When it comes to thinking up new and (hopefully) interesting themes for music blog posts, I am full of ideas. Which brings me to this post (and the one that follows it)...which is a bunch of Songs About Ideas. I would explain further, but you get the idea. Enjoy! ~ JH
1) Whitney Woerz ~ “Idea Of Her”
2) Tears For Fears ~ “Ideas As Opiates”
3) Tessa Violet ~ “I Like (The Idea Of) You”
4) Dave Matthews Band ~ “The Idea Of You”
5) Maria Taylor Trio ~ “Bad Idea”
6) Fiction Department ~ “Bad Idea”
7) Sara Bareilles & Gavin Creel ~ “Bad Idea”
8) Harry Connick, Jr. ~ “You Have No Idea”
9) Amy Nelson ~ “Better Idea”
10) Flip Wilson ~ “If That’s Your Idea Of A Wonderful Time (Take Me Home)”
11) Garbage ~ “Not My Idea”
12) Tito Puente & The Golden Latin Jazz ~ “Tito’s Idea”
You've had a couple of days off from these. It's time to resume. One more post tomorrow, and this miniseries of "Finding," "Keeping," "Losing," and "Weeping" Songs is history! Enjoy! ~ JH
1) Jaheim ~ “Finding My Way Back”
2) Billy Joel ~ “Keeping The Faith”
3) Avril Lavigne ~ “Losing Grip”
4) Wendy Holcombe ~ “Weeping Willow”
5) The Heartless Aisha ~ “Finding Myself”
6) Fireflight ~ “Keeping Me Alive”
7) The Killers ~ “Losing Touch”
8) Henry Black ~ “Weeping Willow”
9) Pat Metheny Group ~ “Finding And Believing”
10) Tanya Donelly ~ “Keeping You”
11) Belle & Sebastian ~ “She’s Losing It”
12) Raphaël Imbert ft. Leyla McCalla ~ “Weeping Willow Blues”
13) Mindy Gledhill ~ “Finding Home”
14) Tyler Ward ~ “Keeping Secrets”
15) Albert Hammond, Jr. ~ “Losing Touch”
16) Morton ~ “Weeping Bell”
17) Hellogoodbye ~ “Finding Something To Do”
18) Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers ~ “Keeping Me Alive”
19) Solange ~ “Losing You”
20) anna RF ~ “Weeping Eyes”
21) Quietly Concerned ~ “Finding Our Way In The Dark”
22) a-ha ~ “Nothing Is Keeping You Here”
23) Kelly Clarkson ~ “I Hate Myself For Losing You”
This is part 2 in a 6-part series featuring "Beginning," "Middle," and "Ending" songs. We began with "Beginning." We conclude the "Beginning" today. Enjoy! ~ JH
1) Brandi Carlile ~ “Beginning To Feel The Years”
2) Black Sabbath ~ “End Of The Beginning”
3) Osmond Brothers ~ “Before The Beginning” (I'm the only person I know who would follow up a Black Sabbath song with one by the Osmond Brothers. I'm #smh at my own self!)
4) Natalie Cole ~ “I’m Beginning To See The Light” (Yeah, it's the same song as the first Ella Fitzgerald song in the previous post, but both ladies performed it so excellently, I couldn't decide which to exclude. Besides, Natalie Cole just passed away a few months ago and I hadn't had a chance to include her in any posts since then – to my knowledge, at least – and she was certainly overdue for a tribute.)
5) Manfred Mann’s Earth Band ~ “In The Beginning, Darkness”
6) The Stills ~ “In The Beginning”
7) Bucks Fizz ~ “New Beginning”
8) Chicago ~ “Beginnings”
9) Finch ~ “New Beginnings”
10) Crystal Lewis ~ “Beginning Again”
11) Tyler Ward ~ “Beginning Of A Bad Idea”
12) Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark ~ “The Beginning And The End”
13) Kalafina ~ “To The Beginning” (I don’t understand a word they’re singing, but it’s kind of fantastic!)
