Showing posts with label Songs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Songs. Show all posts
Thursday, June 01, 2017
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Favorite Songs for their Lyrics Part VI
Collide, Howie Day-If I heard the line "I'm tangled up in you" from Adam Levine, I'd assume it was some advanced sexual position. In the context of this song it feels metaphorical and thus poetic. Not to say that Howie Day is any more or less sleazy then Levine but he certainly sells a different side of earnest love better. The song sticks out to me because of the artful way it mixes and merges contrasts in the chorus:
"Even the best fall down sometimes. Even the wrong words seem to rhyme. Out of the dark you fill my mind" and it all builds up to an apt description of opposites coming together: the word "collide." The "seem to" in front of "rhyme" also is highly effective as it changes the song entirely: It's as if the narrator is discovering those feelings as he's saying those words.
She Don't Want Nobody Near, Counting Crows-This song is about the duality that sometimes we want to be alone and sometimes we want to be with people.
The song's subject is a woman who likely I can picture as the mysterious neighborhood recluse whose eccentricities are the subject of neighborhood gossip about (to add to that point, the song is written in some slangy dialect laced with double negatives and wrongly used connotations). She doesn't want people in her house because it's crowded but she doesn't want to be alone either so "they just keep pouring in." Throughout the song, her house guests are referred to as "them" and thus portrayed as if they were some form of a house pest. At the very least, other people are something she doesn't understand.
In the final verse, there's a twist that the woman doesn't just have a discomfort around people but a deep-rooted fear of having her sadness rejected by others: "She don't want nobody near cause she don't want anybody to see what she's like when she's down. 'Cause it's a real bad place to be."
3 x 5, John Mayer-One of the non-single songs from his first CD (before he became full of himself), this song is simply about the beauty of the outdoors and scenery. It also has a message to enjoy it for the sake of enjoying it. The narrator feels elation because "Today I finally overcame trying to fit the world inside a picture frame."
This isn't a song that says much (I'm not suggesting a lot of songs do) but it captures a certain feeling very well. I remember in a writing worskhop, one of our exercises was to look at a picture of a seascape overlooking an Irish coastal town and describe it. Even though we largely used the same adjectives ("rustic" "quaint" "placid"), our paragraphs differed wildly. I see this song as John Mayer's version of that exercise and excuse for him to have some fun with it.
For the First Time, The Script-The narrator is someone who's struggling financially and the subject of the song is what I suspect is a platonic female friend who just suffered a broken heart. The repetition of the line "man these times are hard" and the melancholy undertones of the lyrics (i.e. "we're smiling though we're close to tears") suggest that the two of them can't really solve each other's problems. Still, he hopes that the two can ease the pain a little through reconnecting and talking. Not just any talk but a really meaningful one that would keep the two up all night as they drink cheap bottles of wine.
I often wonder with this song if it wouldn't have been more interesting if the subject was a man. The song's subject is probably female because its based on a true story or because logistically the band might be more successful at concerts if all their songs have pseudo-romantic undertones so girls will fawn over them and buy tickets. At the same time, the relationship is platonic and unless he's lying through his teeth and the bottles of wine are a means to make her easier to get in bed, it's clear that he sees her as a platonic friend. If the song is just about friendship, why couldn't the subject be a guy? How often does a guy sing a song to a guy like that? At the same time, I can see the beauty of the song as the fact that she's vulnerable and presumably beautiful but he still wants to develop his friendship with her.
Sara Bairelles, Fairytales and The End of the Innocence, Don Henley-The disconnect between reality and simplistic fictional portrayals of love that dominate our cultural storylines (by which I mean a realistic love story is usually relegated to the Sundance circuit while a Drew Barrymore rom-com opens on 2,000 screens nationwide) is an underexplored theme but one that I hear every once in a while done well in song. Bairelles' short and sweet number shatters the illusion of fairy tales. Cinderella is on the bedroom floor with her dreams shattered while Repunzel concludes she would have cut her hair if she had known men would climb it. Why don't these fairytales play out successfully after the happy ending? Bairelles' answer is "she's always waiting on the next best thing." The subversive suggestion is that it's human nature not to ever settle down into a happy ending.
Henley's song (and my one entry this week before 2000, I'm shamelessly unaware of anything that's not new) also rallies against fairytale mentality with the line "We've been poisoned by these fairytales." He takes it a step further by suggesting what to do when "happily ever after fails." The solution is geographical or metaphorically geographical: "A place we can go still untouched by rain." But that's clearly not much of a solution so he advises his subject to offer up her best defense (reminiscent of the Ben Folds song "Still Fighting It") because it's the end of the innocence.
Click on the lyrics tag for more editions of this series
"Even the best fall down sometimes. Even the wrong words seem to rhyme. Out of the dark you fill my mind" and it all builds up to an apt description of opposites coming together: the word "collide." The "seem to" in front of "rhyme" also is highly effective as it changes the song entirely: It's as if the narrator is discovering those feelings as he's saying those words.
She Don't Want Nobody Near, Counting Crows-This song is about the duality that sometimes we want to be alone and sometimes we want to be with people.
The song's subject is a woman who likely I can picture as the mysterious neighborhood recluse whose eccentricities are the subject of neighborhood gossip about (to add to that point, the song is written in some slangy dialect laced with double negatives and wrongly used connotations). She doesn't want people in her house because it's crowded but she doesn't want to be alone either so "they just keep pouring in." Throughout the song, her house guests are referred to as "them" and thus portrayed as if they were some form of a house pest. At the very least, other people are something she doesn't understand.
In the final verse, there's a twist that the woman doesn't just have a discomfort around people but a deep-rooted fear of having her sadness rejected by others: "She don't want nobody near cause she don't want anybody to see what she's like when she's down. 'Cause it's a real bad place to be."
3 x 5, John Mayer-One of the non-single songs from his first CD (before he became full of himself), this song is simply about the beauty of the outdoors and scenery. It also has a message to enjoy it for the sake of enjoying it. The narrator feels elation because "Today I finally overcame trying to fit the world inside a picture frame."
This isn't a song that says much (I'm not suggesting a lot of songs do) but it captures a certain feeling very well. I remember in a writing worskhop, one of our exercises was to look at a picture of a seascape overlooking an Irish coastal town and describe it. Even though we largely used the same adjectives ("rustic" "quaint" "placid"), our paragraphs differed wildly. I see this song as John Mayer's version of that exercise and excuse for him to have some fun with it.
For the First Time, The Script-The narrator is someone who's struggling financially and the subject of the song is what I suspect is a platonic female friend who just suffered a broken heart. The repetition of the line "man these times are hard" and the melancholy undertones of the lyrics (i.e. "we're smiling though we're close to tears") suggest that the two of them can't really solve each other's problems. Still, he hopes that the two can ease the pain a little through reconnecting and talking. Not just any talk but a really meaningful one that would keep the two up all night as they drink cheap bottles of wine.
I often wonder with this song if it wouldn't have been more interesting if the subject was a man. The song's subject is probably female because its based on a true story or because logistically the band might be more successful at concerts if all their songs have pseudo-romantic undertones so girls will fawn over them and buy tickets. At the same time, the relationship is platonic and unless he's lying through his teeth and the bottles of wine are a means to make her easier to get in bed, it's clear that he sees her as a platonic friend. If the song is just about friendship, why couldn't the subject be a guy? How often does a guy sing a song to a guy like that? At the same time, I can see the beauty of the song as the fact that she's vulnerable and presumably beautiful but he still wants to develop his friendship with her.
Sara Bairelles, Fairytales and The End of the Innocence, Don Henley-The disconnect between reality and simplistic fictional portrayals of love that dominate our cultural storylines (by which I mean a realistic love story is usually relegated to the Sundance circuit while a Drew Barrymore rom-com opens on 2,000 screens nationwide) is an underexplored theme but one that I hear every once in a while done well in song. Bairelles' short and sweet number shatters the illusion of fairy tales. Cinderella is on the bedroom floor with her dreams shattered while Repunzel concludes she would have cut her hair if she had known men would climb it. Why don't these fairytales play out successfully after the happy ending? Bairelles' answer is "she's always waiting on the next best thing." The subversive suggestion is that it's human nature not to ever settle down into a happy ending.
Henley's song (and my one entry this week before 2000, I'm shamelessly unaware of anything that's not new) also rallies against fairytale mentality with the line "We've been poisoned by these fairytales." He takes it a step further by suggesting what to do when "happily ever after fails." The solution is geographical or metaphorically geographical: "A place we can go still untouched by rain." But that's clearly not much of a solution so he advises his subject to offer up her best defense (reminiscent of the Ben Folds song "Still Fighting It") because it's the end of the innocence.
Click on the lyrics tag for more editions of this series
Thursday, January 27, 2011
A very overgeneralized argument for why songwriting dissapoints me as an art form
Hi followers, I'm back for the first time in a while....Happy new year and sorry for the delay....
Click here for 10 movies that should be remade
This is a large generalization I'm making and I don't expect to solve such a big and impossibly complex debate.
Look over at songfacts.com or and look up the meanings to a lot of songs. When asked what their songs mean, few artists ever give as impressive an explanation as the one you thought of in your head. In fact, most artists just say "I like keeping it vague so the user can take their own meaning."
Sometimes, I just feel like these artists are just string together a few rhyming words while they're high and just piece it together without much thought. I say this as someone who sometimes finds something profound to relate to in a song lyric and feels really empowered by that, so I've historically wanted to have a great respect for the people putting together these lyrics.
I was listening to the Greenday song 21 Guns and I related to it in so many ways. Without going into too much detail, I encountered someone I used to work for and I found myself dwelling on the pain from the bad of our relationship rather than the good of it. I related to the parts about the song regarding whether you know what's worth fighting for
So I wanted to see what it was about and BJ Arsmtrong had this to say:
"It brings up 21st Century Breakdown in a lot of ways, and the 21 gun-salute for someone that's fallen, but done in an arena rock 'n' roll sort of way."
I mean, that's so nothing at all. He just strung a piece of symbolism together and used to make a statement about war. Like he hasn't done that already or even done it far more effectively in the past. Billie Joe Armstrong was way more effective talking about war in interviews I've read than in the blurry symbolism hidden within three verses of song. If he already has the power to be articulate about how he feels about current events, why bother putting them into a song?
Maybe him and other songwriters have some meaning in their head but compare this to directors and screenwriters. Listen to DVD commentary or public appearances: they usually love to talk on end about what they were thinking and what they intended when they made films.
I don't mind that Billie Joe Armstrong had a different meaning in his head when he wrote the song than the way I interpreted it. I would be a little disappointed if he didn't put much thought into it at all.
I also think that songwriting is something that needs to defend itself more because screenwriting or directing is an undertaking which requires a tremendous amount of creative energy and effort. You can't just stumble onto a masterpiece that resonates with the zeitgeist of the times by pure chance. I'm more inclined to think that capturing the zeitgeist by pure chance is more possible when all you have to do is 200 words (21 Guns comes out to 221 words, with many sentences being duplicates) and your primary goal is to make them rhyme.
Click here for 10 movies that should be remade
This is a large generalization I'm making and I don't expect to solve such a big and impossibly complex debate.
Look over at songfacts.com or and look up the meanings to a lot of songs. When asked what their songs mean, few artists ever give as impressive an explanation as the one you thought of in your head. In fact, most artists just say "I like keeping it vague so the user can take their own meaning."
