My Top 40 at my 40th!

Today is my 40th Birthday, and for the last 40 days, I’ve taken my followers on a journey of my top 40 tunes!

For those of you who may not use Facebook, and for prosperity, I thought I’d cover it overall here too.

Here’s the playlist in its entirety!

🔵 Number 40: You’re Gonna be Ok Because in 2019 I hit rock bottom. I had Spotify premium and always liked to use the Discover Weekly playlist, so when it threw this one up, I felt it so deeply. It was my sign to “Never Give Up” – Everything will be ok, what you’re experiencing now is temporary. It will pass. And Pass it did!

🟣 Number 39: Just Say Yes! because Snow Patrol was one of my favourite bands as a young adult. This song was used as a case study in a module about Songwriting. I was a note taker at that point because I was too scared to leave the university for the real world. But I also learnt so much, being a note taker for over a decade.

🔵 Number 38: Mr Blue Sky – This is our song. Couples always have that song that they name as their own. This is ours!

🟣 Number 37: Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) Greenday was my favourite band as a student. But I also said whoever I ended up marrying, this tune had to be the last one of the night. And that’s exactly how it played out, and it was lovely!

🔵 Number 36: The Boxer by Simon & Garfunkel, was a favourite in my childhood, as my mum played their hits fairly regularly. Although I love the piano in Bridge Over Troubled Water, the Lie-le-lie trumps it in catchiness 😛

🟣 Number 35: Dancing in the Dark didn’t discover this one until the last few years, but it stuck in my head, and I seem to have about 4 different covers of it on my “liked songs” playlist, so that’s got to count for something, right?

🔵 Number 34: The Book of Love Peter Gabriel was another artist that I grew up with, courtesy of my dad. But this is another that got stuck in my head and resulted in 3 cover versions of the same song on my “liked” playlist.

🟣 Number 33: Spectrum Obligato (Side Order Sillies) – The artist name always makes me chuckle, but if I put any gaming music in here, it had to be this one. It was so catchy I had to work it out on the piano (but I only managed the bass line…)

🔵 Number 32: Everywhere by Fleetwood Mac. A Classic. The one song I dared myself to sing at my wedding. And I did it, shakily, while Dr G and his best men sat at the other side of the room (so I couldn’t actually see them when I was singing, not least because the only time most of the room had heard me sing, was the dodgy rendition of Calon Lan earlier in the day!)

🟣 Number 31: Africa – the memories of this one. A classic by Toto of course, but the memory stems back to my days in the Music Society Choir at university, and a girl called Becky who loved to arrange pop songs for us! This was one such piece.

🔵 Number 30: Shut Up and Dance was a favourite that got stuck in my head in lockdown. When I took up hula hooping, it was the first song on that list. I just love the energy of it!

🟣 Number 29: Walking on Sunshine was another feel good song, but I’ve known this one a lot longer. Also straight on my hula hooping playlist!

🔵 Number 28: Fireflies – The Owl City one is the one listed here, although I also love the instrumental versions I’ve come across. I just love the intricacy of the harmonies and how this piece is actually put together.

🟣 Number 27: Evermore sung by Josh Groban, because that’s the closest link I have to when I played it with my student as his accompanist in his third year of undergrad. The memories there are bittersweet. I got him through his degree (no thanks to the services that were supposed to help him) we’re still in touch to this day. I’ve got to share our original play of it too

🔵 Number 26: Until I Found You was a song that spoke to me a few years ago. It’s just a beautiful love song with lots of piano in it.

🟣 Number 25: Together in Electric Dreams Can we have two songs? Because this is our “other” song.
And the lyrics seem more appropriate now, because Dr G works away a lot!

🔵 Number 24: Your Song – My favourite film in my late teens was Moulin Rouge, and the picture for today’s was one from when I had a boudoir shoot in 2012, of which I gave the photobook to Dr G as a wedding present. He caused me to have a panic attack the night before the wedding… because who ends the night with a (positive) text saying “We need to talk”??

🟣 Number 23: Contradanza Vanessa Mae. Childhood memories. My dad wanted me to be the “next Vanessa Mae” but I never made it. I couldn’t even pose with my electric violin, because I had no confidence back then. But I did have an electric violin in bright white, that I could never get to grips with…

🔵 Number 22: Missing You
This was a lockdown love. I just loved the blend of instruments, and the feelings the song invoked. It’s a more melancholy song, but it’s got a tune I liked to sing along to in the quieter moments. Found it on my Discover Weekly playlist one week. Saved it ever since!

🟣 Number 21: Long Live This Love
This song speaks to me. “May this love never die, survive the end of time”. I love the piano accompaniment, and the feelings of this song. I actually don’t like putting this song on when Dewi & Dr G are at home, because they’re like “What is this mush?” I like a good romance though, and I’m not afraid to share that

🔵 Number 20: I’m A-Doun for Lack O’ Johnny – a Fusion between Vanessa Mae And Max Bruch. I loved this piece so much I found the classical version of it to learn on violin when I was 16. I think it was the final piece I learnt on violin before I changed over to viola. Childhood memories of the car journey back from visiting the grandparents.

