Twenty Favorite Songs

1. “Everything Happens To Me” (Chet Baker)
   One of the coolest tunes ever. Chet sings so soft and mellow, and his delivery of this great song is just perfect. It’s the song for anyone who just feels like nothing ever goes right for them, especially love.

2. “I” (dada)
   This song has incredible harmonies and neat guitar overlays. dada is probably my favorite rock band, and this would be my favorite song.

3. “How Do U Want It?” (2Pac)
   The song that probably got me to like rap. My roommate Rob would play this all the time, and then I met Pingel, who played it even more. I think I heard this song twice every day for two years, and I never got tired of it.

4. “Over The Line” (The Crystal Method)
   I love TCM. They do some cool things with drums, and their songs always have great hooks. This one, however, they just layer sound on top of sound to create a very lush experience. Every time I listen to this tune, I hear something I never heard before.

5. “Bust A Move” (Infected Mushroom)
   I hadn’t heard of this group before this year, but this song made it into my favorites list right away because it’s a trance song that is actually composed instead of looped. It has movements and themes, and they use real instruments!

6. “Autumn Leaves” (Miles Davis)
   My favorite jazz tune, no matter who sings it or plays it. Miles Davis’ recording is superb, with a great walking bass and incredible trumpet playing. Chet Baker’s version is pretty crazy too.

7. “Doin’ Time” (Sublime)
   I don’t like everything Sublime does, but I love this song. The lyrics are pretty funny and the samples are really cool. It’s a song you can listen to while you sit with your boys and throw back some drinks.

8. “Pride & Joy” (Stevie Ray Vaughan)
   One of the coolest songs about a girl, and nobody can play it like Stevie.

9. “Breaking The Habit” (Linkin Park)
   This is just a cool song It shows that this band can do more than scream and rap. The singing on this one is great and there are a lot of interesting layers to the music.

10. “Moonlight Serenade” (Glenn Miller and His Orchestra)
    This is just a cool slow song to dance to. Sure it may be something your grandparents listened to, but it’s still a great tune.

11. “Adagio in g-moll für Streicher und Orgel” (Tomaso Albinoni)
    I always used to think of this song as one of the most depressing pieces of classical music ever. My dad and I always refer to this as “The suicide song” because if you listen to it, you can almost imagine someone sitting there thinking “My life is over.. nobody loves me.” But musically, it’s a pretty cool song.

12. Opportunities (Pet Shot Boys)
    The Pet Shop Boys are one of the bands that is chiefly responsible for getting me interested in electronic music. This song is probably my favorite song by them, mainly because of the lyrics. “I’ve got the brains and you’ve got the looks / Let’s make lots of money”

13. “Hey Hey What Can I Do?” (Led Zeppelin)
    My cousin Ian gave me a mix tape that had this song on it. I thought it was one of the coolest songs I’d heard, and it was one of the first ones I learned how to play on the guitar. It’s a song about a dude who falls in love with a hooker. Great rock and roll, man.

14. “The Wizard” (Black Sabbath)
    This song is just so cool. The harmonica is eerie and the drums are incredible. For a song that’s 34 years old, it still sounds pretty heavy.

15. Photograph (Def Leppard)
    This used to be my favorite band when I was a kid. They’ve become quite pompous and arrogant recently, and their music really hasn’t been very good either. This song, however, is just a great rock and roll tune, with a good chorus. This band was all about great hooks, and I think this is their best tune.

16. “I Can’t Dance” (Genesis)
    I grew up listening to Phil Collins because my mom was a big fan, and I remember hearing “In The Air Tonight” on “Miami Vice”. This song, however, has a much different vibe to it. We played the hell out of this song when we were junior high because it had such fun lyrics. I can still listen to this song today and it sounds just as cool.

17. “Every Home A Prison” (Keoki)
    A great mix of breakbeats with a sarcastic look at the future of our culture. “A different route to work behind bulletproof glass each day, but hey, the more the hordes hate you, the more power you’ve got!”

18. “Morning Sickness” (Joie Calio / Candy Apple Black)
    I first heard this one on the Internet as a promotion for Joie’s solo project, and I could relate to some of the lyrics. There’s a lot of different emotions going on with the song, but I like to think of it as the feeling you get when you’ve graduated from college and you get into a routine with a job and family. Then you notice your friends have moved away and you have been so busy with everything, you forgot to do anything with your life.

19. “Pavane” (Gabriel Fuare)
    A great flute piece that I first heard in a video game. It’s pretty and haunting, and is a great piece of modern classical music. If you can find a copy of it, give it a listen. It also reminds me of Ana, because Carissa has this song on a flute compilation that she had played when we were in the hospital when Ana was born.

20. “Supernatural” (Vic Chesnut as performed by Live)
    It’s a simple song but it’s beautiful. You can find a copy of it on their MTV Unplugged bootleg. I taped it off the radio and listened to it over and over again, just mesmerized by the music. It’s only three chords over and over, but sometimes simple songs can be the most interesting.

So that’s it… that’s my 20. I’d like to see some others put their favorite tunes on their sites. It’d be interesting to see.