Sometimes, I just feel like these artists are just string together a few rhyming words while they're high and just piece it together without much thought. I say this as someone who sometimes finds something profound to relate to in a song lyric and feels really empowered by that, so I've historically wanted to have a great respect for the people putting together these lyrics.
I was listening to the Greenday song 21 Guns and I related to it in so many ways. Without going into too much detail, I encountered someone I used to work for and I found myself dwelling on the pain from the bad of our relationship rather than the good of it. I related to the parts about the song regarding whether you know what's worth fighting for
So I wanted to see what it was about and BJ Arsmtrong had this to say:
"It brings up 21st Century Breakdown in a lot of ways, and the 21 gun-salute for someone that's fallen, but done in an arena rock 'n' roll sort of way."
I mean, that's so nothing at all. He just strung a piece of symbolism together and used to make a statement about war. Like he hasn't done that already or even done it far more effectively in the past. Billie Joe Armstrong was way more effective talking about war in interviews I've read than in the blurry symbolism hidden within three verses of song. If he already has the power to be articulate about how he feels about current events, why bother putting them into a song?
Maybe him and other songwriters have some meaning in their head but compare this to directors and screenwriters. Listen to DVD commentary or public appearances: they usually love to talk on end about what they were thinking and what they intended when they made films.
I don't mind that Billie Joe Armstrong had a different meaning in his head when he wrote the song than the way I interpreted it. I would be a little disappointed if he didn't put much thought into it at all.
I also think that songwriting is something that needs to defend itself more because screenwriting or directing is an undertaking which requires a tremendous amount of creative energy and effort. You can't just stumble onto a masterpiece that resonates with the zeitgeist of the times by pure chance. I'm more inclined to think that capturing the zeitgeist by pure chance is more possible when all you have to do is 200 words (21 Guns comes out to 221 words, with many sentences being duplicates) and your primary goal is to make them rhyme.
Sunday, November 08, 2009
Songs whose lyrics I love, Part III
Past editions: http://sophomorecritic.blogspot.com/2009/07/favorite-songs-for-their-lyrics-part-ii.html
Also, check out this article i wrote on a website that pays me for hits for my take on the choice of Oscar hosts.
Gone, Ben Folds Five (2001)-Certainly not my favorite song, there’s a very heavy air of sadness to it as the narrator reflects on someone who dumped him a year ago, and how he’s at the last stages of moving on. “The chemicals have are wearing off,” is how he describes the process. Gone is also a very strong word which you think the narrator is enthusiastically coming to grips with since you hear the word repeated and sung so joyously.
Grey Street, Dave Matthews Band (2002)-One of my favorite Dave Matthews Songs of the later era. The song has some really dark moments about how the woman in question is going to take things and set them on fire. It’s about a women who’s struggling and stuck in the same situation in life. The imagery is very vivid. Perhaps the woman’s problem is that she’s literally stuck in a dead end. There's an equally good chance that the way she sees the world is the problem, itself. The chorus ends “All the colors blend together to form Grey Street.” Maybe some of the colors are bright things in her life that she’s ignoring because they come together.
Time, Hootie and the Blowfish (1996)-If there’s a phobia for people who are afraid of time passing them by, then I have it. The narrator acknowledges this feeling. Time is responsible for washing away the narrator’s dreams. I know it’s not natural or sensical to blame time itself for things going awry, but I feel like time is the culprit, myself. It gives you hope to see that the narrator overcomes this through disbelief.
First Cut is the Deepest, Cat Stephens (1967)-It’s kind of true that the first break-up you have is the hardest. The narrator is in a very heavy state of flux saying that they will try to find love again but they’re still hurt and looking back quite a bit.
Stars, Switchfoot (2005)-I like how the narrator is talking about so many extremes: ecstacy, pain, his luck going down the drain. The song is very up-tempo which accompanies the mania quite well. I also like the consistent use of imagery and in particularly the weather references (i.e. “Maybe I’ve been partly cloudy, maybe I’m a chance of rain”).
#41, Dave Matthews Band (1996)-The lyrics are about DMB’s professional break-up with his early manager who discovered him. It could be applied for a lot of things and it expresses in a beautifully abstract way, a reflection on a happiness that was and a determination to get back to it, it seems. The narrator reflects in the verses about times past. He talks about playing far away from the loneliness no one notices now and how he wanted to stay, play, and love (“you”). In the choruses he resolves to share the joy of playing in the rain with the subject of his song. He also resolved to not pass this by, bring water, and enter one way and exit another. It’s all incredibly vague, but you sort of get the idea that there’s something going on.
Name, Goo Goo Dolls (1997)-The idea of how “We’re grown-up orphans who never knew their name” strikes me immediately. I believe that what’s being sung about is the bitterness of having grown-up and not being able to return to that childhood-like innocence. I interpret not knowing your name as not knowing your identity as a grown-up like you did as a child. The narrator is singing to a childhood crush (he sings about losing letters he sent to her) and when he says that he won’t tell anyone her name, there’s an implication that he does know her name and she doesn’t. I believe that means he knows her really well in the way you know someone that you’ve grown up with and known all your life. I see some truth in that because I tend to think that the people who know me best are the people who grew up with me.
Vegas, Sara Beirelles (2009)-As Sara Beirelles explains it, it’s about how people are thinking there could be one thing that could change their lives and make it all better. Someone believes going to Vegas is the solution to all their problems because that’s where dreams come true, while another person believes that place is New York and a different person believes he should sell his car and cross the border. The pseudo-romantic element about not forgetting the narrator is just something I see as a reminder not to get too caught up on those dreams.
Sugar We’re Going Down, Fall Out Boy (2006)-Fall Out Boy uses wickedly clever and self-conscious lyrics. They’re the musical equivalent of a new wave director who invokes references of past artists in their songs so that they’re not just singing about emotions but they’re also reflecting (and sometimes parodying) on the conventions of singing about emotions. There’s a reflection here that maybe that persona might just be a little shallow when he notes that his identity is “just who I am this week” and that an emotion as strong as love is just a notch on a bedpost or (even worse) fodder for a line in a song. Then, in the chorus, they lament that they’re striking out early but enthusiastically and proclaim themselves to be going down swinging. Maybe, it’s a larger issue that they’re shallow people so they’re getting what they deserve.
Grace is Gone, Dave Matthews Band (2002)-There are so many DMB songs to choose: At the moment, I feel like throwing in this more low-key number about a guy drinking away his problems. I’ve certainly never heard someone so self-conscious about why he’s drinking, interestingly enough. It’s almost like excessive exposition to a character in a movie: but the song is so catchy and the words flow so well into each other. We also run into the interesting question of what exactly it means for your "grace" to be gone?
Update: The song was written by Matthews upon the passing of his stepfather and I got the feeling that this event didn't have the same effect as the passing of his biological father. As a result the song has a more lightweight tone than full-fledged mourning: It feels as though the song was written because he was fond of his stepfather and the least he could do as a songwriter was to devote a song for him.
Also, check out this article i wrote on a website that pays me for hits for my take on the choice of Oscar hosts.
Gone, Ben Folds Five (2001)-Certainly not my favorite song, there’s a very heavy air of sadness to it as the narrator reflects on someone who dumped him a year ago, and how he’s at the last stages of moving on. “The chemicals have are wearing off,” is how he describes the process. Gone is also a very strong word which you think the narrator is enthusiastically coming to grips with since you hear the word repeated and sung so joyously.
Grey Street, Dave Matthews Band (2002)-One of my favorite Dave Matthews Songs of the later era. The song has some really dark moments about how the woman in question is going to take things and set them on fire. It’s about a women who’s struggling and stuck in the same situation in life. The imagery is very vivid. Perhaps the woman’s problem is that she’s literally stuck in a dead end. There's an equally good chance that the way she sees the world is the problem, itself. The chorus ends “All the colors blend together to form Grey Street.” Maybe some of the colors are bright things in her life that she’s ignoring because they come together.
Time, Hootie and the Blowfish (1996)-If there’s a phobia for people who are afraid of time passing them by, then I have it. The narrator acknowledges this feeling. Time is responsible for washing away the narrator’s dreams. I know it’s not natural or sensical to blame time itself for things going awry, but I feel like time is the culprit, myself. It gives you hope to see that the narrator overcomes this through disbelief.
First Cut is the Deepest, Cat Stephens (1967)-It’s kind of true that the first break-up you have is the hardest. The narrator is in a very heavy state of flux saying that they will try to find love again but they’re still hurt and looking back quite a bit.
Stars, Switchfoot (2005)-I like how the narrator is talking about so many extremes: ecstacy, pain, his luck going down the drain. The song is very up-tempo which accompanies the mania quite well. I also like the consistent use of imagery and in particularly the weather references (i.e. “Maybe I’ve been partly cloudy, maybe I’m a chance of rain”).
#41, Dave Matthews Band (1996)-The lyrics are about DMB’s professional break-up with his early manager who discovered him. It could be applied for a lot of things and it expresses in a beautifully abstract way, a reflection on a happiness that was and a determination to get back to it, it seems. The narrator reflects in the verses about times past. He talks about playing far away from the loneliness no one notices now and how he wanted to stay, play, and love (“you”). In the choruses he resolves to share the joy of playing in the rain with the subject of his song. He also resolved to not pass this by, bring water, and enter one way and exit another. It’s all incredibly vague, but you sort of get the idea that there’s something going on.
Name, Goo Goo Dolls (1997)-The idea of how “We’re grown-up orphans who never knew their name” strikes me immediately. I believe that what’s being sung about is the bitterness of having grown-up and not being able to return to that childhood-like innocence. I interpret not knowing your name as not knowing your identity as a grown-up like you did as a child. The narrator is singing to a childhood crush (he sings about losing letters he sent to her) and when he says that he won’t tell anyone her name, there’s an implication that he does know her name and she doesn’t. I believe that means he knows her really well in the way you know someone that you’ve grown up with and known all your life. I see some truth in that because I tend to think that the people who know me best are the people who grew up with me.
Vegas, Sara Beirelles (2009)-As Sara Beirelles explains it, it’s about how people are thinking there could be one thing that could change their lives and make it all better. Someone believes going to Vegas is the solution to all their problems because that’s where dreams come true, while another person believes that place is New York and a different person believes he should sell his car and cross the border. The pseudo-romantic element about not forgetting the narrator is just something I see as a reminder not to get too caught up on those dreams.
Sugar We’re Going Down, Fall Out Boy (2006)-Fall Out Boy uses wickedly clever and self-conscious lyrics. They’re the musical equivalent of a new wave director who invokes references of past artists in their songs so that they’re not just singing about emotions but they’re also reflecting (and sometimes parodying) on the conventions of singing about emotions. There’s a reflection here that maybe that persona might just be a little shallow when he notes that his identity is “just who I am this week” and that an emotion as strong as love is just a notch on a bedpost or (even worse) fodder for a line in a song. Then, in the chorus, they lament that they’re striking out early but enthusiastically and proclaim themselves to be going down swinging. Maybe, it’s a larger issue that they’re shallow people so they’re getting what they deserve.
Grace is Gone, Dave Matthews Band (2002)-There are so many DMB songs to choose: At the moment, I feel like throwing in this more low-key number about a guy drinking away his problems. I’ve certainly never heard someone so self-conscious about why he’s drinking, interestingly enough. It’s almost like excessive exposition to a character in a movie: but the song is so catchy and the words flow so well into each other. We also run into the interesting question of what exactly it means for your "grace" to be gone?
