My kids, especially my daughter, are fond of lists and ranking. Just this morning she asked me to rank the three movies she is most excited about being released. I had to list what I would see first, middle, and last and then how the rankings would change given the company I would be in.  I’m asked to list and rank a lot.

What’s awesome about it is if a stranger comes up to me on the street and demands to know my top 10 favorite pop songs (or favorite books or favorite movies or favorite Disney attractions or favorite wild animals or favorite holidays or favorite colors or favorite musicals or favorite dog breeds or favorite vegetables or favorite dinosaurs or favorite flowers or favorite talk show hosts or favorite eras or favorite season or favorite special occasion meal or favorite shapes of pasta or favorite sports uniforms or favorite websites or favorite gemstones or favorite candles scents or, or, or) I will have a ready answer and not have to think about it.

That’s not to say the lists are constantly changing but let’s pin down today’s favorite songs and their history for me:

1. Let it Be, The Beatles. A real no-brainer. This song has been a constant for me since I first became a fan of the Beatles (age 8.)
2. Pretty Women from Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street. When I did this show in high school, my best friend and I rewrote the lyrics to every song in the libretto because we were smart-asses and hilarious – but not this one. Even then I knew what a perfect song it is and not to mock it in any way. There are several versions of this song and for the longest time the original Broadway cast was my favorite – but though the movie had a lot to be desired, the Johnny Depp and Alan Rickman interpretation has been my go-to. It’s like if David Bowie and Scar from The Lion King got together in the studio.
3. Stand and Deliver, Adam and the Ants. Kind of out of left field, no? Well, from the time I was twelve until the time I met my husband at age 28, I was going to marry Adam Ant. I enjoy and know pretty well most every song he has ever formed his mouth around but I narrow his songbook to one choice only (so as to provide a little variety to the young lady who needs to know my favorites) this is the one to go with.
4. Everlong, The Foo Fighters. For my money, the best love song ever.
5. Lovestoned/I Think That She Knows, Justin Timberlake. I have never been able to get enough of this song. I love that you have to shake what-your-mother-gave-you at the beginning of it and then be swooney in-love at the end of it. I want to go listen to it right this second.
6. Stranger in Moscow, Michael Jackson. There are A LOT of Michael Jackson songs I would put here: Give Into Me, Smooth Criminal, Human Nature, Man in the Mirror, Who’s Loving You – you get the idea. The melancholy beauty and loneliness in this song though is close to breathtaking.
7. We Close Our Eyes, Oingo Boingo. Have you figured out yet that I’m an 80’s child? Again, loving most everything in the Danny Elfman/Boingo oeuvre, I land on this one. Especially as I watch my kids grow and begin to really understand the passage and preciousness of time.
8. One, U2. Is there anyone alive cooler than Bono? Is there any better song that compares how love of one’s partner equates to bettering the whole world?
9. Love is Noise, The Verve. So yeah – it dumps on love and I’m not one to say anything negative about love. But this song is GROOVY. I could listen to it a billion times and still get all groovy.
10. Shake it Out, Florence and the Machine. Whenever I feel like I can’t, Florence tells me not only that I can but I can do it better than anyone else and that’s why I’m being asked to.

This was fun. I’ll do candle scents next.