#12 Sun Kil Moon - "Ben's My Friend"

For those who don't know, Sun Kil Moon is Mark Kozelek and he is a singer songwriter from San Francisco. He used to be in the band Red House Painters and now finds himself with a much more successful solo career. He has 6 solo albums including 2014's Benji.

Sun Kil Moon doesn't generally get into my Top 100 though they have had one top 20 song in 2003 with "Carry Me Ohio". This year he has 3 songs in the Top 500 and has his biggest hit yet (according to me) with a song he wrote (kind of) about his friend Ben.....Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie and the Postal Service of course.

"Ben's My Friend" seems a lot more about the struggle of an artist trying to write a record when he has writers block, or maybe just the story of what artists do when they aren't being...artists.  Either way the song, as most of Benji does, tells a cool story and Kozelek's voice and delivery make it even better.  The song spent 21 weeks in the Top 100 and made it all the way to number 2, making it the 3rd most popular song of the year NOT to make the #1 spot on the weekly chart.