Update: The song was written by Matthews upon the passing of his stepfather and I got the feeling that this event didn't have the same effect as the passing of his biological father. As a result the song has a more lightweight tone than full-fledged mourning: It feels as though the song was written because he was fond of his stepfather and the least he could do as a songwriter was to devote a song for him.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Favorite songs for their lyrics, Part II
This is the second edition of my post on lyrics.
Landed, Ben Folds (2005)-Ben Folds doesn’t try to make his songs universal. He writes very specific stories. He said once in a concert I attended that he admired Stevie Wonder because Wonder didn’t just write sad love songs about heart break: He wrote about all facets of life including the good and the bad. Songs like “Stephen’s Last Night in Town,” “Song for the Dumped,” and “Zak and Sara” show there’s nothing too mundane in life to be covered for a song. Folds doesn’t feel the need to write about himself either: He writes about a man who’s been fired after putting in 25 years of good work at a company in Fred Jones Pt. II, a man who became an evangelist after an acid experience in a party in “Not the Same”, and an ex-hippie who’s no longer part of the revolution in “Ascent of Stan.” By comparison, every other songwriter is a narcissist. Folds doesn’t feel like his own ordeals are as important as the rest of the world. In “Landed,” Ben Folds writes somewhat of an anti-relationship song. It’s about a guy who’s in an unhealthy relationship, gets out of it and regains his sanity in the process. The opening line: “We hit the bottom, I thought it was my fault, and in a way I guess it was.” Have you ever heard a narrator in a song possess such a lack of confidence? As the listener, you can tell that it wasn’t his fault, but the narrator has been forced into believing it was. The pronouncement at the climactic bridge when the narrator has landed is “I’ve come alone.” Upon further research, I found that this was based on a specific story of Ben’s friend. Go figure.
Hard Candy, Counting Crows (2002)-The symbolism and imagery in this song is so great. For one thing, the connection between your mother, your love, and your daughter is explored here (that is, if “girl upon a pedestal” relates to a daughter), how you miss your mother’s love as you age and see her in your wife/lover, and how you also compare that love to what you expect of your daughter. In the end, there’s an acknowledgement that this is an unhealthy cycle, because you’re waiting for your daughter to fall. The song touches up on the power of nostalgia with a certain ironic detachment that all of his regrets, his hopes, and summer memories are all compressed into a picture of an ordinary girl. I think in my own experiences, when I see a picture of some former love, I find that same irony that it’s now just a picture of an ordinary girl and it used to be much more.
Wake Me Up When September Ends, Greenday (2005)-The song takes a pretty direct approach on the subject of severe depression as depressed people tend to sleep a lot. What's interesting and relatable about the song is that the narrator wishes for something ineffective: He believes that skipping the month of September will cure his pain. That's not how the healing process works, of course. If he slept through the month of September, he would have to deal with the feelings of (in this case, getting over his dead dad) during the month of October. Nevertheless, it's a nice wish. There's a hopeful tone to this depressing state he's in simply because he is in the act of wishing (even if that wish is irrational). Of course, the song is also relatable because unless you absolutely love school (and even then, the transition is kind of hard), September is the worst month of the year and it would be kind of nice to skip it. It's kind of the flipside of a summer anthem in that sense.
Rain King, Counting Crows (1995)-Another Counting Crows song. The line in the chorus "I belong in the service of the queen, I belong anywhere but in between," is the most striking to me. I've listened to Adam Duritz discuss the song and it's not anything close to how I interpreted it, but I interpreted it as a guy deserving this woman's heart and not anything less. "So don't try to feed me because I've been here before and I deserve a little more," he also says. I see it as a song about a guy who's been searching for true love for a while and is still isn't willing to compromise. The narrator is also in a severe state of confusion, disillusionment, or euphora. It's a little hard to tell and that's what makes the song interesting.
Why Georgia, John Mayer (2003)-This is a case of me discovering a song where I was coming from the same exact place the songwriter was coming from. John Mayer was singing about dealing with a quarter-life crisis as a result of a life change. In this case, he was moving to Georgia. Perhaps, moving to Georgia was the solution to his quarter-life crisis, who knows? The pronouncement: "Everybody's just a stranger but that's the danger of going my own way. I guess that's a price I'll have to pay," puts a positive spin on the situation. When I was 20, I had to make a major life change and it was really risky to try to move far away from everything I knew. In the end, I moved away for a while, but came home a little too soon. Still, the song was very relatable to me: Moving away and taking a big risk comes with a few negatives and struggles, even when it's all for the better and a liberating move of independence.
Fallen, Sarah MacLachlin (2003)-Sometimes, channeling your sadness through music and turning it into poetry can be the best thing you can do with it. This song is nothing but sadness, but capturing those emotions so poetically and wish such a serene voice as Sarah gives these dark emotions a redeeming quality. The lesson of this song is that there's beauty in failure to.
Barrytown, Steely Dan (1974)-I didn't even know this was Steely Dan's song. I thought it was Ben Fold's song, but I just recently discovered it was a cover that I downloaded from Napster of so many years ago. The song hit a chord with me. I viewed it as a ballad against conformity: "And don't think that i'm out of line for speaking out for what is right, I'd like to see you do just fine, but look at what you wear, and the way you do your hair. I can tell by what you carry that you come from Barrytown." The song resonated with me at a time when I didn't fit in with my surroundings. I just transferred colleges and would speak out a lot against the culture of the new school only to be ridiculed and misunderstood. Apparently, the song is about a cult in New York.
You're a God, Vertical Horizon (2000)-I got into the massive hit Everything You Want well-before I got into this song, but it's a good song as well. Vertical Horizon doesn't have too many good songs other than those two. Best I Ever Had has been covered a couple times. Anyways, this song is really interesting because the narrator is proclaiming to this woman that she's a God, which is quite a compliment, but at the same time, it's being used as an excuse (i.e. "you're a god and I thought you would know...and I just thought I'd let you go"). There are a lot of complicated loopholes in this relationship or potential relationship and the narrator's reason for writing this song is that he's gotta be honest after being "covered in lies." Did he cheat on her? Did he ever have her in the first place and to what degree? What an interesting song.
Game of Love, Santanna featuring Michelle Branch (2003)-What a great song about love. The line in the chorus "A little bit of this, a little bit of that," is a good metaphor for the game of flirting and love. Successful attraction is just a random mix of ingredients and the incredibly festive music encourages you to just go out there and enjoy searching for that right mix of ingredients. The girl is heartbroken by a kiss that didn't turn into anything more but could you sit there after listening to this song and tell me that she's not having a good time with it?
You're Winter, Sister Hazel (1997)-I played this song a lot during my freshman year to deal with stresses and how I wasn't going to let them take control of me. The tone is melancholy, with the narrator saying "won't be your winter and I won't be anyone's excuse to cry, and we can be forgiven, but I'll still be here." The guy is being treated like crap by someone else and he is refusing to let it get him down. He will still be there for that person when he or she comes to they're senses and realizes how wrong they will be acting. Surely, good resolve for a strong person.
OK, that's 10 more songs. I'll do a third round of this soon.
And please donate a hit to me by clicking on my site:
Songs I'm considering writing about in the next edition:
1. It's All Been Done, Barenaked Ladies
2. #41, Dave Matthews Band
3. Who Knew, Pink
4. You and I Both, Jason Mraz
5. Grey Street, Dave Matthews Band
6. Name, Goo Goo Dolls
7. Be Like That, Three Doors Down
8. Hand Me Down, Matchbox Twenty
9. Walking in Memphis, Marc Cohn
10. Meet Virginia, Train
Landed, Ben Folds (2005)-Ben Folds doesn’t try to make his songs universal. He writes very specific stories. He said once in a concert I attended that he admired Stevie Wonder because Wonder didn’t just write sad love songs about heart break: He wrote about all facets of life including the good and the bad. Songs like “Stephen’s Last Night in Town,” “Song for the Dumped,” and “Zak and Sara” show there’s nothing too mundane in life to be covered for a song. Folds doesn’t feel the need to write about himself either: He writes about a man who’s been fired after putting in 25 years of good work at a company in Fred Jones Pt. II, a man who became an evangelist after an acid experience in a party in “Not the Same”, and an ex-hippie who’s no longer part of the revolution in “Ascent of Stan.” By comparison, every other songwriter is a narcissist. Folds doesn’t feel like his own ordeals are as important as the rest of the world. In “Landed,” Ben Folds writes somewhat of an anti-relationship song. It’s about a guy who’s in an unhealthy relationship, gets out of it and regains his sanity in the process. The opening line: “We hit the bottom, I thought it was my fault, and in a way I guess it was.” Have you ever heard a narrator in a song possess such a lack of confidence? As the listener, you can tell that it wasn’t his fault, but the narrator has been forced into believing it was. The pronouncement at the climactic bridge when the narrator has landed is “I’ve come alone.” Upon further research, I found that this was based on a specific story of Ben’s friend. Go figure.
Hard Candy, Counting Crows (2002)-The symbolism and imagery in this song is so great. For one thing, the connection between your mother, your love, and your daughter is explored here (that is, if “girl upon a pedestal” relates to a daughter), how you miss your mother’s love as you age and see her in your wife/lover, and how you also compare that love to what you expect of your daughter. In the end, there’s an acknowledgement that this is an unhealthy cycle, because you’re waiting for your daughter to fall. The song touches up on the power of nostalgia with a certain ironic detachment that all of his regrets, his hopes, and summer memories are all compressed into a picture of an ordinary girl. I think in my own experiences, when I see a picture of some former love, I find that same irony that it’s now just a picture of an ordinary girl and it used to be much more.
Wake Me Up When September Ends, Greenday (2005)-The song takes a pretty direct approach on the subject of severe depression as depressed people tend to sleep a lot. What's interesting and relatable about the song is that the narrator wishes for something ineffective: He believes that skipping the month of September will cure his pain. That's not how the healing process works, of course. If he slept through the month of September, he would have to deal with the feelings of (in this case, getting over his dead dad) during the month of October. Nevertheless, it's a nice wish. There's a hopeful tone to this depressing state he's in simply because he is in the act of wishing (even if that wish is irrational). Of course, the song is also relatable because unless you absolutely love school (and even then, the transition is kind of hard), September is the worst month of the year and it would be kind of nice to skip it. It's kind of the flipside of a summer anthem in that sense.
Rain King, Counting Crows (1995)-Another Counting Crows song. The line in the chorus "I belong in the service of the queen, I belong anywhere but in between," is the most striking to me. I've listened to Adam Duritz discuss the song and it's not anything close to how I interpreted it, but I interpreted it as a guy deserving this woman's heart and not anything less. "So don't try to feed me because I've been here before and I deserve a little more," he also says. I see it as a song about a guy who's been searching for true love for a while and is still isn't willing to compromise. The narrator is also in a severe state of confusion, disillusionment, or euphora. It's a little hard to tell and that's what makes the song interesting.
