Music
I’m often curious to know what other people are listening to. More than just artists and genres, what specific songs?
So here’s a list, current to July 2006. You can see there’s been some cross back and forth between the lists, but I find it helpful to think of danceable songs as a subset of everything that I enjoy listening to. I’m almost useless to try doing any work if there’s a dance song playing—all I’m thinking about is how I’m going to jump to six-count time and still line up a sweet double-spin tuck turn for the break at the end of the phrase.
Dancing
- Fine Brown Frame (the one with Lou Rawls and Dianne Reeves)
- Fly Me To The Moon (Frank Sinatra)
- The Cat Came Back (the Wally Pleasant version, don’t get the Raffi one by mistake)
- In The Mood (Glen Miller)
- Danke Shoen (Wayne Newton)
- Bei Mir Bist Du Schon (Janis Siegel)
- Cruella De Vil (Bill Lee’s version, the covers are all terrible)
- Mustang Sally (The Creedence cover)
- Mysterious Ways (U2)
- Hard Hearted Hannah (Ella Fitzgerald)
- The Pink Panther
- Simply Irresistable (Robert Palmer)
- Hello Dolly (Louis Armstrong)
- Mack The Knife (Bobby Darin)
- The soundtracks of Grease and Chicago
Listening
- Don’t Worry (Appleton)
- Breathe (Anna Nalick)
- Hallelujah (both the Rufus Wainwright and Jeff Buckley covers)
- Feel So Free, Edge of the Ocean (both by Ivy)
- It Don’t Mean A Thing (Ella Fitzgerald & Duke Ellington)
- Lay Lady Lay (Bob Dylan)
- Beethoven’s 9th Symphony
- Mozart’s 41st Symphony
- The Marriage of Figaro (Mozart)
- When I’m Up (Great Big Sea)
- The Piano Man (Billy Joel)
- A lot of the Beatles, especially the White Album, Sgt. Pepper’s, and the singles from the #1 album.
- A lot of Supertramp (especially Old Brown Shoes, C’est La Bon, and Lover Boy)
- The collected works of the Video Game Pianist
- The soundtracks of The Incredibles, Firefly, and Cowboy Bebop
Note: It’s important to realise that the list above ignores my long-standing favourites: Delirious?, Our Lady Peace, Harvey Danger, The Dandy Warhols.