Songs that make you smile

[Catfood Purrito]

This morning, as I was getting dressed and all that before work, I heard the song Call Me Al by Paul Simon, which, no matter how horrible my mood is, always brings a smile to my face and brightens my day. There's no particular memory attached to the song, it just makes me happy.

What songs make you smile? Is there a memory associated with it that brings joy? Or is it just something about the tune or words or beat that has you grinning like a fool?

Some of mine:

-Sweet Child Of Mine - Guns 'n Roses (As I was driving one day, I went in the ditch whilst rocking out to this song. It wasn't the song's fault, my brakes went out. I continued to rock out in the ditch until the song was over. The guy who saw it happen and stopped to help thought I had sustained some kind of head injury.)

-Every Day is a Winding Road - Sheryl Crow
-I Would Walk 1000 Miles - The Proclaimers
-Romeo and Juliet - Dire Straits
-Me and Bobby McGee - Janis Joplin
-Fishin' in the Dark - ???

-Love Shack - The B52's (My best friend, her boyfriend, and I always used to sing this at karaoke back when we were in college. That's one of the few things I miss about college, karaoke night with Liz and Mark)

[SwimmingRiddles]

Santa Monica - Everclear
Where is My Mind - The Pixies
Blister in the Sun - The Violent Femmes (alternately, American Music)
It's the End of the World As We Know It - REM
Under the Bridge - Chili Peppers
Anything by King Missle or Guster

[Jonathan Chance]

Arlington - Emmit Swimming
The World Is Full of Bastards (and I've dated every one) - Mary Prankster
Rock and Roll Lifestyle - Cake
Too High For the Supermarket - The Uninvited
Lousiana Lowdown - Cowboy Mouth
I Can't Stand You Now - Paul Sanchez

Identify all these artists and WIN A PRIZE!

[Typo Negative]

flagpole sitta ...dunno who
lakeside park...rush
highway star... deep purple
whatever didi wants.....nofx

[Ukulele Ike]

Jazz tunes that make me smile (may be performed by anyone, as long as they don't screw up the heads and can solo effectively):

Charlie Parker's "Billie's Bounce"
Thelonious Monk's "Friday the Thirteenth"
Clifford Brown's "Joy Spring"
Lester Young's "Jumpin' with Symphony Sid"
Horace Silver's "Juicy Lucy"
Eddie Durham's "Topsy"

[ReservoirDog]

flagpole sitta ...dunno who

Pretty sure this is Harvey Danger.

My current choices are:

Mrs. Potter's Lullaby - Counting Crows
Ghost of Stephen Foster - Squirrel Nut Zippers
Dammit - Blink 182
Inside Out - Eve 6 (supercheezy, I know)
Hit 'em Up - 2Pac (not a happy song, but makes me laugh)

[xizor]

"Good Times" by Inxs
"Istanbul" by TMBG
"White Lines" by Duran Duran
"Because the Night" 10,000 Maniacs version (but only because of associated memories)
"The Nations of the World" by Yakko Warner

[Shagnasty]

FYI - Fishin' in the Dark is by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

[Shagnasty]

Jenny Says - Cowboy Mouth
Rosalita - Better than Ezra

[JimmyNipples]

Some of mine:

-Fishin' in the Dark - ???

I'm ashamed I know this....Nitty Gritty Dirt Band


Some of Graeme's fist pumping-make ya grin tunes:

Anything by Devo

Paradise City.....Gun's & Roses

She sells Sactuary...Cult

High...Lighthouse Family

Walk the Night....Skatt Brothers

Gansta's Paradise....Coolio

[jayron 32]

When I'm 64 by The Beatles always gets my smiling.

[jesuslynch]

Fruitcakes - Jimmy Buffett
The Girl's Got Rythm - AC/DC

[JimmyNipples]

Blister in the Sun - The Violent Femmes (alternately, American Music)

Yeah!!!! What a great tune. It's been years since I've heard it...gotta dig that one out again.


Also, Night Clubbin' Iggy Pop and David Bowie

[Ellen Cherry]

I confess to liking Blister in the Sun too. It's so odd and catchy.

No great work of music, I know, but a song that is infectious in its happiness is "Centerfold" by the J. Guiles Band. I also have good memories associated with it: when it came out a guy I had a crush on liked the song too. We never got together, but when I hear it, I think of him.

Mishell, "Graceland" is my favorite album. I adore "Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes."

Other songs I love:
Rosalita -- Bruce
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For -- U2 (From Rattle and Hum)
Uncle John's Band -- The Grateful Dead
In the Mood -- Glenn Miller
You Are the Everything -- REM (Green)
Cowgirl in the Sand -- Neil Young

There's really nothing uplifting in the body of work by Pink Floyd, but any time I hear anything from "The Wall" I'm a senior in high school again.

