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In this thread I rank my favorite Beatles songs: 204-1. (6 Viewers)

Shaft41 said:
While this is in my top 5, I have no qualms with putting it where you did.  It would have probably been in a similar place for me a couple of years ago, but then something changed it for me.  My oldest daughter is now 16 and a sophomore, but when she got to be about 12-13, she developed a real aversion to being places without us.  She stopped going to friends' houses for sleepovers, and then eventually even to visit at all.  She didn't want friends even coming over to our house.  She became a complete homebody with a fair amount of anxiety.  In 7th grade, she was supposed to go with other students to a music contest all day.  We were to come up later in the afternoon and hear the concert they had prepared all day.  We ended up having her have a meltdown in the parking lot and refusing to get on the bus to go.  She had been blessed with tremendous musical talent, but we were afraid she would never be able to share it with others in public.  

By the tail end of 8th grade, nothing had really changed from a social aspect, but she came home one day and said that she was going to try out for a solo for a spring showcase talent show kind of a thing.  We were really pleased, but apprehensive that as the date approached, she would not be able to go through with it because of her anxiety.  She was very secretive about what she was performing, even though she had asked us for ideas on what to play the piano and sing.  But she would work on it weekly with her piano teacher and didn't even really want to practice it when we were around.  

A week or so before the talent show, we got confirmation that she was, indeed, performing "Let It Be".  Prouder parents, we could not be.  As the day approached, she didn't seem to be showing any signs of fear and anxiety, and we were very optimistic.  The day before the concert, she came down sick.  So sick, in fact, that she couldn't perform the night of the concert and stayed home in bed.  She was bummed, as were we.  A month or so later, her school choir was going to perform an outdoor concert with the band during lunchtime downtown.  We found out that the teacher was going to have some soloists perform as well.  I took the day off of work so I could help transport my parents downtown so we could hear her.  Needless to say, she knocked it out of the park, and I'm not sure I've ever been more proud.  

The lyrics do it for me more now after hearing my daughter sing them.  Coming from the place where she was coming from, just calming down and having the confidence to get up there and let it be and share her gift with the world made them mean more to me.  So, there's no way that song can't be near the top for me now.  
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Awwwww, in a thread full of beautiful stories this is one of the sweetest of all.  Is she still singing and performing in public?  This deeply touches my cold, buying-two-day-past-Valentines-candy heart.

Was kind of hoping for a plot twist where the song she decided to sing was "Helter Skelter," though.

 
shuke said:
Anyone seen Rain?  This thread has inspired me to take the fam to see them this summer.
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I bet someone here has seen it.  I'm never sure if this sort of thing might just make me sad.  I'm glad there's still an opportunity to see Paul and Ringo play.  I've seen Paul but not Ringo.

 
simey said:
She said early on in this thread that John's songwriting was more personal, and even exposed the ugly sides of himself, and that type of writing generally appealed to her more.  However, she also has expressed many times over how brilliant and genius Paul is. I too gravitate more towards John's songs, but I love Paul's songs as well, and krista still has more Paul songs coming up in her countdown.  Her countdown isn't what songs she thinks are the best Beatles songs, it is what songs she personally likes the most.
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You're spot on with this, but going further, I think the whole John v. Paul (v. George sometimes too) stuff is just ####### stupid.  I can't imagine how a Beatles fan would get caught up in that.  The Beatles were extraordinary because of the combination of Paul and John, more than anything, and then supplemented perfectly by George and Ringo.  It's hard to think of a rock/pop music duo that wrote and collaborated the way they did, with such success.  It was rare until maybe 1968 for them to come to each other with a fully formed song, and all the songs before that were collaborations, to a greater or lesser extent.  And even after they started to fracture with the White Album and beyond, many of the songs still contained huge collaborative elements.  Though we can call something more a "John song" or a "Paul song," it's hard to imagine many of them coming together without the participation of both of them.

The "I'm a John guy" or "I'm a Paul gal" #### is such rubbish.

