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Song of the Day #4,576: ‘Fox in the Snow (Live)’ – Belle and Sebastian

Continuing the chronological presentation of my 25 favorite songs…

‘Fox in the Snow‘ – Belle and Sebastian (1996)

Belle and Sebastian’s ‘Fox in the Snow’ has shown up every time I’ve done some sort of “desert island discs” feature on this blog, and I wasn’t about to exclude it now that I’m coming up with my definitive list of favorite songs.

As with several songs on this list, ‘Fox in the Snow’ is my favorite song on my favorite album by one of my favorite bands. That status doesn’t apply to about two thirds of this list, but when it does the song in question is usually a key reason that artist became a favorite.

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Song of the Day #4,575: ‘Side of the Road (Live, ACL, 1989)’ – Lucinda Williams

Continuing the chronological presentation of my 25 favorite songs…

‘Take On Me‘ – A-Ha (1985)

1985 is the second year to place two songs on my list of favorites, the first being Simple Minds’ ‘Don’t You (Forget About Me)’ and the second being one of today’s featured tracks, A-Ha’s ‘Take On Me.’

Some songs on this list are here because of the excellence of a specific version. ‘Don’t You (Forget About Me)’ is a good example. Both the original demo and cover versions by others pale in comparison to the magic created by Simple Minds on the definitive recording.

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Song of the Day #4,574: ‘(Don’t Go Back To) Rockville (Live)’ – R.E.M.

Continuing the chronological presentation of my 25 favorite songs…

‘(Don’t Go Back To) Rockville‘ – R.E.M. (1984)

If I weren’t limiting my Favorite Songs playlist to one song per artist, R.E.M. is the band that may well have landed more than one track in the lineup. ‘Driver 8,’ ‘Maps and Legends,’ ‘Half a World Away’ and ‘So. Central Rain’ all were finalists for this list.

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Song of the Day #4,573: ‘Bring on the Wonder’ – Sarah McLachlan

This song, the closing track of Sarah McLachlan’s 2010 album Laws of Illusion, is the only one on that album not written by McLachlan. It was originally penned and recorded by English singer-songwriter Susan Enan.

McLachlan sings backing vocals on Enan’s version, a piano/guitar ballad I prefer to the glossy remake on Laws of Illusion.

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Song of the Day #4,572: ‘God’s Golden Eyes’ – John Hiatt

This is the third Random Weekend selection from John Hiatt’s 2000 album Crossing Muddy Waters. It pops up about once every two years.

And each time I have the same reaction, which is to be really impressed by the songwriting and sound and pledge to do a deeper dive into Hiatt’s catalog.

Well, here I am in early 2021 having the same reaction. This time, I’m going to write down “John Hiatt deep dive” in my blog planning notes and hope to actually follow through.

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