Not “favorite song by a particular person,” but favorite song regardless of who’s doing it.
Mine is Cole Porter’s Night and Day, and this thread is inspired by a lovely, soaring version I’m listening to right this minute, by Stan Getz on sax and Kenny Barron on piano. Fred Astaire’s version is, of course, a favorite – I don’t care for Sinatra’s as much, and was disappointed by the U2 version on Red Hot + Blue, given how wonderful much of that album is. One of the most romantic scenes in the biopic De-Lovely was when Kevin Kline, as Cole Porter, explains to the young man who’s about to introduce it to the world how to sing it.
“Bei Mir Bist du Schoen” is one of my favorite songs. The Andrews Sisters version is nice, but whoever sings it in Swing Kids sings the hell out of it.
Of course, I like “Greensleeves” a lot, too. The only song I can play on the guitar, actually.
If I had to pick one, it’d be Hoagy Carmichael’s Lazy River. I’ve got a half-dozen different covers, in different styles or at varying tempos, and I love them all.
Louis Jordan’s Stone Cold Dead In The Market. One of the first recordings I played as a child (on an ancient 78), and a dynamite love song.
*"Last night he went out drinking,
When he came home he gave me a beating;
So I cotch up de rolling pin,
And went to work on his head 'til I boshed it in.
He’s stone cold dead in de market,
Stone cold dead in de market;
He’s stone cold dead in de market,
I kill nobody but me husband.*"
Jordan rocks.
“You and I Both” by Jason Mraz. Not the version that was heard on the radio, but one he did a few years back. It’s an accoustic version with just him playing a guitar and Toca playing the bongo drums. I love that song. I am sure that I’ve heard it a good thousand times.
I can’t narrow it down to one but:
Kashmir by Led Zeppelin
Imagine by John Lennon
or
Rhapsody in Blue by Gershwin, preferably the Leonard Bernstein arrangement.
Road Runner-Johnathan Richman and the Modern Lovers
White Man in Hammersmith Palais-The Clash
Small Axe-Bob Marley & The Wailers
Pressure Drop- Toots and the Maytals
Blue-The Verve
Several - depending on mood
No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature - the Guess Who
Sisters - Bette Midler (Rosenmary Clooney Songbook)
Rhythm of Life - from Sweet Charity
Birdland - the Manhattan Transfer
Big Man on Mulberry Street - Billy Joel
Hard to really pick just one - I’ve got iTunes & and iPod - full of my favorites - So glad I don’t have to listen to someone else’s musical tastes at “w”.
Some Kind of Wonderful-- The Drifters may be my all time favourite.
Some close contenders…
Lovely Rita-- The Beatles
Love Will Tear Us Apart-- Joy Division
Whispering Grass-- The Ink Spots
Roads-- Portishead
Don’t Stop Believing-- Journey
The Wind-- Cat Stevens
And this one needs a bit of time to make it on the list…