[Jonathan Chance]

Mavpace!

Someone else who's been turned on to the Mouth! The greatest live band in all of history!

GO COWBOY MOUTH!

[RealityChuck]

Nice choices of "Rosalita" and "When I'm 64."

A lot of songs give me a smile:

Honeymoon Hotel (from Footlight Parade)
Adelaide's Lament (Guys and Dolls)
Anything Goes
Always True to You Darling (in My Fashion) (Kiss Me Kate)
Comedy Tonight (A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum)
Ya Got Trouble (The Music Man)
Brotherhood of Man (How to Succeed in Business)
Those Were The Good Old Days (Damn Yankees)
Sing (A Chorus Line)
Cocktails for Two (Spike Jones)
Ali Baba's Camel (Bonzo Dog Band -- anything by them, actually)
Mabel (Procul Harum "Don't eat green meat, it ain't good for you.")
The William Tell Overture
Beethoven's 9th Symphony, 4th movement ("Song of Joy")
Move it on Over (George Thorogood)

[kunilou]

Walkin' In Sunshine -- Katrina and the Waves

Lazy Day -- Spanky and Our Gang

Happiest Girl in the Whole USA -- Donna Fargo

Summer pop RULES!

[CrankyAsAnOldMan]

Flagpole Sitta is indeed Harvey Danger. It's a good one.

Mr. Blue Sky by ELO is on my list.
My Maria (god forgive me, I like the "new" version better than the old)

[Ellen Cherry]

Hey Chuck, ya like musicals??

I've got one to add to your list -- "I Cain't Say No" from "Oklahoma!"

[Spoke]

A big "Amen" to the posters who mentioned these two:

• Blister in the Sun- The Violent Femmes
• Istanbul- They Might Be Giants

A few others:[list][*]Rock and Roll High School- The Ramones[*]Rock the Casbah- The Clash[*]Salty Dog Blues- Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs[*]That'll Be the Day- Buddy Holly[*]You Can't Catch Me- Chuck Berry[*]Twist and Shout- The Beatles[*]I Saw Her Standing There- The Beatles[*]Moondance- Van Morrison[*]Great Balls of Fire!- Jerry Lee Lewis[*]Rock Lobster- B52s[*]That's What I Like About You- The Romantics[*]Turning Japanese- The Vapors[*]Rock this Town- Stray Cats[*]Sexy and Seventeen- Stray Cats[*]Jambalaya- Hank Williams[*][b]Hell (In the Afterlife)[*]- Squirrel Nut Zippers[*]Cannonball- Kim Deal's band after the Pixies (dang it! What were they called?)[*]Amy- Pure Prairie League[*]Friend of the Devil- Grateful Dead[*]Driver 8- R.E.M.

[Spoke]

By the way, I really like the songs listed by Swiddles and ellen. Good taste, y'all!

[Ellen Cherry]

Hey Johnathan -- I'm always trying to win a prize.

Regarding your handle: traffic guy from 790 KABC Radio in Los Angeles ... or an internet crazy? Hmmm?

And thanks spoke-

[JavaMaven1]

[*]Cannonball- Kim Deal's band after the Pixies (dang it! What were they called?)

The Breeders. Forgot what they were called, too, but I knew I had the tape somewhere in the trunk of my car. Ran out in my jammies to dig through the tape case to get that because this would have been going through my head for days if I didn't get the answer right away.

Ok, spoke, this is just getting weirder--it's another sign.

I'll have to say that spoke's list is almost exactly like mine, except I have to add a few:

"Blue Suit Boogie" by Indigo Swing
"Saturday Night Fish Fry" & "Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens" by Louis Jordan
"Barflies at the Beach" by Royal Crown Revue
"The Ghost of Stephen Foster" by Squirrel Nut Zippers
"Wild Wild Young Men" by Ruth Brown
"Debra" by Beck (saw him do this live, he is the funky white soul brother)
"Bottle of Smoke" by the Pogues (just gives me a reason to say f*ck about a hundred times in 3 minutes)
"Jump, Jive & Wail" by Louis Prima

I'll probably think of more later, so I'll add to the list

[Spoke]

The Breeders! That's it!

Yes JavaMaven1, it is fate. Especially what with you putting Louis Prima and the Pogues on your list. Couple more Pogues songs that qualify, in my book: Down All the Days and Ghost of a Smile.

And speaking of The Pixies, I cast a vote for Here Comes Your Man.

Hey! What are you doing in your jammies this time of day??? (Not that I don't appreciate the mental image...)

[JavaMaven1]

Hey! What are you doing in your jammies this time of day??? (Not that I don't appreciate the mental image...)

Brief Explanation: I'm a serious night person--I go to bed around 2 or 3 in the morning, meaning I'm usually up around 10 or 11 am. School is from 3:30 pm to 10, I get home about 11. I'm usually doing homework until 2 am. I deserveto be in my jammies at noon.

