Lately, I’ve been reorganizing my CD collection, which has given me a perfect opportunity to
compile a list of my fifty favorite songs. My only rule has been to include no more than one song by
any given artist. Also, I came of age in the 1980s, so forgive my obvious affection for all of the awesome music from that
particular decade. Or don’t.
Alphaville, “Forever Young”
Tori Amos, “Winter”
Aztec Camera, “Valium Summer”
The Beloved, “You’ve Got Me Thinking”
The Blue Nile, “The Downtown Lights”
Kate Bush, “Running Up That Hill”
Mary Chapin Carpenter, “John Doe No. 24”
Tracy Chapman, “Fast Car”
Cocteau Twins, “Heaven or Las Vegas”
Crowded House, “Don’t Dream It’s Over”
Etienne Daho, “Weekend à Rome”
Ani DiFranco, “Grey”
Nick Drake, “Northern Sky”
Everything but the Girl, “Talk to Me Like the Sea”
Frazier Chorus, “Dream Kitchen”
Peter Gabriel, “Mercy Street”
Patty Griffin, “Rain”
Hem, “Sailor”
Sara Hickman, “Sister and Sam”
The Human League, “Human”
The Innocence Mission, “Black Sheep Wall”
Michael Jackson, “Human Nature”
Rickie Lee Jones, “We Belong Together”
Joy Division, “Love Will Tear Us Apart”
Nik Kershaw, “Radio Musicola”
Lamb, “Gabriel”
Cyndi Lauper, “Time After Time”
The Lover Speaks, “No More ‘I Love You’s”
Madonna, “Open Your Heart”
The Magnetic Fields, “Papa Was a Rodeo”
Joni Mitchell, “A Case of You”
Momus, “The Sadness of Things”
Bill Nelson, “Dream Ships Set Sail”
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, “Souvenir”
Pet Shop Boys, “Being Boring”
Prefab Sprout, “Goodbye Lucille #1”
Prince, “Little Red Corvette”
Radiohead, “Fake Plastic Trees”
Roxy Music, “More Than This”
Scritti Politti, “Overnite”
Duncan Sheik, “That Says It All”
Bruce Springsteen, “Tunnel of Love”
Talking Heads, “This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)”
10,000 Maniacs, “What’s the Matter Here?”
Thompson Twins, “Hold Me Now”
Times Two, “Raining All Over the World”
Suzanne Vega, “Luka”
The Waterboys, “The Whole of the Moon”
Dar Williams, “When I Was a Boy”
Neil Young, “Birds”