Why Georgia, John Mayer (2003)-This is a case of me discovering a song where I was coming from the same exact place the songwriter was coming from. John Mayer was singing about dealing with a quarter-life crisis as a result of a life change. In this case, he was moving to Georgia. Perhaps, moving to Georgia was the solution to his quarter-life crisis, who knows? The pronouncement: "Everybody's just a stranger but that's the danger of going my own way. I guess that's a price I'll have to pay," puts a positive spin on the situation. When I was 20, I had to make a major life change and it was really risky to try to move far away from everything I knew. In the end, I moved away for a while, but came home a little too soon. Still, the song was very relatable to me: Moving away and taking a big risk comes with a few negatives and struggles, even when it's all for the better and a liberating move of independence.
Fallen, Sarah MacLachlin (2003)-Sometimes, channeling your sadness through music and turning it into poetry can be the best thing you can do with it. This song is nothing but sadness, but capturing those emotions so poetically and wish such a serene voice as Sarah gives these dark emotions a redeeming quality. The lesson of this song is that there's beauty in failure to.
Barrytown, Steely Dan (1974)-I didn't even know this was Steely Dan's song. I thought it was Ben Fold's song, but I just recently discovered it was a cover that I downloaded from Napster of so many years ago. The song hit a chord with me. I viewed it as a ballad against conformity: "And don't think that i'm out of line for speaking out for what is right, I'd like to see you do just fine, but look at what you wear, and the way you do your hair. I can tell by what you carry that you come from Barrytown." The song resonated with me at a time when I didn't fit in with my surroundings. I just transferred colleges and would speak out a lot against the culture of the new school only to be ridiculed and misunderstood. Apparently, the song is about a cult in New York.
You're a God, Vertical Horizon (2000)-I got into the massive hit Everything You Want well-before I got into this song, but it's a good song as well. Vertical Horizon doesn't have too many good songs other than those two. Best I Ever Had has been covered a couple times. Anyways, this song is really interesting because the narrator is proclaiming to this woman that she's a God, which is quite a compliment, but at the same time, it's being used as an excuse (i.e. "you're a god and I thought you would know...and I just thought I'd let you go"). There are a lot of complicated loopholes in this relationship or potential relationship and the narrator's reason for writing this song is that he's gotta be honest after being "covered in lies." Did he cheat on her? Did he ever have her in the first place and to what degree? What an interesting song.
Game of Love, Santanna featuring Michelle Branch (2003)-What a great song about love. The line in the chorus "A little bit of this, a little bit of that," is a good metaphor for the game of flirting and love. Successful attraction is just a random mix of ingredients and the incredibly festive music encourages you to just go out there and enjoy searching for that right mix of ingredients. The girl is heartbroken by a kiss that didn't turn into anything more but could you sit there after listening to this song and tell me that she's not having a good time with it?
You're Winter, Sister Hazel (1997)-I played this song a lot during my freshman year to deal with stresses and how I wasn't going to let them take control of me. The tone is melancholy, with the narrator saying "won't be your winter and I won't be anyone's excuse to cry, and we can be forgiven, but I'll still be here." The guy is being treated like crap by someone else and he is refusing to let it get him down. He will still be there for that person when he or she comes to they're senses and realizes how wrong they will be acting. Surely, good resolve for a strong person.
OK, that's 10 more songs. I'll do a third round of this soon.
And please donate a hit to me by clicking on my site:
Songs I'm considering writing about in the next edition:
1. It's All Been Done, Barenaked Ladies
2. #41, Dave Matthews Band
3. Who Knew, Pink
4. You and I Both, Jason Mraz
5. Grey Street, Dave Matthews Band
6. Name, Goo Goo Dolls
7. Be Like That, Three Doors Down
8. Hand Me Down, Matchbox Twenty
9. Walking in Memphis, Marc Cohn
10. Meet Virginia, Train
Monday, June 25, 2007
Top 100 Movie Songs
In honor of the blog-a-thon, I reproduced a copy of the top 100 movie songs of all time. I made this after I saw the AFI special and it when I was far less knowledgeable about film than I was now. The listings are as follows: song/musician/movie. By musician, it could be the person who wrote it or the one who sang it. Whichever one i found first:
1. Singing in the Rain, Gene Kelly, Singing in the Rain-The title song from the quintessential musical. I think what people love about this number is how much fun Gene Kelly is having. He starts jumping up and down in the puddles as if he almost forgets he’s supposed to be tap dancing.
2. Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Judy Garland, Wizard of Oz-I didn’t realize how good Judy Garland was until watching this special.
3. Mrs. Robinson, Simon and Garfunkel, The Graduate-I listen to it and don’t really know what they’re talking about (like references to Jesus and Joe DiMaggio) but it’s certainly very interesting
4. Tonight, Tonight Quintet, West Side Story-West Side Story was a fusion between drama, movement and music that I don’t believe had ever been seen before and has ever been replicated since. The Tonight quintet is so perfectly integrated between different singers, it’s almost like an audio montage.
5. Moon River, Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany’s-The guy who wrote this is Henry Mancini, who did a lot for movie music, mixing jazz in with traditional movie fare (he did the Pink Panther too), and Audrey Hepburn looks so emotionally drained in that scene, it’s incredible.
6. As Time Goes By, Casablanca-The AFI had it at #2 or something. I don’t hate the song or anything, so I’ll put it there
7. Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling, Tex Ritter, High Noon-This is one of the first movies in history to be marketed based on the song. It’s sung over the opening title credits and must have really been something new.
8. Have Yourself a Very Little Christmas, Judy Garland, Meet me in St. Louis-considering that this song was written for this movie, (I thought it had been around forever) I’d say it had a really pervasive effect, since it’s now like THE Christmas song
9. Ol’ Man River, Paul Robeson, Showboat-I think this song is really powerful and in a way beautiful, considering its time, it was sung by a black man and the words are about hopelessness (“but ol’ man river, he just keeps rolling along”), he personifies the river, and because the river keeps rolling along, as he says, therefore boats will go down it, and as long as boats go down the river, this guy along with all the other poor black people have to work on the boats and, it’s just a cycle, the man singing just has this sense of weariness to him.
10. American in Paris, Gerswhin, American in Paris-Does this count as a song? It was quite an interesting way to end a film at the time, to have the character resolve his conflicts entirely through song and dance. At the beginning of the song, he doesn’t have the girl, at the end of the song, he does have the girl, which suggests that the ballet itself changed the course of the storyline. That is quite abstract and far-fetched outside the realm of the integrated musical, but the integrated musical is an abstract and nonsensical genre in itself, so that does sort of make sense, in that respect.
11. White Christmas, Bing Crosby, Holiday Inn-I don’t know if I like it that much, but it had an impact.
12. When You Wish Upon a Star, Glenn Miller Orchestra, Pinocchio-It was written by Glenn Miller I found out the other day, and I like a lot of his stuff
13. Summertime, George Gerswhin, Porgy and Bess-Kind of like Ol’ Man River, this song is like THE SONG. I love Gerswhin and this is probably Gershwin’s most definitive one. He was just a Jewish guy from New York City, yet with Porgy and Bess, he really captured the plight of sharecropping Southerners.
14. Jailhouse Rock, Elvis Presley, Jailhouse Rock-It’s hard to explain how cool this number is (or how cool Elvis is, for that matter), without just showing it to you. Elvis Presely is so effortless in his choreography, he’s like the Fred Astaire of cool.
15. Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off, Gerswhin (per. by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers), Shall we Dance-Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers on roller skates. We gotta award them twice the degree of difficulty for that!
16. Que Sera Sera, Doris Day, Shall We Dance-First, Doris Day is really too good looking and young to be a mother-figure in that movie, but she really pulls it off. Her sheer anxiety over her son being kidnapped, really comes through in that song. While she’s singing, she’s banging the keys a little too hard in frustration, also within the context of the movie’s plot it’s ingenious how the song ties in.
17. Rock Around the Clock, Bill Haley and the Comets, Blackboard Jungle-It’s pretty much the embodiment of rock and roll and the 60s
18. I’ve Had the Time of my Life, Dirty Dancing-Of the 80s songs on their list, this is probably the one that’s really good and not just retroactively a joke. I agree with the person from the show who said that the song starts out slow and tender than speeds up to the point where it’s kind of wild and party like, and the great thing is that the dancers on screen are convincingly having fun up there, by the time the song kicks in
19. 42nd Street, Ruby Keeler, 42nd Street-A familiar tune about show business, high life glamour, etc. It’s also the pivotal point of this dramatic musical.
20. Buffalo Gals, Jimmy Stewart, It’s a Wonderful Life-It’s a Wonderful Life is an exceptional film, and it’s all embodied in Jim Stewart’s youthful joy which comes out a lot in that song.
21. I’ve Got Rhythm, George Gerswhin (perf. Gene Kelley), American in Paris-The challenge for Kelly was to recreate a number he already did in a previous movie, which he does by teaching the song to half the children in Paris. It’s a pretty fun number.
22. My Favorite Things, Julie Andrews, Sound of Music-The song is memorable because Julie Andrews really gets into it and unleashes her inner child. The lyrics are so inventive, too.
23. Somewhere, Natalie Wood (Marni Nixon) and Richard Beymer, West Side Story-First, it’s a beautiful song with two parts that beautifully compliment each other. It’s also a great moment of fantasy escapism in the middle of a really terrible situation, most of us feel like that when we decide to go to a movie in the first place
24. All My Loving, The Beatles, A Hard Day’s Night-The best track from The Beatles musical medley “Hard Day’s Night.”
25. Zippady Doo-Dah, Song of the South-Since Disney did a lot for music, I should probably put an abundant # of Disney songs in, and this one’s pretty fun and it has a simple message
26. I Will Always Love You, Whitney Houston, The Bodyguard-It’s well-remembered, and it’s an incredibly well-crafted performance from diva Whitney Houston, she could have overdone the embellishments but I think she got it just right
27. Spoonful of Sugar, Julie Andrews, Mary Poppins-Pretty memorable song, I’m sure there’s some kind of bite-sized theme behind it like adding little bit of fun to life makes the hard parts of it easier. Personally, I’ve always interpreted it literally and added a spoonful of sugar to that nasty cough medicine when I’m sick.
28. On the Street Where You Live, Jeremy Brett, My Fair Lady-This guy is standing on a street waiting for this girl to come out of her house that he likes, we’d call that stalking today, but who cares, the guy’s genuinely in love and he expresses his intentions so beautifully that he oughtta be aloud to stay there and stalk her forever. Another plus: Add a little swing to the song and it’s a great jazz standard.
29. Jonny B Goode, Michael J Fox, Back to the Future-Even though it’s obviously dubbed, you gotta love that scene where Michael J Fox takes down the house of a 1950s gym with a song that hasn’t even been invented yet. After watching the movie for the 8th time, I finally got the inside joke where Marvin Berry tells his cousin Chuck “you’ve gotta hear this,” meaning that Chuck Berry actually ripped off the song from Marty McFly, who ripped it off from Chuck Berry, so…ehh, time paradoxes are confusing.
30. Get Happy, Judy Garland, Summer Stock-Judy Garland’s seductive side mixed in with Judy Garland’s childhood dreamy side, what a perfect combination.
31. Luck be a Lady, Marlon Brando, Guys and Dolls-Clever lyrics, great melody, a key change or two to build suspense, great choreography, and best of all, Marlon Brando’s singing it. This is so disorienting to see Marlon Brando in here. I had no idea that he did anything other than serious depressing movies, but here, he’s just having some light-hearted fun
32. Don’t Rain on my Parade, Barbara Streissand, Funny Girl-The melody bounces around all over the place, and Barbara Streissand really takes over on the syncopation, and I love how truly integrated this number is. She’s moving around at a hectic pace and is so engrossed in the reality around her, that the number feels like she’s just singing as a natural form of expression, rather than singing for the camera.
