| Howard Stern

THE STERN STAFF PICKS THE BEST MUSIC OF 2014

Since the Grammy’s are tonight, we asked the Stern Show staff what they would award ‘Record of the Year’ and ‘Album of the Year’ – and the staff did not disappoint.

Their picks are below – and, naturally, Gary couldn’t not tell a few stories, Sal couldn’t understand what we were doing, and Steve Brandano couldn’t choose fewer than five albums and five songs.

HOWARD

Favorite Song : Royal Blood ‘Figure it Out’

FRED NORRIS

Favorite Song: FKA twigs “Two Weeks”; Favorite Album “Sonic Highway“

GARY DELL’ABATE

Favorite Songs:

Song #1 – Uptown Funk – Mark Ronson FEATURING Bruno Mars)

“When I saw Bruno and Mark perform this on Saturday Night Live I thought to myself this should have been the new Prince song (he had performed on SNL the week before). The sound is a little derivative, but I love it.”

Song #2 – Hideaway – Keisza

“I checked this out after Skrillex talked about her on our show. The song sounds like it’s straight out of the early 90’s and it looks like a video Tiffany might have made. It’s actually a catchy tune.

Favorite Album: “I don’t have a favorite album this year but shout outs to the Foo Fighters (Sonic Highway) and Bruce Springsteen (High Hopes) for single handily saving rock and roll.”

JD HARMEYER

Favorite Songs: Custer – Slipknot and F*ck Love – Iggy Azalea

Favorite Albums: The Physical World – Death From Above 1979 and .5: The Gray Chapter – Slipknot

RICHARD CHRISTY

Favorite Song: Icepick Lobotomy – Cannibal Corpse

Favorite Album: Once More ‘Round The Sun – Mastodon

METAL RULES! NO POSERS AND WIMPS ALLOWED!

SAL GOVERNALE

Favorite Song: Godzilla – Blue Oyster Cult

Favorite Album: Paul’s Boutique – The Beastie Boys

(Editor’s Note: Sal either didn’t read the part of the email where we asked for his favorite music or 2014, didn’t understand the email, or just didn’t care. You decide.)

JON HEIN

Favorite Song: Kid Charlemagne – Steely Dan (Live Sept. 2014)

Favorite Album: Houses of the Holy (Deluxe Edition) – Led Zeppelin (released Oct. 2014)

(Editor’s Note: Jon admittedly knew he was going against the spirit of the list by picking songs that are not new to 2014, but was unapologetic for it)

JASON KAPLAN

Favorite Song: Chandelier – Sia

Favorite Album: The Basement Tapes Complete – Bob Dylan and the Band

(Editor’s Note: Jason, like Jon, picked a re-issue. “Dude, what can I say, it’s what I listened to the most this year.”)

WILL MURRAY

Favorite Song: Pitbull’s ‘Fireball’

Favorite Album: They Want My Soul – Spoon

STEVE BRANDANO

Favorite Songs:

“Only” – Nicki Minaj featuring Drake, Lil Wayne, and Chris Brown

“JM” – Strand of Oaks

“For No One” – Houndmouth

“My Wrecking Ball” – Ryan Adams

“Two Weeks” – FKA twigs

Favorite Albums:

Ryan Adams – Ryan Adams

Black Keys – Turn Blue

The War On Drugs – Lost In The Dream

Run The Jewels – Run the Jewels 2

Bleachers – Strange Desire

(Editor’s Note: We don’t have enough staff to link all of Steve’s favorites so please, just use your preferred search engine to find what you’re interested in. Thank you.