Gary's Playlists: Songs That Remind Me of the Year 2012

I love my playlists, yet they aren’t always the easiest things to make, especially if you’re trying to get enough songs to completely fill an 83 minute disc.  My tastes run all over the place, except towards heavy metal and rap (usually).  At three months into the new year, I still only have 16 songs for this particular playlist, which means I still need about four or five more songs to round it out.  But here it is as it stands for now:

• “Higher Medley” from Joyful Noise, featuring Queen Latifah, Dolly Parton, Keke Palmer, Jeremy Jordan, Angela Grovey, DeQuina Moore and Andy Karl.

I couldn’t decide which song from this movie I wanted to include, but I definitely wanted to include something.  On the very day I decided to sit down and figure that out, playing snippets on iTunes, I still wasn’t sure when I walked out the door to go to work.  Now, I’m often rather OCD in the way I go about things, and that includes what radio station I listen to in the car on any given day; I have different radio stations determined for certain days, and it just so happened that on that day, I was listening to an AM Christian station that usually doesn’t play music.  But they played this song from Joyful Noise, featuring most of the cast, and if ever there was a coincidence regarding the songs I was listening to and downloading, this was just such a coincidence.  It almost felt like God saying, “This one, Gary.”  After all, it IS all about Him!  Check out this number from the movie linked here, and see if it doesn't get your feet stomping.

• “A Little Good News” by Anne Murray

This song fits the times.  There is just so much hatred and violence going on in today’s society that I find myself thinking about this good ol’ song quite a bit.  But by that line of reasoning, I should be able to use it for any year’s playlist!

• “The Lazy Song” by Bruno Mars

I had plenty of depressing days at the beginning of the year where I actually felt like this.  Being out of work and looking for a good job can take a lot out of you!  I love this laid-back song, especially when I saw the video Leonard Nimoy made, shuffling around the house in his bathrobe, then shuffling off to the store, still in his bathrobe, drinking milk from the carton in the middle of the grocery aisle and then scaring a little kid, then shuffling back home where he can’t find anything on TV but William Shatner Priceline commercials.  Later, he does the Vulcan greeting in the mirror like a gun, a-la DeNiro in Taxi Driver, and then answers his mail, which includes a young fan with a Spock haircut giving the Vulcan greeting, and Nimoy laughs and folds it many times until it’s the right size to fix his wobbly TV Tray leg.  The song is great, and this video was absolutely hilarious!  If you haven't seen it, do yourself a favor and check this link out, but be forewarned. it's not for kids:  He uses the bathroom, flips a few people off, and looks at some nudie mags.

• “The Government Can” by Tim Hawkins

This is strictly comedy, and a bit over-the-top at times, yet I love the lyrics, and he does some pretty good impressions of Sammy Davis Jr. and Arnold Schwarzenegger (in the live version on iTunes).  This parody of "The Candy Man" expertly spells out everything that is wrong with the government.  Check out the video linked here.

• “The Greatest Love of All” by Whitney Houston

I had to include a Whitney song since she died this year, and this was classic Whitney.

• “Workin’ Day and Night” by Michael Jackson

When Whitney Houston died, I wrote a blog called “Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, and the Death Dealers” (linked here) after seeing a documentary all about the market surrounding dead celebrities in general, and Michael Jackson in particular.  At the same time, I got that new job, which was an evening job, so this song was quite descriptive in this occasion.

• “La Vie En Rose” by Louis Armstrong

I don’t even really remember where I heard this song this year.  All I know is that when I heard it, I put it on this list.

• “Broken Wings” by Mr. Mister

The same thing goes for this classic love song.

• “Love Song” by 311 from 50 First Dates

Several years ago, I caught this song on the extras for the movie 50 First Dates.  When we watched it again with Emily, I decided to include it on my 2012 playlist disc.

• “Si tu vois ma mere” by Sidney Becht from the movie Midnight in Paris

I just HAD to include SOMETHING from this great film!

• “Still Rainin’” by Phillip Phillips

Not only did he win American Idol, this song also reminds me that the Abba Tribute concert got rained out at Red Rocks, in basically the middle of a Summer drought in Colorado.  We were so bummed!  Apparently, that band continued playing after we left, but we weren’t going to subject ourselves to miserable conditions to hear them when we had already been twice before!

• “The Four Seasons” by Joshua Bell

I heard him perform this on Dancing with the Stars, and after hearing this, I decided to download the entire CD of violinist Joshua Bell playing Vivaldi’s entire The Four Seasons, and burn it for myself and niece Brielle, who was just learning the violin over the last two years.

• “Tuxedo Junction” by Glenn Miller Orchestra

My nieces Jessa and Emily also play instruments, in this case, the guitar, and Emily even joined a small group with her friend Sean.  This classic jazz song was played during one her school’s concerts.

• “Two Tigers” by David Buckley, from The Forbidden Kingdom

I didn’t think I was going to like this movie, but I did, and then I decided some of the music was just as surprisingly good as the movie.  Check out the video linked here, and the music linked here.

• “The Big Bang Theory” by Barenaked Ladies

Still like this show, and perhaps I was grasping when I picked this song, but it’s a good song, so shoot me!

• “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” by R.E.M.

This, of course, has to be the last song on the playlist.  Not since Y2K has everyone been talking about a global apocalypse, and this year, you can thank the Mayans, whose calendar was only set up to run through Dec. 21^st of 2012.  Of course, we’re still all here, but this song was on everyone’s mind, along with that great quote by Marvin the Martian of the Looney Tunes:  “Where’s the Kaboom?  I was expecting an earth-shattering Kaboom!”