What
are your top ten songs?
Oo,
this is like being on Desert Island Discs. It’s hard to pick just 10 songs as
there have been so many from different times of my life. However, ten it is, and
here they are. Some are from the 1960s and 1970s. I am still stuck in that era
musically but then, there was some great music around then. And I’ve put in a
few from the CD compilation that I found in a charity shop in North London and
which inspired the book Playlist for a Broken
Heart. I’ve put links to the tracks so you can listen to them if you like.
1)
Fallin’ by Alicia Keys. I picked this one
because it is the first track on the CD that inspired the book Playlist for a Broken Heart. I found the
CD in a charity shop in North London and when I got home, loved so many of the
tracks on it and felt that they told the story of unrequited love. I wondered
who had made it, was it a gift for someone? And why had it ended up in a
charity shop? What was the story behind it? Those questions gave me the idea
for the book. Also, the song is fab, great singing by Alicia, great piano and I
love the way it builds and the backing singers are something else.
2)
Expecting
to Fly by Buffalo Springfield. One of my all-time
favourite songs. It gives a sense of being on the edge of something, waiting
for it to happen and having to leave something behind. I heard it when I was
about eighteen and think it resonated because it summed up so much of how I was
feeling back then – going into a new chapter of my life, starting art college
and saying goodbye to my teenage years and school and also my family who moved
abroad while I chose to stay behind in England. I also picked this song title
as the title for book three in my Cinnamon
Girl series.
3)
Woodstock
by Joni Mitchell. This is from her album Ladies of the Canyon. I remember being
in Miss Selfridge in Manchester in 1971 when I first heard this playing and it
summed up so much about my generation and the hope that a new more peaceful age
was going to happen.
4)
You
Do Something to Me by Paul Weller. Such a romantic song and being a romantic
myself, I thought it describes that amazing rush you feel when you meet someone
who is going to be special in your life.
5)
To
a Flame by Stephen Stills. I like this one because it is
so emotive and atmospheric, and great violins!
6)
Time
After Time by Cyndi Lauper I picked this one because when I
was writing my last book, Love At Second
Sight, this song was on a loop tape in
my head because the book is about a girl who is told by a clairvoyant
that if she is to find true love, she must find a boy she knew in a past life,
someone she’d known time after time. If ever the book is made into a movie,
this has to be the sound track.
7)
Weight
of My World by Kings
of Convenience: This is another song from the CD I found in the charity
shop. I’d never heard of this band before I found the CD and liked their sound.
8)
The
Worst Thing by
Natalie Merchant. I love the Spanish
sound of the guitar on this. It’s sung as if it’s by an older lady who has been
hurt and is warning about the pain of love. It’s another track from the CD I
found in the charity shop. I’d never heard of Natalie Merchant but went out and
bought all her CDs soon after. This song is bittersweet and so sad.
9)
Have
I Told You Lately by Van Morrison. I had to pick one by
Van the man. I like so much of his music but this track is one of my
favourites. It’s such a great love song. Great piano and violins in it, they go
up and up and just when you think they can’t go any higher, they do. Sends
shivers down my spine.
10) Guinnevere
by Crosby, Stills and Nash: I picked this one because whenever I hear it I
am back in Manchester in 1972 in a room with a student I had a crush on. He
used to play this track for me about a lady with green eyes. I have green eyes
and thought it was so romantic. Sadly, he turned out to be a bit of a Casanova
type so we didn’t last too long as a couple.
Thank
you so much Cathy! I’m definitely going to give these songs a listen!
Playlist for a Broken
Heart is no available in paperback. You can read my
review here.
Sophie
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