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