"Means," "Motive", & "Opportunity" Songs, Vol. 2

A couple of days delayed, mayhaps, but here's part 2 (of 2) of my latest miniseries of posts. Enjoy!  ~  JH



1)  Amy MacDonald  ~  "What Happiness Means To Me"

2)  Elena Hasna  ~  "Motive"

3)  Nuns  ~  "Opportunities"

4)  Richard Hawley  ~  "What Love Means"

5)  PLS&TY ft. Ganz & Nevve  ~  "Motives"

6)  River Nelson  ~  "Opportunity"

7)  Kendall Pennington  ~  "What It Means"

8)  10 Years  ~  "Actions & Motives"

9)  Pete Murray  ~  "Opportunity"

10)  Fit For A King  ~  "When Everything Means Nothing"

11)  Little Feat  ~  "Loco Motives"

12)  Elvis Costello & The Attractions  ~  "Opportunity"

13)  Hammerfall  ~  "Any Means Necessary"

14)  Walk Off The Earth  ~  "No Ulterior Motives"

15)  Willie Nelson  ~  "Opportunity To Cry"

16)  Colbie Caillat  ~  "What Means The Most"

17)  Benjah ft. Ron Kenoly, Jr.  ~  "Motives"

18)   Neil Young  ~  "Field Of Opportunity"

19)  Jeremy Camp  ~  "What It Means"

20)  Beautiful Eulogy  ~  "Motive 1, 2"

21)  Meryn Cadell  ~  "Window Of Opportunity"

Songs About Reckoning

Here's a bunch of Songs About Reckoning. I reckon you'll like 'em. If not, it's no skin off my nose. Enjoy!  ~  JH

1)  Within Temptation ft. Jacoby Shaddix  ~  "The Reckoning"

2)  Whiskey Myers  ~  "Reckoning" 

3)  Halestorm  ~  "The Reckoning"

4)  NEEDTOBREATHE  ~  "The Reckoning"

5)  Cowboy Junkies  ~  "All That Reckoning"

6)  Andrew Peterson  ~  "The Reckoning (How Long)"  (The pre-song chitchat is really quite interesting, but if you want to skip to the actual song it begins around the 4:00 mark.)

7)  Walk Off The Earth  ~  "Reckoning Song (One Day)"

8)  Billy Bragg  ~  "There Will Be A Reckoning"

9)  Visions Of Atlantis  ~  "Dead Reckoning"

10)  Megadeth  ~  "Reckoning Day"

11)  Jen Chapin  ~  "Reckoning"

12)  Will Hoge  ~  "The Reckoning"

13)  Vicky Emerson  ~  "The Reckoning"

14)  Iced Earth  ~  "The Reckoning"

15)  Lady Brett Ashley  ~  "The Reckoning"

16)  The Getaway Plan  ~  "The Reckoning"

17)  Heathen Apostles  ~  "The Reckoning"

18)  Against A Burning Sky  ~  "Reckoning"

19)  Satellite Citi  ~  "The Reckoning"

20)  Auden  ~  "The Day Of Reckoning"

21)  Petra  ~  "Dead Reckoning"

22)  Peter Katz  ~  "We Are The Reckoning"

23)  Ani DiFranco  ~  "Reckoning"

24)  Nine Miles South  ~  "The Reckoning"

25)  Billy Ray Cyrus  ~  "The Reckoning"

Songs About Boomerangs

I'll just throw this post out here and see what happens. If it comes back to me, I guess it was meant to be. Or something like that... Enjoy?  ~  JH

1)  JoJo Siwa  ~  “Boomerang”

2)  SMSHNG HRTS  ~  “Boomerang”

3)  Jana Kramer  ~  “Boomerang”

4)  Texas King  ~  “Boomerang”

5)  ABBA  ~  “Bang-A-Boomerang”

6)  EMIN ft. Nile Rodgers  ~  “Boomerang”

7)  Amaranthe  ~  “Boomerang”

8)  Elliot Moss  ~  “Boomerang / My Statue Sinking / Dolly Zoom”

9)  Jidenna  ~  “Boomerang”

10)  Blümchen  ~  “Boomerang”

11)  Walk Off The Earth  ~  “Boomerang”

12)  Pigeon John ft. 20syl  ~  “Boomerang”

13)  Nicole Scherzinger  ~  “Boomerang”

14)  Pretty Maids  ~  “Nuclear Boomerang”

15)  Chelsea Williams  ~  “Boomerang”

16)  Barenaked Ladies  ~  “Boomerang”

17)  She Is We  ~  “Boomerang”

18)  firekid  ~  “Boomerang”

19)  Courtney Randall  ~  “Boomerang”

20)  Plain White T’s  ~  “Boomerang”

21)  Ward Thomas  ~  “Boomerang”

22)  Anthem Lights  ~  “Boomerang”

23)  Lucy Schwartz  ~  “Boomerang”

24)  Miniature Tigers  ~  “Boomerang”

25)  Aleesha  ~  “Love’s A Boomerang”

26)  Rachel Potter & Joey Stamper  ~  “Boomerang”

13 Different Versions Of "Royals" by Lorde

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!)

Songs By Elemental Artists, Vol. 1: Earth

According to wikipedia.org: "Many philosophies and worldviews have a set of classical elements believed to reflect the simplest essential parts and principles of which anything can consist or upon which the constitution and fundamental powers of everything are based." While the 4 Classical Elements vary slightly from one culture to another, the ones most widely recognized are Earth, Water, Air, and Fire. This 4-part miniseries will feature songs by bands with one (or more) of these 4 elements in their names. First up, "Earth" bands. Enjoy!  ~  JH

1)  Manfred Mann's Earth Band  ~  "Blinded By The Light"

2)  Walk Off The Earth  ~  "Somebody That I Used To Know"  (Cover of Gotye & Kimbra's hit song)

3)  I Mother Earth  ~  "One More Astronaut"

4)  Earth, Wind, & Fire  ~  "Boogie Wonderland"

5)  Iced Earth  ~  "When The Eagle Cries"

6)  The Tallest Man On Earth  ~  "Where Do My Bluebird Fly?"

7)  Rare Earth  ~  "Get Ready"

8)  Railroad Earth  ~  "Been Down This Road"

9)  Hooray For Earth  ~  "True Loves"

10)  We Fell To Earth  ~  "The Double"