Songs that always made you smile, dance, love being alive?

[PADDY]

In the wee small hours of the morning...

...by Frank Sinatra. This song, each time I play it, makes me feel very nostalgic and sad as it reminds me of a fond time when I would play it in a friend's kitchen and it would fill the house and immediately takes me back to 'that particular time and that particular place.' [huh] Just thinking about the tune now makes me quite sad and reminiscent of happy memories, sights; sounds; smells...and wanting to just jump on a plane. Such is the emotional power of music and lyrics that can pull on the heart strings eh and dig deep to your soul.
I just need to be sparing with when I play it. What complicated conundrums of beings we are.

 

[KY Gentleman]

"Stone Free" by Jimi Hendrix is always a toe-tapper....

 

[Miss L]

Can´t sit still, can´t stop smiling when I hear these:
Opus one - Tommy Dorsey
There´ll be a hot time in Berlin - Glenn Miller
Straighten up and fly right - The Andrews sisters
Cat Talk - Lew Williams

Anything with Eddie Cochran also works. And loads more, of course...

See you

 

[Woland]

Tend to fall for the heartfelt sentiment.
Here represented by The Beautiful South:

Prettiest Eyes

Line One is the time
That you, you first stayed over at mine
And we drank our first bottle of wine
And we cried

Line Two we're away
And we both, we both had nowhere to stay
Well the bus-shelter's always OK
When you're young

Now you're older and I look at your face
Every wrinkle is so easy to place
And I only write them down just in case
That you die

Let's take a look at these crows feet, just look
Sitting on the prettiest eyes
Sixty 25th of Decembers
Fifty-nine 4th of Julys
Not through the age or the failure, children
Not through the hate or despise
Take a good look at these crows feet
Sitting on the prettiest eyes

Line Three I forget
But I think, I think it was our first ever bet
And the horse we backed was short of a leg
Never mind

Line Four in a park
And the things, the things that people do in the dark
I could hear the faintest beat of your heart
Then we did

Now you're older and I look at your face
Every wrinkle is so easy to place
And I only write them down just in case
You should die

Lets take a look at these crows feet, just look
Sitting on the prettiest eyes
Sixty 25th of Decembers
Fifty-nine 4th of Julys
You can't have too many good times, children
You can't have too many lines
Take a good look at these crows feet
Sitting on the prettiest eyes

Well my eyes look like a map of the town
And my teeth are either yellow or they're brown
But you'll never hear the crack of a frown
When you are here
You'll never hear the crack
Of a frown

 

[Aviator]

Just off the top of my head...

These are an assortment of songs that I am unable to play unless the volume is cranked to dangerous levels:
+1 for "Sing Sing Sing" , but by Benny Goodman
"Take the A Train" Duke Ellington
"Oye Como Va" Santana
"London Calling/I Fought the Law" the Clash
"The Great Curve" Talking Heads
"Close to Me" The Cure (the remix w/ the horns)
"There is a Light That Never Goes Out" The Smiths (OK, no smile there)
"So. Central Rain" REM
"Lebanese Blonde" Thievery Corporation
"Don't You Worry 'bout a Thing" Stevie Wonder
"Rehab" Amy Winehouse
The whole "Fox Confessor Brings the Flood" album by Neko Case (again, dark but I love it)
"Young Folks" Peter, Bjorn and John

 

[Harry Angel]

Sir Duke -Stevie Wonder,It always makes me feel like it's 77 again, I'm in 5th grade and school is almost out for the year.

 

[Be-Bop Baby]

As for the smiling and coming alive it's definitely

"When" - by the Kalin Twins and
"Oh Yeah I'm in love" - by Ricky Nelson.

I have been almost dangerously addicted to "When" during the past few weeks, playing it 23 hours per day and humming it the rest of the time

And as for Ricky Nelson and his fabulous guitarrist James Burton: SIGH!!
Both songs make me instantly want to put on some petticoats and start dancing (not good when you're listening to them on your i-Pod on your way to work...)

 

[Miss L]

Ricky Nelson is great. I especially like "One of these mornings" but all his stuff is wonderful. There´s something about his voice... soothing, calm and powerful at the same time.

See you

 

[TheKitschGoth]

I haven't read the rest of the thread, so don't know how many of you have said songs from the 30's and 40's. The songs that always get me smiling and dancing are a bit more recent than that.

"Walking on hands" by Red Lorry Yellow Lorry
"Tell Tail" by Specimen
"Imperial Bodybags" by Manic Street Preachers
and anything from the Rocky Horror or Hedwig and The Angry Inch soundtracks

There's a lot of other songs I adore, but occasionally don't fancy listening to, whereas I can always listen to these, and they always make me smile.