33. I Could’ve Danced All Night, Audery Hepburn, My Fair Lady-Like they (the commentary people in the AFI film) said, Audrey Hepburn is really really exuberant with joy and considering for most of the film, her character’s not really in a happy state, the contrast hits you.
34. Aquarius, Fifth Dimension, Hair-This song is so out in left field, it’s really a unique song, not really rock, not really ballad, it starts out with a kind of psychedelic intro “when the moon is in the seventh star, and Jupiter aligns with Mars”, and then takes off at just the right moment into a multi-harmony 60s rock song.
35. Almost Like Being in Love, Gene Kelly, Brigadoon-It’s pretty much the best mushy love song there is. Consider that he’s not even singing this love song to her. He’s just singing to grass and trees and to his grumpy friend who doesn’t even believe in love. That’s really a powerful show of being in love, isn’t it?
36. Good Morning, Debbie Reynolds, Gene Kelly, and Donald O’Connor, Singing in the Rain-Debbie Reynolds takes charge and kind of holds her own against the other two, what strikes me about this song is it’s very egalitarian, it’s not like a usual song where the women are singing about men or the men are singing about women, it’s two men and a woman singing to each other, or not so much singing but just expressing a simple sediment “good morning” and the way they move and their sing really shares the joy among all three of them. It’s also so well-timed
37. Summer Nights, John Trovolta and Olivia Newton-John-I don’t think I can get away with not putting a Grease song in my list, and as far as Grease songs go, this is the best showcase of John Trovolta’s stuff. It’s a very accurate high-schoolish kind of thing too, where the guy is bragging about his summer conquest and the girl is bragging about being in love.
38. Born to be Wild, Steppenwolff, Easy Rider-Pretty ahead of its times.
39. Anything Goes, Kate Capshaw, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom-I thought this was from Cabaret or something, but Kate Capshaw sings her heart out here, and captured mine too in the process, great way to start off an action-packed opening scene
40. Theme from Shaft, Isaac Hayes, Shaft-Definitely had an impact, and upon hearing the full version of it, it’s pretty exciting, building up as it goes along
41. Trolley Song, Judy Garland, Meet Me in St. Louis-It’s really exciting, there’s a lot of motion and imagery, of the trolley clanking and the heart beating, really a brilliant song. Garland is really exceptional in this film and inserts inflections into certain parts of the song to enhance it. She just has a natural feel. And the whole feeling of everyone on this trolley wanting to hear her story and being in this trance-like state must have just felt delightfully absurd if you were watching it in 1944. I believe Meet me in St Louis is one of the first integrated musicals. Judy Garland’s daughter said the movie is so great, you just want to live in it. Obviously, cause if you sang on any public transit vehicle, you probably wouldn’t be met with as friendly of a reaction.
42. My Heart Will Go On, James Horner (Celine Dion), Titanic-James Horner made a really great score to the Titanic and this song is kind of an extension of that, to be fair it sounds better when it’s reused throughout the movie rather than when it’s being sung by Celine Dione at the end.
43. Stormy Weather, Lena Horne, Stormy Weather-Whenever my dad hears that Nora Jones song “Don’t Know Why”, he starts singing to himself “Don’t know why, there’s no sun up in the sky, stormy weather” which is the words to this song, evidently. It seems like in retrospect, that single performance was the most common thing (and in many cases the only thing) that Lena Horne was remembered for.
44. Sit Down You’re Rocking the Boat, Stubby Kaye, Guys and Dolls-A really great and catchy song, that deserves to be in a better musical. Like Luck be a Lady it has really good interplay with the chorus and words that have such rich imagery.
45. Thanks for the Memories, Bob Hope & Shirley Ross, Big Broadcast of 1938-Didn’t think much of it when I first heard it, but in the film it registers as a very poignant moment expresses Bob Hope’s shy way of saying “I really really like you, and after you leave I’ll be miserable.” Bob Hope, ironically, was never shy or at a lack of words, which might be what makes the song stick out more
46. America, Rita Moreno, George Chikaris and the Sharks, West Side Story-These Puerto Ricans make urban poverty look pretty fun. Those triplets are hard to pull off, too
47. Suicide is Painless, Johnny Mandel, MASH-The words are very poetic, but somehow I don’t think the song really is meant to be read at face value. It’s incredible to think that a 14-year old wrote that
48. On Broadway, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, All That Kazz-The song fits the movie so well, you’d almost think it was written specifically for that opening montage where the Broadway dancers are auditioning and being cut one by one. It’s about the only 5 minutes I really liked in All That Jazz
49. Moonlight Becomes You, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, Road to Morocco-The catchiest tune from the many that littered the road movies.
50. Streets of Philadelphia, Bruce Springsteen, Philadelphia-It really ties itself together in many ways, Bruce Springsteen is kind of singing about brotherhood and man helping man, “ain’t no angel gonna greet me, it’s just you and I, my friend”, there’s really a beautiful sense of desperation there with Springsteen’s words and music, just calling out to your fellow man to help you, and it ties in to the fact that Philadelphia is the city of brotherly love
51. It Might as Well be Spring, Rogers and Hammerstein, State Fair-Another song with a great melody, especially the inverted arpeggio in the second phrase
52. Tiny Dancer, Elton John, Almost Famous-It was written probably 30 years or something before being put in a movie, but really fits the film perfectly.
53. Put the Blame on Mame, Rita Hayworth, Gilda-Suddenly, you want to go see this film after seeing that number. Hayworth is very seductive and ironically, the film is classified by imdb as a film noir.
54. Sounds of Silence, Simon and Garfunkel, The Graduate-I’m deducting points because I never understood why it plays during the airport stroll/opening credits. Still, a pretty definitive song of the 60s.
55. Beauty and the Beast, Alan Menken and Howard Lashman (per. by Angela Lansbury)-I’ve never seen a song get away with throwing in so many clichés and still sound original
56. Cell Block Tango, Catherine Zeta Jones and friends, Chicago-Much more memorable than All That Jazz in my opinion. It’s very clever how they simulate murder through ballet and the six or seven murderesses sound so distinct when they join into the chorus.
57. Swinging on a Star, Bing Crosby, Going my Way-Peter Boyle said that every catholic school boy grows up singing this song, I’ll take his word for it. Also, it’s moderately catchy.
58. Twist and Shout, Isley Brothers, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off-Pretty much the high point/culmination of all of Ferris Bueller’s mischief
59. Lullaby of Broadway, Dick Powell and Wini Shaw, Gold diggers of 1935-Like 42nd Street, a good ode to Broadway number, I really like the references to things like “the rattle of a taxi” “the milkman”, etc. It paints a vivid picture
60. Shadow of Your Smile, The Sandpiper-I’m sorry, I’m going back through this list and can’t remember why I put i on. It struck a chord with me about 45 minutes ago when I got to #62. that’s all I can report.
61. Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head, Burt Bacharach, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kidd-It could’ve been sung better and Bob Westall of “Forward to Yesterday” makes a persuasive argument on why the song fails within the context of the scene. On its own, however, the song itself stands as a good song and especially uplifting one, in the movie (which I haven’t seen), I’ve heard it’s even better
62. Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend, Marilyn Monroe, Gentlemen Perfer Blondes-The melody’s good and Marilyn Monroe is ever so photogenic. I wonder if she was able to memorize her lyrics for this one.
63. 9 to 5, Dolly Parton, 9 to 5-I don’t like country but Dolly Parton’s song has a nice rhythm to it and works as a working class anthem.
64. Yankee Doodle Boy, George M Cohan, Yankee Doodle Dandee-I don’t think I can appreciate it as well as the people who saw it back then, but you can easily tell that James Cagney gives the performance 110%. I also kind of like how they mix the song in on top of the basic “Yankee Doodle” melody
65. Goldfinger Title Theme, Shirley Bassey, Goldfinger-Blaring wawa muted horns and Shirley Bassey’s alluring voice set the stage for a Bond film better than any other, it also has elements of Barry’s score mixed into the film
66. Bridge on the River Kwai March, Traditional, Bridge on the River Kwai-If I remember correctly, I think school kids use this song substituting disgusting lyrics for fun. That’s how much of an impact it has
67. Just the Way You Look Tonight, Jerome Kern (per. by Fred Astaire), Swing Time-A great song considering Fred Astaire sings and doesn’t dance which is quite unusual, considering a) Astaire always dances when he sings and b) this is because his singing would’ve been scarcely good enough to fill out the chorus of a Hollywood Revue without the dancing to go along with it. Perhaps, the film’s choreographer got lazy. At the same time, it’s just a very heartfelt and natural moment (the number can neither be categorized as backstage or integrated) when he just sits on the piano and lets the song pass him by.
68. Bali Hai, Rogers and Hammerstein (perf. By Anita Hall) South Pacific-American Musicals are an improvement over their predecessors because they take the songs and steep them into the folk traditions of the setting. With that, Bali Hai sounds very exotic.
69. I Enjoy Being a Girl, Nancy Kwan, Flower Drum Song-Really an unusual statement, don’t you think? for someone to shout out that they enjoy being whatever gender they are, most of us never think about it. In the movie, it really strikes you, it’s a very striking statement, and the song backs that up, especially since the film is a culturally eye-opener for Asian-Americans who never really appeared sexualized in films.
70. Chim Chimaree, Dick Van Dyke, Mary Poppins-Part of the somewhat haunting element Mary Poppins has to it, the song single-handedly adds a lot more depth to the film
71. Broadway Rhythm, Gene Kelly, Singing in the Rain-Kelly’s reinvention of the original Broadway Melody number is sped up, livelier, and pleasantly surreal. It’s one of the most ambitious numbers of the film.
72. *Springtime for Hitler, Mel Brooks, The Producers-This song is obviously intended for comic effect, but the melody is actually quite humnmable.
73. *Blue Moon, Elvis Presley, Mystery Train-The movie could have easily been called Blue Moon because the song is the motif that links all the stories in the movie together. It’s really amazing, how the song kind of serves as a photographic essay as its emotions seep into the movie’s different characters over one point in time
74. *What a Wonderful World, Louie Armstrong, Good Morning Vietnam-I’m probably the only person on the planet who thinks Louie Armstrong can sometimes sound annoying, but I can’t deny the power of this song over the Vietnam War Montage (even though the AFI did).
75. Chatanooga Choo Choo, Glenn Miller Orchestra, Sun Valley Serenade-Not a well-known film, but it’s a great dance scene, it’s incredibly exciting to see Glenn Miller’s band up close, and it’s such a great portrait of 1930s life.
76. Our Love is Here to Stay, Gene Kelly, American in Paris-Not one of Gershwin’s best songs, but it’s song with a lot of conviction by Gene Kelly and it’s sung at least 3 times in the movie at different points, so it ends up being stuck in your head for a while.
77. Rainbow Connection, Jim Henson, a Muppet Movie-A song for dreamers
78. Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do), Christopher Cross, Arthur-A pretty catchy song. That line of “being caught between the moon and New York City” is very memorable for some reason. It just sounds so abstract. Oh and did you know, Burt Bacharach worked on it?