 
Further to simey's point, it's clear that what's left of both the Paul and John songs are generally those that are more personal, in keeping with what I've expressed as my preference.  Paul's more personal songs rank very highly, including songs like "Mother Nature's Son," "You Won't See Me" or "I'm Looking Through You" that I expect to be higher than consensus, plus some personal songs still to come that will be undoubtedly higher than consensus.

 
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Getzlaf15 said:
how do you remember that ####?
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I remember weird ####, or everything maybe.  I remember Don't Let Me Down being ranked ~40 and your saying it would be ~60 for you.  Help! being ranked something like 18 and you were outraged because you thought it should be top 10.  Little snippets stand out to me, but I could have misremembered them!

ETA:  This is why anyone who didn't ever date me was lucky.

 
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krista4 said:
I remember weird ####, or everything maybe.  I remember Don't Let Me Down being ranked ~40 and your saying it would be ~60 for you.  Help! being ranked something like 18 and you were outraged because you thought it should be top 10.  Little snippets stand out to me, but I could have misremembered them!

ETA:  This is why anyone who didn't ever date me was lucky.
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:lmao:

I'm listening to it again right now and nothing is going to change my world.

Also, I'm arbitrarily bored waiting for the next song to be ranked that has not been re-ranked.

 
Getzlaf15 said:
:lmao:

I'm listening to it again right now and nothing is going to change my world.

Also, I'm arbitrarily bored waiting for the next song to be ranked that has not been re-ranked.
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I’m writing it up now.

Might not matter to you, but the Across The Universe version I’ll be ranking is the naked version.  The charity (original) version is also acceptable; the Spector one is not.

 
35.  Please Please Me (Please Please Me, 1963)

Beatles version:  Spotify  YouTube

The only song on the countdown that was written as a combination of a Roy Orbison and a Bing Crosby song!  John wrote this upon listening to Roy Orbison's "Only the Lonely," but also incorporating thoughts from Bing Crosby's "Please."  As you might imagine from those two influences, the song was originally written and rehearsed at a much slower tempo, but Fifth Beatle George Martin suggested that the dreary, monotonous song be sped up.  At the end of the recording sessions for the now-uptempo song, Martin, who called the recording session "a joy," declared, "'Gentlemen, you've just made your first number one record.'"  And he was mostly right:  though the song only reached #2 on one of the charts, it reached #1 on the rest of the British charts and became their first (almost) #1 hit.  (I discussed "Love Me Do" earlier as the first "true" #1, even though tim didn't read the write-up.)  Even usually surly John acknowledged how happy the band was with the song.  

This became the first song that the Beatles ever performed live on television, on the show Thank Your Lucky Stars.  One could reasonably state that this was the beginning of Beatlemania in Britain, somewhat in the way that the Ed Sullivan appearance fueled the frenzy in the US (though that frenzy had already begun before the TV show).  This show was hugely popular in Britain, and due to some terrible weather in January 1963, the Brits were stuck inside that night hooked to the telly.  Seeing these guys with the unusual haircuts and insane energy and talent helped launch the madness. 

I love every part of this song:  John's sexy lead vocal (yes I went there); Paul's as-always amazing bass lines; the call-and-response between John on the "call" and Paul/George harmonizing the "response"; the harmonica playing in parallel with the guitar; the urgency of the eighth notes on the bridge as compared to the quarter notes in the verses; the unexpected pauses throughout.  One aspect that particularly stands out to me is the harmonic structure of the verse, with Paul maintaining the high note while John descends; gives it a slightly jabby but pleasing sound.  The title with the double "please" was so clever.  The song drowns in hooks, from that intro riff to the little drum fills to the nifty guitar intro to "c'mon c'mon." 

Mr. krista:  [Narrator:  it would be nice if I'd noted which part of the song he was talking about, but from context it appears to be the little drum fill just before the five-note guitar intro to "c'mon c'mon" part.]  "That sets the song.  It sounds like it speeds up, but it doesn’t.  It’s a very unlikely part, but it sets up that great lick that leads to the chorus.  It sounds like a mistake.  That’s what that has such huge payoff, like it moves you into the next part.  It seems intuitive.  None of those chords are difficult and I guarantee that everybody has trouble playing it when they first try.  That’s really good songwriting and is why rock is so good.  That’s part of the rock vocabulary now, and I guarantee it wasn’t before.  It’s just genius.  I don’t mean like Nabokov is a genius, but an inspired moment where you have to be really young or really brave to put in your song."

