Blythe here reminded me last week that it’s been a very long while since we’ve done a music post.

After giving me a bit of a lecture about finishing what you start, we did a check and realized we have arrived at the letter S in our Musical A to Z.

We figured we’d get back into this whole musical thing nice and easy.

S, after consultation with my five-year-old, is for Song – so here’s five songs about songs: the joy of song; the love of expressing yourself through song; and songs about bringing you to home and remembering what matters.

So tonight? They are my songs for you.

1. Sing my Song – Glass Tiger (1988)

So here’s to getting the Canadian content out of the way up front and with a song I adore. This is from their Diamond Sun album and just such a joy-filled song that I dare you to listen without smiling, tapping your foot along with the music and thinking of whoever and wherever is home to you.

Also, if you enjoy – give it a “like”. Because it just seems wrong that such a wonderful song only has 159 likes on YouTube.

2. Girl in a Country Song – Maddie & Tae (2014)

So this song is my current ear worm and I love it. Recently (noon on November 12, actually), one of our local “Sort of Top 40 but some older stuff too” radio stations – 93.9 Bob FM – suddenly became Ottawa’s New Country 94.

As a chronic radio surfer – because I like all types of music – I found myself pausing there now and then and this is one of the finds I liked enough to look up the video.

And so glad I did! While I find it a bit funny the girls still apparently have to strut in the bikinis anyway – it still makes its point. They had me at the guy on the swing and the one eating the strawberry. An amusing satire on the current state of that genre of music.

Oooh! – And it’s the duo’s debut single, released in July 2014. That’s more current than I’ve been musically in YEARS!

But let’s get back to my comfort zone with my next choice…

3. The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s in His Kiss) – Cher (1990)

Not gonna lie – I’ve considered this for a family Halloween costume. I’m not quite sure how my tall and slender husband is gonna pull of Danny DeVito’s character, but he’s creative and I don’t want to rule it out before he really gives it a good try.

So yeah. I love Cher. I love this movie. I love Winona Ryder and Christina Ricci. Heck – I’ve made those fruit and marshmallow kabobs she does for dinner at the end of the movie with my girls when I don’t feel like cooking because that seemed like a solid parenting decision.

And I’ve always loved this song. And this cover of the song. It’s been a staple on my IPod and prior to that MP3 and mixed tapes for years.

I figure the lady don’t lie – it IS in his kiss.

I suspect all involved with my next choice would agree.

4. Your Song – Ewan McGregor and Allesandro Safina in Moulin Rouge (2001)

I’ve always loved this cover of Elton John’s beautiful song from 1970. I enjoy the entire soundtrack. I love what they did on the soundtrack mixing together different songs, and genres. I love how they kept this cover simple. It’s uplifting. You can feel the love story. You believe that life is wonderful with her in his world. Even atop an elephant.

So I feel I should calm things down a bit with my last choice. And I’m feeling both a bit nostalgic and romantic with my last choice. My husband and I honeymooned in Jamaica, so my last pick is from a fellow whose music figured prominently that week EVERYWHERE we went.

5. Redemption Song – Bob Marley (1980)

Not too sure where to begin with my love of Bob Marley. I first became aware of him in university in bar settings with “No Woman, No Cry” but soon started listening to more of what he did. I have an “odd moment” memory of striking up conversation in a bar with a random stranger in my 20s who then left me with two burnt CDs of him in concert somewhere (Sending a thank you into the universe here for those!); and then there is the aforementioned honeymoon in Jamaica where his music seems to play on every tour bus; in every bar and on every beach.

Now this song? I love the message: “Emancipate yourself from mental slavery,” because “None but ourselves can free our minds”. Simple truth.

I then learnt by searching online that these lines are from a speech given by Marcus Garvey in Nova Scotia in 1937. U2’s Bono also apparently “carried Bob Marley’s Redemption Song to every meeting I had with a politician, prime minister, or president. It was for me a prophetic utterance or as Bob would say ‘the small ax that could fell the big tree’. The song reminded me that freedom always comes with a cost, but for those who would prepare to pay it, maybe ‘emancipation from mental slavery’ would be our reward.”

In 2009, Jamaican poet and broadcaster Mutabaruka chose it as the most influential recording in Jamaican music history.

I’m not sure there’s really anything I could add to that aside from my enjoyment of the song.

So that’s where I’ll end it.

Did I miss a song of songs that you love? Let me know in the comments.