79. Stranger in Paradise, Bob Wright and Chet Forrest, Kismet -I really like this song, I love the movie too, but the scene is that the King of this far off Arabian land leaves the palace and enters the garden of a woman who doesn’t know he’s the King, who asks her “to take my hand, I’m a stranger in paradise”, really beautiful moment, and the song’s awesome
80. Gonna Fly Now, Bill Conti, Rocky-Bill Conti was able to hit a lot of different emotional tones just by experimenting with the same basic riff
81. Someone to Watch Over Me, Jean Louisa Kelly, Mr. Holland’s Opus-Mr Holland’s Opus might not have left a lasting legacy, but the song in this film really is a moving rendition of a great number
82. Be Our Guest, Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, Beauty and the Beast-Let’s call this the token fun Disney song on my list (the other list had Hakuna Matata), it’s the song that’s not meant to be sung during the end credits, but provides more light-hearted fun, like My Favorite Things, it just has a lot of fun rhyming and makes your head go dancing
83. Gangsta’s Paradise, Coolio, Dangerous Minds-Has this song been forgotten by our culture? It was really moving when it came out, and I’d like to think it still does, this came at a time when rap wasn’t as pervasive and overdone as it is today, and it cleverly starts with a bible verse and it caps off a pretty powerful movie
84. Whistle While You Work, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs-Snow White is like the first Disney animated thing ever, so props to that
85. New York, New York, Frank Sinatra, Jules Munchin, and Gene Kelly, On the Town-As Rita Moreno points out, it was one of the first musicals shot on location. But then again, isn’t New York the media capital of the world? That’s not that exotic of a location.
86. Pick Yourself Up, Jerome Kern, Swing Time-You gotta love the concept of Fred Astaire trying to pretend he doesn’t dance. And then when Ginger Rogers suddenly realizes that Astaire can dance, that look of “ok, let’s have some fun” is priceless. And then the actual dance they do is one of the most inventive numbers I’ve ever seen.
87. Buttons and Bows, Bob Hope, The Paleface-It’s a pentatonic song that you could play really easily just by hitting the black keys on the piano, but Bob Hope adds a whole lot more into it.
88. A View to a Kill, Duran Duran, A View to a Kill-The only James Bond song ever to hit #1 on the charts, the punctuated base line ups the excitement, and reinvents the Bond theme.
89. Do Re Mi, Julie Andrews, Sound of Music-A simple song but this song demonstrates how a simple idea can be made into something great.
90. Circle of Life, Elton John-The opening montage when the baby lion is lifted up to be shown to the animal kingdom in the African setting, really captures the beauty of the shot
91. Meet Me in St Louis, Ensemble, Meet Me in St Louis-I like how the song spreads from person to person but I also wonder if the entire film was sponsored by the St Louis Chamber of Commerce.
92. Putting on the Ritz, Peter Boyle and Gene Wilder, Young Frankenstein-A parody of the show stopper musical number. A well-placed bout of hilarity.
93. Fight the Power, Do the Right Thing-Spike Lee deserves some props on my list, and according to Rosie Perez, the song “makes everybody want to get up and dance.” Why would I disagree with her?
94. Cheek to Cheek, Irving Berlin (perf. by Fred Astaire), Top Hat-Astaire is so serene in this number. One of his best vocal performances
95. Somewhere Out There, Linda Ronsdadt and James Ingram, American Tale-The song is beautiful on its own but as an interaction between two voices, and two characters, it comes out even more
96. Road to Morrocco, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, Road to Morrocco-Hope and Crosby paired up in the Road pictures for what might have been the most lightweight escapist entertainment the world has ever seen. This jokes are so low-key, they just fly under the radar.
97. Lose Yourself, Eminem, 8 Mile-It would be a mistake to say this is the pinnacle of Eminem’s career or representative of Eminem in any way, because Eminem’s popularity thrives on controvoursey and bad words, which are absent from this song, but nevertheless this is a great marriage between what’s hip right now, in pop culture, and film music
98. I am the Man of Constant Sorrow, Dan Tyminski, Oh Brother, Where Art Thou-It wasn’t sung by George Clooney, he lipsincked it, and the song wasn’t written for the film, but that’s the point of the whole thing, it’s a throwback (or not even a throwback since it’s very much alive) to the Southern music culture of bluegrass and what not, and the song plays is such a prominent center to the whole film
99. Diamonds are Forever, Shirley Bassey, Diamonds are Forever-One of the more haunting scores from the James Bond collection.
100. Killing Me Softly, Hugh Grant, About a Boy-A poignant moment to end a film on, and Hugh Grant sounds appropriately awful.
1. Singing in the Rain, Gene Kelly, Singing in the Rain-The title song from the quintessential musical. I think what people love about this number is how much fun Gene Kelly is having. He starts jumping up and down in the puddles as if he almost forgets he’s supposed to be tap dancing.
2. Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Judy Garland, Wizard of Oz-I didn’t realize how good Judy Garland was until watching this special.
3. Mrs. Robinson, Simon and Garfunkel, The Graduate-I listen to it and don’t really know what they’re talking about (like references to Jesus and Joe DiMaggio) but it’s certainly very interesting
4. Tonight, Tonight Quintet, West Side Story-West Side Story was a fusion between drama, movement and music that I don’t believe had ever been seen before and has ever been replicated since. The Tonight quintet is so perfectly integrated between different singers, it’s almost like an audio montage.
5. Moon River, Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany’s-The guy who wrote this is Henry Mancini, who did a lot for movie music, mixing jazz in with traditional movie fare (he did the Pink Panther too), and Audrey Hepburn looks so emotionally drained in that scene, it’s incredible.
6. As Time Goes By, Casablanca-The AFI had it at #2 or something. I don’t hate the song or anything, so I’ll put it there
7. Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling, Tex Ritter, High Noon-This is one of the first movies in history to be marketed based on the song. It’s sung over the opening title credits and must have really been something new.
8. Have Yourself a Very Little Christmas, Judy Garland, Meet me in St. Louis-considering that this song was written for this movie, (I thought it had been around forever) I’d say it had a really pervasive effect, since it’s now like THE Christmas song
9. Ol’ Man River, Paul Robeson, Showboat-I think this song is really powerful and in a way beautiful, considering its time, it was sung by a black man and the words are about hopelessness (“but ol’ man river, he just keeps rolling along”), he personifies the river, and because the river keeps rolling along, as he says, therefore boats will go down it, and as long as boats go down the river, this guy along with all the other poor black people have to work on the boats and, it’s just a cycle, the man singing just has this sense of weariness to him.
10. American in Paris, Gerswhin, American in Paris-Does this count as a song? It was quite an interesting way to end a film at the time, to have the character resolve his conflicts entirely through song and dance. At the beginning of the song, he doesn’t have the girl, at the end of the song, he does have the girl, which suggests that the ballet itself changed the course of the storyline. That is quite abstract and far-fetched outside the realm of the integrated musical, but the integrated musical is an abstract and nonsensical genre in itself, so that does sort of make sense, in that respect.
11. White Christmas, Bing Crosby, Holiday Inn-I don’t know if I like it that much, but it had an impact.
12. When You Wish Upon a Star, Glenn Miller Orchestra, Pinocchio-It was written by Glenn Miller I found out the other day, and I like a lot of his stuff
13. Summertime, George Gerswhin, Porgy and Bess-Kind of like Ol’ Man River, this song is like THE SONG. I love Gerswhin and this is probably Gershwin’s most definitive one. He was just a Jewish guy from New York City, yet with Porgy and Bess, he really captured the plight of sharecropping Southerners.
14. Jailhouse Rock, Elvis Presley, Jailhouse Rock-It’s hard to explain how cool this number is (or how cool Elvis is, for that matter), without just showing it to you. Elvis Presely is so effortless in his choreography, he’s like the Fred Astaire of cool.
15. Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off, Gerswhin (per. by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers), Shall we Dance-Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers on roller skates. We gotta award them twice the degree of difficulty for that!
16. Que Sera Sera, Doris Day, Shall We Dance-First, Doris Day is really too good looking and young to be a mother-figure in that movie, but she really pulls it off. Her sheer anxiety over her son being kidnapped, really comes through in that song. While she’s singing, she’s banging the keys a little too hard in frustration, also within the context of the movie’s plot it’s ingenious how the song ties in.
17. Rock Around the Clock, Bill Haley and the Comets, Blackboard Jungle-It’s pretty much the embodiment of rock and roll and the 60s
18. I’ve Had the Time of my Life, Dirty Dancing-Of the 80s songs on their list, this is probably the one that’s really good and not just retroactively a joke. I agree with the person from the show who said that the song starts out slow and tender than speeds up to the point where it’s kind of wild and party like, and the great thing is that the dancers on screen are convincingly having fun up there, by the time the song kicks in
19. 42nd Street, Ruby Keeler, 42nd Street-A familiar tune about show business, high life glamour, etc. It’s also the pivotal point of this dramatic musical.
20. Buffalo Gals, Jimmy Stewart, It’s a Wonderful Life-It’s a Wonderful Life is an exceptional film, and it’s all embodied in Jim Stewart’s youthful joy which comes out a lot in that song.
21. I’ve Got Rhythm, George Gerswhin (perf. Gene Kelley), American in Paris-The challenge for Kelly was to recreate a number he already did in a previous movie, which he does by teaching the song to half the children in Paris. It’s a pretty fun number.
22. My Favorite Things, Julie Andrews, Sound of Music-The song is memorable because Julie Andrews really gets into it and unleashes her inner child. The lyrics are so inventive, too.
23. Somewhere, Natalie Wood (Marni Nixon) and Richard Beymer, West Side Story-First, it’s a beautiful song with two parts that beautifully compliment each other. It’s also a great moment of fantasy escapism in the middle of a really terrible situation, most of us feel like that when we decide to go to a movie in the first place
24. All My Loving, The Beatles, A Hard Day’s Night-The best track from The Beatles musical medley “Hard Day’s Night.”
25. Zippady Doo-Dah, Song of the South-Since Disney did a lot for music, I should probably put an abundant # of Disney songs in, and this one’s pretty fun and it has a simple message
26. I Will Always Love You, Whitney Houston, The Bodyguard-It’s well-remembered, and it’s an incredibly well-crafted performance from diva Whitney Houston, she could have overdone the embellishments but I think she got it just right
27. Spoonful of Sugar, Julie Andrews, Mary Poppins-Pretty memorable song, I’m sure there’s some kind of bite-sized theme behind it like adding little bit of fun to life makes the hard parts of it easier. Personally, I’ve always interpreted it literally and added a spoonful of sugar to that nasty cough medicine when I’m sick.
28. On the Street Where You Live, Jeremy Brett, My Fair Lady-This guy is standing on a street waiting for this girl to come out of her house that he likes, we’d call that stalking today, but who cares, the guy’s genuinely in love and he expresses his intentions so beautifully that he oughtta be aloud to stay there and stalk her forever. Another plus: Add a little swing to the song and it’s a great jazz standard.
29. Jonny B Goode, Michael J Fox, Back to the Future-Even though it’s obviously dubbed, you gotta love that scene where Michael J Fox takes down the house of a 1950s gym with a song that hasn’t even been invented yet. After watching the movie for the 8th time, I finally got the inside joke where Marvin Berry tells his cousin Chuck “you’ve gotta hear this,” meaning that Chuck Berry actually ripped off the song from Marty McFly, who ripped it off from Chuck Berry, so…ehh, time paradoxes are confusing.
