Pulp Free

In celebration of my 4th wedding anniversary, I thought I’d share the list of music that we chose as part of our reception dinner, bride & groom and mother/father dances. We had every hope to actually have a unique, non-traditional wedding when we started planning it – but in the end, even the music proved quite classic for this couple. Most of the music is instrumental as it was selected to provide background music for our dinner guests – (ugh – I just hate the idea of music being deemed “background” – probably another post on that later…) Not too loud, not too soft… Not too up-tempo, not too zzz, zzz, zzz… You know – just right “dinner music”. The classic “Fly Me To The Moon” is one of our favorite 60′s Big Band tunes that is simply timeless and when you include Natalie Cole “Unforgettable” classic for our mother/father dance, we become very traditional! No matter – our evening celebrating with friends and family was truly a great time.

Below is our track list – each with a 30-second sample…

1. – The Look Of Love – Chris Botti
2. – Through An Open Window – Chris Botti
3. – Acoustic Highway – Craig Chaquico
4. – Arizona Daybreak – Craig Chaquico
5. – Angel Eyes – Jim Brickman
6. – Expedition – Kurt Bestor
7. – Feelin’ The Same Way – Norah Jones
8. – Nightingale – Norah Jones
9. – Faith In Angels – Peter Mayer
10. – Kisses In The Rain – Rick Braun
11. – Catching The Sun – Spyro Gyra
12. – A Kiss Under The Moonlight – The Rippingtons

    Bride Groom Dance

13. – Fly Me To The Moon – Kenny G

    Father/Daughter – Mother/Son Dance

14. – Unforgettable – Natalie Cole

So it’s a holiday weekend and I figured a perfect time to catch up on my Earworm efforts. The remainder of these surely a few months old by now – but I’m taking up the challenge to get these done! No more excuses… (for now…)

For this hour’s selection I’m providing a quick listen to James Morrison’s Broken Strings. The song was first passed over at first listen (I go through only the first 5 seconds or so before “making up my mind”) but came back around after catching it on my iPod once again. While Morrison’s singing is actually quite good – it’s clearly the unique voice of Nelly Furtado that keeps this track refreshing. Nelly clearly adds her personal touch to her voicings and harmonies that make the duet meld quite nicely.

(I mean – this is pop music – what’s not “nicely” about it?)

So now it’s up to you to enjoy a quick sample:

Broken Strings (Featuring Nelly Furtado) – James Morrison – (Song Sample)

I’m listing the video as well but it’s a bit cheesy in that it’s too literal… Fires in a hotel room? Oh well…

And yes – I know it’s Nelly’s picture up there and it’s not really “her” song – she’s just easier to look at than James is… Sorry James…

I didn’t want to like this song. Really. I saw Lady GaGa popping up on a few of my Top 40 lists and skipped passed it during my 5 second listen test. It just so happens that I heard the chorus of this song on the radio a few days while driving to the airport (GASP!! The RADIO!!) and I’ve been hooked with finding a way to get it out of my head ever since.

Tonight I even spent a few minutes finding remixes and videos to see what she’s all about:

Stefani Germanotta (born March 1986 in New York, U.S.A.), also known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an American singer-songwriter dance-pop, electronica musician signed to Interscope Records. Born into a Italian-American family and growing up in Manhattan’s Lower East side Germanotta attended the Convent of the Sacred Heart School. Having learned piano by ear at the age of four, Germanotta went on to write her first piano ballad at thirteen and began performing at open mic nights by the age of fourteen. At the age of seventeen she gained early admission to the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, where she studied music. By age twenty she began writing songs for Interscope Records artists, such as the Pussycat Dolls, also she recently declared that she wrote two songs for the upcoming Britney Spears album.

Hey… I can’t complain with music chops like that… Especially knowing my penchant for bubblegum pop songs. I’ll eventually get a few minutes to pass through her debut album, The Fame, to see if there are any other songs to my liking. I mean, now with Poker Face number one on quite a few charts – I’m sure I’m behind the curve on  this… (I really do need to start getting updates online sooner rather than later!)

So enjoy a bit of your own song sample here:

Poker Face (Glam As You Radio Mix) – Lady GaGa

Or with the obligatory “Official HQ Video“…

While tremendously over-exposed in the media now (but not soooo much a few months back), lovely “newcomer” Taylor Swift’s song Love Story still seems to be keeping itself on the Earworm playlist. The original version being “nice” and “country” sounding, once again it’s the overwhelming list of remixes that has moved it over to the Pop and Dance side. I think I now have some 30 versions of the single that each have some decent pieces to like – it was this J Stax Edit that made it’s way online here.

The video is actually a nice way of showing Romeo & Juliet if not predictable. At least Taylor’s hair is out of the way for most of the video as most of her, yet again, over exposure has it falling all over the place. While I’m sure you don’t need to have links to the song sample now, here it is anyway…

– Love Story (J Stax Edit) - Taylor Swift – (Song Sample)

And the 13+ million viewed video:

Sadly, I’m a few months late on a few Earworm updates once again. How odd that getting the selections and samples created is the easy part – writing and making the images for the posts get me behind! So I believe I’ll get a pair of Earworm updates out tonight… Even if they’ve fallen a bit down on my playlist.

First up tonight is a single from the British Pop group The Saturdays called Issues. Catchy in it’s own right but not really inspiring – the repeatability of the track really has to do with the Digital Dog remix version more than having it stand on it’s own. Now for the song sample:

Issues (Digital Dog Radio Edit) – The Saturdays – (Song Sample)

And of course, if you’d like to see the girls in motion…

I did chuckle to myself at some of the YouTube comments for this song… “Does anybody else but the first brunette even sing on this song?” – True enough, it’s really about 5 pretty girls wiggling around and staring at the camera… Umbrellas are a bit goofy as well… But oh well… It’s called Earworm – not retina burning.