Essential Songs For Existence 12: The Man Who Can't Be Moved

I first discovered Irish band The Script (comprising of lead vocalist/pianist/guitarist Danny O'Donoghue, guitarist Mark Sheehan and drummer Glen Power) when they supported a Take That concert I went to when I was about thirteen with my parents, my aunt, and a couple of my mum's friends (I know, I was such a cool kid). They clearly made a good impression on my mum, because she later bought their second album Science & Faith. I'm sure it won't take much to work out from there what occurred to that album.

The song that I am recommending is not from Science & Faith, however, it is from The Script's self-titled debut album. The Man Who Can't Be Moved is an amazingly beautiful song, so full of feeling that it sometimes makes me want to cry slightly. It reached Number 2 in the UK charts - I'd say deservedly so, but really it probably should have reached number 1 - and you can find proof of it being one of my favourite songs by checking its play count on my iPod (167, the fourth most played song out of a little over a thousand on my iPod).

I'll then continue by saying that the top three most played songs on my iPod are also by The Script, the title song of Science & Faith being top. From that same album I also recommend (apart from, you know, all of them) Dead Man Walking, If You Ever Come Back, and Nothing. From The Script (their debut album), I recommend The End Where I Begin, If You See Kay and We Cry.

Science & Faith and its lead single For The First Time was unfortunately not as successful as The Script was with The Man Who Can't Be Moved and We Cry, but the band found more commercial success with their third album #3 and the single Hall Of Fame, which featured will.i.am. #3 is certainly not my favourite of The Script's albums, but I am particularly fond of the songs Millionaires, Six Degrees Of Separation and If You Could See Me Now (I dare you not to have your heart broken by this song, written about the deaths of Danny O'Donoghue's father and Mark Sheehan's parents).

(I'll make this one the last paragraph, I promise) What I love about The Script, as you may have noticed, is the emotion they put into their songs, and my God do they write some good songs with fantastic lyrics, too. I went to see them live last year, and they were absolutely phenomenal. Also, The Voice UK is just not the same without Danny O'Donoghue. I just thought I'd put that out there.

Essential Songs For Existence 11: Misery Business

Released from their second album Riot!, Paramore's Misery Business was certainly a favourite among my friends when we all raved about this band. I don't really rate their latest album - the self-titled fourth - and I know my friends agree with me, but that doesn't mean we can't reminisce about Paramore's golden age.

The third album Brand New Eyes was always the favourite for me, stand-out tracks being Careful, Brick By Boring Brick, and Ignorance. Second favourite was the previously mentioned second album Riot!, of which I very much liked Born For This, Let The Flames Begin and When It Rains. I don't recall having any particular favourites from the first album All We Know Is Falling, but I know that it was the favourite of some of my friends. There were also a couple of songs which weren't on any of these albums; the single Monster being one that I was especially fond of, and Stop This Song (Lovesick Melody) which I believe was technically unreleased, but it somehow ended up on the Internet anyway.

So, in conclusion: this is a pretty cool song, good for a sing-along, and if you don't know who Paramore are, then now you do, which is a good thing if we're going by the first three albums.

Essential Songs For Existence 10: Bring Me To Life

Somebody at school once started singing this song one lunchtime a couple of years ago, and everyone joined in. It went swimmingly, until someone sang the wrong words about three lines in, and it all fell apart.

Evanescence's Bring Me To Life is taken from their debut album Fallen (2004), which sold over 18 million copies. One of those copies belonged to my mum, which is how I came to hear of Evanescence, whose music has since influenced me to listen to genres I never thought I'd listen to, much less like (genres I hadn't, in fact, ever heard of before - who knew there are so many different types of metal?) Bring Me To Life is probably their most famous song, having reached the top ten in the charts in a number of countries, and it deserves the recognition it gets - in my opinion, it is one of Evanescence's best songs.

The line up of the band has changed over the years and, having finally released their third album in 2011 (self-titled Evanescence, because, according to lead singer Amy Lee, it is the album they felt they identify most with, or something along those lines), are currently on hiatus again, but that does not change their backlog of good songs. Every song on Fallen is worth a listen, but if you pushed me to pick out favourites apart from Bring Me To Life, I'd go for Taking Over Me, Everybody's Fool, and My Last Breath. Personally, I don't think their second album The Open Door (2007) quite lives up to their first, but nevertheless, from this album I recommend Call Me When You're Sober, Sweet Sacrifice, and All That I'm Living For. The third album Evanescence is certainly heavier than its predecessors, and on first listen I didn't think I'd like it, but after I got used to the new sound I found that this wasn't the case. My favourite songs from Evanescence are The Change, Lost In Paradise, Oceans, and Never Go Back, which was written about the tsunami and earthquake in Japan.

