Looking at this segment of the playlist, it's clear that I was, consciously or not, giving a good deal of weight to how well a given song works as a sing-along. For whatever reason, this chunk of the artist alphabet is loaded with tunes that are maybe a little dubious content-wise, but good fun to sing along with.
- "Play the Hits," Hal
- "Fools By Your Side," Hal
- "Your Asterisk," The Halo Benders (It's just this side of word salad, but really fun to sing along.)
- "The World Without Logos," Hellsing (This is word salad, on account of its Japanese origin, but there are few tunes that sound cooler.)
- "Closer To Fine (live at KBCO)," Indigo Girls
- "Galileo," Indigo Girls
- "I Want You Back," The Jackson 5
- "A.B.C.," The Jackson 5
- "The Love You Save," The Jackson 5 (Michael Jackson recorded some goof stuff before he hit puberty and slipped his moorings.)
- "I Got You (I Feel Good)," James Brown
- "Night Train," James Brown (Weirdly, I associate this with playing rugby my senior year in college. It doesn't bear explaining.)
- "Tailspin," The Jayhawks
- "Blue," The Jayhawks
- "Miss Williams' Guitar," The Jayhawks (I could probably put most of the Jayhawks catalogue on this...)
- "Cheeseburger In Paradise," Jimmy Buffett (Yeah, yeah, yeah...)
- "Almost Saturday Night," John Fogerty
- "Tennessee Plates," John Hiatt
- "Slow Turning," John Hiatt
- "Stolen Moments," John Hiatt
- "All The Lilacs In Ohio," John Hiatt
- "My Dog & Me," John Hiatt & The Goners
- "Window On The World," John Hiatt & The Goners (We own a lot of John Hiatt.)
- "There She Goes," The La's (I don't want to hear about how it's really about drugs. It's a brilliant pop song, and you can't tell.)
- "Over The Hills And Far Away," Led Zeppelin (Probably the most dubious choise in this set, but I like it.)
- "D'Yer Mak'er," Led Zeppelin
- "Fool In The Rain," Led Zeppelin
- "Hey Hey What Can I Do," Led Zeppelin
- "If I Could Talk I'd Tell You," The Lemonheads
- "Into Your Arms," The Lemonheads
- "Oh Atlanta," Little Feat
- "A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off," The Magnetic Fields (Kate may veto this in the end...)
- "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)," Marvin Gaye
- "Pride And Joy," Marvin Gaye
- "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)," Marvin Gaye
- "I Heard It Through The Grapevine," Marvin Gaye
- "Dance The Night Away," The Mavericks
- "The Tracks Of My Tears," The Miracles (Simply can't be beat as a sing-along.)
- "Float On," Modest Mouse (I'm not 100% sure of the lyrics, but I think it works.)
- "I Was Born," Natalie Merchant (A nonsense song from one of the Billy Bragg/ Wilco albums of Woody Guthrie songs. Kate may veto this, too.)
- "Heart Of Gold," Neil Young
- "You Get What You Give," New Radicals (The "come around, we'll kick your asses" line is a little dubious...)
- "Cruel To Be Kind," Nick Lowe
Comments
This list is seriously lacking in Men Without Hats.
The kid needs to grow up with Safety Dance and Pop Goes The World. :) (Or maybe this is my Canadian side showing...)
Posted by: Max | March 13, 2008 1:30 PM
I was waiting for the L's to mention... one of my favorite "lullabye" songs to sing to my kids when they were little was "If I Had a Boat" by Lyle Lovett. I recommend changing the line "You can kiss my ass, I bought a boat..." to something more kid-friendly. (I would use, "You can say goodbye, I bought a boat...")
Posted by: dr. dave | March 13, 2008 2:48 PM
I was waiting for the L's to mention... one of my favorite "lullabye" songs to sing to my kids when they were little was "If I Had a Boat" by Lyle Lovett.
I think I have a cover version of that by the Holmes Brothers. Which, you're right, would be a good edition.
Also left out of the list: "Feel Good Inc." by Gorillaz, which just came up on shuffle play in the lab.
Posted by: Chad Orzel | March 13, 2008 2:59 PM