Top 5 On Friday

Over at The Music Memoirs they ask for the top 5 albums that make the weekend better, so here goes:

1. Casanova by The Divine Comedy - to be honest the weekend's pretty good on its own without resorting to musical stimuli, and there are a ridiculous number of albums I could choose between, so let's go for weekend-related ones because otherwise I'd just bore you with the albums I usually mention. Anyway, I went for this one purely because it's a great album and it also appropriately enough contains the song Something for the Weekend.

2. The Cure Greatest Hits - Contains the brilliance that is Lovecats. Sadly YouTube won't let me see the video in this country, so apologies if the link doesn't work or you're similarly restricted; YouTube should be above regional-encoding if only for the sake of us bloggers. Also, even if you can't see it, it could be worse; I was recently going through the songs on my iPod putting together a playlist, chose Lovecats, but then discovered to my horror that I'd clicked on the Paul Anka version (which I thankfully couldn't find a YouTube link for). Another song from the album, and also on the same playlist as it happens, and more in tune with the weekend theme is Friday I'm In Love.

3. Saturday Night Fever Original Soundtrack - I can't say I've ever owned this, but it seemed to fit the bill. Having said that, while the Night Fever part is more than amply represented in the songs, I suspect that none of them might actually contain the word Saturday.

4. Saturday Morning: Cartoons' Greatest Hits by Various - A great collection of Saturday morning cartoon cover versions (such as The Ramones' Spider-Man and Matthew Sweet's Scooby Doo), although in the UK most of the cartoons were shown at weekdays.

5. War by U2 - Great album but chosen by me purely for the weekend connection of Sunday Bloody Sunday.

Top 5 On Friday

Over at The Music Memoirs they ask for the top 5 greatest hits albums, so here goes:

1. The Beach Boys - Not sure what the album was called (probably something along the line of 20 Golden Greats) but it was the first time I'd been exposed to The Beach Boys (invariably Greatest Hits albums have a bigger impact if it's the first time you've come across the artist/band, because otherwise you're already familiar with most of the tunes).

2. It would be remiss if I didn't includes either the Beatles' blue greatest hits or red greatest hits.

3. The Four Seasons - Again not sure what the album was actually called (maybe something imaginative like The Four Seasons Greatest Hits) but my sister bought it when I was a teenager and it was the first time I'd come across them. I remember being really impressed by how many great songs were on there (loved Electric Stories).

4. The Hollies - similar comments as those for The Four Seasons

5. Madness - Some great tunes and interesting notes about them by the band. Also their greatest hits albums actually had memorable titles (Complete Madness, followed by Utter Madness, collected together in Divine Madness).

Top 5 On Friday

Over at The Music Memoirs they ask for the top 5 artists that should never have tried acting:

1. Macy Gray

2. David Bowie

3. Sting

4. Madonna

5. Susannah Hoffs

To be fair, I'm sure there are far more deserving candidates, but I've probably just not seen the films they've been in.

Top 5 On Friday

Over at The Music Memoirs they ask for the top 5 songs about pets or animals you keep as pets:

1. "Love Cats" - The Cure

2. "Rabbit" - Chas and Dave



3 "Hounds of Love" - Kate Bush



4. "Old Shep" - Elvis Presley



5. "Legend of Sailcat" from the Cow and Chicken cartoon

Top 5 On Friday

Over at The Music Memoirs this week they're asking for the Top 5 "Forget" ful songs...(interpret as you see fit), so here goes:

1. Don't You Forget About Me - Simple Minds

A song just full of the word "forget" that reminds me of The Breakfast Club and numerous discos.

2. I Remember It Well - Maurice Chevalier and Hermione Gingold

A song from the musical Gigi all about memory loss.

