The 20 Greatest Singles Of All Time, Or How I Spent My First $20 On iTunes

OK, so these aren't actually the 20 greatest singles of all time; they are more like "the 20 greatest singles that don't appear on albums I already own, or on albums that I plan to buy in the foreseeable future." But that's kind of wordy. The list almost reads like a sample of one-hit wonders, with some very obvious exceptions.

Some important caveats: potential songs had to be available through iTunes (believe it or not, four songs were forced off this list for that lone reason - it's 2008, people! Any song that was in rotation on MTV or radio should be on iTunes by now); the list is inevitably biased by my song-oriented listening patterns back in the 1980's and 90's, as opposed to the album-oriented listening of the past 10+ years; and rank is determined by the order in which songs were purchased (I bought roughly one per day) - kind of like a fantasy song draft.

And without further ado, here's the list.

1. It Takes Two - Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock (1988)
2. Buffalo Stance - Cherry, Neneh (1989)
3. California Love (Single Remix) - 2Pac / Dr. Dre (1996)
4. Your Love - Outfield (1985)
5. Burning Down The House - Talking Heads (1983)
6. 867-5309 / Jenny - Tommy Tutone (1982)
7. So Alive - Love And Rockets (1989)
8. The Humpty Dance - Digital Underground (1990)
9. Natural Born Killaz - Dr. Dre / Ice Cube (1994)
10. Let's Go All The Way - Sly Fox (1986)
11. Talking In Your Sleep - Romantics (1983)
12. Wild Thing - Tone Loc (1989)
13. Don't You Want Me - Human League (1981)
14. Obsession - Animotion (1985)
15. Just Like Heaven - Cure (1987)
16. 6 Underground (Nellee Hooper Remix) - Sneaker Pimps (1996)
17. Push It - Salt-N-Pepa (1987)
18. Let The Music Play - Shannon (1983)
19. O.P.P. - Naughty By Nature (1991)
20. Supersonic - J.J. Fad (1988)

Stock Of The Month: TSO

Now that the market appears to have more stability than it has in quite a while, money has been "rotating" out of commodities and energy, two sectors that have been among the few bulls of the last six months.

Don't believe for a second that those sectors are bursting bubbles. As long as we continue to live in a world of growing populations and economies, and scarce (i.e. less than infinite) amounts of raw materials and resources, commodities and energy are a fairly straightforward long-term investment thesis.

Tesoro (TSO) is an oil-refiner whose stock has fallen from an all-time high of $64 in October 2007 to its current price of $25. It is suffering from a tightening in refining margins, otherwise known as the "crack spread" (a term which I just can't use with a straight face), due to the current high price of oil. However, Tesoro's stock is poised to rebound should any of the following events occur:

• Oil prices go down, or even sideways (not terribly likely, but possible)
• Gasoline prices go up (very likely)
• An integrated oil company who wants more refining capacity, or oil explorer/driller who wants to become an integrated, buys out TSO (long-term likely)

Tesoro has a market-cap of just $3.5 billion, so it could easily be bought by any number of cash-rich energy companies. It is also trading at a low forward P/E of 6 and PEG of 0.64, representing tremendous value. Meanwhile, it yields a dividend of 1.5% while investors like myself wait for the turnaround.

Here's my current portfolio. As always, I believe in all of these stocks - until I sell them.

Dominion Resources Black Warrior Trust (DOM) 11.84%
Southern Copper (PCU) 11.55%
Fording Canadian Coal (FDG) 10.22%
Goldman Sachs (GS) 7.47%
Google (GOOG) 6.67%
Apple (AAPL) 5.71%
Tidewater (TDW) 5.22%
Terra Nitrogen (TNH) 5.06%
Apache (APA) 4.43%
Capstone Turbine (CPST) 4.37%
Frontline (FRO) 4.18%
American Capital Strategies (ACAS) 4.04%
Foster Wheeler (FWLT) 4.00%
Companhia Siderurgica Nacional (SID) 3.48%
NVIDIA (NVDA) 3.36%
MEMC Electronic Materials (WFR) 3.00%
Tesoro (TSO) 2.85%
Ace Limited (ACE) 2.47%