James Iha, guitarist for Chicago rock gods the Smashing Pumpkins until their initial breakup in 2000, turns 44 today. Our gift to him: a reader’s poll.

Iha has been remarkably busy since head Pumpkin Billy Corgan first dissolved the band, which would explain why Iha chose not to return to the fold when Corgan revived the band with drummer Jimmy Chamberlain in 2007. He released his first solo album in 1998 and has just released a second album, ‘Look to the Sky,’ in Japan, which should come out in the States later this year.

In between those two albums, Iha has launched a record label and recording studio with Fountains of Wayne’s Adam Schlesinger and performed on and off with A Perfect Circle, but the most interesting collaboration has to be the band Tinted Windows, which teamed Iha and Schelsinger with Hanson‘s Taylor Hanson and Cheap Trick drummer Bun E. Carlos. You read that right.

For better or worse, though, that Pumpkins catalog still looms the largest, so it seemed fitting not to pit Iha’s work with Tinted Windows and A Perfect Circle against the songs for which Iha is best known. Which Iha-era Smashing Pumpkins song is your favorite? Make your selection in the list below. And remember, the world isn’t really a vampire — or is it?


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