30. Get Happy, Judy Garland, Summer Stock-Judy Garland’s seductive side mixed in with Judy Garland’s childhood dreamy side, what a perfect combination.
31. Luck be a Lady, Marlon Brando, Guys and Dolls-Clever lyrics, great melody, a key change or two to build suspense, great choreography, and best of all, Marlon Brando’s singing it. This is so disorienting to see Marlon Brando in here. I had no idea that he did anything other than serious depressing movies, but here, he’s just having some light-hearted fun
32. Don’t Rain on my Parade, Barbara Streissand, Funny Girl-The melody bounces around all over the place, and Barbara Streissand really takes over on the syncopation, and I love how truly integrated this number is. She’s moving around at a hectic pace and is so engrossed in the reality around her, that the number feels like she’s just singing as a natural form of expression, rather than singing for the camera.
33. I Could’ve Danced All Night, Audery Hepburn, My Fair Lady-Like they (the commentary people in the AFI film) said, Audrey Hepburn is really really exuberant with joy and considering for most of the film, her character’s not really in a happy state, the contrast hits you.
34. Aquarius, Fifth Dimension, Hair-This song is so out in left field, it’s really a unique song, not really rock, not really ballad, it starts out with a kind of psychedelic intro “when the moon is in the seventh star, and Jupiter aligns with Mars”, and then takes off at just the right moment into a multi-harmony 60s rock song.
35. Almost Like Being in Love, Gene Kelly, Brigadoon-It’s pretty much the best mushy love song there is. Consider that he’s not even singing this love song to her. He’s just singing to grass and trees and to his grumpy friend who doesn’t even believe in love. That’s really a powerful show of being in love, isn’t it?
36. Good Morning, Debbie Reynolds, Gene Kelly, and Donald O’Connor, Singing in the Rain-Debbie Reynolds takes charge and kind of holds her own against the other two, what strikes me about this song is it’s very egalitarian, it’s not like a usual song where the women are singing about men or the men are singing about women, it’s two men and a woman singing to each other, or not so much singing but just expressing a simple sediment “good morning” and the way they move and their sing really shares the joy among all three of them. It’s also so well-timed
37. Summer Nights, John Trovolta and Olivia Newton-John-I don’t think I can get away with not putting a Grease song in my list, and as far as Grease songs go, this is the best showcase of John Trovolta’s stuff. It’s a very accurate high-schoolish kind of thing too, where the guy is bragging about his summer conquest and the girl is bragging about being in love.
38. Born to be Wild, Steppenwolff, Easy Rider-Pretty ahead of its times.
39. Anything Goes, Kate Capshaw, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom-I thought this was from Cabaret or something, but Kate Capshaw sings her heart out here, and captured mine too in the process, great way to start off an action-packed opening scene
40. Theme from Shaft, Isaac Hayes, Shaft-Definitely had an impact, and upon hearing the full version of it, it’s pretty exciting, building up as it goes along
41. Trolley Song, Judy Garland, Meet Me in St. Louis-It’s really exciting, there’s a lot of motion and imagery, of the trolley clanking and the heart beating, really a brilliant song. Garland is really exceptional in this film and inserts inflections into certain parts of the song to enhance it. She just has a natural feel. And the whole feeling of everyone on this trolley wanting to hear her story and being in this trance-like state must have just felt delightfully absurd if you were watching it in 1944. I believe Meet me in St Louis is one of the first integrated musicals. Judy Garland’s daughter said the movie is so great, you just want to live in it. Obviously, cause if you sang on any public transit vehicle, you probably wouldn’t be met with as friendly of a reaction.
42. My Heart Will Go On, James Horner (Celine Dion), Titanic-James Horner made a really great score to the Titanic and this song is kind of an extension of that, to be fair it sounds better when it’s reused throughout the movie rather than when it’s being sung by Celine Dione at the end.
43. Stormy Weather, Lena Horne, Stormy Weather-Whenever my dad hears that Nora Jones song “Don’t Know Why”, he starts singing to himself “Don’t know why, there’s no sun up in the sky, stormy weather” which is the words to this song, evidently. It seems like in retrospect, that single performance was the most common thing (and in many cases the only thing) that Lena Horne was remembered for.
44. Sit Down You’re Rocking the Boat, Stubby Kaye, Guys and Dolls-A really great and catchy song, that deserves to be in a better musical. Like Luck be a Lady it has really good interplay with the chorus and words that have such rich imagery.
45. Thanks for the Memories, Bob Hope & Shirley Ross, Big Broadcast of 1938-Didn’t think much of it when I first heard it, but in the film it registers as a very poignant moment expresses Bob Hope’s shy way of saying “I really really like you, and after you leave I’ll be miserable.” Bob Hope, ironically, was never shy or at a lack of words, which might be what makes the song stick out more
46. America, Rita Moreno, George Chikaris and the Sharks, West Side Story-These Puerto Ricans make urban poverty look pretty fun. Those triplets are hard to pull off, too
47. Suicide is Painless, Johnny Mandel, MASH-The words are very poetic, but somehow I don’t think the song really is meant to be read at face value. It’s incredible to think that a 14-year old wrote that
48. On Broadway, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, All That Kazz-The song fits the movie so well, you’d almost think it was written specifically for that opening montage where the Broadway dancers are auditioning and being cut one by one. It’s about the only 5 minutes I really liked in All That Jazz
49. Moonlight Becomes You, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, Road to Morocco-The catchiest tune from the many that littered the road movies.
50. Streets of Philadelphia, Bruce Springsteen, Philadelphia-It really ties itself together in many ways, Bruce Springsteen is kind of singing about brotherhood and man helping man, “ain’t no angel gonna greet me, it’s just you and I, my friend”, there’s really a beautiful sense of desperation there with Springsteen’s words and music, just calling out to your fellow man to help you, and it ties in to the fact that Philadelphia is the city of brotherly love
51. It Might as Well be Spring, Rogers and Hammerstein, State Fair-Another song with a great melody, especially the inverted arpeggio in the second phrase
52. Tiny Dancer, Elton John, Almost Famous-It was written probably 30 years or something before being put in a movie, but really fits the film perfectly.
53. Put the Blame on Mame, Rita Hayworth, Gilda-Suddenly, you want to go see this film after seeing that number. Hayworth is very seductive and ironically, the film is classified by imdb as a film noir.
54. Sounds of Silence, Simon and Garfunkel, The Graduate-I’m deducting points because I never understood why it plays during the airport stroll/opening credits. Still, a pretty definitive song of the 60s.
55. Beauty and the Beast, Alan Menken and Howard Lashman (per. by Angela Lansbury)-I’ve never seen a song get away with throwing in so many clichés and still sound original
56. Cell Block Tango, Catherine Zeta Jones and friends, Chicago-Much more memorable than All That Jazz in my opinion. It’s very clever how they simulate murder through ballet and the six or seven murderesses sound so distinct when they join into the chorus.
57. Swinging on a Star, Bing Crosby, Going my Way-Peter Boyle said that every catholic school boy grows up singing this song, I’ll take his word for it. Also, it’s moderately catchy.
58. Twist and Shout, Isley Brothers, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off-Pretty much the high point/culmination of all of Ferris Bueller’s mischief
59. Lullaby of Broadway, Dick Powell and Wini Shaw, Gold diggers of 1935-Like 42nd Street, a good ode to Broadway number, I really like the references to things like “the rattle of a taxi” “the milkman”, etc. It paints a vivid picture
60. Shadow of Your Smile, The Sandpiper-I’m sorry, I’m going back through this list and can’t remember why I put i on. It struck a chord with me about 45 minutes ago when I got to #62. that’s all I can report.
61. Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head, Burt Bacharach, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kidd-It could’ve been sung better and Bob Westall of “Forward to Yesterday” makes a persuasive argument on why the song fails within the context of the scene. On its own, however, the song itself stands as a good song and especially uplifting one, in the movie (which I haven’t seen), I’ve heard it’s even better
62. Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend, Marilyn Monroe, Gentlemen Perfer Blondes-The melody’s good and Marilyn Monroe is ever so photogenic. I wonder if she was able to memorize her lyrics for this one.
63. 9 to 5, Dolly Parton, 9 to 5-I don’t like country but Dolly Parton’s song has a nice rhythm to it and works as a working class anthem.
64. Yankee Doodle Boy, George M Cohan, Yankee Doodle Dandee-I don’t think I can appreciate it as well as the people who saw it back then, but you can easily tell that James Cagney gives the performance 110%. I also kind of like how they mix the song in on top of the basic “Yankee Doodle” melody
65. Goldfinger Title Theme, Shirley Bassey, Goldfinger-Blaring wawa muted horns and Shirley Bassey’s alluring voice set the stage for a Bond film better than any other, it also has elements of Barry’s score mixed into the film
66. Bridge on the River Kwai March, Traditional, Bridge on the River Kwai-If I remember correctly, I think school kids use this song substituting disgusting lyrics for fun. That’s how much of an impact it has
67. Just the Way You Look Tonight, Jerome Kern (per. by Fred Astaire), Swing Time-A great song considering Fred Astaire sings and doesn’t dance which is quite unusual, considering a) Astaire always dances when he sings and b) this is because his singing would’ve been scarcely good enough to fill out the chorus of a Hollywood Revue without the dancing to go along with it. Perhaps, the film’s choreographer got lazy. At the same time, it’s just a very heartfelt and natural moment (the number can neither be categorized as backstage or integrated) when he just sits on the piano and lets the song pass him by.
68. Bali Hai, Rogers and Hammerstein (perf. By Anita Hall) South Pacific-American Musicals are an improvement over their predecessors because they take the songs and steep them into the folk traditions of the setting. With that, Bali Hai sounds very exotic.
69. I Enjoy Being a Girl, Nancy Kwan, Flower Drum Song-Really an unusual statement, don’t you think? for someone to shout out that they enjoy being whatever gender they are, most of us never think about it. In the movie, it really strikes you, it’s a very striking statement, and the song backs that up, especially since the film is a culturally eye-opener for Asian-Americans who never really appeared sexualized in films.
70. Chim Chimaree, Dick Van Dyke, Mary Poppins-Part of the somewhat haunting element Mary Poppins has to it, the song single-handedly adds a lot more depth to the film
71. Broadway Rhythm, Gene Kelly, Singing in the Rain-Kelly’s reinvention of the original Broadway Melody number is sped up, livelier, and pleasantly surreal. It’s one of the most ambitious numbers of the film.
72. *Springtime for Hitler, Mel Brooks, The Producers-This song is obviously intended for comic effect, but the melody is actually quite humnmable.
73. *Blue Moon, Elvis Presley, Mystery Train-The movie could have easily been called Blue Moon because the song is the motif that links all the stories in the movie together. It’s really amazing, how the song kind of serves as a photographic essay as its emotions seep into the movie’s different characters over one point in time
74. *What a Wonderful World, Louie Armstrong, Good Morning Vietnam-I’m probably the only person on the planet who thinks Louie Armstrong can sometimes sound annoying, but I can’t deny the power of this song over the Vietnam War Montage (even though the AFI did).
