What Love Is, According To These Songs: Vol. 1

Just in time for Valentine's Day, we begin a three-part series featuring songs about what "Love Is." A wide variety of definitions are offered within – some good, some bad, and some downright weird. But all thoroughly enjoyable!  ~  JH

1)  Pat Benatar  ~  “Love Is A Battlefield”

2)  Johnny Mathis  ~  “Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing”

3)  Chrisette Michele  ~  “Love Is You”

4)  The Darkness  ~  “Love Is Only A Feeling”

5)  Frozen Cast  ~  “Love Is An Open Door”

6)  Steven Tyler  ~  “Love Is Your Name”

7)  Dolly Parton  ~  “Love Is Like A Butterfly”

8)  Christopher Cross  ~  “Love Is Love (In Any Language)”

9)  LeAnn Rimes  ~  “Love Is An Army”

10)  Muse  ~  “Neutron Star Collision (Love Is Forever)”

11)  k.d. lang  ~  “Love Is Everything”

12)  The Hollies  ~  “Love Is The Thing”

13)  Sophie Ellis-Bextor  ~  “Love Is A Camera”

14)  Phil Vassar  ~  “Love Is A Beautiful Thing”

15)  Rod Stewart  ~  “Love Is”

16)  Girls Aloud  ~  “Love Is The Key”

17)  Styx  ~  “Love Is The Ritual”

18)  Katie Melua  ~  “Love Is A Silent Thief”

19)  DC Talk  ~  “Luv Is A Verb”

20)  Sheryl Crow  ~  “Love Is A Good Thing”

21)  Lou Rawls  ~  “Love Is A Hurtin’ Thing”

22)  Linda Ronstadt  ~  “Love Is A Rose”

23)  Aloe Blacc  ~  “Love Is The Answer”

24)  Mickey & Sylvia  ~  “Love Is Strange”

25)  Arctic Monkeys  ~  “Love Is A Laserquest”  (Wait…WHAT?)

Whistling Songs, Vol. 2

Didn't hear your favorite "Whistling Song" in the first post? Chances are, it's in this one. Or the next one. Or the next one. But you'll have to check 'em all out to find out for sure. Some good stuff here – don't miss it! Oh, yeah...and enjoy!  ~  JH

1)  Billy Joel  ~  “The Stranger”

2)  Bobby McFerrin  ~  “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”

3)  Foster The People  ~  “Pumped Up Kicks”

4)  Selena Gomez  ~  “Kill ‘Em With Kindness”

5)  Scorpions  ~  “Wind Of Change”

6)  Owl City ft. Aloe Blacc  ~  “Verge”

7)  The Small Faces  ~  “Lazy Sunday”

8)  The Seekers  ~  “Georgy Girl”

9)  Fall Out Boy  ~  “The Kids Aren’t Alright”

10)  Elbow  ~  “Lippy Kids”

11)  Devotchka  ~  “Enemy Guns”

12)  Katy Tiz  ~  “Whistle (While You Work It)”

13)  Johnnie Ray  ~  “Just Walkin’ In The Rain”

14)  Paper Lace  ~  “Billy, Don’t Be A Hero”

15)  The Black Keys  ~  “Tighten Up”

16)  NoNoNo  ~  “Pumpin Blood”

17)  Bob Sinclar  ~  “Love Generation”

18)  OneRepublic  ~  “Good Life”

19)  Noah and the Whale  ~  “5 Years Time”

20)  Maroon 5 ft. Christina Aguilera  ~  “Moves Like Jagger”

21)  McFly  ~  “Love Is Easy”

22)  Pixies  ~  “La La Love You”

23)  Roy Orbison  ~  “Here Comes The Rain, Baby”

24)  Amanda Marshall  ~  “If I Didn’t Have You”

25)  Jackson Browne  ~  “Lawyers In Love”

Yours, Mine, & Ours Songs, Vol. 3: "Ours"

In this third and final installment of the miniseries, we have a decidedly smaller collection of songs with "Ours" in their titles. For one thing, there were fewer songs to choose from that fit the criteria. For another, many of the ones I did find I didn't like or were otherwise inappropriate. So I chose quality over quantity. There are still a few rather-unknown artists here, but their songs are included because they're good not because they're famous. Enjoy?  ~  JH

1)  Taylor Swift  ~  "Ours"

2)  Elbow  ~  "Friend Of Ours"

3)  Jason Mraz  ~  "(This Movie Is) Rated Ours"  (Yes, actually, I did realize that there was a Jason Mraz song in each entry of this series. Not a coincidence.)

