Year End Lists Start Now! My Favourite Songs in 2009

So I have been ruminating on the past year and have already started my year end lists. Let's start with songs. These are the songs that I enjoyed most this year. Maybe they were not released in this year, but I discovered them and listened the hell out of them in 2009:

1. Best I Ever Had – Drake
2. Zero – The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
3. I’m an Animal – Neko Case
4. Bulletproof - La Roux
5. Empire State of Mind – Jay-Z feat. Alicia Keys
6. Ego – Beyonce
7. Sweet Dreams – Beyonce
8. Sarah – Bat for Lashes
9. Daniel – Bat for Lashes
10. Poker Face – Lady Gaga
11. Bad Romance – Lady Gaga
12. Help I’m Alive – Metric
13. Knock You Down – Keri Hilson, Kanye West & Neyo
14. Life in Marvelous Times – Mos Def
15. Blue Skies – Noah and the Whale
16. Panic Switch – Silversun Pickups
17. Oh My God – Ida Maria
18. Day and Night – Kid Cudi
19. Make Her Say – Kid Cudi, Kanye West & Common
20. Use Somebody – Kings of Leon
21. Saviour – Rise Against
22. Dead and Gone – T.I. feat. Justin Timberlake
23. My Life Would Suck Without you – Kelly Clarkson
24. Love Story – Taylor Swift
25. Hell – Tegan and Sara
26. Alligator – Tegan and Sara
27. I Run to you – Ladu Antebellum
28. You Belong With Me – Taylor Swift
29. Boys Wanna Be Her – Peaches
30. Last Dance – The Raveonettes
31. Young Pilgrims – The Shins
32. I Wish I Knew Natalie Portman - K-Os
33. Fino + Bleed – Die Mannequin
34. Auditorium – Mos Def
35. I Am Not the Sun – The Arkells

What did you enjoy listening to this year?

Songs titled "Wake Up"

I feel like my mind is in a perpetual state of drowsiness or at least not cooperating with my desire for it to function on a higher level. In a nice bit of synchronicity, my iPhone playlist decided to play "Wake Up" by The Arcade Fire and then immediately play "wake Up" by Rage Against the Machine. That got me thinking about how often a song title is used by different bands and so I wrote this list of bands / musicians that have songs titled "Wake Up". I'm sure this is not an exhaustive list and I certainly am not commenting on the quality of these songs, but off the top of my head this is a lot.

1. The Arcade Fire
2. Rage Against the Machine
3. Coheed and Cambria
4. Hillary Duff
5. Three Days Grace
6. Slapshock
7. Korn
8. Fergie
9. Tavares
10. Alanis Morrissette
11. Run DMC
12. The Doors
13. Merle Haggard
14. Missy Elliot
15. Alicia Keyes
16. The Replacements
17. Story of the Year
18. The Living End
19. Sarah Slean
20. Orbit
21. Hanson
22. Alphaville
23. XTC
24. Powerman 5000

What am I missing?

Ten Favourite Movie/Song Remakes

While this week's 10 on Tuesday was to list either your 10 favourite movies or songs or a combination of both: totalling 10, I just could not trim it down enough. So, here are my 10 favourite movie remakes AND my 10 favourite song remakes. These are in no particular order; that would take too much consideration and I'm sure I could spend days coming up with more, but I wanna post this now

Movies:
1. The Departed; 2006 (Original: Internal Affairs; 2002) – Movie
2. Scarface; 1983 (Original: Scarface; 1932) - Movie
3. Ocean’s Eleven; 2001 (Original: Ocean’s Eleven 1960) - Movie
4. Heat; 1995 (Original: L.A. Takedown; 1989)
5. The Italian Job; 2003 (Original: The Italian Job; 1969)
6. The Thomas Crown Affair; 1999 (Original: The Thomas Crown Affair; 1968)
7. Little Shop of Horrors: 1986 (Original: The Little Shop of Horrors; 1960)
8. Cape Fear; 1991 (Original: Cape Fear; 1962)
9. Invasion of the Body Snatchers; 1978 (Original: Invasion of the Body Snatchers; 1956)
10. Casino Royale; 2006 (Original: Casino Royale; 1967)

Songs:
1. Hurt – Johnny Cash (Original by NIN)
2. I Will Survive – Cake (Original by Gloria Gaynor)
3. The Mann Who Sold the World – Nirvana (David Bowie)
4. All Along the Watchtower – Jimmy Hendrix (Original by Bob Dylan)
5. Because the Night – 10,000 Maniacs (Original by Patti Smith)
6. Heroes – The Wallflowers (Original by David Bowie)
7. Love Hurts – Nazareth (Original by the Everly Brothers)
8. Mony Mony – Billy Idol (Original by Tommy James)
9. Nothing Compares 2 You – Sinead O’Connore (Original by Prince)
10. Twist and Shout – the Beatles (Original by Top Notes)

Movies or Music Mondays: Best Movie Soundtracks

There was an article recently written by a sports writer for ESPN stating that Almost Famous is the best rock and roll movie. The article tasked it's readers with naming even one other rock and roll movie that came close to being as good...and I could not. (Link to article below post). This got me to thinking about how perfectly movies and music can blend together to create a multi-media experience for the viewers. And that made me think about my favourite movie soundtracks, so, here is my list:

1. Almost Famous
2. Elizabethtown
3. Singles
4. Reality Bites
5. Juno
6. Garden State
7. Pulp Fiction
8. Pump Up The Volume
9. Pretty in Pink
10. The Wedding Singer
11. Romeo & Juliet (1996)
12. High Fidelity
13. Reservoir Dogs
14. Footloose
15. Dirty Dancing
16. The Rocky Horror Picture Show
17. The Bodyguard
18. Grease
19. 8 Mile
20. Grosse Point Blank
21. P.S. I Love You
22. Natural Born Killers
23. Dazed & Confused
24. Empire Records
25. Breakfast Club

What are your favourite movie soundtracks?

ESPN Article

Movies or Music Mondays: Top Summertime Songs

These are the top summertime songs...what makes it a top song? Well, frankly, it is a song that mentions summer or is about summer that I enjoy or used to enjoy.

1. All Summer Long – Kid Rock
2. Steal My Sunshine – Len
3. Summer in the city – The Loving Spoonful
4. Dancin in the Street – Martha and the Vandellas
5. Strawberry Wine – Deanna Carter
6. Chattahoochee – Alan Jackson
7. School’s Out – Alice Cooper
8. That Summer – Garth Brooks
9. Cruel Summer – Bananarama
10. Summer of 69 – Brian Adams
11. Summertime – Sublime
12. In the Summertime – Mungo Jerry
13. Sunny Afternoon – The Kinks
14. Summer – War
15. Summertime – DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince
16. Summer Nights – John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John
17. You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth - Meatloaf

What are your favourite summertime songs?

Friday Favourites: Bands with "the" in their name

Okay, a musically-themed list for today. These are my favourite bands with the word "the" in their band name.

1. The Roots
2. The Pogues
3. The Donnas
4. The Cranberries
5. The Tragically Hip
6. The Pretenders
7. The Arcade Fire
8. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
9. The New Pornographers
10. The Flaming Lips
11. The Ramones
12. The Raconteurs
13. The Shins
14. The Philosopher Kings
15. The Cardigans

So, what bands with "the" in their name do you love?