Five favorite musical pieces

[Llarry]

Inspired by "what are you listening to?" is this proposal: List your five, and only five, favorite songs or musical pieces. Very challenging! Listing ten would be easier but a cumbersome thread.

Here are mine; if I did this again in a year they'd probably be different, or at least in a different order:

5) Rush -- The Trees (1978)

4) Tornadoes -- Bustin' Surfboards (instrumental 1962)

3) Louis Armstrong & Orchestra -- St Louis Blues (1929 version)

2) Rolling Stones -- Satisfaction (1965)

1) Beatles -- Words of Love (1964 cover of a Buddy Holly song)

[2000cs]

Beethoven’s 9th symphony
Carmen (Bizet)
La Boheme / Madame Butterfly (I slightly prefer Boheme)
Bohemian Rhapsody (overplayed but still excellent)
Strange Fruit (Billie Holliday)

Really just about anything by several artists/groups is so pleasing:
Modern Jazz Quartet
Lambert, Hendricks & Ross
Louis Armstrong
Billie Holliday
Count Basie
Fats Waller
Benny Goodman
Ella Fitzgerald
Tosca
Aida
A lot of Mozart
Etc

Hard to pick five top; it changes with my mood.

[Lady Jane]

Delibes: Flower duet from Lakmé

Barber's Adagio for Strings

Max Richter's: On the Nature of Daylight.

Theme from Schindler's List.

Sarah Brightman - Time To Say Goodbye

[TboneS54]

Dire Straits - Tunnel of Love
Led Zeppelin - Achilles' Last Stand
Metallica - Master of Puppets
Bad Religion - Modern Man
Strung Out - Too Close to See

[2000cs]

LJ’s list:
Delibes: Flower duet from Lakmé
Barber's Adagio for Strings
Max Richter's: On the Nature of Daylight
Theme from Schindler's List
Sarah Brightman - Time To Say Goodbye



The Barber Adagio. 23 years ago as my father was dying in the hospital, my brother, a professional bass player, brought the acoustic into his room and played this. I haven’t listened to it since. I clicked the link and now I’m weeping.

[Llarry]

The power of music to move us is immense. I grew up in a household where music was not important -- my parents, born in the 1920s and come of age in the 1940s, apparently enjoyed big band music but bought or listened to little. I became obsessed at age 13 or so and music continues to play an important role in my life to this day 60+ years later.

Thank you very much to those who have responded so far; this is a bit of time-consuming thread, both to post and to read (listen). Much appreciated.

[Llarry]

Having said five only, I now have to cheat and add another. 2000cs' comment about the Barber piece, as well as my own comment on the emotional impact of music, made me think of the profoundly sad "Death of Aase" from Grieg's Peer Gynt suite. I'm not very knowledgeable on classical music and don't own a lot but have loved Peer Gynt for many years. I don't associate "Death of Aase" with any traumatic event, but it still gets me every time...

[Dino GT]

It`s very hard for me to come up with 5 favorites, but this is definitely my #1 song.

[Esteban]

Originally Posted by Dino GT

It`s very hard for me to come up with 5 favorites, but this is definitely my #1 song.

Difficult for me too, Dino. There's so much good music out there I can't even come up with a number one song, much less my top five. I would expect my top five songs would change, depending on my state of mind but every time I try to put a list together it changes before I can finish it.

[Dino GT]

Originally Posted by Esteban

Difficult for me too, Dino. There's so much good music out there I can't even come up with a number one song, much less my top five. I would expect my top five songs would change, depending on my state of mind but every time I try to put a list together it changes before I can finish it.

Yeah, same with me......I can easily come up with 20+ favorite songs

[HFW003]

I have to agree that it is very hard to name just a top five.

The first three on my list are easy as they would be the three no matter what, the other two might change a hundred times a day.

Number one for me has to be Depeche Mode’s Enjoy The Silence.

Martin Gore’s words in this really spoke to me. It might be a grim thing to say but I’ve told my wife I would like this song played at my funeral.
We’re actually going to see them play in Austria in July so I can’t wait!

Number two is Vienna by Ultravox. This is the quintessential 80’s song for me and takes me back to that time whenever I hear it.

The third one is Puccini’s La Boheme and particularly Act 1. Call me a romantic but every time I hear Mimi and Rodolfo fall in love I get shivers down my back.

The fourth is one of my earliest recollections of electronic music and I have been a huge fan of the music genre since.

The fifth, this time, is from the first love of my life. The gorgeous Debby Harry.