4)  The Joy Formidable  ~  "This Ladder Is Ours"

5)  Aloe Blacc  ~  "Hello World (The World Is Ours)"

6)  Richard Hawley  ~  "Tonight The Streets Are Ours"

7)  Emma Hewitt  ~  "These Days Are Ours"

8)  Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott  ~  "When It Was Ours"

9)  JUCE  ~  "(H)ours"

10)  Mayer Hawthorne  ~  "The Stars Are Ours"

11)  The Naked And Famous  ~  "Hearts Like Ours"

12)  Moving Units  ~  "The World Is Ours"

13)  Kina Grannis  ~  "Ours To Keep"

14)  Leilani Wolfgramm  ~  "Love Is Ours"

15)  Connie Smith  ~  "Hearts Like Ours"

Songs About Explosives, Vol. 2

Didn't get enough songs about bombs, fireworks, T.N.T., or dynamite last time around? Well, here's more of the same...just in different songs. Enjoy?  ~  JH

1)  Public Enemy  ~  "Louder Than A Bomb"

2)  Spoon  ~  "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb"

3)  Katy Perry  ~  "Firework"

4)  Drew Holcomb And The Neighbors  ~  "Fire And Dynamite"

5)  The Killers  ~  "Miss Atomic Bomb"

6)  Enigma  ~  "T.N.T. For The Brain"

7)  Roxette  ~  "Fireworks"

8)  The Presidents Of The United States of America  ~  "Tiger Bomb"

9)  Aloe Blacc  ~  "Ticking Bomb"

10)  Kelis  ~  "4th Of July (Fireworks)"

11)  Demi Lovato  ~  "Got Dynamite"

12)  Joan Jett And The Blackhearts  ~  "Cherry Bomb"

13)  John Mellencamp  ~  "Cherry Bomb"

14)  Sky Ferreira  ~  "Dynamite State"

15)  Siouxsie & The Banshees  ~  "Fireworks"

16)  Dawn Richard  ~  "Bombs"

17)  Alexia Rodriguez  ~  "Ticking Bombs"

18)  Karise Eden  ~  "Dynamite"

19)  Whitney McClain  ~  "Bombs Away"

20)  Eels  ~  "Bombs Away"

BONUS TRACK:  Sheppard  ~  "Geronimo"  (While the name of an explosive device does not appear in its title, there are several times throughout this song when one of the singers croons, "Bombs away! Bombs away!" Besides that, it's a good song, and I can't figure out any other way to include it in a post, so there ya go...)

Songs By Artists With Double Letters In Their Names

This is another one of those posts that started because I wanted to include a certain song, but couldn't think of a good-enough excuse to post it, and so I made up a somewhat-cockeyed-yet-rather-appropriate scheme that would allow me to post the song anyway, and I ended up being surprised at how well it all worked out and how many other quality songs also fit said scheme, resulting in a surprisingly successful post overall. And yes, I know that was a run-on sentence. Sue me! Long story short, this is a collection of songs by artists whose names (or band names) have repeated letters – or double letters – in them. For example, the triply double-lettered singer, Pharrell Williams, whose delightfully "Happy" song was the inspiration for this post and is therefore included within. Enjoy?  ~  JH

1)  Aaron Hall  ~  "I Miss You"

2)  Debbie Gibson  ~  "Lost In Your Eyes"

3)  Aloe Blacc  ~  "The Man"  (I don't know why the video description says "Explicit" – there's nothing offensive here…except perhaps the singer's "explicit" self-confidence. Ha, ha!)

4)  Addison Road  ~  "All That Matters"

5)  EELS  ~  "Saturday Morning"

6)  Biffy Clyro  ~  "Mountains"

7)  Maggie McClure  ~  "The Girl You Want To Be"

8)  Aaron Buchholz  ~  "Go Tell It On The Mountain"  (I know, this is sort of a Christmas song – but give me a break on this one. First off, the guy's got a phenomenally good voice and plays every single instrument here – flawlessly. Secondly, it's very difficult to find artists with "HH" somewhere in their names. This guy qualifies. So there!)

9)  Tedashii ft. Lecrae  ~  "Dum Dum"

10)  JJ Heller  ~  "Boat Song"

11)  Mikky Ekko  ~  "Kids"

12)  Pharrell Williams  ~  "Happy"

13)  Tammy Wynette  ~  "Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad"

14)  Kinnie Starr  ~  "Discovered"

15)  Foo Fighters  ~  "Everlong"

16)  Fiona Apple  ~  "Hot Knife"

17)  Saqqara Dogs  ~  "Greenwich Meantime"

18)  Carrie Underwood  ~  "Blown Away"

19)  Jessie J  ~ "Who You Are"

20)  Patty Smyth  ~  "No Mistakes"

21)  Vacuum  ~  "I Breathe"

22)  V V Brown  ~  "Shark In The Water"

23)  Skewwhiff  ~  "Gizmo"

24)  The Fixx  ~  "One Thing Leads To Another"

25)  Mayya Yordanova  ~  "Pyasachna Sleda"  (NOTE: If you don't speak Slovak, you might not get much out of this one. Whatever she's singing about, it certainly sounds pretty!)

26)  ZZ Top  ~  "I Gotsta Get Paid"