🟣 Number 19: Open Arms Back in 2005/6, I played Runescape (A PC Game MMO) and ran a clan of nearly 80, mainly American teens/kids. One of those teens introduced me to Journey, and I listened to their greatest hits on loop for a while. Open Arms struck me because of the piano part. I played it myself too.

🔵 Number 18: True Colours – Phil Collins was one that my mum used to listen to on loop when I was young. I loved his album, but this one was a particular favourite. I’m all about being my true self, and this song aligns so much with that.

🟣 Number 17: Fix You – Coldplay was one of my favourite bands in my late teens/early 20s! But this particular track reminds me of my long commute to my summer job in 2005/2006. A 30 minute walk, 30 minute train ride, then a 45 minute walk to get to to work.

🔵 Number 16: Show Me Heaven – When I liked this originally I had no idea what she was on about, but older me gets it now 😉

🟣 Number 15: Too Much Love Will Kill You.. Queen’s greatest hits were the soundtrack to most of my sixth form years. But at the end of year 11/start of sixth form, I was in a love triangle with my two best friends. And my teenage brain couldn’t understand why we should only have one boyfriend at a time, but ultimately I had to choose. This song spoke to me back then… I’m still friends with both of them too, though distance is an issue, because we’re spread out across the UK now!

🔵 Number 14: The Last Day on Earth Kate Miller-Heidke was actually recommended to me by my 8 year old son! They’d been listening to some of Kate’s songs in after school club, and she has a song where he really likes the effects… but I liked this one because of the piano, and the catchy riff in the middle!

🟣 Number 13 – Waiting for a Star to Fall is an old favourite. Heard it first as a teen, it pops in and out of my life but I’ll always love it when it comes back to me <3

🔵 Number 12: All of the Stars – Originally by Ed Sheeran, but I love this cover by Jackie Evancho, it was one that got stuck in my head for a while, so it stayed on the playlist.

🟣 Number 11: Angel Sarah McLachlan’s voice, I’ve always loved. This one is special because it was one of the first tunes I really wanted to sing to the piano with. Here’s my cover

🔵 Number 10: The Best is Yet to Come popped up in lockdown, and is a great reminder that the best is yet to come. It’s motivational, feel good, and a reminder to feel the fear and do it anyway!

🟣 Number 9: Marry you Not a massive fan of Bruno Mars, but this one will always be a favourite. We got woken up by Dr G’s radio clock on the morning exactly a year before our wedding, with this song. Although we weren’t doing something stupid, I definitely couldn’t wait to be his wife!

🔵 Number 8: One Moment in Time – Whitney Houston, a classic. One that I always love to play on piano but can never quite get it good enough to go live with! I recorded a short clip of the opening but not yet the full thing, one day…

🟣 Number 7: I’m With You is one of my teen favourites. Avril Lavigne accompanied me through my “mosher” phase. I was never actually a mosher, I tried to dress like one but that’s all it got to!

🔵 Number 6: Moon and Back – This was a song that got stuck in my head, and I thought was lovely love song, that I’d one day sing to Dr G, except that never happened. I once tried to sing a set of 4 pieces on our 4th anniversary, but I bottled it after the first song! Will I ever attempt that again? Probably not, but I may do it on a live in my den in the future 😛

🟣 Number 5: I Believe in a Thing Called Love – The Darkness was my favourite band in 2003. Particularly when going round universities for open days. One such open day was an overnight at Durham university. They’d assigned me to the sports college, which confused me, and made me so socially anxious, that I checked myself into my room, and stayed there until the morning, with my headphones in, listening to “Permission to Land” on loop until the early hours, because I was too anxious to sleep properly!

🔵 Number 4: Crockett’s Theme – I absolutely loved Jan Hammer growing up, and have always liked the synth type music. This one brings back the memories of travelling home from the grandparents on a cold winters’ night. It invokes a feeling of warmth for me.

🟣 Number 3: Doodles – This song got stuck in my head, it’s a fairly recent discovery, but it’s so jolly I couldn’t miss it out! I love everything about it!

🔵 Number 2: To the Moon & Back – Savage Garden was a favourite of my late teens. This one slightly trumps Truly Madly Deeply, just because the latter was so over played on the radio at the time. Despite that I actually love the whole album by Savage Garden, and the second one too. (Affirmation) I played them on loop for quite a while!

🥳 Number 1: It had to be Time after Time but not the original version. I’ve always loved Eva Cassidy’s voice (My mum’s influence again) but I never knew she’d covered this one until the last few years. When my brain is running on empty (It hasn’t got a song to get stuck on, it always reverts back to this one) And memories of Womanifest one year, where Sophie Garner’s choir actually took it on to perform on the stage. That was a magical year! I also performed it in a previous live session, so here’s the video of that:

I hope you’ve enjoyed exploring my top 40 with me, and of course, you can grab the whole playlist too.

Happy Birthday to me! I made it to 40! 😀 Now it’s festival season, and I can’t wait!