14) David Phelps ~ “End Of The Beginning”
15) The Living End ~ “The Ending Is Just The Beginning”
As promised, here's the followup to yesterday's "Search" songs post – it's a collection of songs with the word "Rescue" in their titles. Because "Search" and "Rescue," that's why! Enjoy! ~ JH
1) Jason Mraz ~ "Rescue"
2) Daughtry ~ "Rescue Me"
3) Yuna ~ "Rescue"
4) Chris and Conrad ~ "Rescue"
5) Hal Ketchum ~ "Past The Point Of Rescue"
6) Rihanna ~ "SOS (Rescue Me)"
7) Hawthorne Heights ~ "Rescue Me"
8) Tyler Ward ~ "The Rescue"
9) Kristine Alicia ~ "Rescue"
10) The Rolling Stones ~ "Emotional Rescue"
11) David Crowder*Band ~ "Rescue Is Coming"
12) Abby Lee ~ "Rescue Me"
13) The Beach Boys ~ "Rock 'n' Roll To The Rescue"
Tonight is the first game of the World Series between the San Francisco Giants and the Kansas City Royals. For once, I'm actually pulling for one of the teams, instead of just jumping on the bandwagon of whichever team is hot like I usually do. I'm nearly a lifelong Royals fan and am happy to see them finally returning to the Series. In honor of the occasion, I present to you 13 different renditions of the hit song "Royals" by New Zealand singer-songwriter Lorde. For those of you who aren't familiar with the song, Lorde's original version is included first. For those of you who appreciate a bit of commentary with each song, you'll be happy to find it here as well. Enjoy! ~ JH
"Royals" ~ as sung by Lorde
1) Craig Campbell (This guy makes the song sound like it was written AS a country song! Well-played, Craig. Well-played.)
2) Pentatonix (This group ALWAYS nails their cover songs – with nary a musical instrument in sight, aside from their amazing voices!)
3) Puddles, The Sad Clown With The Golden Voice (He's a 7-foot-tall clown named Puddles. And he croons like a lounge singer. Of course he does…)
4) Walk Off The Earth (I love this band! They manage to make their cover songs sound entirely unique, while somehow retaining the overall flavor of the original song. Plus, their music videos are top-notch performance art!)
5) Sarah Stone (The creativity and talent of YouTubers never ceases to amaze me! Check out this version, which uses a red Solo cup and two busy hands for its percussion.)
6) Clean Bandit (This one was definitely re-imagined, not at all a sound-alike cover like many of the ones you'll find on YouTube. It's not my favorite, but it's certainly unique.)
7) Jason Derulo (Real talk: This guy's got such a smooth voice that he could make any song sound good.)
8) Mayer Hawthorne (The singer promises to "funk it up" a bit here, and indeed he does. Nice cover, "unexpected" or otherwise.)
9) Ed Sheeran (He learned the song in two-and-a-half minutes and OWNED it! Yep, Ed's pretty amazing like that.)
10) Tyler Ward (This veteran YouTuber's version of the hit song is uncharacteristically sunny – figuratively and literally – and leaves an entirely different taste in one's mouth. Which isn't a bad thing. It's just different.)
11) Jim Cheek & Scott Jenkins (To all of you who were waiting with bated breath for a saxophone cover of this song, your wait is over! And you're welcome.)
12) Pixie Lott (Take a catchy pop song, add a sassy "blue-eyed soul" singer, honey-throated backup singers, and a great jazz backing band, and you get this. Magic!)
13) Dave Days (What "Royals" would sound like if Avril Lavigne sang it…in 2002…and she was actually a guy. End result: Well…it's kinda crappy.)
BONUS TRACK: "Weird Al" Yankovic ~ "Foil" (Of course, this post wouldn't be complete without a great "Weird Al" parody of the song!)
