Songs That People Are Surprised I Like, and Other Songs I Like and Love
- Anthony June-Dubois
- Nov 13, 2023
- 6 min read
Updated: Nov 16, 2023
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Without exaggeration I have literally had some song in my head throughout my entire life. While it's impossible to compile a complete list of all the songs I like, here's a good chunk of them with a few surprises...
Songs That People are Surprised I Like
Given the music I make, people tend to think I only listen to metal or industrial music but my taste is actually all over the place. I even get ribbed for liking a lot of these songs, but if I like it I like it! So let's rip the band-aid off shall we...
Huey Lewis and the News - Heart and Soul
I get a vivid image in my head of a relatively innocent and peaceful time around 2nd or 3rd grade in my childhood home on the cul de sac, just BEING. In this idyllic memory, this song is playing on the radio. Anytime I hear this song or it pops in my head, my heart strings are definitely tugged and I truly miss those days.
T'Pau - Heart and Soul
Another song entitled Heart and Soul on my list, I was in about the 5th grade when this song started being played on the radio a lot. Up to that point I rarely liked anything other than Heart with female vocals let alone coupled with keyboards. But I knew a strong song when I heard one, and it had an irresistible groove to it. Decades later the song came up on my radar again when I kept hearing the name T'Pau while far into my Star Trek rabbit hole, who was a Vulcan character AND is who the group is actually named after.
The System - Don't Disturb This Groove
In late elementary school when all I jammed to was metal, I heard this song on the radio and was secretly hooked. I'd had a fondness of R&B music deep down, and this song really came through to me. For years after it was a song that would spontaneously pop in my head. Many years later it was one of the first, if not the first, songs I downloaded on Napster as I never could find out who the artist was that did the song. I love the beat and drum sound reminiscent of Depeche Mode's Never Let Me Down and deep synth bass line. To me, the perfect 80's R&B song archetype with one of my favorite lyric hooks of all time: "Hang a sign up on the door that says 'Don't disturb this groove.'"
Pat Benatar - Love is a Battlefield
Pat Benatar is not only my favorite female singer of the 80's but one of my favorite singers period. This song showcases her otherworldly pipes and I simply cannot listen to this song (or any song with her amazing vocals) passively. What's even more interesting to me is that she is a dead ringer to my older half sister Debra, so it always made her extra cool to me.
Paul Carrack - Don't Shed a Tear
This song taught me an important lesson. It came out when I was in about the 7th grade, and I still had an aversion to keyboards at the time so for months when I would hear the keyboards at the beginning of the song start on the radio, I would automatically change the station in the first few notes before the song came on. Then one day, I walked in a few minutes early to my classical guitar lesson at H&H music and as usual music would be playing through their impressive sound system. Then the intro to this song came in with its keyboards, I rolled my eyes and was annoyed that I couldn't change the station this time. When the second measure of the keyboards came in, it had an interesting volume swell come in that I hadn't heard before, and finally the drums came crashing in, and I remember thinking to myself "hmm..." It actually sounded really cool, then the singer came in. Then the hook. I was really surprised at how good the whole song sounded with the keyboards I thought I couldn't stand fitting in just right. So I admit, I learned a lesson before my guitar lesson that day to maybe give things a chance.
Jodeci - Cry for You
The first time I ever heard Cry for You loud in my slightly above average stereo system in my used car during college, wow. This song has never been skipped in my ride or at home for that matter. As far as I've known, even the hardest gangster jams to this one. Feenin' and Forever My Lady were my gateway songs to Jodeci that I always loved, but Cry for You is next level.
Some of my other guilty pleasure songs:
Luther Vandross - Here and Now
Chris de Burgh - Lady in Red
Madonna - Live to Tell
Sarah McLachlan - Vox
Songs I Like and Love
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Rock/Pop
Tears for Fears - Everybody Wants to Rule the World, Head Over Heels
Phillip Bailey/Phil Collins - Easy Lover
Hum - Stars Ned's Atomic Dustbin - Stuck, Grey Cell Green Smiths - Big Mouth Strikes Again,
Morrissey - November Spawned a Monster, Suedehead, The Last of the International Playboys U2 - Bad, With or Without You
The Cure - To the Sky, Just Like Heaven...
