A couple of weeks ago I started a series of posts featuring songs with the names of famous novels or characters or well-known phrases from literature. The first post featured Songs About "Lolita," then I promptly neglected to do any further literature-themed posts. Well, now is as good a time as any to resume the series. So...enjoy! ~ JH
1) KISS ~ “Great Expectations”
2) Judy Collins ~ “Great Expectations”
3) The Gaslight Anthem ~ “Great Expectations”
4) Cat Power ~ “Great Expectations”
5) Steven Curtis Chapman ~ “Great Expectations”
6) Elbow ~ “Great Expectations”
7) Jay Aston ~ “Great Expectations”
8) Toto ~ “Great Expectations”
9) Wonder ~ “Great Expectations”
10) Miles Davis ~ “Great Expectations” (Sit back and get comfortable if you hit “play” on this one. The song – suite? – is a whopping 27 minutes long!)
As promised, here's the follow-up to yesterday's post, "Strong" being a common opposite of "Faint" and all. Because I am striving to raise my daughter to be a strong, independent woman (at just three years old, she's already got the independent bit down pat), each of these "Strong" Songs is primarily sung and/or performed by "Strong" women. Enjoy! ~ JH
1) Kelly Clarkson ~ “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)”
2) London Grammar ~ “Strong”
3) Cher ~ “Strong Enough”
4) Alice Russell ~ “Hard & Strong”
5) Jewel ~ “Stronger Woman”
6) CHVRCHES ~ “Strong Hand”
7) Sheryl Crow ~ “Strong Enough”
8) Kiesza ~ “Stronger”
9) Moriah Peters ~ “Stand Strong”
10) Kina Grannis ~ “Strong Enough”
11) Paula Cole ~ “Strong Beautiful Woman”
12) Sugababes ~ “Stronger”
13) Sara Evans ~ “A Little Bit Stronger”
14) Karmin ~ “Coming Up Strong”
15) Britney Spears ~ “Stronger”
16) Stacie Orrico ~ “Strong Enough”
17) Pixie Geldof ~ “So Strong”
18) Olivia Newton-John ~ “Big And Strong”
19) Mary J. Blige ~ “Stronger”
20) Clean Bandit ft. Alex Newell & Sean Bass ~ “Stronger”
These songs aren’t all about the act of allowing food or drink to pass down one’s throat. Some of them are about the metaphorical swallowing of intangible things, like pride and such. Still others are about swift-flying, migratory songbirds. Just call it Triple-Meaning Friday. Which isn’t a catchy phrase at all, actually. Enjoy? ~ JH
1) Bush ~ “Swallowed”
2) Rhys ~ “Swallow Your Pride”
3) NewSong ~ “Swallow The Ocean (Coming Alive)”
4) The Hearing ~ “Swallow”
5) Bombay Bicycle Club ~ “How Can You Swallow So Much Sleep?”
6) Jewel ~ “Jupiter (Swallow The Moon)”
7) The National ~ “Don’t Swallow The Cap”
8) Yo-Yo Ma & Wu Tong ~ “Yanzi (Swallow Song)”
9) Wailin’ Jennys ~ “Swallow”
10) Coldplay ~ “Swallowed In The Sea”
11) Crystal Fighters ~ “Swallow”
12) Toni Gibson ~ “She’s Like The Swallow”
13) Pearl Jam ~ “Swallowed Whole”
14) Judy Collins & The Muppets ~ “Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly”
15) morgxn ~ “Hard Pill To Swallow”
16) Wolf Alice ~ “Swallowtail”
17) Ramones ~ “Swallow My Pride”
18) brokeMC ~ “Swallow You Whole”
19) The Lennon Sisters ~ “When The Swallows Come Back To Capistrano”
20) The Autumn Defense ~ “The Swallows Of London”
21) Souleen ~ “Swallow”
22) Hank Williams, Jr. ~ “Pride’s Not Hard To Swallow”
23) Teach Me Equals ~ “Swallow The Smoke”
24) Eve 6 ~ “Inside Out” (Nope, the word “swallow” doesn’t appear in the title of this song. But it’s all over the place in the chorus, which is repeated multiple times, of course. So here it is…)
25) Della Lupa ~ “Storm Of Swallows”
26) Brandon Flowers ~ “Swallow It”
27) Lorena B ~ “Swallow My Gum”
28) Lorena B ~ “Swallow My Gum 2” (Rarely if ever have I posted a “sequel” to a song, especially within the same post. But frankly, they’re fairly unusual, so I suppose it’s no real wonder after all.)
29) Billy Bragg ~ “Swallow My Pride”
30) Hilary Grist ~ “Swallow Me Up”
31) Ólafur Arnalds ~ “Gleypa Okkur (Swallow Us)”
32) Shreddy Krueger ~ “The Sky Will Swallow Us Whole” (I don’t usually go for songs in the “screamo” genre – or whatever they’re calling it these days – but this was really well-done. Nice mix of “clean” and “unclean” vocals.)
33) Laura Gibson ~ “Crow/Swallow”
34) Teenage Wrist ~ “Swallow”
35) Katie Melua & Gori Women’s Choir ~ “The Little Swallow” (You may hear the tune of this song and correctly recognize it as identical to the “Carol of the Bells.” However, this Ukrainian-language version came first. An American songwriter penned English lyrics to the tune sometime later.)
