The first Beach Boys song I considered for this list of favorite “happy” songs was ‘God Only Knows.’ It’s probably my favorite of theirs. But I quickly realized that it’s pretty melancholy as love songs go.
So I went with my backup, another favorite of mine, ‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice?’ You could argue that this song is bittersweet as well — after all, it’s about a couple that can’t be together the way they want to be — but it’s musically exuberant.
If anything reveals my bias for sad songs it’s my failure to consider A-ha’s ‘Take On Me’ when compiling my list of favorites. Without question, this song belonged on that list.
But it was too peppy, too synth-y, too 80s to even get into the conversation. Major oversight. I apologize to all Norwegians.
I spent the past three weeks listing 15 songs I consider favorites. I tried to skip around between genres and artists for the sake of variety, but all of those songs shared one thing in common.
They were thoroughly depressing.
I know I’ve explored my penchant for the melancholy before, but this exercise really highlighted exactly how morose I really am.
The White Stripes released their last studio album seven years ago and officially broke up three years ago.
I don’t consider myself a major fan but every time I listen to one of the three albums of theirs I own, I regret that we won’t get any new music from them.
I could certainly get a Jack White fix from any of the dozen bands he’s started since leaving the Stripes, but it’s not the same. There’s a chemistry between him and Meg that makes these songs special.
Here’s one of my very favorite Beatles song given a sparkly makeover for the Cirque du Soleil Love show.
George and Giles Martin blended many different Beatles songs into each track in the Love performance, but somehow kept the sound and spirit of the originals intact.
For ‘Strawberry Fields Forever,’ they made use of “the orchestral section from ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’, the piano solo from ‘In My Life,’ the brass included in ‘Penny Lane,’ the cello and harpsichord arrangement from ‘Piggies’ and the coda of ‘Hello, Goodbye,'” (according to Wikipedia).
Meet Me In Montauk 