FutureBaby Playlist: H-N

Looking at this segment of the playlist, it’s clear that I was, consciously or not, giving a good deal of weight to how well a given song works as a sing-along. For whatever reason, this chunk of the artist alphabet is loaded with tunes that are maybe a little dubious content-wise, but good fun to sing along with.

  • “Play the Hits,” Hal
  • “Fools By Your Side,” Hal
  • “Your Asterisk,” The Halo Benders (It’s just this side of word salad, but really fun to sing along.)
  • “The World Without Logos,” Hellsing (This is word salad, on account of its Japanese origin, but there are few tunes that sound cooler.)
  • “Closer To Fine (live at KBCO),” Indigo Girls
  • “Galileo,” Indigo Girls
  • “I Want You Back,” The Jackson 5
  • “A.B.C.,” The Jackson 5
  • “The Love You Save,” The Jackson 5 (Michael Jackson recorded some goof stuff before he hit puberty and slipped his moorings.)
  • “I Got You (I Feel Good),” James Brown
  • “Night Train,” James Brown (Weirdly, I associate this with playing rugby my senior year in college. It doesn’t bear explaining.)
  • “Tailspin,” The Jayhawks
  • “Blue,” The Jayhawks
  • “Miss Williams’ Guitar,” The Jayhawks (I could probably put most of the Jayhawks catalogue on this…)
  • “Cheeseburger In Paradise,” Jimmy Buffett (Yeah, yeah, yeah…)
  • “Almost Saturday Night,” John Fogerty
  • “Tennessee Plates,” John Hiatt
  • “Slow Turning,” John Hiatt
  • “Stolen Moments,” John Hiatt
  • “All The Lilacs In Ohio,” John Hiatt
  • “My Dog & Me,” John Hiatt & The Goners
  • “Window On The World,” John Hiatt & The Goners (We own a lot of John Hiatt.)
  • “There She Goes,” The La’s (I don’t want to hear about how it’s really about drugs. It’s a brilliant pop song, and you can’t tell.)
  • “Over The Hills And Far Away,” Led Zeppelin (Probably the most dubious choise in this set, but I like it.)
  • “D’Yer Mak’er,” Led Zeppelin
  • “Fool In The Rain,” Led Zeppelin
  • “Hey Hey What Can I Do,” Led Zeppelin
  • “If I Could Talk I’d Tell You,” The Lemonheads
  • “Into Your Arms,” The Lemonheads
  • “Oh Atlanta,” Little Feat
  • “A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off,” The Magnetic Fields (Kate may veto this in the end…)
  • “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You),” Marvin Gaye
  • “Pride And Joy,” Marvin Gaye
  • “Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology),” Marvin Gaye
  • “I Heard It Through The Grapevine,” Marvin Gaye
  • “Dance The Night Away,” The Mavericks
  • “The Tracks Of My Tears,” The Miracles (Simply can’t be beat as a sing-along.)
  • “Float On,” Modest Mouse (I’m not 100% sure of the lyrics, but I think it works.)
  • “I Was Born,” Natalie Merchant (A nonsense song from one of the Billy Bragg/ Wilco albums of Woody Guthrie songs. Kate may veto this, too.)
  • “Heart Of Gold,” Neil Young
  • “You Get What You Give,” New Radicals (The “come around, we’ll kick your asses” line is a little dubious…)
  • “Cruel To Be Kind,” Nick Lowe

3 comments

  1. This list is seriously lacking in Men Without Hats.

    The kid needs to grow up with Safety Dance and Pop Goes The World. 🙂 (Or maybe this is my Canadian side showing…)

  2. I was waiting for the L’s to mention… one of my favorite “lullabye” songs to sing to my kids when they were little was “If I Had a Boat” by Lyle Lovett. I recommend changing the line “You can kiss my ass, I bought a boat…” to something more kid-friendly. (I would use, “You can say goodbye, I bought a boat…”)

  3. I was waiting for the L’s to mention… one of my favorite “lullabye” songs to sing to my kids when they were little was “If I Had a Boat” by Lyle Lovett.

    I think I have a cover version of that by the Holmes Brothers. Which, you’re right, would be a good edition.

    Also left out of the list: “Feel Good Inc.” by Gorillaz, which just came up on shuffle play in the lab.

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