Suggested cover:  Blondie, why not.  I met Deborah Harry once in New York.  By "met," I mean that she and I came to the same street crossing at the same time that the light turned to "Don't Walk."  She said, "####."  I nodded at her knowingly.

 
krista4 said:
35.  Please Please Me (Please Please Me, 1963)

Beatles version:  Spotify  YouTube

The only song on the countdown that was written as a combination of a Roy Orbison and a Bing Crosby song!  John wrote this upon listening to Roy Orbison's "Only the Lonely," but also incorporating thoughts from Bing Crosby's "Please."  As you might imagine from those two influences, the song was originally written and rehearsed at a much slower tempo, but Fifth Beatle George Martin suggested that the dreary, monotonous song be sped up.  At the end of the recording sessions for the now-uptempo song, Martin, who called the recording session "a joy," declared, "'Gentlemen, you've just made your first number one record.'"  And he was mostly right:  though the song only reached #2 on one of the charts, it reached #1 on the rest of the British charts and became their first (almost) #1 hit.  (I discussed "Love Me Do" earlier as the first "true" #1, even though tim didn't read the write-up.)  Even usually surly John acknowledged how happy the band was with the song.  

This became the first song that the Beatles ever performed live on television, on the show Thank Your Lucky Stars.  One could reasonably state that this was the beginning of Beatlemania in Britain, somewhat in the way that the Ed Sullivan appearance fueled the frenzy in the US (though that frenzy had already begun before the TV show).  This show was hugely popular in Britain, and due to some terrible weather in January 1963, the Brits were stuck inside that night hooked to the telly.  Seeing these guys with the unusual haircuts and insane energy and talent helped launch the madness. 

I love every part of this song:  John's sexy lead vocal (yes I went there); Paul's as-always amazing bass lines; the call-and-response between John on the "call" and Paul/George harmonizing the "response"; the harmonica playing in parallel with the guitar; the urgency of the eighth notes on the bridge as compared to the quarter notes in the verses; the unexpected pauses throughout.  One aspect that particularly stands out to me is the harmonic structure of the verse, with Paul maintaining the high note while John descends; gives it a slightly jabby but pleasing sound.  The title with the double "please" was so clever.  The song drowns in hooks, from that intro riff to the little drum fills to the nifty guitar intro to "c'mon c'mon." 

Mr. krista:  [Narrator:  it would be nice if I'd noted which part of the song he was talking about, but from context it appears to be the little drum fill just before the five-note guitar intro to "c'mon c'mon" part.]  "That sets the song.  It sounds like it speeds up, but it doesn’t.  It’s a very unlikely part, but it sets up that great lick that leads to the chorus.  It sounds like a mistake.  That’s what that has such huge payoff, like it moves you into the next part.  It seems intuitive.  None of those chords are difficult and I guarantee that everybody has trouble playing it when they first try.  That’s really good songwriting and is why rock is so good.  That’s part of the rock vocabulary now, and I guarantee it wasn’t before.  It’s just genius.  I don’t mean like Nabokov is a genius, but an inspired moment where you have to be really young or really brave to put in your song."

Suggested cover:  Blondie, why not.  I met Deborah Harry once in New York.  By "met," I mean that she and I came to the same street crossing at the same time that the light turned to "Don't Walk."  She said, "####."  I nodded at her knowingly.
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Totally agree with everything. 

 
So...

25 years ago I went out with some people after work to a nearby bar.  I was like 25. Most everybody else had just turned 21.

The bar we went to had two levels.  The first level was where the bandstand was.  We all went upstairs to drink.

After a few drinks I started to notice the band downstairs.  Very pop/powerpop/British Invasion.  Like you couldn’t stop tapping your feet.

