What is the greatest song ever written?

[Basil.B]

Like a Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan

 

[Glow worm]

I know I know- The Eagles, so uncool! but I still love this'un - when I first heard it, I thought it was religious, until I realised it's quite the opposite. Great stuff...

 

[2wd]

Happy Talk - Captain Sensible

"Happy talk, keep talkin' happy talk,
Talk about things you'd like to do.
You got to have a dream,
If you don't have a dream,
How you gonna have a dream come true"

 

[Cubist]

For the record "Oh come oh Come Emmanuel" is an advent carol....... stirring because of the low register unison final verse, and overwhelming in the right accoustic setting (Coventry Cathedral springs to mind)

Best song ever written? Too many to list, can't decide.

Try The Funeral by Band of Horses.
View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMFWFhTFohk

 

[Blue]

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xda8NNfUb_Q&feature=player_detailpage

 

[citybabe]

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people sharing all the world



A lovely idea which would be great coming from someone who wasn't singing those lyrics while playing his fine white grand piano, in a huge white room in his enormous white mansion!

Good point

 

[srw]

For the record "Oh come oh Come Emmanuel" is an advent carol....... stirring because of the low register unison final verse

Really pedantically, it's not a carol at all, but an English translation of a Latin plainsong hymn (Veni, veni Emmanuel), based on the great O antiphons to the Magnificat traditionally sung in the last few days of advent. It's monophonic, and every verse is in the same register. There may be an arrangement with a low unison last verse (...captivum solve Israel...) says one site, but I have to admit I can't think of one - and I know rather more than my fair share of religious choral music.

A carol in the very strict sense is a circle dance, only loosely associated with Christmas and other feasts - the transfer to the sense of Christmas hymn or song is relatively late.

 

[Cubist]

Really pedantically, it's not a carol at all, but an English translation of a Latin plainsong hymn (Veni, veni Emmanuel), based on the great O antiphons to the Magnificat traditionally sung in the last few days of advent. It's monophonic, and every verse is in the same register. There may be an arrangement with a low unison last verse (...captivum solve Israel...) says one site, but I have to admit I can't think of one - and I know rather more than my fair share of religious choral music.

A carol in the very strict sense is a circle dance, only loosely associated with Christmas and other feasts - the transfer to the sense of Christmas hymn or song is relatively late.

By "unison" I meant that all the voices sing the same notes, with no harmony. Is that what you mean by monophonic? And because it's based on male voice plainsong there are few high notes. The last verse, sung forte with the organ also belting out the same melody as the voices, is what was so stirring at Coventry Cathedral. Ledington-Wright is a bit of a showman.

I suspect we are saying the same thing except you have a better grasp of the terminology.

 

[srw]

Probably - and yes (I'm playing up to a character) "monophonic" is basically "unison". By "low register last verse" it sounded as if you were saying the previous verses had a higher register.

 

[Fnaar]

Devil Woman, by Cliff Richard, is surely one of the top ranking songs of all time. Followed by Trocadero, an album track from Showaddywaddy.

 

[pawl]

Baker Street.Cant remember who sang it.

 

[Toshiba Boy]

Baker Street.Cant remember who sang it.

Baker Street was by Gerry Rafferty.

For me, it's Kathy's Song by SImon and Garfunkel, just superb.

 

[yello]

A song I don't have but I'd put Charles Aznavours' 'She' up there.

I love choral music, finding the human voice to be the most beautiful instrument going. So I'd also nominate Samuel Barber's 'Agnus Dei' - pick your choir, anyone from the Mormon Tabernacle to Kings College Cambridge.

 

[chillyuk]

For Christmas my favourite is the Pogues "Fairy Tale of New York". As for the best song ever written I don't know. I am an opera lover and am just totally spoiled for choice what I would consider. If really pushed on a Desert Island Discs scenario I guess I would choose Una Furtiva Lagrima from L'elisir d'amore by Donizetti.

 

[Haitch]

Excellent song. Notice how David Byrne can't sing and nod his head at the same time.