[zgood4u]

Bach-Organ fugue in G minor "Little"
Coltrane-A Love Supreme
Stones-Girl with the far away eyes
Deep Purple-Highway Star
Queen-Tie Your Mother Down

[Lady Jane]

Originally Posted by Llarry

I'm not very knowledgeable on classical music and don't own a lot but have loved Peer Gynt for many years. I don't associate "Death of Aase" with any traumatic event, but it still gets me every time...

Exquisite...

The song's name is "Åses død" (The death of Aase), double aa = Å, in Norwegian. Åse/ Aase is a female name. Peer Gynt is a five-act play (based on a fairy tale) written by Norwegian poet Henrik Ibsen, and Edvard Grieg wrote the music to this play. The song is about Peer Gynt coming down from the mountain just in time before his mother Aase dies.

[SpeedBuggy]

Originally Posted by Dino GT

It`s very hard for me to come up with 5 favorites, but this is definitely my #1 song.

Absolutely have to agree with you on this one.

I tend to be a bit partial to Pink Floyd, but certainly there are dozens of other artists and songs that belong on my list.

1) Comfortably Numb ~Pink Floyd
2) Sorrow~Pink Floyd
3) What God Wants ~Roger Waters ft. Jeff Beck
4) Coming Back to Life ~ Pink Floyd
5) Time ~ Pink Floyd

[E93Beast]

This thread belongs in the "You know your old " thread
:/

[iminhell1]

No peculiar order.

Morphine - Yes

Morphine - Cure for Pain

INXS - Kick

KMFDM -XTORT

Ugly Kid Joe - America's Least Wanted

[wyshyvanuk]

There can be only one:

[2000cs]

Originally Posted by E93Beast

This thread belongs in the "You know your old " thread
:/

While I am in fact old, the 5 pieces I’ve listed go back to my teenage years (I have vinyl of each that I purchased then). I have favorites in old rock, newer rock, folk, reggae, ska, country, jazz, zydeco, big band, opera, great American Songbook, orchestral, chamber, etc. Comedy-Music also has a couple of greats (Spike Jones and his City Slickers, Tom Lehrer, or compilations from The Doctor Demento Show - which I listened to live on the radio). The only exceptions for me are electronic, atonal, rap and hip hop. I don’t like enough of any of those to have a favorite.

Of course there is music I listened to earlier in my life that I no longer enjoy. Bubble-gum pop comes to mind. More recently, Bruno Mars and Cee-Lo Green too.

My five favorite selection is from the dozens that I’ve listened to over and over for 5 decades or more and keep coming back to (Bohemian Rhapsody is newer, barely). Each is entertaining, moving and associated with an event, place, or time in my life (e.g., a significant memory) which elevates them to the top of the list.

[Llarry]

Originally Posted by 2000cs

While I am in fact old, the 5 pieces I’ve listed go back to my teenage years (I have vinyl of each that I purchased then). I have favorites in old rock, newer rock, folk, reggae, ska, country, jazz, zydeco, big band, opera, great American Songbook, orchestral, chamber, etc. Comedy-Music also has a couple of greats (Spike Jones and his City Slickers, Tom Lehrer, or compilations from The Doctor Demento Show - which I listened to live on the radio). The only exceptions for me are electronic, atonal, rap and hip hop. I don’t like enough of any of those to have a favorite.

Of course there is music I listened to earlier in my life that I no longer enjoy. Bubble-gum pop comes to mind. More recently, Bruno Mars and Cee-Lo Green too.

My five favorite selection is from the dozens that I’ve listened to over and over for 5 decades or more and keep coming back to (Bohemian Rhapsody is newer, barely). Each is entertaining, moving and associated with an event, place, or time in my life (e.g., a significant memory) which elevates them to the top of the list.

Wow! Your tastes and mine have many similarities. (There are a couple of bubble gum songs I listen to once in a great while, though -- and then there's the whole Chinese/Japanese/Vietnamese thing, which I admit is way out there for most people.)

And as far as E93Beast goes, he can just get off our lawn!

[spazzyfry123]

Originally Posted by Dino GT

It`s very hard for me to come up with 5 favorites, but this is definitely my #1 song.

I’d consider the entire Dark Side of the Moon album to be one continuous piece of music.

So that’s my favorite musical piece.

[Esteban]

Originally Posted by spazzyfry123

I’d consider the entire Dark Side of the Moon album to be one continuous piece of music.

So that’s my favorite musical piece.

That is a very good choice.

[floridaorange]

all time fave