Your Turn: Put Together Your Very Own "Very Best"

[christratton]

Hi Everyone!

OK, Diana and Tony Lipuma had their turn, and have given us their best swipe at "The Very Best." How about you? If you were to put out a VB of DK, what would your list be? Keep it to 15 songs, if you can. One thought I expressed in another thread is that it would be easy to put together an entirely different, equally good, list of 15 from the 15 they put out, so strong is Diana's catalogue. What do you think? Here is my first swipe at 1) a Very Best of my choosing, and 2) one entirely different from the actual VBofDK.

1) Chris's Very Best (not in ranked order, though my favorite comes first) (* denotes duplicates from Diana's released Very Best):
1. I Remember You
2. East of the Sun (West of the Moon)*
3. I'll String Along With You
4. Dancing in the Dark
5. A Case of You
6. Popsicle Toes
7. Love Letters
8. Let's Fall in Love*
9. I Don't Know Enough About You
10. Frim Fram Sauce*
11. Black Crow
12. The Best Thing for You
13. You Call It Madness
14. Deed I Do
15. As Long As I Live

2) Three to replace the duplicates above:
2. You're Getting to Be a Habit With Me
8. Do It Again
10. I Miss You So

WOW! That was difficult! Several of the songs I would put "near" my top 15 are in DK's Very Best list. The more I think about it, the more it appears that DK has about 35 or 40 songs I like a whole lot, several more which I like well enough, and only a few that don't do it for me.

Time to call it a night!

-CS

PS: I encourage you all to stretch your mental muscles and give this exercise a try. What Diana and Tony L had to do in putting together a "very best" collection of 11 is NOT EASY. It is interesting to sort through which songs you like a lot and which ones you really love best. Can be a clarifying experience.

[Samuel]

I will put my list... Coming soon!

[Samuel]

Okay, like you say will be difficult but it's here:

01 - The Girl in The Other Room
02 - Devil May Care
03 - The Look of Love
04 - From This Moment On
05 - Popsicle Toes
06 - I love Being Here With You
07 - Stop This World
08 - Narrow Daylight
09 - I've got you under my skin
10 - Peel Me a Grape
11 - They can't take that away from me
12 - Straighten up and fly right
13 - East of the Sun (and West of the moon)
14 - Deed I do
15 - All or nothing at all

Many songs I really like is not here. Diana Krall have a vast playlist of wonderful songs.

[christratton]

Greetings, Sam:

Looks like you and I are the only two here who like this kind of thought experiment. Well the rest of 'em are all wet, no fun, say I!

I also looks like you and I have quite different taste in Diana songs. We only overlap with two songs of the fifteen! But as you and I both say, there are quite a lot of songs we each like which don't make our "top 15." Such exercises are imprecise and often can depend on one's mood on this day or that, but I enjoy them now and then.

Hope you are treating the sun right as he leaves us here up north and heads in your direction.

Are you going to get a chance to see Diana when she comes to Brazil, Sam? I sure hope so, for you!

Best,

-Chris

[Bud]

In no particular order, here you go. I reserve the right to modify this list at anytime

The Nearness of You
What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?
How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?
East of the Sun (and West of the Moon)
I’ve Got You Under My Skin
I Love Being Here with You
Little Girl Blue
A Blossom Fell
Body and Soul
Garden in the Rain
Sometimes I Just Freak Out
A Case of You
Fly Me To The Moon
Charmed Life
My Shining Hour

[Coda]

Hi, Everyone. It took me a while to think about this. Here are some of my favorites:

Let's Face the Music and Dance
I've Got You Under My Skin
I Remember You
The Look of Love
Black Crow
Almost Blue
A Case of You
Peel Me a Grape
Popiscle Toes
Lost Mind
Gentle Rain
Garden in the Rain
Only Trust Your Heart
Body and Soul
Frim Fram Sauce (from AFY)
Fly Me to the Moon
Deed I Do
Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Pick Yourself Up

Nineteen songs...I think it's doable. (Gordon Lightfoot has 21 songs on one CD, his "Gord's Gold" collection of hits.)

[christratton]

Thanks for joining the party, Coda and Bud! And I like your improvisaton, Coda, going for 19 songs. It's hard to keep it to 15.

It looks like you, Coda, and I, have a fair amount of overlap, while Bud, you bring in a number of songs which are new to me. (Didn't know Diana did "Nearness of You." I'd be very interested to hear it and see how she treats it differently than does Norah Jones. I really love Norah's version.)

Anyhow, thanks for joining in. I have to get back to work now. Will write more later.

Cheers,

-CS

[hamlet]

Hey there everyone. Here's my attempt at my Top 15 Diana tracks. Bare with me.

1. Let's Face the Music and Dance
2. S'Wonderful
3. Why Should I Care
4. Besame Mucho
5. The Night We Called it a Day
6. Departure Bay
7. It Could Happen To You
8. I'll Never Be The Same
9. Exactly Like You
10. The Boulevard of Broken Dreams
11. When I Look in Your Eyes
12. Narrow Daylight
13. From This Moment On
14. Dancing in the Dark
15. Let's Fall in Love
16. I've Got You Under My Skin
17. Day In Day Out
18. The Look of Love
19. I'll String Along With You
20. Isn't This A Lovely Day

Phew!! That was hard work! This is Jonathan signing off till next time.

