Amor Vincit Omnia wrote: ↑Thu Jan 20, 2022 5:21 pm I’m surprised in a way that no one has picked this next one yet. “Into the West” by Annie Lennox, from “LOTR - the Return of the King”.

Or pretty much anything by Annie Lennox!

Thegreyman wrote: ↑Thu Jan 20, 2022 7:33 am Thought of a few more to consider:

Your Song - Elton John
Fields of Gold - Sting
One - U2
Imagine - John Lennon

Hard to argue with any of those, although I'd put forward Eva Cassidy's version of Fields of Gold...

downer wrote: ↑Thu Jan 20, 2022 7:38 pm Eva Cassidy's version of Fields of Gold...

Superb!

And I don’t think we’ve had another of my favourite female vocalists yet. A tragic story and a voice like liquid honey. I give you the wonderful Karen Carpenter.

The Waterboys....How long will I love you

Corinne Bailey Rae....Put your records on

Where to bloody start with this. Firstly, though, a great thread and some great songs.

There are so many songs that instantly bring me in to the very moment, absolutely focused on the words, tune and delivery. I could list many that take me to that place but I need to start somewhere, so here they are:
Midnight Train to Georgia (Gladys Knight) and Misty Blue (Dorothy Moore)

Ps we need more Soul and Funk fans on the forum

Amor Vincit Omnia wrote: ↑Thu Jan 20, 2022 8:02 pm And I don’t think we’ve had another of my favourite female vocalists yet. A tragic story and a voice like liquid honey. I give you the wonderful Karen Carpenter.

Hard to argue with Karen Carpenter when talking about beautiful voices and beautiful songs. I imagine most of us have had this experience before…

Thegreyman wrote: ↑Thu Jan 20, 2022 7:33 am One - U2

This reminded me of an extraordinary cover of this song. Mary J Blige takes a great song and kicks it up a few notches with the power of her voice. I like Bono, but he just can’t compete with the power Mary puts into this song. I love how it is slightly reworked, too.





And while we’re on the topic of U2, let me share this gem that the YouTube algorithms shared with me. I’ve had it saved ever since. I have no idea who this woman is, but she takes this great song and completely transforms it into something stunningly beautiful.

When considering "beautiful" songs, one that keeps coming back to me is the song Angel (sometimes called In the Arms of an Angel) by a favourite Canadian artist of mine, Sarah McLachlan. I have hesitated before finally deciding to put it forward here, as it is an unbearably sad, even bleak, song for many. But others take comfort in it. I guess that many of the most beautiful songs do tug at the emotions and sometimes a good sad and reflective song is what we all need to hear.

The song has been covered countless times by other artists, but none really top the original for me, performed by the person who wrote it:




And while we're on the topic of Sarah McLachlan, here she is again singing another beautiful song, but one that is written by the great Randy Newman for this classic scene in the film Toy Story 2. The song is When She Loved Me:

welshlad wrote: ↑Fri Jan 21, 2022 12:34 am And while we're on the topic of Sarah McLachlan, here she is again singing another beautiful song, but one that is written by the great Randy Newman for this classic scene in the film Toy Story 2. The song is When She Loved Me:

My step-son loves that song. He’ll pull it upon YouTube then start crying as it plays because it’s so sad to him. He’s on the spectrum and will feel emotions pretty strongly sometimes.

And I agree 100% that sad songs can be beautiful. Sometimes they’re the most beautiful.

This one got in my head whilst watching the TV series "Keeping Faith". That singer/songwriter is Amy Wadge.

I'm really looking forward to listening to the songs suggested, in the meantime, I just started watching this playlist on YouTube.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgzT ... NcZdeezGG-

Regards Steve

Have to include this one today...




Maybe not beautiful in any traditional sense, but for the memories it supports I would definitely include it. RIP Meatloaf.

^^^ I just had a quick sample of that, Steve. I don’t want to make sweeping generalisations, but in common with a lot of more recent music I’ve heard, the vocal quality is often fine but I don’t feel that the quality of the melodies is as good as some of the tunes written 40 or 50 years ago. They strike me as a bit repetitive. Also I find the diction quite poor at times, but I guess some of that is down to the way people speak nowadays.

Going back as far as the Rat Pack, and thinking of the likes of Dusty Springfield and Karen Carpenter, they all had excellent diction and you could generally make out every word. On the other hand someone like Joan Armatrading, for example, wrote some excellent stuff but there are songs of hers where I struggle to understand what she’s actually singing. So it’s not entirely a modern thing. But the musical equivalent of mumbling is a real turn off for me.

Always loved this one.

The Streets and Dry Your Eyes Out.



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