I'm dividing up my list into 10 ballads and 10 uptempo songs.
Les ballades:
1. Down To You by Joni Mitchell. It's impossible for me to choose one favorite Joni Mitchell song. This one captured something about adulthood that I didn't grasp at 19 when I first heard it, but understand better now.
2. There Will Always Be A You by Donna Summer. I love a lot of the Bad Girls album, but this ballad always reminded me of my mother.
3. Vincent by Don McLean. I'm so drawn to songs that are melancholic and beautiful at the same time, and I love how he tells this story about the artist's dilemma.
4. How Will You Go by Crowded House. Neil Finn is an amazing songwriter and this song got me through a few breakups.
5. Rain Rain Go Away by Vince Guaraldi. I love Linus and Lucy, the fun song from Charlie Brown that everyone knows. But this moody piano solo is great in the right mood.
6. The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face/The Ballad of The Sad Young Man by Roberta Flack. Two haunting ballads from Roberta Flack's first album, and each with a very different mood.
7. Keep On Loving You by REO Speedwagon. This song reminds me of high school, the good, the bad and the now repressed.
8. On My Own by Frances Ruffelle, from Les Miserables. One of the first musicals I saw and for me the quiet highlight of the show.
9. Love Is A Losing Game by Amy Winehouse. This song is seriously like a lost Motown classic, even though she wrote it last year. All the pieces of it work so perfectly together.
10. So It Shall Be by k.d. lang. She's got an amazing, versatile voice, and who can't love a song about obssessive love.
The Dance Tunes
1. Kiss by Prince. I'm a major Prince fanatic, and could've pulled out any number of obscure tracks, but really, all I have to hear is the guitar and "UNHHH!" opening and I want to be spinning around on Cuban heels.
2. Fantasy (Def Club Mix) by Mariah Carey. Amazing vocals, great club remix and still manages to mix in the Genius of Love sample from the original version.
3. Good Times by Chic. I'm a sucker for songs with distinctive openings, and this is the perfect summer song with the perfect opening.
4. Gold Digger by Kanye West. OK, lyrically not very PC, but I love Jamie Foxx doing a Ray Charles sample and the Git-down-girl-go-head-git-down chorus.
5. Hey Ya by OutKast. I will never get tired of shaking it like a Polaroid picture.
6. Girls On Film by Duran Duran. One of my favorite songs from the New Wave era. I so wanted to be part of that band and be a Boy on Film with the drummer.
7. Rehab by Amy Winehouse. Aside from being irresistibly catchy and soulful, the music is so intricate. I could find something different in the playing every time I hear it.
8. Like A Prayer (Club Mix) by Madonna. This is a more obscure remix with a hard, almost hip hop beat and samples her going Ohmigod, it's hot.
9. Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' by Michael Jackson. For me his last great song before going completely cuckoo, one club in NYC plays this on Friday nights and it's a blast.
10. Ojos Asi by Shakira. Bully for her that she's crossed over, but there was a time when she wrote good songs that had nothing to do with her belly dancing. This one incorporates her Arabic heritage as well, it's hot.
I could do lists for any ole category, songs from movies, songs for mixtapes, 10 favorite cover songs....but this'll do for now.
Juan