Bring Me To Life is certainly always going to be somewhere on my list of favourite songs, because it's just so awesome. It has the drama of a powerful metal band behind it, it has the beauty of Amy Lee's voice and piano playing, and it has a catchy tune and sing-a-long-able lyrics. Apart from any difficulty in mastering said beautiful piano introduction when you're used to playing keyboard chords not piano bass clef melodies, what's not to love? :)

Essential Songs For Existence 9: I Believe In A Thing Called Love

I'm starting to run out of things to say about each song. The songs I pick for this playlist I pick because they just have a certain timeless something; they're famous, popular and often anthemic, and I Believe In A Thing Called Love is no different. Again, like all the other songs, it's just one that, when you sing it, you expect everyone else to sing it too. We can't reach those high notes very well, but who really cares? Not me. :)

Despite never actually reaching the dizzy heights of number one in the charts (instead peaking at two), I Believe In A Thing Called Love is undoubtedly The Darkness' most famous song; released from their 2003 album Permission To Land (which sold over a million copies in the UK), it is the most well known song of the four singles taken from the album, which was followed up in 2005 with a second album, One Way Ticket To Hell... And Back. Shortly after, the band split up, but staged reunion shows in 2011, and then continued to release a third album (Hot Cakes) in 2012. According to Wikipedia, they're still together. How nice.

Going back to the song I have chosen for this week's Essential Songs For Existence, I Believe In A Thing Called Love is actually the only song by The Darkness which I have heard, but nevertheless it's a good one. I imagine it would be amazing performed live, as even sitting at home, I can't help but clap along to the chorus as if at a concert. I do not understand how it can't make absolutely everyone want to dance.

Essential Songs For Existence 8: Paradise City

I'll admit that I'm not in any way a Guns 'N' Roses fan, but that doesn't mean that they're not famous and that they haven't written some good songs. I would assume that Sweet Child O' Mine is their most famous, so I almost wrote my recommendation on that - but then I remembered Paradise City, and decided there was no point in my writing about a song that I like less than another song by the same band that's pretty much just as famous. I don't think I really need to explain myself on this one, all the explanation you need is in that video up there, in the extremely chant-able lyrics, awesome guitar and  bad-ass beat. Hint: the louder you turn it up, the better.

The others that stand out in my mind (and are indeed the among the top five of their most popular songs of the list that comes up when you Google them) are November Rain, Welcome To The Jungle, Don't Cry and Knockin' On Heaven's Door - even though I'm led to believe it isn't actually their song. 

Anyway, no matter my personal preferences, this is still nevertheless an absolutely fantastic song, and certainly one famous enough that everybody should be able to sing karaoke to it - or at least hum along with it. I don't know the all the words unless they're in front of me either, I won't judge you. :)

Essential Songs For Existence 7: Mr Blue Sky

What can I say? Who hasn't heard of this song? And it's brilliant for a sing-a-long. Uplifting and optimistic, it celebrates the sunny, happy days in life and reminds you of them when it's a bit grey and cloudy.

Most definitely ELO's most famous song - certainly off the album Out Of The Blue, which my mum tells me was the first album she ever bought - Mr Blue Sky is yet another undoubted classic. I love it. If you're looking to listen to more ELO classics, though, I recommend Sweet Talking Woman, Turn To Stone, Evil Woman, Telephone Line, and Livin' Thing. As you can probably tell, I only really know the most famous ones - either those on their Greatest Hits album, or Out Of The Blue - but at least we can all see why they're the famous ones.

Essential Songs For Existence 6: Poison

I know two songs by Alice Cooper: School's Out and Poison. Of the two, I prefer Poison. And I would say that there is absolutely no way that it isn't a classic. Full of emotion - the loud, heavy kind - personally I find it difficult not to find catchy - there's that deep guitar sound paired with the strong drumbeat that to me always just sounds so satisfying, like I feel sure of myself and the world around me, because it just gets to my head in that way. I knew I would like this song from the first time I heard it (on Strictly Come Dancing a few years ago, I believe).

Essential Songs For Existence 5: Bohemian Rhapsody

Even if you hate this song, you simply have to sing along to it. And of course no playlist entitled Essential Songs For Existence could possibly be complete without the legendary Queen. A truly amazing song - and I believe it was voted the nation's all-time favourite music single a year or two ago. A deserving winner, too! There is nothing more awesome than Bohemian Rhapsody.