So I went down to check them out. It was 3 dudes (eventually they added a fourth) in white shirts and skinny ties..with Beatle-like haircuts.  And they rocked.

After a song or two I recognized the drummer as a dude I had known since kindergarten. 

It was kinda shocking because the last time I had heard of these dudes they had once been part of a hard rock/metal band that had tried to make it big on LAI guess they became jaded and disillusioned. They came back to town and decided to reinvent themselves as a mid 60s-esque band called BRIAN JONES WAS MURDERED.

They put out one CD and then dispersed.  I think they played gigs for about a year. 

There will be a link below but it doesn’t do them justice.  

When people ask “who was the best local band you ever saw?” BJWM is my answer. Period.  

Bandcamp is weird.  Sometimes what you want to hear is free.  Other times you gotta pay.  Whatever.

https://brianjoneswasmurdered.bandcamp.com/album/death-of-a-popstar-20th-anniversary-remastered-edition

”So Alone” is my favorite.

Edit: I think incognito mode circumvents the pay feature.

and I’m not suggesting you rip these dudes off...they’re fine financially these days.

 
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krista4 said:
Awwwww, in a thread full of beautiful stories this is one of the sweetest of all.  Is she still singing and performing in public?  This deeply touches my cold, buying-two-day-past-Valentines-candy heart.

Was kind of hoping for a plot twist where the song she decided to sing was "Helter Skelter," though.
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She has come out of shell more each year. She did "Man in the Mirror" last year and is supposed to be doing "Your Song" this year. I would post a video of her doing a dress rehearsal of her "Let It Be" if I weren't a technological idiot. 

 
OrtonToOlsen said:
So...

25 years ago I went out with some people after work to a nearby bar.  I was like 25. Most everybody else had just turned 21.

The bar we went to had two levels.  The first level was where the bandstand was.  We all went upstairs to drink.

After a few drinks I started to notice the band downstairs.  Very pop/powerpop/British Invasion.  Like you couldn’t stop tapping your feet.

So I went down to check them out. It was 3 dudes (eventually they added a fourth) in white shirts and skinny ties..with Beatle-like haircuts.  And they rocked.

After a song or two I recognized the drummer as a dude I had known since kindergarten. 

It was kinda shocking because the last time I had heard of these dudes they had once been part of a hard rock/metal band that had tried to make it big on LAI guess they became jaded and disillusioned. They came back to town and decided to reinvent themselves as a mid 60s-esque band called BRIAN JONES WAS MURDERED.

They put out one CD and then dispersed.  I think they played gigs for about a year. 

There will be a link below but it doesn’t do them justice.  

When people ask “who was the best local band you ever saw?” BJWM is my answer. Period.  

Bandcamp is weird.  Sometimes what you want to hear is free.  Other times you gotta pay.  Whatever.

https://brianjoneswasmurdered.bandcamp.com/album/death-of-a-popstar-20th-anniversary-remastered-edition

”So Alone” is my favorite.

Edit: I think incognito mode circumvents the pay feature.

and I’m not suggesting you rip these dudes off...they’re fine financially these days.
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I could only get "Number One"t to work, but liked it a lot.  Even Mr. krista said, "Who's this?" in an approving way.

Shaft41 said:
She has come out of shell more each year. She did "Man in the Mirror" last year and is supposed to be doing "Your Song" this year. I would post a video of her doing a dress rehearsal of her "Let It Be" if I weren't a technological idiot. 
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Ohhhh, "Your Song" is one of my favorite songs, sappy though that might sound.  I'd be happy to post the video if you want to send to me.  I just posted some cat pics for someone in the kitty thread when he wasn't able to do it.  You might have to trust me enough (and likewise) for email.  PM me if you wish.

 
The Future Champs said:
hello, women remember this sort of ####

source: was married
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:lmao:   I figured this was coming, and am surprised it took so long.  The difference with me is that I remember all of it, both good and bad.  So you get all the bad ####, but also if you told me once 20 years ago that your dream was to play the role of King Herod in Jesus Christ Superstar before you die, I'll make sure that happens, too.