3. It Started With A Kiss - Hot Chocolate

Appropriately enough considering this week's theme, I couldn't actually remember the name of this song, just the lyric "You don't remember me, do you?" (which tied in with the forgetful theme) and unfortunately in my mind I couldn't hear the original version just that lyric being shouted loud and accusingly by Alan Partridge who once sung along with the song on his show (not sure if the US readers of this blog will have heard of him; if not, it's a travesty of the highest order that over there you get Mamma Mia but not Knowing Me, Knowing You).

4. More Today Than Yesterday - Andy Williams

Andy doesn't remember what day it was or what time it was, in fact he's pretty blank on everything apart from his falling in love.

5. It's All Coming Back To Me Now - Pandora's Box

A Jim Steinman song also covered by Celine Dion and Meat Loaf, although I prefer the original version. Still, no matter who's singing it, the lyrics make it clearly that they've been fairly forgetful until now.

Top 5 On Friday

Over at The Music Memoirs they ask, on this Friday 13th for the top 5 songs that horrify me and why, so here goes:

1. Read 'Em And Weep - Barry Manilow

Loved the Meat Loaf original, but just really hate this version, nay travesty, which seems to suck all of the life out of the song. Worst cover version I can think of (before anyone points me towards William Shatner, at least his cover versions are entertaining).

2. When You Wish Upon A Star - Gene Simmons

Then again, this could be the worst cover version ever. A superb mismatch of voice and song as a rasping, croaking voice from the stygian depths of Hades sings a song about wishing upon a heavenly object.

3. Darling Violetta - I Want To Kill You

Doing away with songs that horrify me merely because they're bad, it's time to move to the unsettling and sinister. And so we start with Darling Violetta where, to a shady Portishead-esque background tune, the lead singer keeps reiterating that she's going to kill me in a childlike voice of the highest unhingement. Creepy!

4. Sinister Ducks - The March Of The Sinister Ducks

And now to the sinister, as the mind that brought us the facist future of V for Vendetta, now delivers a prophetic swaggering Kurt-Weillian nightmare vision of those "web-footed facists with mad little eyes". You'll never look at ducks the same way again afterwards.

5. Dawn's Lament - Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Once More With Feeling

I was running short of things that horrified me, but my niece thinks that the sudden instrumental whoosh at the end of this song is scary, and she's not usually afraid of anything, so I figured it deserved a mention.

Top 5 On Friday

Over at The Music Memoirs they ask for the top 5 music videos from the 80s, so here goes:

1. "Let's Hang On" - Barry Manilow

Cool Four Seasons song given the Manilow magic. In this video he plays multiple parts, and without his trailblazing ways Outkast's "Hey Ya" video may never have happened.



2. "The Safety Dance" - Men Without Hats

Another video which I've probably only seen once, but all of my other possibilities (Thriller, lots of Madness videos, Ashes to Ashes, You Can Call Me Al) seemed a bit obvious.



3. "Once In A Lifetime" - Talking Heads

Talking Heads did loads of cool videos during the 80s, but this was the first of theirs I saw and the one I always think of.



4. "Money For Nothing" - Dire Straits

Hard to believe now how cutting edge the computer graphics seemed to me at the time.



5. "Take On Me" - A-ha

Cool blend of animation and real life.



YouTube Music Videos 80s 90s - A-ha - Take On Me via Noolmusic.com

Top 5 On Friday

Over at The Music Memoirs they ask for the top 5 songs to rock out to. To be honest, I find it fairly hard coming up with one, since I don't tend to rock out much, and my iPod seems to be a fairly rock-free zone, but here goes. The first one I have actually rocked out to (I was at a concert and with the floorboards oscillating, so it seemed easier to rock out than stand still), the second one I could imagine rocking out to, the third I saw two people rocking out to on St. Elsewhere once, and the fourth and fifth I've seen people rocking out to in movies (I'll let any commenters have the satisfaction of naming the movies).

1. "Stompbox" - They Might Be Giants
2. "Since You've Been Gone" - Rainbow
3. "Rock And Roll High School" - The Ramones
4. "Bohemian Rhapsody" - Queen
5. "My Sharona" - The Knack