Another song to add to the list:

"That's A Pretty Good Love" by Big Maybell

[Edwardina]

This morning, as I was getting dressed and all that before work, I heard the song Call Me Al by Paul Simon, which, no matter how horrible my mood is, always brings a smile to my face and brightens my day. There's no particular memory attached to the song, it just makes me happy.

What songs make you smile? Is there a memory associated with it that brings joy? Or is it just something about the tune or words or beat that has you grinning like a fool?

Some of mine:

-Sweet Child Of Mine - Guns 'n Roses (As I was driving one day, I went in the ditch whilst rocking out to this song. It wasn't the song's fault, my brakes went out. I continued to rock out in the ditch until the song was over. The guy who saw it happen and stopped to help thought I had sustained some kind of head injury.)

-Every Day is a Winding Road - Sheryl Crow
-I Would Walk 1000 Miles - The Proclaimers
-Romeo and Juliet - Dire Straits
-Me and Bobby McGee - Janis Joplin
-Fishin' in the Dark - ???

-Love Shack - The B52's (My best friend, her boyfriend, and I always used to sing this at karaoke back when we were in college. That's one of the few things I miss about college, karaoke night with Liz and Mark)

OMIGOD! Is it that "You and me going fishin' in the dark, lyin' on our back and countin' the stars . . ." song? I love that song!

It brings up such cool memories for a girl who grew up in rural town, and has gone fishing after dark . . .

[JoltSucker]

The Bad Touch -- by The Bloodhouse Gang ("You and baby, we ain't nuthin' but mammals/so let's do it like they do it on Discovery Channel")

Let Me Go -- by Cake

Miserable -- by Blink 182 (at least the refrain: you make me come/you make me complete/you make me completely miserable)

Happy, Shiny People -- by REM

I want to be Sedated -- by The Ramones

[Crown Prince of Irony]

"Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" - the Police


(can you tell it makes me giddy?)

[Ellen Cherry]

Ahem, that's "Shiny Happy People" by REM, from "Out of Time."

~Your resident REMophile

[Nacho4Sara]

I second "Flagpole Sitta," "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic," and "Blister In The Sun" - these all make me giddy too.

Also:
"With A Little Help From My Friends," The Beatles

"Superstition," Stevie Wonder

"These Foolish Things," Billie Holiday

"Let's Go Crazy," "Raspberry Beret," "1999," "Kiss", Prince

"My Love Is Your Love," Whitney Houston

"I Want You Back," "Bye Bye Bye," "It's Gonna Be Me," "No Strings Attached," *NSYNC (hey, I like them for a reason - they make me happy!)

Happy listening, everyone!!

[Spoke]

Oh yeah, speaking of Raspberry Beret, there is an absolutely killer cover of this song by The Derailers on their CD Reverb Deluxe. (Imagine if you will a sort of honky-tonk take on the tune.) Seek it out. Talk about a song that will make you smile. You will smile, you will giggle, you will laugh out loud!

[Edwardina]

I want to be Sedated -- by The Ramones

You stole my song! The one song that I thought of, unequivocally, that always fills me with childlike glee! Drat!

Other than that particular one, the ones that make me smile are a whole bunch of silly things that I will not torment the rest of you innocents by listing here. Most could be considered the auditory equivalent of Brendan Fraser; the songs that make me smile are to music what he is to the profession of acting: a good time without a lot of depth.

I guess which songs make me smile also depends on what kind of smile you mean. There are, of course, certains songs which illicit something closer akin to an evil grin. *evil grin* Would those also count?

[Mr. Cynical]

Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah. - Alan Sherman

How can you listen to that song and NOT smile?

[DRY]

Years ago, I was listening to the radio--don't remember the station--and they took a call from a syrupy sweet sounding lady that bade the DJ to "play me something romantic". Next thing I heard were the..ahem..mellifluous sounds of the Clash. Still makes me smile just thinking about it.

I posted other songs that made me smile in the "songs that made you cry" thread (they made me cry with laughter). Monty Python's Lumberjack song was one, so was the aborted "I gave my love a cherry" sung by Steven Bishop in Animal House.

There's another piece of music, not actually a song, that makes me laugh: It's one of Tchaikovsky's famous symphonies. Blame the Monty Python "The Farming Club presents the Life of Tchaikovsky" for this: they had a skit where a famous musician was supposed to play the symphony in question: "He will escape from padlocks, two sets of handcuffs and a burlap bag", and Terry Jones comes rolling on stage, trying to simultaneously play the piano and do his escape routine. Hilarious!

[Jonathan Chance]

You're the first person who tried to ID my handle but no luck. It does NOT come from a traffic reporter or an internet crazy. Doesn't mean they're not using it as well.