 
Met Mr. krista for dinner unexpectedly (he left work "early" at 8 pm), so didn't get to more write-ups.  Did hear both "Drive My Car" and "Hey Jude" from the jukebox, and on the way home "I Feel Fine" and "Mother Nature's Son."  

The latter made me think...if you guys could name one or two songs you think are underrated and would really like the other denizens of this thread to give a chance to, which songs would they be?

I might ponder a little more, but off the top of my head "Mother Nature's Son" and "You Won't See Me" come to mind.

 
krista4 said:
Met Mr. krista for dinner unexpectedly (he left work "early" at 8 pm), so didn't get to more write-ups.  Did hear both "Drive My Car" and "Hey Jude" from the jukebox, and on the way home "I Feel Fine" and "Mother Nature's Son."  

The latter made me think...if you guys could name one or two songs you think are underrated and would really like the other denizens of this thread to give a chance to, which songs would they be?

I might ponder a little more, but off the top of my head "Mother Nature's Son" and "You Won't See Me" come to mind.
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"Penny Lane" comes to mind...

 
krista4 said:
Met Mr. krista for dinner unexpectedly (he left work "early" at 8 pm), so didn't get to more write-ups.  Did hear both "Drive My Car" and "Hey Jude" from the jukebox, and on the way home "I Feel Fine" and "Mother Nature's Son."  

The latter made me think...if you guys could name one or two songs you think are underrated and would really like the other denizens of this thread to give a chance to, which songs would they be?

I might ponder a little more, but off the top of my head "Mother Nature's Son" and "You Won't See Me" come to mind.
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I love "Mother Nature's Son", and it snuck into my top 25, but it's not a masterpiece.   I wouldn't blame anyone for dropping it all the way down to 26 or so.

 
I posed this question to Mr. krista, who started in on a good rant and/or explanation of why he loves a particular song in his top 10, so I asked him just to post it here so that I wouldn't have to transcribe it.   :)  

 
krista4 said:
I posed this question to Mr. krista, who started in on a good rant and/or explanation of why he loves a particular song in his top 10, so I asked him just to post it here so that I wouldn't have to transcribe it.   :)  
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It's about time.   You'd better register the alias "Mr. Krista" ASAP.

 
The Future Champs said:
Missed it.   Off to try my luck with limited search skills.
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:lol:   Sorry, I could have been more helpful.  He posts under the name Oliver Humanzee.  Sometime after we'd been together a bit, he decided to check out what all this was about but has rarely posted over the years.  Just look for the extra-snarky music snob posts.  But he's currently in another room responding to my requests for underappreciated songs.

Speaking of which, do you have any?

 
krista4 said:
:lol:   Sorry, I could have been more helpful.  He posts under the name Oliver Humanzee.  Sometime after we'd been together a bit, he decided to check out what all this was about but has rarely posted over the years.  Just look for the extra-snarky music snob posts.  But he's currently in another room responding to my requests for underappreciated songs.

Speaking of which, do you have any?
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Oh, I remember the name.  Did he ever participate in mix tape drafts?

will find some underappreciated songs in a minute

 
I will say it's really hard to find underappreciated songs by the Beatles.  Their catalog is fairly small compared to many of the other great artists, and the quality throughout is so good that we've all listened to everything, repeatedly, already. 

Now a ranking of the Stones, Neil Young, or Bob Dylan would be an entirely different exercise, but I think I in all those cases we'd want to cap the # number of songs.   For example, here's something that would sneak into my top 50 Neil Young songs that I'll bet is relatively unknown:

Neil Young - Too Lonely

Just a rocker, but it signaled a return to form after about a decade in wilderness.

 
I don't think that "casual" Beatles' fans appreciate "And Your Bird Can Sing" enough. 
 