The Cure - To the Sky, Just Like Heaven, Lullaby, To Wish Impossible Things, A Forest
Church - Under the Milkyway
Cars - Drive
REM - Texarkana
Power Station - Some Like It Hot
Genesis - Just a Job to Do
Big Country - In a Big Country
Duran Duran - Hungry Like the Wolf, Come Undone, Ordinary World
INXS - Don't Change, Listen Like Thieves, Need You Tonight
David Bowie - Man Who Sold the World, Black Country Rock, Suffragette City
Beatles - Revolution
Oasis - Supersonic, Live Forever
Sundays - Wild Horses
Kitchens of Distinction - Gone World Gone, What Happens Now?, Quick as Rainbows, Drive That Fast
Nirvana - In Bloom, All Apologies
Stone Temple Pilots - Plush, Sex Type Thing, Creep, Interstate Love Song, Vasoline, Sour Girl
Soundgarden - Outshined, My Wave, The Day I Tried to Live, Black Hole Sun
Alice in Chains - Down in a Hole, Them Bones, Would?, Rooster, I Stay Away
Catherine Wheel - Black Metallic
Jimi Hendrix - All Along the Watchtower, Fire, Crosstown Traffic
Doobie Brothers - Long Train Runnin', Listen to the Music, Rockin' Down the Highway
Police - Walking on the Moon, Every Breath You Take, King of Pain, Synchronicity 2
Survivor - Eye of the Tiger
Mr. Mister - Uniform of Youth, Kyrie, Broken Wings, Into My Own Hands, Run to Her
Cocteau Twins - My Truth, Blue Beard
Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb, On the Run, Time, Learning to Fly, Run Like Hell *
Peter Schilling - Major Tom (Coming Home) *
Gary Numan - Cars *
Fixx - Saved By Zero, Stand or Fall, Red Skies *
* These are songs I first disliked then ended up liking later.
Metal/Hard Rock
Pantera - I'm Broken, Walk, New Level
Metallica - Master of Puppets, Welcome Home (Sanitarium), The Thing That Should Not Be, Disposable Heroes, Ride the Lightning, For Whom the Bell Tolls
Megadeth - Wake Up Dead, Peace Sells, Symphony of Destruction, Train of Consequences
Y&T - Hands of Time, Contagious
Yngwie Malmsteen - Dreaming (Tell Me), Rising Force, Heaven Tonight, I'll See the Light Tonight
Deep Purple - Highway Star...
Deep Purple - Highway Star Rainbow - Street of Dreams, Stone Cold Judas Priest - The Hellion, Electric Eye, Bloodstone, Turbo Lover, Locked In Iron Maiden - Wasted Years, Sea of Madness, The Prisoner, Run to the Hills Winger - Easy Come Easy Go, Baptized By Fire, Rainbow in the Rose, Hungry Led Zeppelin - Rain Song, When the Levee Breaks, Black Dog, Immigrant Song Loudness - S.D.I., Clockwork Toys, Crazy Nights, Run For Your Life, Get Away, Dark Desire, This Lonely Heart, In My Dreams Def Leppard - Photograph, Stagefright, Too Late For Love, Rocket, Run Riot, Hysteria Scorpions - The Zoo, Love Drive, Another Piece of Meat Living Colour - Desperate People, Open Letter to a Landlord, Leave it Alone The Cult - Firewoman
Queensryche - Revolution Calling, Operation: Mindcrime, The Mission, Eyes of a Stranger, Empire, Silent Lucidity
Ozzy Osbourne - Diary of a Madman, Bark at the Moon, Demon Alcohol, Miracle Man
Anthrax - Indians, Only, Schism
Slayer - In-A-Godda-Da-Vida
Queen - Fat Bottomed Girls, Under Pressure, One Vision
Motorhead - Ace of Spades
Rush - Subdivisions, Red Barchetta, Limelight, Tom Sawyer, The Big Money
System of a Down - Sugar, Chop Suey, Needles, Psycho
Whitesnake - Love Ain't No Stranger, Still of the Night
Dream Theater - Pull Me Under
Stryper - Makes Me Wanna Sing, To Hell With the Devil, More Than a Man
KISS (Yes of course they get their own list!):
Electronic
Peter Godwin - Images of Heaven
New Order - Round and Round, Blue Monday
Depeche Mode - Enjoy the Silence, Policy of Truth, Blasphemous Rumours, Things You Said, When the Body Speaks
Electronic - Getting Away With It
Erasure - A Little Respect, Blue Savanna Song, Always
Hubert Kah - Midnight Sun, Victim of Brain
Enigma - Return to Innocence...