Anyone else?

[SwimmingRiddles]

Hell, I hereby nominate the entire Sgt. Pepper Album. With the exception of A Day in the Life and She's Leaving Home, that is one damn happy album.

I also nominate Nightswimming by REM. I grew up on a lake, and there are a lot of wonderful memories about floating in the water, which is warmer then the night air. It's so dark you can't tell where the water beings and the air ends. And Michael and the boys hit the nail on the head with that one.

As you can see in the album thread, I'm a BIG Paul Simon's Graceland fan.

Good picks, kids.

[Coldfire]

RealityChuck said:

Beethoven's 9th Symphony, 4th movement ("Song of Joy")

Nitpicking is OK when it comes to Beethoven: that would be Ode to Joy ("Ode an die Freude"). And it is also the best piece of music ever written. IMHO, naturally.

A few more happy songs:
Rush - Kid Gloves
Dire Straits - Twistin' by the Pool
Level 42 - Heaven in my Hands
Paul Carrack - Don't shed a tear for me
Poco - Call it Love

OK, that's it. I'm gonna go out and frolic in the sun now.

[ReservoirDog]

Miserable -- by Blink 182 (at least the refrain: you make me come/you make me complete/you make me completely miserable)

Minor correction, JoltSucker. This song is actually by a band called Lit. You know, those blokes who do My Own Worst Enemy (the car is in the front yard, and I'm sleeping with my clothes on, blah, blah, blah)

[Ellen Cherry]

OK Johnathan, I'm on a mission now. Is this you?? What a dude.

Ooo SwimmingRiddles, I'll check out the album thread! When I (finally) got a CD player "Graceland" was the first one I allowed to slip inside. Hey, I'm a rich girl. I don't try to hide it.

[CrankyAsAnOldMan]

How can no one have listed "Born to Boogie" by Hank Jr.yet?

Runaround Sue shoulda been on my list. Plus a coupla dozen others you guys have mentioned.

[GreenEyes]

Saved The Best for Last.. by Vanessa Williams

[Ukulele Ike]

Oh yeah..."Fishing Blues." No matter WHO performs it...Taj Mahal, the Holy Modal Rounders, even the Lovin' Spoonful.

And Bob Dylan's "Quinn the Eskimo," because my son's named after it.

[xelakann]

I was driving at sunset on some random mountain road about hour out of Missoula, MT. The scenery was breathtaking! I had my radio station on scan, because there was no clear station... then all of the sudden I got some local station and the song on the radio was "Wonderful world" by Louie Armstrong! I just sat there, driving in my car, looking out the window and thinking... "Wow, isn't though!"

[Jonathan Chance]

That's not me! But I'm a bit humbled that there's so many potential people using a name I thought was a bit obscure!

If you need a hint just let me know...

-JC

[Gazoo]

Mentioned already:

-"Call me Al" and "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes" by Paul Simon
-"Romeo and Juliet" by Dire Straits
-"Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong
-"Moondance" by Van Morrison

Others:

-"Ultimately Fine," "Stangest Kind," and "Good Work" by the BoDeans
-"Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner," "Werewolves of London," and "Lawyers, Guns and Money" by Warren Zevon
-"(Ghost) Riders in the Sky" by the Outlaws
-"The Weight" by the Band
-"Heard it in a Love Song" by Marshall Tucker Band (you know the one, everyone always sings it as "Purdy little love song..can't be wrong.")
-"Wild World" by Cat Stevens
- Anything by Louis Jordan
-"Sunday Morning Coming" and "Boy Named Sue" by Johnny Cash
-"Life's Been Good" by Joe Walsh
-"Cracklin's Rosie" by Neil Diamond
-"Thunder Road" by Bruce Springsteen

[Poirot]

I'm a sucker for "I can see clearly now, the rain is gone"
Also "It's getting better all the time"

[xizor]

Dire Straits - Twistin' by the Pool

Is this really Dire Straits? I thought it was Nick Lowe

[Milossarian]

Swiddles: Good calls on Everclear (love that band!) and the Femmes. Ditto on "Sedated."

Can't believe this got so long without these two perfect tunes for this category:

Low Rider by War

Spill the Wine by Eric Burdon.

[jesuslynch]

Spill the Wine by Eric Burdon.

Heard this on the way home last Friday. Yeah, it makes me smile too.

"To think that I, a long-haired sleeping gnome, could be the star of a hollywood movie. This really blew my mind."

[JoltSucker]

Ellen and ReservoirDog:

Ahem, that's "Shiny Happy People" by REM, from "Out of Time."

Minor correction, JoltSucker. This song is actually by a band called Lit.

Hey, I was having a Senior Moment. After all, I'm a 43 y.o. geezer (not to be confused with the band). I forget these things...

;j