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Great lyrics can transcend any time. You may not even know the song or when it was released, but as soon as it comes over some speaker be it at a book store or a doctor's office or the radio, you find yourself singing to it without thinking.

Of course, with anything, deciding on what makes lyrics "great" will vary from person to person based on social factors, so I won't try to talk anyone out of their choices. Instead, I will be completely and totally indulgent and list my 10 (at the moment and in no particular order) songs with great lyrics:

1. Supernatural Blonde, by the Marvelous 3. It starts with the title and by the second verse, I was hooked. How can I resist such a wistful, playful melody with lyrics like this: "I was looking for love in all the wrong places, Giving Abraham Lincolns to a stripper with braces, She thinks I'm in love and I know that sucks, Because she's leaving with the DJ and my 25 bucks." Classic stuff in a T-Rex glammy, hammy kind of way.

2. Norwegian Wood by The Beatles. I don't know anyone who doesn't like this song. Even people I know who think the Beatles were overrated love this song. A deceptively simple melody wrapped around lyrics that are even more deceptively simple ("I once had a girl or should I say she had me..."), it is wry, dry British humor at its best.

3. White Christmas, written by Irving Berlin. "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas, just like the ones I used to know..." It is so romantic and deeply evocative that even for people who live in places whose thermostat never dip below the 80 degree Fahrenheit mark, the song has become the dream trigger of what a real Christmas should be.

4. I Can't Make You Love Me, by Bonnie Riatt. There are sad break up songs and then there is this song. Just looking at the lyrics makes me sniffle. "Here in the dark, in these lonely hours, I will lay down my heart and Ill feel the power, But you wont, no you wont" makes me alternately glad I never had a break up like that yet fearing that I may end up being that woman one day. Still, if it ever does happen, I know which song to turn to so I can cry my tear ducts raw.

5. The Message, by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. "Don't push me because I'm close to the edge, I'm tryin' not to lose my head." Great lyrics and a rap piece that has yet to be topped over 20 years later.

6. On Any Other Day, written by Stewart Copeland from The Police's Regatta De Blanc, Sting gets all the royalties, but my favorite Police song is Copeland's "On Any Other

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