There’s this music meme circulating around Facebook (and possibly other places). Now, I could take a month and do a song a day or even spread this challenge out over thirty weeks, but I’m going to compromise and cheat with a few of these challenges per week instead. Maybe this is a thing that’s supposed to be more off-the-cuff and not heavy on thought, but regular readers know what I’m like already and new ones will just have to deal.
Some of these challenges are going to be tricky given the sheer number of songs I’m familiar with across styles and decades — and centuries for that matter. Yeesh, you know?
I’ll do the second challenge first because it’s the easiest: my least favourite song. It’s Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell. Oh my Flying Spaghetti Monster, how I hate that song.
When it’s sung by anyone, that is. If you read the lyrics instead, looking at them as a statement about our society and what people choose to care about, then it’s genius.
They took all the trees
And put them in a tree museum
Then they charged the people
A dollar and a half just to see ’em
Don’t it always seem to go,
That you don’t know what you’ve got
‘Til it’s gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
Sadly just quoting that has put the song in my head. Time for a round of “Shoe Fly! Don’t Bother me!” to get rid of it. (That works. I don’t lie.)
Okay, better. I think I should tie that with Giving You the Best That I Got by Anita Baker. Too many years of hearing it at Walmart killed it for me, but it was on its last legs before that point anyway. It’s just cringeworthy for me. Perhaps I’d like anything else by her but never that one. Also, I should include that one by the Fugees, Killing Me Softly (with his song), which I’d never wish onto my worst enemy (unless I had really bad PMS that day). To hear those three on a continuous loop and I’d be ready to admit I was the shooter on the grassy knoll, even though that happened 11 years before I was born.
The first and probably hardest challenge is to share my favourite song. Good gravy on a meatball sandwich! What the hell song would that be!?
“Most listened to based on iTunes stats” ties at Gamble Everything for Love by Ben Lee and My Heart Holds by the Yoshida Brothers. I like each of them for different reasons, but neither one would top the list.
Other favourites are Fools Rush In by Johnny & the Hurricanes, One Fine Day by the Chiffons, Making Your Mind Up by Bucks Fizz and Exterminate Regenerate by Chameleon Circuit, a Doctor Who obsessed band I quite like. I’ll add Ever Fallen in Love as done by Nouvelle Vague, too. I love their pepped up version. Going by Wikipedia, Pete Yorn is the original author of that one, and it’s available on the Shrek 2 soundtrack. I had no reason to know that, but now I do. Hence calling such things “trivia.” Born of the word “trivial,” dontcha know? Trivia about trivia. Hope that doesn’t result in a divide by zero scenario. I don’t see an apocalypse on the horizon, so I guess I’m okay.
I’m not always aware I’m listening to a cover version (I’m largely ignorant of the names of songwriters and band members on the best of days. I just want to enjoy the result), but sometimes I actually prefer the cover to the original. Bruce Cockburn wrote and performed Lovers in a Dangerous Time initially but the Barenaked Ladies version remains the only song they released that I still like hearing. Same goes for Arrogant Worms and Captain Tractor’s version of their Last Saskatchewan Pirate. They rock that puppy to the point of sea sickness.
Since I’ve so far failed to actually pick a favourite, I’m throwing on a video of that one.
Ah, memories…
One Minion's Opinion 
I’ve seen the song challenge and considered doing it myself but I have a similar problem of having no idea what my most favorite song is or even my least favorite. It really just depends on my mood at the moment. And often songs that annoyed me, come back into favor when I’ve had some distance from them after they’ve been overplayed. I have horror stories about hearing Ice Ice Baby and Achey Breaky Heart over and over again. But for a time I also felt that way about Barbie Girl and I’m Too Sexy, which now I can listen to and feel are just fun silly songs. Plus I’m sure there are just some that I’ve loathed even more and just can’t recall them at the moment. Conversely, choosing a favorite song, is literally impossible, I don’t even know if I could narrow down a top 20, because I love so many songs. I can’t even narrow down what group/artist I like best. I own several albums of Bryan Adams, Boys II Men, Richard Marx as well as Barenaked Ladies. As far as statistics on my music listening, I don’t have anything reliable because I’ve had three new hard drives in the past 3 years and lost my mp3 player and no backups of that sort of thing.
That’s just it, taste in music can vary a lot depending on mood or time of one’s life or even be altered by the making of new friends with different tastes and experiences. It does make it hard to pick one over everything.