Kickin' It Day 16-Favorite Songs (aaargh!)

I can hardly believe that we are halfway through the month long Kickin' It Old Skool Blog-A-Thon...AND that I have managed to keep up with every day's post prompt, woo-hoo ME!

Today we are sharing OUR FAVORITE SONGS!
Oh my...this is one of those pretty much impossible for me to answer questions! I have been a music fanatic for as long as I can remember...got my love of music, of all kinds, from my parents. I remember falling asleep as a little girl with a scratchy, tinny sounding AM transistor radio under my pillow. My mom sings and plays piano, and now, at age 76,  she is quite popular in her retirement neighborhood serenading others on her giant, costs as much as a car,  modern "organ" ( I believe the preferred retail term is "personal orchestra"!) with a "dashboard" that looks like the cockpit of a 747 jetliner! And my dad was a bit of a crooner and knew so many songs by so many artists (one of his "claim to fame" musical memories was pulling over singer Charlie Pride for speeding when he was a police officer in the early 1960's!) Although I never played any musical instruments (no, we are NOT going "there"...ie: my one week stint as a trumpet player in grade school! God only knows why I would have chosen that particular instrument to play but I had to quit because all the heavy expansion of breath (sounds so much better than "blowing"!) made me too dizzy!), I have always loved to sing, and was in school choral groups for years, while all along harboring a secret desire to be a "rock star"...which I still kinda have, now & then, only on a much smaller scale...more like a coffeehouse crooner, lol! I have had so many dozens and dozens of adored music "crushes" growing up (beginning with Donnie Osmond, lol!) and was even married to a musician (who is the father of our 2 awesome kids!) for 16 years...but that is a totally different story which has no place here,except to say that my son is also an awesome super talented drummer & guitarist! During a period stretching over about 9 years time, I worked in several record stores (when actual RECORDS-as in VINYL-were sold there!), and have gone to TONS of concerts throughout my life -my first was The Eagles, with my parents, when I was 11 years old...actually, both of my parents attended quite a few concerts, my mom often with me, to see bands like KISS & Styx...ahh, the good old 70's, when concert tickets were around $7.00! I was about as close to being a "groupie" as I could be in those days...uh, well, minus the...well, the actual part that designates "groupie" over "super fan"...if you know what I mean!  My daughter's middle name is after the lead singer of one of my favorite bands (Christine, for Chrissy Hynde of The Pretenders) and my son is named after one of his dad's favorite guitarists (Trevor Rabin of YES)! I still love to see live music, although I don't go to nearly as many nowadays because most ticket prices are just too ridiculously high and I prefer smaller intimate venues anyway, and have become much more "particular" about who I will spend money to see anymore!  I saw Loreena McKennitt this past summer (she was wonderful!) and the last really amazing concert I saw was Counting Crows a few years ago (for about the 12th time...more on them soon!), and I am going to see Lord Huron for a belated birthday celebration in late Jan. at a small club so I'm excited about that! There are still a few bands I would really love to see, including the Dixie Chicks, The Mavericks, White (or Rob) Zombie, and Prince! My musical tastes range from classic rock to "new age' to country to modern spiritual to Arabic lounge music!

Anyway, sorry that I am rambling, as I tend to do...just thought I'd share some background, to help explain exactly why this is such a very difficult question for me to even attempt to answer! There are so so many songs which have meant so much to me at various times throughout my life, and I couldn't possibly remember them all SO...I am going to share just a few which are always on my standard fave list...and which come to me without too much wracking of my brain, lol! Most will probably be pretty old, as music had it's greatest influence on me emotionally when I was a young adult and going through some tumultuous, challenging, and emotionally intense times. Goosebumps, tears, a soaring heart, and a trance-like state of mind are among the hallmark reactions my very favorite songs induce in me...
...and nobody does those things for me more often and intensely than Counting Crows. I'd have to say that they are my number one forever and always very favorite band...which means that about a 57 of their songs could be on my fave list...! But I will just share this one... "Murder Of One". I could listen to it a hundred times in a row and still have tears in my eyes by the end of the song.
(and sorry I couldn't find an "offical" video of this song with them in it, only live versions, which tend to be terribly distorted sound-wise)

        
And here are the next 10 of my faves that I thought of, in no particular order:

Bodeans-"Far Far Away from My Heart"
Inxs-"To Look At You"
Dixie Chicks-"You Were Mine"
Chris Issak-"Blue Hotel"
Velvet Revolver-"Fall To Pieces"
The Pretenders-"I Go To Sleep" (originally a Kinks song)
Sarah McLachlan-"Do What You Have To Do"
REM-"Half a World Away"
Collective Soul-"Adored"
Duran Duran-"Save a Prayer"
(oh! and one more...!)
Anna Nalick-"Breathe (2a.m.)"

Oh no, wait! Just one more!!
I'll end this list (I promise!), with one more video, of another song that just. kills. me.
*sigh*
Big & Rich-"Holy Water"...

Thanks for reading, see you tomorrow!
Happy Me, Laurie.