I am a huge fan of songs that make you feel something. A couple years ago I created a top 25 list of the sexiest songs out of frustration from looking on the internet and finding nothing. In the years that have passed, I've been lucky enough to amass an additional 20 songs on to the list of perfect songs to seduce your lover (or lovers) to. I can't say that it always works but add a glass of wine and a starry eyed glare in the right direction and you might have yourself a fantastic evening, courtesy of these touching tunes.
00The National - Lemonworld* 01 The Rolling Stones - Beast of Burden 02 Hall & Oates - One on One 03 Chicago - No Tell Lover 04 Sade - Sweetest Taboo 05 Michael Jackson - You Rock My World 06 Joseph Arthur - September Baby 07 Bill Withers - Ain't No Sunshine 08 Bon Iver - Skinny Love 09 Corinne Bailey Rae - Closer 10 Dwele - Weekend Love 11 Elvis Presley - One Night 12 Norah Jones - Sunrise 13 Paolo Nutini - Last Request 14 Mary Wells - You Beat Me to the Punch 15 Todd Rundgren - Hello, It's Me 16 Jose Gonzalez - Heartbeats 17 Maroon 5 - Woman 18 Badly Drawn Boy - Silent Sigh 19 Sheryl Crow - My Favorite Mistake 20 The Shins - Sea Legs
*Lemonworld basically inspired this list. It is an otherworldy song.
I was just on my new favorite site, http://8tracks.com/, and randomly decided to create a mix entitled "Women Rock". Yes, not that creative but it is full of songs that do not die: "I Love Rock 'n Roll" - Joan Jett, "Something to Talk About" - Bonnie Raitt, "I'm the Only One" - Melissa Etheridge, and the INCREDIBLE "My Favorite Mistake" by Sheryl Crow.
Actually, I'm not a big fan of female singers. That sounds bad but it is certainly not a conscious choice. It just so happens that my absolute favorite musicians always seem to be male. There is not a single female that makes it to my top 10 (well, Fleetwood Mac..).
Yet when I was going through a serious break up way back when, I immediately turned to Melissa Etheridge and Sheryl Crow religiously. Once again this was not a conscious choice but for some reason I gravitated towards their powerful voices and strong lyrics. This was about the time (early 2007) that I really started to learn about their music inside and out. I would go on a stationary bike and scream the words to "I'm the Only One" like the person I was directing it towards was right in front of me. It helped me blow off a lot of steam and I'm eternally grateful for this amazing music.
It wasn't until recently (as documented in another post) that I re-discovered Bonnie Raitt, another incredible female voice, and fell in love with women rockers all over again. Tonight I found myself listening to Heart, Stevie Nicks, and Patti Smith all in a row and enjoying it more than I could've imagined. These are voices I've heard all my life - with mixed feelings - and they've become part of my personal landscape. They're probably some of the only strong female influences I've ever known.
My cousin, who is an intense music lover in her own right, is a huge fan of female vocalists (although she'll deny that she has a particular preference) but they usually fall more on the pop side of the spectrum. If you're in her car for longer than ten minutes you're sure to hear Natasha Bedingfield, Katy Perry, or Shakira. She seems to rarely buy full albums these days but these are three of the most recent purchases.
Although this strays very far from my taste, I don't think there's anything wrong with this of course. I just find it interesting that if you compare our personalities, she is actually very into having female friends. She is always telling me about a debacle with one of the women she works with or a friend that broke plans, etc. She is very into being around females. I am not. I have some of the most beautiful, intelligent, special girl friends - but very few. I can't stress how unconscious this is (I would love to have more female friends) but nevertheless I have never been a girl's girl. I'm very feminine and fashion obsessed but I'm usually not compatible with many females. They confuse me. Is that wrong to say? Probably but I don't mean it like that. I'm equally confusing and so is every guy out there. My female cat is a much less complicated person than anybody I've ever met. She also has great taste in music.
Point being, I wonder if there's a correlation between my cousin loving to be around girl friends and also loving female voices and me having few female friends and not particularly listening to female artists. I'm probably looking way too much into it but I find it an intriguing coincidence (and the fact that I usually like deeper, raspy voiced female singers).
Maybe I'm just high.
So, in celebration of you reading this post, here's a great list of some of my favorite songs by some incredibly inspiring and immensely talented females of all sounds and styles.
Stevie Nicks - Stand Back Melissa Etheridge - I'm the Only One Bonnie Raitt - Not the Only One Sheryl Crow - My Favorite Mistake Cher - Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves Heart - Alone Mary J. Blige - No One Will Do Adele - Cold Shoulder Etta James - I'd Rather Go Blind Audra McDonald - Any Place I Hang My Hat is Home Jewel - You Were Meant For Me Mandy Moore - I Could Break Your Heart Any Day of the Week Amy Winehouse - Valarie Beyonce - Me, Myself, and I Billie Holiday - Speak Low Sharon Jones - Got a Thing on My Mind Queen Latifah - Hello Stranger Regina Spektor - Eet Nina Gordon - Horses in the City Rihanna - Rude Boy Mary Wells - You Beat Me to the Punch Alice Russell - Hurry on Now Carrie Underwood - Last Name Chrisette Michele - Best of Me Corinne Bailey Rae - I'd Like To
(I just titled this post that because I'm listening to it and as a reminder that it's one of the greatest songs ever created - it's an A.D. favorite for sure)
This song makes me want to:
1. See Cold War Kids in person just to hear them play this song. 2. Learn the drums immediately. 3. Kill myself because it's so amazing. 4. Blast it at full volume on the best speakers in the world. 5. Cry.
don't you love songs that make you want to commit violence because of their epic nature? And I don't use that corny "epic" word typically - just in extreme cases such as the best songs in the world. This and "No Tell Lover" (that I could write about forever) are those songs for me right now.
Music is the only thing that can put me in a better mood when I'm sad, start me writing when I don't feel inspired, and get me up and doing things - although I am mostly just drawn to the shiny light of the computer screen lately - or the bottom of an alcoholic beverage. PS. If anyone knows of a bar with an amazing jukebox in New Jersey, let me know. I'm really tired of the same old j. box in New Brunswick with no Stevie Wonder, John Legend, or any other great R&B artist for that matter. They're racist.
That just leads me to thinking about Mary Wells and how much I love her songs and voice and sexiness. I love sexual songs because when you think about it: how can a song be sexual? When you think of sex, you think of skin and physical contact and all things in PERSON> with music it is just your ears and it's almost like the wind - you can feel it and therefore you know it's there - but you can never see it. What could be sexier than that?
The horns in Chicago's songs always make me feel that way, John Legend's voice, Billie Holiday, even Keb' Mo' who gets no credit - do you realize he's the most amazing person alive?
I'll show you:
And "Love in Vain" started me thinking about "Waiting in Vain", another gorgeous song, not to mention incredibly sexy and mentioned in my Top 25 Sexiest Songs post from a few months back. This video get bonus points for being utterly adorable:
Mary Wells is brilliant. There's so much to know about her but right now let's just focus on this incredible song where she sings the word "punch" as if it's the sexiest most intense word in the world. Released in 1962 by Motown Records and composed by the equally brilliant Smokey Robinson, this song reached number nine on the pop charts and became Wells' first number one single on the R&B charts.
