Today’s pick was a hard one for some reason. At dinner last night with my girlfriend and her step-mom, I told them what today’s prompt would be and asked for suggestions. They were much quicker on the draw than I was, thankfully, because I had pretty much stalled at “Billie Jean.” (We’re exactly one week out from the end of #30DaySongChallenge2018 today, so I might be fading a bit.) As it turns out, there are a crapload of “songs with a person’s name in the title” and, as you will see from my list of runners-up at the bottom of this post, competition was stiff for today’s pick.
A quick aside: the Step-Mom asked me, in the course of our conversation, whether or not I had any meta-guidelines for my #30DaySongChallenge picks. Was I trying to cover all musical genres? Were there particular artists that I hadn’t included yet that I wanted to make sure were represented? Were there particular songs that I wanted to fit into a prompt, even if it was forced? These are really good questions and gave me a chance to think more about how I’ve tended to go about this whole enterprise.
Thinking back over the course of this month, I think I do have a few implicit guidelines for my #30DaySongChallenge picks. I think the prompt list is comprehensive enough that I can include most of my favorite song in one day or another. But I also want to make sure that, in sum, the collection more or less represents my musical taste, so I am attentive to not only only genre, but style of genre. For similar reasons, I’m also interested in shining a spotlight on my favorite artists at least once during the month, even if that means that I have to “force” a selection to fit a prompt.
Today’s pick may be an example of that last objective. I’m picking Daryl Hall & John Oates’ “Sara Smile,” not because I think it’s the best song with a person’s name in the title, but rather because I looooove Hall & Oates. Here’s the track:
Prior caveats notwithstanding, this IS a fantastic song. From the very get-go, it has that easy-peasy, mid-70’s sound that practically screams waterbeds and shag carpet. I was only 3 years old when this song was released, so I can’t possibly have actual memories of it, but somehow it still sounds like what i remember the world I was born into sounding like. Smoooooooooth. Then, there’s this:
When you feel cold, I warm you.
And when you feel you can’t go on,
I come and hooo-ooold you.
It’s you, and me, forever, Sara,
Smiiii-iiiii-le.
Won’t you smile a while for this song?
Runners-up for #30DaySongChallenge, Day 22:
- Obvs, Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean”
- Fleetwood Mac’s “Rhiannon”
- Cowboy Junkies’ “Sweet Jane” (and specifically the Cowboy Junkies’s version!)
- Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode”
- Eric Clapton’s “Layla”
- Don McLean’s “Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)”
- Tina & Ike Turner’s “Proud Mary”
- Indigo Girls’ “Romeo and Juliet”
- The Beatles’ “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds”
- Elton John’s “Daniel”
- Ray Lamontagne’s “Jolene” (NOT Dolly Parton’s “Jolene,” God forgive me for saying that)
- Simon and Garfunkel’s “Cecilia”