75. Chatanooga Choo Choo, Glenn Miller Orchestra, Sun Valley Serenade-Not a well-known film, but it’s a great dance scene, it’s incredibly exciting to see Glenn Miller’s band up close, and it’s such a great portrait of 1930s life.
76. Our Love is Here to Stay, Gene Kelly, American in Paris-Not one of Gershwin’s best songs, but it’s song with a lot of conviction by Gene Kelly and it’s sung at least 3 times in the movie at different points, so it ends up being stuck in your head for a while.
77. Rainbow Connection, Jim Henson, a Muppet Movie-A song for dreamers
78. Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do), Christopher Cross, Arthur-A pretty catchy song. That line of “being caught between the moon and New York City” is very memorable for some reason. It just sounds so abstract. Oh and did you know, Burt Bacharach worked on it?
79. Stranger in Paradise, Bob Wright and Chet Forrest, Kismet -I really like this song, I love the movie too, but the scene is that the King of this far off Arabian land leaves the palace and enters the garden of a woman who doesn’t know he’s the King, who asks her “to take my hand, I’m a stranger in paradise”, really beautiful moment, and the song’s awesome
80. Gonna Fly Now, Bill Conti, Rocky-Bill Conti was able to hit a lot of different emotional tones just by experimenting with the same basic riff
81. Someone to Watch Over Me, Jean Louisa Kelly, Mr. Holland’s Opus-Mr Holland’s Opus might not have left a lasting legacy, but the song in this film really is a moving rendition of a great number
82. Be Our Guest, Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, Beauty and the Beast-Let’s call this the token fun Disney song on my list (the other list had Hakuna Matata), it’s the song that’s not meant to be sung during the end credits, but provides more light-hearted fun, like My Favorite Things, it just has a lot of fun rhyming and makes your head go dancing
83. Gangsta’s Paradise, Coolio, Dangerous Minds-Has this song been forgotten by our culture? It was really moving when it came out, and I’d like to think it still does, this came at a time when rap wasn’t as pervasive and overdone as it is today, and it cleverly starts with a bible verse and it caps off a pretty powerful movie
84. Whistle While You Work, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs-Snow White is like the first Disney animated thing ever, so props to that
85. New York, New York, Frank Sinatra, Jules Munchin, and Gene Kelly, On the Town-As Rita Moreno points out, it was one of the first musicals shot on location. But then again, isn’t New York the media capital of the world? That’s not that exotic of a location.
86. Pick Yourself Up, Jerome Kern, Swing Time-You gotta love the concept of Fred Astaire trying to pretend he doesn’t dance. And then when Ginger Rogers suddenly realizes that Astaire can dance, that look of “ok, let’s have some fun” is priceless. And then the actual dance they do is one of the most inventive numbers I’ve ever seen.
87. Buttons and Bows, Bob Hope, The Paleface-It’s a pentatonic song that you could play really easily just by hitting the black keys on the piano, but Bob Hope adds a whole lot more into it.
88. A View to a Kill, Duran Duran, A View to a Kill-The only James Bond song ever to hit #1 on the charts, the punctuated base line ups the excitement, and reinvents the Bond theme.
89. Do Re Mi, Julie Andrews, Sound of Music-A simple song but this song demonstrates how a simple idea can be made into something great.
90. Circle of Life, Elton John-The opening montage when the baby lion is lifted up to be shown to the animal kingdom in the African setting, really captures the beauty of the shot
91. Meet Me in St Louis, Ensemble, Meet Me in St Louis-I like how the song spreads from person to person but I also wonder if the entire film was sponsored by the St Louis Chamber of Commerce.
92. Putting on the Ritz, Peter Boyle and Gene Wilder, Young Frankenstein-A parody of the show stopper musical number. A well-placed bout of hilarity.
93. Fight the Power, Do the Right Thing-Spike Lee deserves some props on my list, and according to Rosie Perez, the song “makes everybody want to get up and dance.” Why would I disagree with her?
94. Cheek to Cheek, Irving Berlin (perf. by Fred Astaire), Top Hat-Astaire is so serene in this number. One of his best vocal performances
95. Somewhere Out There, Linda Ronsdadt and James Ingram, American Tale-The song is beautiful on its own but as an interaction between two voices, and two characters, it comes out even more
96. Road to Morrocco, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, Road to Morrocco-Hope and Crosby paired up in the Road pictures for what might have been the most lightweight escapist entertainment the world has ever seen. This jokes are so low-key, they just fly under the radar.
97. Lose Yourself, Eminem, 8 Mile-It would be a mistake to say this is the pinnacle of Eminem’s career or representative of Eminem in any way, because Eminem’s popularity thrives on controvoursey and bad words, which are absent from this song, but nevertheless this is a great marriage between what’s hip right now, in pop culture, and film music
98. I am the Man of Constant Sorrow, Dan Tyminski, Oh Brother, Where Art Thou-It wasn’t sung by George Clooney, he lipsincked it, and the song wasn’t written for the film, but that’s the point of the whole thing, it’s a throwback (or not even a throwback since it’s very much alive) to the Southern music culture of bluegrass and what not, and the song plays is such a prominent center to the whole film
99. Diamonds are Forever, Shirley Bassey, Diamonds are Forever-One of the more haunting scores from the James Bond collection.
100. Killing Me Softly, Hugh Grant, About a Boy-A poignant moment to end a film on, and Hugh Grant sounds appropriately awful.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
As John Mayer's critical reviews go up....
Has anyone noticed that as his music becomes more and more critically acclaimed and he grows as a respectable artist, John Mayer’s songs actually get worse?
I first started listening to John Mayer’s music as a college freshmen and I found his voice a little on the weak side but his lyrics were inspiring and the guitar work is amazing. Although one can see more evidence of his guitar work from other sources (an appearance on the Dave Chappelle show, for example), look at the sheet music for “Neon” and just look at how far all over the place the notes jump up and down and how they seem to jump the fences that contain the measures.
I can’t stress how much the lyrics of “No Such Thing” spoke to me and continue to speak to me as a guide through how to brush off the newfound pressures of adulthood that I continue to follow through this day: The good boys and girls who don’t get the answers after reading the books, making the transfers and getting the credits; the expectation of having to plot out our lives in black and white. “My Stupid Mouth” spoke to me about the subtleties of dating, “3 X 5” was about having new experiences, and “Neon” reminded me of practically every encounter with a girl I’d had that year. “Your Body is a Wonderland,” the one that caught on to the masses, seemed a bit sleazy.
The other song of his that really spoke to me was one I heard a year and a half later “Why Georgia” even though it was on the same album*, “Everybody’s just a stranger, but that’s the danger of going my own way, I guess that’s the price I’ll have to pay,” helped me as I was transferring out of one college and going back home for a year.
Sadly, John Mayer’s reputation as being too poppy and just being fodder for teen girls got on his nerves a little and he set out to prove among his peers that he was serious. So he got an electric guitar and that did the trick. He had one single, “Bigger than my Body” that contained brilliant lyrics about exceeding what other people think of you: “Someday I’ll fly, Someday I’ll soar, Cause I’m bigger than my body gives me credit for” but nothing else on his CD was remotely catchy except the song “New Deep,” with lyrics that were overly existential. Confirming my hunch about the Grammys and that they’re not based on anything having to do with talent, John Mayer’s song “Daughters” won an award for best-written song. The lyrics of this song sounds like it was written by a kindergarten teacher at a parent teacher conference: “Fathers be good to your daughters, daughters will love like they do, girls become lovers, then turn into mothers, so mothers be good to your daughters too.” I even remember the original Entertainment Weekly reviewer making fun of those lines too and I wonder why the rest of the entertainment world wouldn’t do the same. Maybe the Grammies were trying to cater to the preschool crowd?
And now he had his third CD which he says finally spoke about what he wanted to say but I think it only spoke to what his musical idols and critics at Rollingstone Magazine wanted to hear because he not only has AN ELECTRIC GUITAR but he CHANNELS THE BLUES. But is he actually saying anything in his new CD? I’ve only heard the two big hit singles: “Gravity” was so insipid and slow, I can’t stay with the song for the full three minutes before changing the radio dial. “Waiting on the World to Change,” is almost a parody of the countless hippie and reggae songs that call for revolution. All I can say, John, is that there’s no need to wait, you’ve already changed the world, or at least mine, by writing intelligent lyrics. Where did that go?
*As much of a John Mayer fan as I was, I only got to know him through the magic of Limewire and not through being one of his CDs per say so that’s why I didn’t write “Why Georgia”
I first started listening to John Mayer’s music as a college freshmen and I found his voice a little on the weak side but his lyrics were inspiring and the guitar work is amazing. Although one can see more evidence of his guitar work from other sources (an appearance on the Dave Chappelle show, for example), look at the sheet music for “Neon” and just look at how far all over the place the notes jump up and down and how they seem to jump the fences that contain the measures.
I can’t stress how much the lyrics of “No Such Thing” spoke to me and continue to speak to me as a guide through how to brush off the newfound pressures of adulthood that I continue to follow through this day: The good boys and girls who don’t get the answers after reading the books, making the transfers and getting the credits; the expectation of having to plot out our lives in black and white. “My Stupid Mouth” spoke to me about the subtleties of dating, “3 X 5” was about having new experiences, and “Neon” reminded me of practically every encounter with a girl I’d had that year. “Your Body is a Wonderland,” the one that caught on to the masses, seemed a bit sleazy.
The other song of his that really spoke to me was one I heard a year and a half later “Why Georgia” even though it was on the same album*, “Everybody’s just a stranger, but that’s the danger of going my own way, I guess that’s the price I’ll have to pay,” helped me as I was transferring out of one college and going back home for a year.
Sadly, John Mayer’s reputation as being too poppy and just being fodder for teen girls got on his nerves a little and he set out to prove among his peers that he was serious. So he got an electric guitar and that did the trick. He had one single, “Bigger than my Body” that contained brilliant lyrics about exceeding what other people think of you: “Someday I’ll fly, Someday I’ll soar, Cause I’m bigger than my body gives me credit for” but nothing else on his CD was remotely catchy except the song “New Deep,” with lyrics that were overly existential. Confirming my hunch about the Grammys and that they’re not based on anything having to do with talent, John Mayer’s song “Daughters” won an award for best-written song. The lyrics of this song sounds like it was written by a kindergarten teacher at a parent teacher conference: “Fathers be good to your daughters, daughters will love like they do, girls become lovers, then turn into mothers, so mothers be good to your daughters too.” I even remember the original Entertainment Weekly reviewer making fun of those lines too and I wonder why the rest of the entertainment world wouldn’t do the same. Maybe the Grammies were trying to cater to the preschool crowd?
And now he had his third CD which he says finally spoke about what he wanted to say but I think it only spoke to what his musical idols and critics at Rollingstone Magazine wanted to hear because he not only has AN ELECTRIC GUITAR but he CHANNELS THE BLUES. But is he actually saying anything in his new CD? I’ve only heard the two big hit singles: “Gravity” was so insipid and slow, I can’t stay with the song for the full three minutes before changing the radio dial. “Waiting on the World to Change,” is almost a parody of the countless hippie and reggae songs that call for revolution. All I can say, John, is that there’s no need to wait, you’ve already changed the world, or at least mine, by writing intelligent lyrics. Where did that go?
*As much of a John Mayer fan as I was, I only got to know him through the magic of Limewire and not through being one of his CDs per say so that’s why I didn’t write “Why Georgia”
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