 

[Prairie Dog]

"Stone Free" by Jimi Hendrix is always a toe-tapper....

Jimi Hendrix music, a toe-tapper???
Now this is what you'd call a real toe-tapper... George Formby - "Fanlight Fanny".
Had me dancing around the office desk.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55-oNqY1yTU

 

[KY Gentleman]

Jimi Hendrix music, a toe-tapper???

Oh yeah, Jimi could do it all! "Stone Free", "Remember"- he could make you dance or make you wonder how a man could get all those sounds out of a guitar, too.

 

[CharlesB]

T. Rex.- Telegram Sam

 

[pennycarrol]

At the moment I have to say that I can't stop to listen to "Hey now"by Cab Calloway!!! Very very catchy!! I love it!!

 

[Story]

Possibly the second best song in the world about, eh, self-stimulation. The uncontestable best being, of course, Teenage Kicks.

You blind, hairy palmed chauvinist, how dare you not mention "I Touch Myself" (Divinyls). lol

 

[Aorta]

Some of my favourites:

David Bowie - Heroes
Treat Her Right - I Think She Likes Me
Edwyn Collins - A Girl Like You
Peggy Lee - I'm a Woman
Morphine - Early to Bed
Shakespear's Sister - Goodbye, Cruel World
Chris Isaak - Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing
Cole Porter- Let's Misbehave
Creedence Clearwater Revival - The Night Time Is the Right Time
Sivert Høyem - Slow Blues (Let It All Hang Out Now)
Bob Landers With Willie Joe and his Unitar - Cherokee Dance
Madrugada - Blood Shot Adult Commitment

I always try to avoid listening to Townes van Zandt, when I'm in a bad mood.

 

[CharlesB]

This is one of my favorite driving songs. I love to just drive down the road and listen to this. It's by the Old 97's.

Doreen:

(Hitchhike to Rhome lyrics.
Minor variations found on Wreck Your Life.)
When I first met Doreen
She was barely seventeen.
She was drinking whiskey sours in the bar.

The way she tossed 'em back
I would've had a heart attack.
But as it is I let her drive my car.

We galloped through the boroughs
Like a pair of horny thoroughbreds,
Until I said, "Stop the car, Doreen."

Well you can roll your eyes and nod
But I swear that I saw God,
In the moonlight on a side street in the wreckage we call Queens.

Doreen, Doreen, Last night I had an awful dream.
You were laying in the arms of a man I'd never seen.
Come clean Doreen. Come clean Doreen.

Well I'm pulling into Cleveland
In a seven-seater tour van.
There's eight of us, so I'm sleeping on the floor.

The guy that plays the banjo
Keeps on handing me the Old Crow,
Which multiplies my sorrow, I can't take it anymore.

Doreen, Doreen, last night I had an awful dream.
You were laying in the arms of a man I'd never seen.
Come clean Doreen. Come clean Doreen.

Now I'm begging and I'm pleading,
"Well pull over guys, I'm bleeding.
There's a Fina off the highway with a phone."

I'm calling you Doreen,
But it rings and rings and rings.
Where is it that you are, if you aren't in our bed at home.

Doreen, Doreen, last night I had an awful dream.
You were laying in the arms of a man I'd never seen.
Come clean Doreen. Come clean Doreen.


The music to this is really awesome too.

I once met a girl in a bar in Fishtown Philadelphia doing much the same...it was a bang up night.....

I love that song and that album

 

[Barbigirl]

Everytime

Everytime I think of you by The Babys

 

[Prairie Dog]

Everytime I think of you by The Babys

The Babys...they're sort of legendary around my town. It has to do with the old movie theater. The story's kinda long, but here's the short end of it. The theatre was going to close, I think it was the late 70's. And the owner started to have weekend rock concerts there. The entire community picketed the place until the theater closed for good. The very last concert that played the theater was the Babys with John Waite. The building still stands, no longer a theater, but a large chain drug store. C'est la vie!

 

[scarlett]

Johnny Otis - Harlem Nocturne
Cab Calloway - every song
Stevie Ray Vaughn - The House is a Rockin
The Blasters - every song
Social Distortion - pretty much every song
The Clash - Brand New Cadillac

 

[Sunland Sare]

The Specials - Message To You, Rudy
Glenn Miller Band - In The Mood
The Tams - Be Young, Be Foolish, Be Happy