list 43 songs that never fail to brighten my day

Seriously, does anyone not like this track? It’s pretty much a requirement to have it played on a good night out in many of our regular haunts.

Good old cheesy rock music that never fails to get people up dancing and singing along, and that’s why it’s Ace.

As much as I also love the Kate Bush original of this track, the Futureheads’ version of Hounds of Love reminds me of many great nights out dancing all over the place, and is one of the songs I’ll get up and dance to even on an empty dance floor.

So just a classic night out tune that always hits the spot, and a welcome arrival when ever if shuffles up on my MP3 player.

An strange one this I think, “Word Up” from Cameo without fails makes me grin with a rather odd sense of nostalgia, because one of my earliest vague memories is doing yoga to this song in primary school, when I must have been 6 or 7 I guess given the song was released in 1986. I’m pretty sure it was a regular thing, rather then a one off, and I never really until more recent years ever thought of it as a song you’d listen to for any other reason.

It sits on my gym play list these days!

One of my favorite cover versions is Tori Amos doing a version of The Cure’s Love Song. I’ve never actually come across a version on CD so it only exists as an MP3 I keep moving around from computer to computer.

Actually, “Brighten My Day” isn’t the best way to describe hearing this song, it’s a very moody track that is very nostalgic back to the times when I first heard it, and I’m not sure I’ve ever come across it by accident when listening to the radio or on TV, so the times I hear it are pretty much always when I’m in the right mood to appreciate the song fully.

I’ll always remember the introduction to this song when they did it live at Creamfields in 2004 “This is the reason why your Dad hates us, and you guys love us.” acknowledging it’s Pink Floyd origin.

I didn’t really appreciate the Scissor Sisters until I saw them live, at Glastonbury 2004 I caught a glimpse of them, and realised they were a great act a little too late – but Creamfields gave me a chance to see them again.

The story isn’t really complete with out mentioning that an hour or so prior to the Scissor Sisters taking the stage at Creamfields, I double dropped a couple of party prescriptions (After warning friends not to do that, because they were particularly strong and one would blow you away nicely – So obviously, I was caught in the moment, and so was everyone else around.

So another entry that binds music to a drug related experience and so amplifies the emotions I feel for the song in the first place.

This is one of those songs I’ve been meaning to pick up for a while now, and always seems to find it’s way around deep into the night when your all a tingle with drink or otherwise already, just the right mood to pick up on the haunting vocals that underline this track.

It’s such a simple tune, but one that always captures the room and brings it to life, and those feelings come up again everytime I hear it.

I’d heard this song a long time ago on the Radio, and when I did it hit me with it’s fun dream-pop-esque lyrics, but with it been the radio I never heard who it was by, or what is was called and it soon passed away into memory.

Fast forward to a couple of weekends ago, and there I am in the middle of Cheltenham Racecourse dancing away to this amazing new group “The Feeling” with their fresh, fun, indie come dream pop tunes which had me hooked and dancing away from the on set, while I try to figure out where I might have heard some of their stuff before, because it seemed pretty familiar some how.

When the come in with the opening bars of “Fill My Little World” and it all clicks together in my mind. I finally tracked down both the random cool track, and get to see them live all in one great swoop.

So this track brings back memories of Wychwood and Summer time all in one motion. Wonderful stuff.

The line “Everything Looks Perfect From Far Away” from this song has recently become locked in my mind – Not directly from the song, but because my Brother choose it for a bit of text in a picture my Sister did for our Gallery at Chateau Fromage, I hadn’t really listened to the song since then, but while watching Garden State at the weekend that line just leapt out at me (A cover of the song is in the soundtrack) and has kind of haunted me since then.

Of course, for a song that to me describes been blissfully in love, it’s perhaps an odd song to be so hooked into for someone single, but it’s more it offers a hope that in the end, people really can be happy – the nature of that happiness doesn’t matter, but the emotion is pure.

To say that hearing “Starálfur” brightens up my day is somewhat of an understatement, the very first time I hear this song marks the exact point in time I really came up on my first pill of ecstasy, and the awakening movement of the piece is engraved in my soul, and always will be.

So to have a song that so clearly defines a pivotal moment of your life is something special, and while my musical tastes may shift over time, what the song means to me, is much more personal then the music alone.

There are a whole bunch of songs that one way or another never fail to cheer me up in their own way, but The Polyphonic Spree really capture the whole feeling of “lets run into fields and get loved up” in “Reach For The Sun”, and at this time of year it’s perfect.

It’s the perfect sentiment to kick off this season with.

_{Plus they get bonus points for wearing crazy robes.}