies
• Coded Language - Krust & Saul Williams
• I'm Yours, You're Mine - Morphine
• Angry Any More - Ani DiFranco
• In My Life - The Beatles
• Lily - Kate Bush
• Miss The Girl - Soul Coughing
• 100% - Sonic Youth
• Ice - Sarah McLachlan

Thora Brylowe: Ampersand Enthusiast, Child of the Night.

• Suedehead - Morrissey
• The Last Night at the Fair (or whatever it's called. It's something like
  that. The one about jumping from the top of the parachute. you know the one.) - The Smiths
• Same Deep Water As You & Prayers for Rain (both of which appear on the critically acclaimed "Best Album Ever," as stated by Stan on South Park ) - The Cure
• This deeply disturbing but catchy Vast song called Pretty When You Cry (I think. It's track 4 on their first album).
• Small Blue Thing - by the brilliant and talented Suzanne Vega (whom I still plan to hobble & chain to my radiator for the rest of her life.
• Happy House by a certain "S" woman and her accompanying Banshees.
• Rook - on arguably THE album of the late '80s, Nonsuch by XTC.
• Blue Monday - by New Order--and not that cheesy cover of it either.
• And, um, well (don't laugh, okay?) a predictably obvious Lucretia my Reflection by the Sisters of Mercy.

James Hamblin: Math Theorist, Master of Bridge.

• Innocent Man - Billy Joel
• Father Lucifer - Tori Amos
• The Difficult Kind - Sheryl Crow
• Arlington Girl - Shivaree
• Possession - Sarah McLachlan
• Cloudbusting - Kate Bush
• Sell Sell Sell - Barenaked Ladies
• When We Dance - Sting
• Love Will Come to You - Indigo Girls
• Happier - Guster

Matt Blankman: Humorist, Rock Historian.

• Don't Worry Baby - The Beach Boys
• Like A Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan
• Sway - The Rolling Stones
• Debris - The Faces
• Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On - Jerry Lee Lewis
• Memphis - Chuck Berry
• Backstreets - Bruce Springsteen
• That's Alright Mama - Elvis Presley
• Sex Machine - James Brown
• I've Been Loving You Too Long - Otis Redding

Jim Cook: Artist, Intercontinental Adventurer.

• Strawberry Fields - The Beatles
• Anything by Zappa
• Selective passages from the Ring by Wagner
• Om Namah Shivaya by anyone who has been meditating for 10 years or more.
• Carmina Burana
• Heroin - Velvet Underground
• Jigi Jigi Isapa - King Sunny Ade
• You Send Me - Sam Cooke
• Trouble in Mind - Lightnin Hopkins
• Raga Malika - Ravi Shankar

Dave Conroy: Master of Kung-Fu, Tactical Genius.

• (best song ever written) Ode To Joy (words by
  Schiller, music by Beethoven, covered by many artists)
• (mushy sentimental favorite) Crazy on You - Heart
• To Live is to Fly - Cowboy Junkies (cover of a Townes van Zandt song).
• Hush - Deep Purple
• More than a Feeling - Boston
• Spirit of Radio - Rush
• Dreams - Cranberries (the english version, though the other is quite good too).
• Path of Thorns - Sarah McLachlan
• Revolution - Beatles (the loud version, the other one is just horrible).
• Bohemia - Mae Moore

Chris Proper: Stunt Driver, Visionary.

• When the Levee Breaks - Led Zeppelin (because Cameron made me understand)
• Banditos - Refreshments, The
• Turn the Page - Metallica does a more rambunctous version than Seger.
• Mars, Bringer of War - Do you believe that Metallica did a cover of Holst?
• Imperial March - (compiled by) Williams
• Lost Brotherhood - Larry Gowan ain't great, but he is funny.
• Cumbersome - 7 Mary 3 make a vocabulary word into a rock song.
• Behind Blue Eyes - Who, The
• Mr. Roboto - The first Styx song I ever loved.
• La Villa Strangiata- Best Rush song to listen to over headphones.

Peter D Bakija: Bounder, Man of Mystery.

• The Divorce Song - Liz Phair
• The Wedding List - Kate Bush
• I Fought the Law? Tommy Gun? Guns of Brixton? Train in Vain? Hateful? Lost in the Supermarket? Straight to Hell? Ok. I'm soft. Any song by The Clash. I just can't pick one. Well, excepting anything off of Cut the Crap.
• Life on Mars - David Bowie (I think I still owe Blankman $50.00 'cause of this song.)
• Blitzkrieg Bop - The Ramones
• Memorize Your Lines - Sleater Kinney
• Kill the Poor - Dead Kennedys (not really a song that advocates the killing of the poor...)
• Naive Melody - Talking Heads
• Debaser - The Pixies
• The Passenger - Iggy Pop

Steph Hauser: Scenester, DC Techie

• Purr -- Dance Hall Crashers
• Next to You -- Dance Hall Crashers
• Mary's Song -- Aislers Set
• Johnny Mathis's Feet -- American Music Club
• Untitled (I'm Right, You're Wrong) -- Mary Prankster
• Anti-Pleasure Dissertation -- Bikini Kill
• Rend It -- Fugazi
• Scarface -- Cadallaca
• The End of You -- Sleater-Kinney
• Good Things -- Sleater-Kinney

Dana Kuan: Enigma, Josh's Roomate

• In the Summertime - Mungo Jerry
• West End Riot - The Living End
• Ray of Light - Madonna
• Down Under - Men at Work
• I Wanna Be Adored - Stone Roses
• That's Entertainment - The Jam
• Blue Dress - Depeche Mode
• Hey - Suicide Machines
• History Repeating - Propellerheads featuring Shirley Bassey
• Female of the Species - Space

John M. Bakija: Frisbee Champion, Economist at Large

• Stairway to Heaven -- Led Zeppelin (of course)
• Over the Hills and Far Away -- Led Zeppelin (I hope that one day there will be a radio station that plays ALL ZEPPELIN, ALL THE TIME. Oh wait, there probably already is.)
• Back on The Chain Gang -- The Pretenders
• My City Was Gone -- The Pretenders
• Witchita -- Gillian Welch and David Rawlings
• Coyote -- Joni Mitchell
• Sultans of Swing -- Dire Straits
• Once in a Lifetime -- Talking Heads
• Get Up (Like a Sex Machine) -- James Brown
• Respect -- Aretha Franklin

Eric Howd: Musical Genius, Renegade Computer Guy

• Yeh, Yeh - They Might Be Giants
• Peace Frog - The Doors
• Skating Away on the Thin Ice of a New Day - Jethro Tull
• Seems So - Apples in Stereo
• Midnite Special - Creedence Clearwater Revival
• Temptation - Tom Waits
• My Wife and My Dead Wife - Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians
• Heroes - David Bowie
• The Onion - Church of Betty
• Tomorrow Never Knows - The Beatles