Musically speaking, my own personal crank is turned primarily by a particular kind of combustion (not occurring entirely in rock music, though mostly that is where it happens) that has little to do with the "pop" aspects of music that most folks seem to respond to.  That is to say, I truly don't give a fig about a song's "catchiness", its "tunefulness", or whether or not one can bop one's painfully Caucasoid head along to it while driving.  "Danceability" is hahahah whatever chief people manage to dance to Stravinsky and I look like a raccoon drunk on fermented crabapples when I try to perform a movement more artful than "walk briskly in a straight line".  

That said, "And Your Bird Can Sing" burns in the ways that the best rock music does:  it is funny and spiteful and is built around a seemingly endless, hall-of-fame caliber riff as good as "Black Dog" or "Supernaut".  

And Christ if it isn't "catchy" and "hooky" and "fuzzy" and two minutes of absurdly radio-friendly pop music from one of the best bands on the planet at the height of their powers. 

I mean, The Posies, Guided By Voices, Cheap Trick, Game Theory and that whole LA "Paisley Underground" spent whole decades trying to achieve that kind rock/pop/art synthesis and it has just been hanging out there on side B of Revolver this whole time. 

The hell.  Why aren't all of you "power pop" music aficionados jabbering about this song so ceaselessly that I have to mute you on Twitter?  Why the hell do you all keep jabbering about Weezer?  (I mean, I assume.  That's what you were all jabbering about when I muted you on Twitter.) 

 
rockaction said:
It is pretty bleak lyrically. "No one was saved." 

Eesh. Talk about your existential futility.  
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That's a feature not a bug! 

krista4 said:
If I were to try to explain why this one gets me so down as opposed to others that also have depressing lyrics, that would nicely sum it up.
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These themes don't get me down. They lift me up. We come and we go. No one is ever saved.  Nothing we do really matters.

We all need to just Let it Be a little more. 

Because nothing is going to change my world. 

 
Shaft41 said:
While this is in my top 5, I have no qualms with putting it where you did.  It would have probably been in a similar place for me a couple of years ago, but then something changed it for me.  My oldest daughter is now 16 and a sophomore, but when she got to be about 12-13, she developed a real aversion to being places without us.  She stopped going to friends' houses for sleepovers, and then eventually even to visit at all.  She didn't want friends even coming over to our house.  She became a complete homebody with a fair amount of anxiety.  In 7th grade, she was supposed to go with other students to a music contest all day.  We were to come up later in the afternoon and hear the concert they had prepared all day.  We ended up having her have a meltdown in the parking lot and refusing to get on the bus to go.  She had been blessed with tremendous musical talent, but we were afraid she would never be able to share it with others in public.  

By the tail end of 8th grade, nothing had really changed from a social aspect, but she came home one day and said that she was going to try out for a solo for a spring showcase talent show kind of a thing.  We were really pleased, but apprehensive that as the date approached, she would not be able to go through with it because of her anxiety.  She was very secretive about what she was performing, even though she had asked us for ideas on what to play the piano and sing.  But she would work on it weekly with her piano teacher and didn't even really want to practice it when we were around.  

A week or so before the talent show, we got confirmation that she was, indeed, performing "Let It Be".  Prouder parents, we could not be.  As the day approached, she didn't seem to be showing any signs of fear and anxiety, and we were very optimistic.  The day before the concert, she came down sick.  So sick, in fact, that she couldn't perform the night of the concert and stayed home in bed.  She was bummed, as were we.  A month or so later, her school choir was going to perform an outdoor concert with the band during lunchtime downtown.  We found out that the teacher was going to have some soloists perform as well.  I took the day off of work so I could help transport my parents downtown so we could hear her.  Needless to say, she knocked it out of the park, and I'm not sure I've ever been more proud.  

The lyrics do it for me more now after hearing my daughter sing them.  Coming from the place where she was coming from, just calming down and having the confidence to get up there and let it be and share her gift with the world made them mean more to me.  So, there's no way that song can't be near the top for me now.  
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This a Rocky Racoon for me. I have friends who love that song and it's always bugged me. That just isn't a song to be on a hill for. Then I saw my little nephew perform it. Now I think of him every time and I love it. Not the song. That's strong for the song. Love the memory and song makes me smile now. 

 
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