Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Sing, Sing A Song

I've been formulating this list for about, oh...the last 18 years of my life. That would mean that I started the list of "Katie's Top 10 Favorite Songs Ever In Life" when I was eight. These were the thoughts of eight-year-old Katie. Do you know my mother?

You'll be surprised, or at least my dad will be surprised, to know that only two showtunes ended up on the list. That's a great feat for this list, considering my life revolved around musicals for the first third of my life. It's basically all I watched, along with "Follow That Bird", "Muppets Take Manhattan" and "The Care Bear Movie".

So here it is, people. It all its deeply thought out glory.

I give you...

Katie's Top 10 Favorite Songs Ever In Life (so far)"

1. "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" from The Wizard of Oz -- The Judy Garland version of the Katherine McPhee version. It doesn't matter. This is my favorite movie in the whole world so it's only fitting that it's my favorite song. Since I was a little I wanted to be Dorothy Gale and stage on a stage and since this song. In high school, my dream became reality.

2. "Sweet Caroline" by Neil Diamond -- One day I will sing this with a throng of Boston Red Sox faithful at Fenway Park after the top of the eighth inning. For now, I'll settle on begging Hollie to play it at every baseball game and leading the fans in the crucial crowd participation parts.

3. "Piano Man" by Billy Joel -- Seriously, who didn't/doesn't want to be a piano (wo)man. I did. I started playing piano by ear when I was six before my mom put me in lessons for the next five years. Although, I hated practicing and would have rather played whatever I wanted to, I wish I'd applied myself a little more so that I could've been really, really good. I still have to fight the urge to sit down and play whenever I'm in the vacinity of a piano that isn't my own. I miss it terribly and wish I had one in my apartment. Billy Joel was just one of the amazing artists on rotation in the cassette decks of my parents' cars when I was a wee one. I remember watching one of his concerts on television when I was about four or five, probably Live From Leningrad USSR since that aired on HBO in 1987. Although he's been shrowded by controversy for a while now, I still think Billy Joel is a musical genius no matter what kind of person he his.

4. "Saturday In The Park" by Chicago -- Chicago was and will always be one of my top four favorite bands. Chicago was the other artist on mega rotation in the Walden cassette players when I was a kid. And I used to associate any Chicago song as "beach music" because it always conjures up memories of family vacations at the beach, I guess because we listened to it a lot there. This song is my particular favorite because you can't just listen to it and not be happy. Of course, now it reminds me of my Tuesday afternoon in Central Park last summer with my family and our tour guide Kumar.

5. "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" by Stevie Wonder -- You just can't deny Stevie a place on the list. Seriously. I could've put any of his songs on here but this one just gets into my soul and makes me believe that I really could make it as a back-up singer. I've got that harmony down to a science.

6. "Ants Marching" or "Two Step" by Dave Matthews -- Well, it's Dave Matthews. Nothing more to say.

7. "Jesus Will Still Be There" by Point of Grace -- This is one of the first songs I ever sang in church and it became my theme song, I guess you could say. I sang it several times when I was in youth group. It spoke to my heart then and it speaks to my heart now.

8. "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen (the Hope for Haiti version by Justin Timberlake and Charlie Sexton) -- I really don't know what to say about this song but that there is just something that pulls me to it. Maybe it's the beautiful melody. I don't know.

9. "Defying Gravitiy" from Wicked -- I really don't think that this needs explaining.

10. "Children Go Where I Send Thee" -- This song will forever and always scream Stone Family Christmas for me. It's my favorite staple in the Christmas Eve sing-along and it just conjures up warm memories for me.

Almost making the list:
"Grace's Amazing Hands" by Dave Barnes
"Get It Like You Like It" by Ben Harper
"Tears of the Saints" by Leeland
"Hosanna" by Hillsong United
"Midnight Train To Georgia" by Gladys Knight and the Pips
"Winter Snow" by Audrey Assad

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