Colourful Life

a Playlist by kmah88~

Another playlist? So soon?! You’re welcome.

The other day on Facebook, someone I follow posted this.

Fun! My brain was slow to get in the game, only thinking of a few songs at first but I sat with the challenge for about an hour and came up with a whole bunch of great ones. Then, of course, I cheated and took to the internet, expanding my list into the hundreds.

Wow. I had no idea there were soooooooo many songs with colours in the title.

One thing I should mention is that I am only choosing songs that I already know. Usually when I make a new playlist, I research options and listen to a bunch I’ve never heard before and pick what I like from there. I didn’t do that this time. It was too overwhelming. That said, there are a ton I’ve heard of that are super famous but don’t know so they aren’t included.

Here are my top picks – one for each colour:

1. Weezer – Pink Triangle

Duh. Obviously, Weezer is gonna be the first.

2. Joni Mitchell – Little Green

Green is my favourite colour. It was hard to pick the best songs. Joni’s classic although this song is relatively new in my collection. I picked it up after reading a fan fiction story of the same name.

3. Gob – Paint It Black

Yes, the Stones did it first, but I prefer this version.

4. Nena – 99 Red Balloons

Great 80’s hit. I actually like the German version better, but gotta keep with the (self-imposed) rules. If I were opening it up to other languages, I never would have been able to narrow it down. (Note: J-Pop particularly is very colourful.)

5. Roger Whittaker – Yellow Bird

Not the first yellow song that came to mind (actually it was the very last), but it wasn’t on ANY of the many other lists I saw online and it’s great. Technically a kids song, maybe? But it was a pillar of my own childhood story and I wanted to share it.

6. Helen O’Connell & Bob Eberly – Tangerine

Orange got the short end of the colour stick. The only other 2 options I came across were Orange County Girl by Gwen Stefani, which I felt was not really anything to do with the colour, or Orange Crush by REM, who I loathe. So I am cheating by skipping orange altogether and going with a synonym instead. I LOVE this song. I first heard it in high school when my siblings and I bought a big band CD for my dad’s birthday. Their voices are delicious.

7. Jack’s Mannequin – Dark Blue

No other reason than that I just really like this song. There were a few options but this was my favourite of the bunch. Also, I discovered this band several years ago when they opened for Weezer in Toronto, so there’s that. And then I found out afterwards that it’s on the Stephenie Meyer playlist. I guess everyone likes it.

8. Van Morrison – Brown-Eyed Girl

I almost skipped this one because it’s so cliché but it’s just too awesome to pass up. Also, not a lot of brown options for me.

9. OK Go – White Knuckles

So hard to pick! A lot of really great white songs. Since OK Go is one of my favourite bands, they win.

10. Prince – Purple Rain

Prince was a very colourful guy and his music reflected that. A lot of his songs have colour names in the titles. Seemed weird not to use at least one.

11. Vertical Horizon – Best I Ever Had (Grey Sky Morning)

Again, not a lot of grey songs, but of the limited number, this was my favourite. I love this song.

12. Freda Payne – Band of Gold

It was a toss up between this one and Kanye and 3 different James Bond themes. I picked this one because it’s from the soundtrack to my ‘growing up’ movie, Now and Then. My friends and I would watch it at almost all of our sleepover parties and I listened to the soundtrack until the tape got jammed in my tape player and I had to steal my friend’s CD so I could make a new copy. This song will always remind me of my formative years.

13. Bing Crosby (with Carole Richards) – Silver Bells

Might seem like an odd choice, but Christmas songs use a lot of colour imagery so it makes sense to pick one. And I’m either not a fan of or nor familiar with many non-Christmas silver songs. There are, like, a million different versions of this one to choose from – I chose Bing because he’s one of my favourite voices ever and because I already used a version by Dean Martin in my Christmas playlist.

And to sum up…

14. Cyndi Lauper – True Colors