At least, for every year that I've been alive. My favorite love songs, from ages 1-25:
1. "I Just Called to Say I Love You," Stevie Wonder. I know -- I have a soft spot for bad Stevie. But in my defense, I was only one year old. And I like good Stevie now...My dad says I used to make him rewind the tape so that I could sing along over and over again. This makes me not want to have children of my own -- I mean, what if they like Sir Mix-a-Lot like the fictional Emma Gellar-Green?
2. I have no idea. But my favorite song to come out of this year is definitely "We Belong," by Pat Benatar. I unironically love Pat Benatar.
3. Again, no idea. But my favorite song to come out of this year is "Kiss," by Prince. I'm still pretty obsessed with that song.
4. Again, no idea. But my favorite song to come out of this year is "With or Without You," by U2. There are only like three or four U2 songs that I can actually stand, and this is one of them.
5. "So This is Love," from Cinderella. I wore that tape OUT.
6. "Lost in Your Eyes," Debbie Gibson. Oh my God, I wanted to be her, with her Lisa Turtle hats and blazers.
7. "Kiss the Girl," from The Little Mermaid. This and the next three years reflect how much Disney movies consumed me.
8. "Something There," from Beauty and the Beast. I like Mrs. Potts's rendition of "Beauty and the Beast," too, but this one's my favorite from the movie. It was also one of the songs I loved playing when I first started learning the saxophone (I also loved to play "Gaston.")
9. "My Girl," the Temptations. The entire fourth grade class at Henderson Elementary School put on a show with songs primarily from the 1960s and "My Girl" was one of them. Also, the movie My Girl (starring Anna Chlumsky who, weirdly enough, had a cameo in 30 Rock last season) came out around this time.
10. "A Whole New World," from Aladdin. Oof. Though it does remind me of that horrible Mother's Day special hosted by the Olsen twins way back when -- does anybody else remember that?
11. "I Swear," All 4 One. My first slow dance was to this song! It was at the Halloween dance in 6th grade. My friends and I had been wallflowers the entire night and I wanted to dance with a boy. So, dressed in my Little Red Riding Hood finery (when I was ten, my family went last-minute costume shopping. There weren't any kids costumes left, so my parents bought sexy Red Riding Hood. Luckily, it just looked like a big old dress and cape on me. I wore that costume through the seventh grade -- and then stopped because it started to fit me as originally intended.), I strode up to a boy wallflower and asked him to dance. It's so funny -- I was really aggressive when it came to that kind of stuff right up until college -- and then I retreated into myself like a suspicious tortoise.
12. "I Could Fall in Love," Selena -- I still really love this song and the Dreaming of You album. And that Selena movie starring Jennifer Lopez is one of my guilty pleasures when it's on t.v.
13. tie: "One Sweet Day," Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men -- I was generally pretty obsessed with the Daydream album.
and, "Head Over Feet," Alanis Morrisette -- I was also quite obsessed with Jagged Little Pill. You wouldn't think that Mariah and Alanis could party together, but they did in my CD player.
14. I went through a Blues Traveler phase during this time in my life. And their six-minute contribution to the world of power ballads -- "Yours" -- wrecked me. I used to play it over and over again at night and eventually fall asleep to John Popper.
15. "I Will Not Forget You," Sarah McLachlan. I still really love this song and Sarah McLachlan. I wanted to go to Lilith Fair so badly!
16. "Kiss Me," Sixpence None the Richer. A testament to my Dawson's Creek loyalty (and my tangential love of She's All That)
17. "Iris," the Goo Goo Dolls. My sister Annie owned all of the best music from the 1990s, including the City of Angels soundtrack (such a good compilation for such a stupid movie).
18. "This Year's Love," David Gray. Seriously -- I loved it even more than "Babylon."
19. "Come Away With Me," Norah Jones. All of her stuff is amazing, but this song is my favorite. I know that makes me super sappy.
20. "The Scientist," Coldplay. I can't watch the video, though.
21. "White Flag," Dido. This song is so amazing. And it reminds me of Love Actually (yes, I know that it's a completely different Dido song that's in the movie). I can't believe my sister doesn't like Dido.
22. "Lay Lady Lay," Bob Dylan. I really, really love this song.
23. "Sideways," Citizen Cope. I first heard this song while watching an episode of Scrubs (I love t.v. shows that introduce me to awesome music! Scrubs also introduced me to Travis and The Polyphonic Spree.). Anyway, I love its bluesy sound. It makes me believe that BB King probably got laid a lot.
24. "You've Really Got a Hold on Me," Smokey Robinson & The Miracles -- my parents used to play nothing but the Oldies station, no matter where we lived, no matter where we were going. This was always a favorite, but for some reason, I couldn't get enough of it last year.
25. Basically anything from the Once soundtrack. But "Gold" and "Falling Slowly" are favorites.
5 comments:
Anna Chlumsky is also ironically a University of Chicago alumna, like you and me, haha. She's one of our few *famous* entertainers. Though maybe it doesn't count since she had her prime years ten years before she even attended the school.
Awww... Jenn & I love the lyrics to "So This Is Love." In fact, we liked it enough that we found a pop rendition of the song, and that was the song played for our first dance together at our wedding. <3
Jim! That's so sweet! I'm also very partial to "Once Upon a Dream" from Sleeping Beauty. :)
haha #11 and #15, mine would most definitely be the same...but how do you remember this stuff! too funny!
oh and I too REALLY wanted to go to Lilith Fair...my friend Angelina and I called the radio station everyday for a month in this crazy contest for tickets to Cali!