What songs have you enjoyed so much that you’ve played them over and over and over again?
My wife is out of town and I’m missing her right now, a great deal. So, I find myself listening to David Gates’ beautiful voice, with Bread, singing the song “If” repeatedly. Yes it’s a sappy song. But I’m hitting rewind again and again. And again.
Have you done that? Ever?
Some songs, I enjoy them so much that I’ll listen to them repeatedly. In past years I know that I’ve done that for:
California Dreamin’ — The Mamas and The Papas
Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress — The Hollies
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald — Gordon Lightfoot
Hitch a Ride — Boston
I’ve listened to Nightflyer by Allison Russell hundreds of times. I just love singing this song. It was a hard song to learn. It gives me delicious chills.
It’s one of the few songs that I loved from the first time I ever heard it.
I can play Scott Joplin rags on piano, and I can play the flute parts of Van Morrison’s “Moondance” on flute. Actually, I can play a lot of flute parts in pop songs, and I play them over and over. I am so happy when I can hit that high Bb in “Nights in White Satin.” Especially in performance.
I can, of course, play the radio and CDs, and I’m sure that you’re referring to those. Maybe you’d like to narrow the OP to “Songs you’ve played over and over again from recorded media”?
“There’s Your Trouble” by The Dixie Chicks (their name on their first album).
Love that album (Wide Open Spaces) from first song to last. But for some reason I just loved this little pop-country gem in particular, and I’d often play it two, three four times in a row,
Whenever I fire up Spotify, I start with Caim’s Rigged Voices. It’s some kind of techno sea shanty (maybe) and it’s magnificent. I would really like to know the story behind this recording, but I can’t find anything. The artist is based in St. Petersburg, Russia. I never would have guessed.
Fun topic!
I have a list of too many to name in a post like this
but I’ll give you my Top Five:
Pat Metheny’s “Au Lait”
Neal Hefti’s “Repetition”
Sinatra’s version of “Laura” ( I prefer the instrumental!)
Shearing’s “Lullaby of Birdland”
Boz Scaggs’ “Lowdown”
I could easily list another 20 or so offhand, but I’ll stop with these.
Saltarello and As The Bell Rings The Maypole Spins - Dead Can Dance Garlands and Blue Bell Knoll by Cocteau Twins Doomsday and Ceilings by Lizzy McAlpine Free Will At Ease and Louder In Outer Space by Skating Polly Don’t Be So Hard On Your Own Beauty - Yeule Lucky - Lucie, Too Clair and Strawberry Wine - My Bloody Valentine Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken and Rattlesnakes - Lloyd Cole and the Commotions Somebody That I Used To Know - Gotye feat. Kimbra
currently : Expert In A Dying Field - The Beths
Fallin’ in Love - Hamilton, Joe Frank, Reynolds
Don’t Pull Your Love - H, JF, R
Never Been Any Reason - Head East
Can’t Find My Way Home - Blind Faith
Valerie - Steve Winwood
If You Only Knew - Shinedown
When I like a song, I’ll often play it over and over until I know the lyrics by heart and can sing it (to myself; I wouldn’t do that to anyone else). Songs with clever lyrics and fairly simple melodies tend to grab me. It’s a very long list, but the ones that come immediately to mind this morning are:
Nightswimming and Find The River (R.E.M) John Wayne Gacy and Casimir Pulaski Day (Sufjan Stevens) Sisters Of Mercy (Leonard Cohen) Divorce Song (Liz Phair) I’ve Got A Match (They Might Be Giants) I’m Your Moon (Jonathan Coulton) St. Theresa (Joan Osborne)
I remember during my Hotel California jag, gushing to my mom, “Don’t you love this song?” and she wearily replied, “Julie, nobody likes Hotel California.” I think what she meant was that the household was sick of hearing it, but at the time, I thought, “Whoa, I’m really the only one?”
Well, there’s a lot of Eagles hate out there, which I don’t get, and Hotel California seems to be a particular target of that wrath, which I kinda do, because it’s been so overplayed. (I happen to still like it, but I will say that I hear it a lot despite never listening to ‘classic rock’ stations.)
I got my copy of The Replacements’ Tim: the Let it Bleed Edition over the weekend and there five or six different versions of “Can’t Hardly Wait” in the box set, and I could already happily listen to that song on repeat already.
When I first heard Deacon Blue’s “Real Gone Kid” I listened to it a couple of times a day for a couple of weeks, I think.
I remember listening to “Don’t Stop Me Now” by Queen maybe 15 times in a row when I was on a long drive. I particularly loved listening to the crescendo when they sing “about to oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-EXPLODE!!”
