five songs I love

Today is Top Five Friday, and this week we are talking about 5 songs that we were (or still are) obsessed with. Here they are, in order of importance from least to most.


5. Revival - Soulsavers
I learned about this song from my buddy Jillian, and it is incredible. Download it .. NOW! No seriously ... download it. You can watch the video by clicking here. The video is sort of like a 1920's take on The Scarlett Letter.

4. Crazy - Gnarles Barkley
This song came out right before I was leaving to spend the summer in Dublin, Ireland. In fact, I uploaded the CD to my iPod the night before I got on the plane! I was there for about 2 months, and I didn't have any way of getting new music while I was there, or even knowing what music was coming out in America. My Gnarles Barkley CD was like my last little connection to American pop culture, and I listened to it obsessively the whole time I was there. Listening to it now takes me right back to how it felt to be leaving my little apartment and walking down to Grafton Street to window shop with Crazy blaring in my ears.

3. Tennessee - Marcel
When I was a senior in college, my husband (boyfriend at the time) was living in California. Tennessee is a simple country song about a guy living in Tennessee while his girlfriend is out in California. Sure, the genders are reversed, but the song still said exactly what I was thinking every single day we were apart.

2. Come Pick Me Up - Ryan Adams
This one is close to being number one for a reason. I was totally and completely obsessed with this song. I listened to it over and over for months, and it's one of the few songs in my life that I've never gotten sick of. It still gets to me every time I hear it. The southern sound of it makes me want to listen to it while I lie in the back of a pickup truck with my husband, holding hands while we look at the stars.
Note to potential downloaders: it has "ugly words" in it, as we say in the south.

1. The Very Thought of You - Billie Holiday
I think everyone that knows me well probably knows of my love for Billie Holiday. My grandfather, my Papa, introduced me to Miss Holiday when I was just 9 years old .. and even at that young age I was moved by her unusual voice, the way she sang behind the beat of the song just a tad, and how she really seemed to mean everything she was saying. He taught me to really appreciate every aspect of a song .. the lyrics, the meaning, the instruments. He soaked up the whole song and savored it, and taught me to do the same. I definitely attribute my love for all music to him. He gave me my very first Billie Holiday CD, and my collection has grown ever since.

I love this song because because of the tinkling piano and the sweet words: "The mere idea of you, the longing here for you, you'll never know how slow the moments go till I'm near to you."
This has been mine and my husband's "song" since the beginning of our relationship. We danced to it on our wedding night and promised each other that we'd dance to it on the night of every anniversary for the rest of our lives.