A SoftSational Post

Last night Ali took me to dinner at Settebello (delicious), gave me some presents (all very thoughtful), and then afterward we went back to my place so she could load her Nano (8gb) with songs from my iTunes library. Now, I generally think I have a pretty extensive music collection. But every once in awhile, I test it. Like today, for example.

This weekend Vh1 is airing one of its many countdown specials. This one is titled "The 40 Most Softsational Soft Rock Songs". They've compiled the 40 top soft rock songs, in their opinion. (And the episode will feature a bunch of weenies that think they are sooo funny, and sooo witty, and sooo borderline famous making snarky comments about each one.) Now being a true child of the 80's, I love soft rock. More than punk rock, more than alternative rock, more than new wave. So I took a look at their list to see their selections. They are:

1. Christopher Cross, Sailing

2. Styx, Babe

3. Rupert Holmes, Escape (The Pina Colada Song)

4. Barry Manilow, Mandy

5. Chicago, If You Leave Me Now

6. Air Supply, Making Love out of Nothing At All

7. Kansas, Dust in the Wind

8. The Doobie Brothers, What a Fool Believes

9. Hall and Oates, One On One

10. Chuck Mangione, Feels So Good

11. Olivia Newton-John, I Honestly Love You

12. Starland Vocal Band, Afternoon Delight

13. Carpenters, Superstar

14. Seals & Crofts, Summer Breeze

15. Journey, Open Arms

16. Bread, Baby I’m - A Want You

17. Juice Newton, Angel of the Morning

18. Toto, Rosanna

19. Michael Bolton, How Am I Supposed to Live Without You

20. Captain & Tennille, Do That To Me One More Time

21. Orleans, Still the One

22. Roberta Flack & Peabo Bryson, Tonight, I Celebrate My Love

23. REO Speedwagon, I Can’t Fight This Feeling

24. Phil Collins, One More Night

25. Anne Murray, You Needed Me

26. Harry Chapin, Cat’s in the Cradle

27. Lionel Richie, Hello

28. America, Horse with No Name

29. Debby Boone, You Light Up My Life

30. Andrew Gold, Lonely Boy

31. Richard Marx, Hold on to the Nights

32. Kenny Loggins, This is It

33. Cat Stevens, Peace Train

34. Dan Hill, Sometimes When We Touch

35. Extreme, More Than Words

36. 10cc, I’m Not in Love

37. Leo Sayer, When I Need You

38. Peter Frampton, Baby, I Love Your Way

39. David Soul, Don’t Give Up On Us

40. Bertie Higgins, Key Largo

Looking at the list, I assumed I had at least 85% of them on my iPod. So I went through my library and attempted to form a playlist with all the songs. I only had 24 of the 40. I am missing: 2, 3*, 4, 9**, 10, 16, 19***, 21, 25****, 29*****, 31, 33, 34, 35, 37, 38, 39.

Some of these selections are only partially missing from my iPod because I actually have the cd at home, but haven't yet loaded it, e.g. Bread, Orleans, but as for others it is a complete crime not to have them at my disposal. My ears, my soul need them. They are essential pieces of the soundtrack of my life. (See below.) So I am going to take a $15 iTunes gift card and fill these holes in my collection ASAP.

*: In high school, this was my theme song. No joke.
**: I disagree with this selection and prefer Sara Smile or She's Gone (and I am not copying Whitney Matheson in saying that).
***: Don't even want it! I prefer the Laura Branigan version (and if I have to have a Michael Bolton song, I pick Time, Love and Tenderness)
****: In, like, fourth grade, we seranaded our retiring elementary school principal with this song in a program
*****: This was my theme song when I was four.

Today's Song: See above. Today its a frigging playlist!