Enigma - Return to Innocence Aphex Twin - Tha, Cliffs, Rhubarb, Blue Calx Future Sound of London - Lifeforms, Among Myselves, Dead Skin Cells, Her Face Forms in Summertime Brian Eno - 1/1, 2/1, 1/2, First Light Aes Dana - Jetlag Corporation, Tree.Some, Riven Pet Shop Boys - Always on My Mind, West End Girls
Crystal Method - Keep Hope Alive
Kraftwerk (Of course they also get their own list!):
Industrial
Front 242 - Headhunter, Circling Overland, Rhythm of Time, Slaughter, Red Team, Skin, Stratoscape
Ministry - The Angel, Over the Shoulder, You Know What You Are, Burning Inside
Skinny Puppy - Harsh Stone White, Who's Laughing Now? (Explicit), Worlock, Rodent, Tormentor, Rash Reflection, Nature's Revenge
Nine Inch Nails - Sanctified, Wish (Explicit), Happiness in Slavery, The Becoming, Reptile
Front Line Assembly - Blood, Synthetic Forms, Don't Trust Anyone, Dissension, Low Life, Electric Dreams
KMFDM - Drug Against War...
KMFDM - Drug Against War, Ultra, Flesh
Nitzer Ebb - Alarm, Fitness to Purpose, Smear Body, Join in the Chant, Hearts and Minds, Control I'm Here, Drive, Come Alive, Sugar Sweet, Ascend, Here Me Say, Kick It
Machines of Loving Grace - If I Should Explode, Limiter, The Soft Collision, Casual Users (Explicit), Richest Junkie Still Alive
Meat Beat Manifesto - Give Your Body Its Freedom, Genocide
Consolidated - This is a Collective, America Number One (Explicit), Consolidated
Soul/R&B/Hip Hop
Earth Wind and Fire - Let's Groove
Zapp - More Bounce to the Ounce Dazz Band - Let's Whip It
Michael Jackson - Human Nature, Beat It
Barry White - You're the First, the Last, My Everything
Beastie Boys - Whatcha Want (Explicit), Pass the Mic
Prince - I Would Die 4 You, When Doves Cry, Diamonds and Pearls
PM Dawn - Die Without You
Trouble Funk - Don't Touch That Stereo
Run DMC - It's Tricky
LL Cool J - Bad (Explicit)
Slow Jams:
Joe - All The Things (Your Man Won't Do)...
Joe - All The Things (Your Man Won't Do), The Love Scene
Brian McKnight - Anytime Basic Black - Special Kind of Fool Jodeci - Feenin', Forever My Lady
Country
Johnny Horton - North to Alaska, Battle of New Orleans Bobby Bare - Detroit City Charlie Daniels - Devil Went Down to Georgia
Brooks & Dunn - Neon Moon
Marty Robbins - El Paso, Big Iron, Cool Water
Willie Nelson - Blue Eyes Cryin' in the Rain, Georgia on My Mind, Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys, My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys
Johnny Cash - Ring of Fire...
Johnny Cash - Ring of Fire, Don't Take Your Guns to Town,
I Walk the Line, Boy Named Sue
Slim Whitman - Song of the Old Water Wheel, It's a Sin to Tell a Lie, Rose Marie, Cattle Call
George Strait - Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind
Johnny Paycheck - Take This Job and Shove It
Waylon Jennings - Good Ol' Boys
Classical
John Williams - The Planet Krypton, Theme from Superman
Gustav Holst - Venus, Mars Gioachino Rossini - William Tell Overture Richard Strauss - Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001: A Space Odyssey Theme Song)
And that's the ever-growing list so far!
