I enjoyed last week’s desert island song theme so much that I’m extending it for another two weeks.
The five songs featured this week will round out my top ten, and next week’s selections will earn honorable mentions.
This is a strong batch of songs. Any one of these — hell, all of them — could have been in the top five.
I’ve loved The Beatles since the beginning of high school, when I bought all of their UK albums (at the time, recently released on CD) and spent hours recording the lyrics to every song on my typewriter.
I’ve read the books, watched the movies, know all of the little side stories about their studio recordings. Along with Bob Dylan, they are my first and longest enduring musical romance.
And among all of their elaborate studio concoctions and genre-twisting experimentation, the song I return to most often is the simplest of them all — ‘If I Fell.’ This is one of the most beautiful melodies I’ve ever heard and it never fails to steal my breath away.
Would you promise to be true
And help me understand
‘Cause I’ve been in love before
And I found that love was more
Than just holding hands
If I give my heart to you
I must be sure
From the very start
That you would love me more than her
If I trust in you, oh please
Don’t run and hide
If I love you too, oh please
Don’t hurt my pride like her
‘Cause I couldn’t stand the pain
And I would be sad if our new love was in vain
So I hope you see that I
Would love to love you
And that she will cry
When she learns we are two
‘Cause I couldn’t stand the pain
And I would be sad if our new love was in vain
So I hope you see that I
Would love to love you
And that she will cry when she learns we are two
If I fell in love with you
Meet Me In Montauk 
So now it’s as though, while stuck on the desert island, somebody feels sorry enough about limiting your stay to five songs to airdrop another five or ten, yet not sorry enough to rescue you. 🙂 Meanwhile, isn’t it bad enough that you are stuck on an island? Does it also have to be a desert? Does this mean you can’t even find some coconuts to eat or you can’t even lie under a palm tree? So cruel!
Anyway, you won’t get much disagreement from me on this selection, though there are a few other Beatles songs that would vie for my desert island choice. Still, this song holds a special place in my heart as Amy and I would sing it to each other, each of us taking a line, back when we first started dating. Our voices would then come together for the chorus, perfectly duplicating the Beatles’ harmony. (Okay, that last sentence is obviously not true, but, in my mind, heart and soul, we were in perfect harmony and still are over 25 years later 🙂 )
Looking forward to seeing your choices over the next two weeks.
How sweet the commentary is today; loving it as well as the song 🙂
Perfect harmony! 😉