Essential Songs For Existence 4: Women

We're back to the influence of my dad's taste in music for this choice. This band is, for me, a kind of local band; I was surprised to find out a year or two ago that they were from the nearest city to me, not America, like I'd always assumed. My dad actually said he once saw them walking out of a pub not far from where we live, but didn't realise who it was until afterwards.

Anyway, Women, from Def Leppard's best selling album Hysteria, is what I would personally say is their most famous song, unless it's Rocket or Pour Some Sugar On Me, or Love Bites. Or Animal or Armageddon It or Hysteria. My brother (who is now a bigger Def Leppard fan than my dad) tells me that they released seven singles from Hysteria, however, my personal favourite, Gods Of War, is one of the couple of songs that weren't released. (If you want to know why I like Gods Of War, it's the guitar. I just love the guitar.)

Hysteria is undoubtedly Def Leppard's best album (it sold over 20 million copies - which surely answers the question of why you should really know who they are), but that isn't to say that their other albums aren't good too - my brother tells me that Pyromania almost sold as well as Hysteria did. In fact, my brother has made me listen to some of their other albums, and the more I listen, the more I like what I hear. Apart from the songs I already mentioned, I would recommend Love and Hallucinate from Songs From The Sparkle Lounge, To Be Alive and Disintegrate from Euphoria and Photograph and Too Late For Love from Pyromania. As for any other albums of theirs, I haven't listened to them.

I'm sure my brother will be pleased that I actually listen to what he says sometimes, and have put some of his crazily detailed knowledge to good use. :)

Essential Songs For Existence 3: Fairy Tale Of New York

Happy Christmas, everyone! There is no doubt in my mind that you've already heard this one - which is exactly why it's going on this list. It's also one of my favourite Christmas songs. :)

Essential Songs For Existence 2: Summer Of '69

I'm sure that whenever somebody mentions Bryan Adams, everyone - especially those who remember the early '90s (which, of course, I don't, but still) - thinks of Everything I Do (I Do It For You). But I'm going to talk about a different song by Bryan Adams. My mum is a huge fan of Bryan Adams and has been since she was a teenager, and because of her influence, Bryan Adams' songs were the soundtrack to my early teens as well. Between my mum and I we have his entire collection of albums and I have seen him in concert twice. So for me, an Essential Songs For Existence playlist would be void without him.

Summer Of '69 may not have stayed at number one for sixteen weeks when it entered the charts, but it's still one of Mr Adams' most famous hits, and it's an awesome song. My personal favourites are not any of the famous ones, however, no matter how good Heaven, Cuts Like A Knife, etc are. I could list a great many songs here (Mr Adams' career does, of course, span thirty years), but my absolute favourites are: Thought I'd Died And Gone To Heaven from that most famous album Waking Up The Neighbours, Home Again from the previous album Into The Fire, and I Was Only Dreamin', a less known song from Adams' 2004 album Room Service. I could go on: Hearts On Fire, Heat Of The Night, Fearless, On A Day Like Today, Please Forgive Me... but I think I've given you quite enough song recommendations for one day now. :)

Essential Songs For Existence 1: Livin' On A Prayer

Livin' On A Prayer by Bon Jovi is a classic. My dad likes Bon Jovi so I kind of grew up with some of their songs - especially this one, the most famous. I didn't like them that much for a long time, I thought they were alright but it was more my brother's sort of thing. But you can't deny that this song is just awesome.

As for other Bon Jovi songs I would recommend, I have only listened to three of their albums - Slippery When Wet, the origin of this song, their first greatest hits album Cross Road, and also their latest album What About Now - which is an amazing. My favourites from these are Lay Your Hands On Me, Keep The Faith, Army Of One, Because We Can, I'm With You, What's Left Of Me and Someday I'll Be Saturday Night. These are most certainly not Bon Jovi's most well known songs, but they're the ones that I personally like best.

So why am is this the first of my Essential Songs For Existence? Well, I thought that was obvious. :)

Essential Songs For Existence

There are some songs you expect everyone to know. Maybe they're old classics, maybe they're popular songs, maybe they're songs you grew up with. Either way, when you start singing them, you would think that everybody would join in - and if they don't, you are fully licensed to give them that "what planet have you been living on to not know this song?" look.

So I thought I'd share with you the songs that, to me, are these sort of songs: the Essential Songs For Existence.

I will post a new song every Saturday because why not (I post on the writing blog I share with my friend, Surprise Duck!, on Fridays, and I plan to start uploading new readings of short stories etc on my YouTube channel every Wednesday), and I'll explain my choice, and I'll also make a YouTube playlist on my channel so that, if you haven't heard these songs that are essential for your existence, you can listen to them all in one place. :)