Day 23 - A Song that You Want to Play at Your Wedding

This entry a part of the 30 Day Song Challenge

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This has to be a love song, right? Yes? Let’s bring on the cheese!

(Side note: the 7 Cheese Overload pizza is loads of awesome. I just don’t know what the “special cheese” is. My mum argued, it’s “special,” you’re not supposed to know.)

I’ll be honest: I hate wedding music. I’ve attended (and been dragged to) a couple of weddings and the usual barrage of sappy and oversentimental tunes never fail to amuse fill the air. The catch is, sometimes the wedding souvenir is a CD compilation of the couple’s favorite love songs, complete with their prenuptial photos (frolicking in the fields!) in the CD inlay. I can understand a collection of Through the Years-Maybe This Time-On the Wings of Love-kind of songs. But it bewildered me one time when I saw a wedding CD that featured Lisa Loeb, No Doubt (and Spiderwebs, of all songs), and the usual set of love songs. Diverse much? (Note to self: what do you care, it’s not your love story.)

I have nothing against love songs. (Unlike Bon Jovi and Maria Taylor who need to mention in their lyrics that the song is NOT a love song.) When I do get married I think I would want my favorite love songs to play. It’s just that most of the love songs (can we just say, “songs about love?”) I prefer aren’t in the infamous four-set Cruisin’ compilation. That’s not a good/bad thing. I guess it’s just a matter of taste. Some time ago I made a list of what I thought were the best love songs ever written and I think now’s a fitting entry to enumerate them. Caution: more cheese ahead!

  • To Love Somebody (Bee Gees): I like them love songs with soul. This one was, of course, written and first released by the Bee Gees but I tend to like Michael Bolton’s impassioned take on it better. American Idol season 7 contestant Michael Johns recorded his version of this song, too, but the style/arrangement was too similar to Michael Bolton’s. Michael Johns is good, but he’s no Michael Bolton so his version slightly pales in comparison. At least Ray LaMontagne and Damien Rice went down the acoustic/mellow road in their rendition of the song.
  • Have a Little Faith in Me (John Hiatt): The words are just beautiful and simple. I think only John Hiatt can sing this song the way it’s supposed to be SUNG. I do like Jewel’s version too. But Mandy Moore’s is slightly weak. This is the kind of song that just doesn’t translate well as a pop tune. 
  • When You Say Nothing At All (Keith Whitley): I remember my friends and I were driving home one night and this song came on. I immediately remarked, This is one of the nicest love songs ever. Of course my favorite version is Alison Krauss’s. My thinking is, a song like this is best treated with tenderness, and nothing beats Alison Krauss in the tenderness department. Don’t get me started on Ronan Keating’s version!

I listed a couple more songs but I’m slightly embarrassed to name them here! Plus, I haven’t singled out the one song dictated by Day 23 yet.

Only Wanna be with You
Hootie & the Blowfish
Cracked Rear View
(Released July 1995)

If I could have any singer’s voice, I would pick Darius Rucker’s in a heartbeat. I don’t know how he can sing so looooow. My attempts to sing Only Wanna be with You are “epic fails” (as the kids say it) because my lowest octave is probably Rucker’s highest.

I keep missing the music of the 90s whenever I get some Hootie and the Blowfish. I guess it’s because there’s no other group quite like it. I really dig the idea of a wedding where 90s alt rock “love songs” play. Gin Blossom’s As Long as It Matters was a close second when I was thinking of the song for this challenge but I’ve always loved Only Wanna be with You, which is more upbeat and positive haha. When a friend of mine asked me to edit her wedding AVP I instantly thought of using this song.

I just want to love you but you want to wear my ring

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