[Samuel]

Greetings, Sam:

(...) I also looks like you and I have quite different taste in Diana songs. We only overlap with two songs of the fifteen! But as you and I both say, there are quite a lot of songs we each like which don't make our "top 15." Such exercises are imprecise and often can depend on one's mood on this day or that, but I enjoy them now and then.

We have different tastes in Diana songs because of we different influences. See, I began to listening "The Girl in The Other Room" and after "Live in Paris" while you (If I'm right) began with "When I look in Your eyes" and "The Look of Love". This result in different tastes. And I agree completely with you when you said that there are quite a lot of songs we each like which don't make our "top 15."

(...)Are you going to get a chance to see Diana when she comes to Brazil, Sam? I sure hope so, for you!

Best,

-Chris

Thank you for your kind words! Actually I don't know nothing about her coming in Brazil, but thanks again for you care.

Cheers,
Sam!

[christratton]

We have different tastes in Diana songs because of we different influences. See, I began to listening "The Girl in The Other Room" and after "Live in Paris" while you (If I'm right) began with "When I look in Your eyes" and "The Look of Love". This result in different tastes. ...

Or it could just be that we have different tastes, Sam, which is AOK, too. I started with Look of Love and quickly bought all of Diana's primary albums and DVDs (i.e., not Christmas Songs or side projects). I loaded all the albums onto my iPod - my favorite new toy at the time - and set up a playlist I call "Darling Diana" (another one I have that I'm sure you'd like is called "Jonesin' for Norah"). I then mostly listened to the DK list on the shuffle songs setting, slowly but surely becoming familiar with all 90+ songs. I latched onto "I Remember You" and "The Look of Love" right away. But the other albums were mostly amorphous to me.

I didn't really key in on how much I loved "When I Look In Your Eyes" until I got into shuffling albums, rather than songs, on the iPod. A few months back, I was out walking of an evening and listened the entire WILIYE at once and thought, "Gracious, this is one heck of an album!" I looked into it more and learned, of course, that it won the Grammy for Best Jazz Album of '99 and was the first jazz album in 20-odd years nominated for the Best Album Grammy, and of course that all made a lot of sense to me. I wasn't the only one who liked it a lot!

I had already taken to loving songs like "Popsicle Toes" and "The Best Thing for You," "Pick Yourself Up" and so many others. Then I realized they were all on this one fine album. How about that!

Oddly enough, the title song is the only one that doesn't do it for me especially. Funny, huh?

-CS

[christratton]

In no particular order, here you go. I reserve the right to modify this list at anytime

All right, then, Bud. Can you share where one can find some of the following songs? (I agree "How Can You Mend" is amazing, but I hadn't thought to include it since she hasn't released it as a recording.) Anyhow, any help on finding the below would be appreciated:

The Nearness of You, Sometimes I Just Freak Out, Charmed Life and My Shining Hour.

I gonna go look for them now in iTunes. But any hints you can share will be much appreciated.

Thanks, Bud!

-CS

PS: ON EDIT - couldn't find the above 4. Did find New Year's Eve on "Christmas Songs."

[christratton]

Hi, Everyone. It took me a while to think about this. Here are some of my favorites ...

Hi Coda! I think I will always love Frank Sinatra's "Fly Me to the Moon" best, but Diana's is growing on me. I adore that song.

And I am so pleased that you and I share "I Remember You" and "Frim Fram Sauce" as favorites.

I know not why Diana has fallen out of love with "Peel Me a Grape," her other sexy "feed me" song, but I agree with her in the result, perhaps for different reasons. I find "Peel" a bit demanding in an unpleasant way, while I think Frim Fram is flirty and adorable. I'll take it any day over "Peel," personally. My two cents.

-CS

[Coda]

I think she sang "Peel Me a Grape" with just the right laid-back, sassy tone.

I know she doesn't like it so much now, but I think that when she did sing the song, she did it so well!

As a little aside, now when I think of that song, I imagine Maya Rudolph's impersonation of Donatella Versace, with her coterie of hunkie, beefy, scantily clad men who wait on her hand and foot. I would still love to see Diana on Saturday Night Live, and I think it would be a stitch for Diana to do that song while Maya Rudolph does her send-up of Versace. They could even throw in Horatio Sanz doing his usual Elton John imitation, or maybe even have the real Elton John walk on...especially since Diana and Elton are good friends.

Anybody at SNL listening to me?

[Bud]

OK, I'm going to redo my list, because I think its implied that it should be limited to tracks from OTYH to FTMO. So my list (which I still reserve the right to revise!) is:

Garden in the Rain
You're Looking At Me
Pick Yourself Up
East of the Sun (and West of the Moon)
I’ve Got You Under My Skin
I Love Being Here with You
Little Girl Blue
A Blossom Fell
Body and Soul
Garden in the Rain
Sometimes I Just Freak Out
A Case of You
Fly Me To The Moon
I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance With You
Besame Mucho

[Bud]

I know not why Diana has fallen out of love with "Peel Me a Grape,"...

Chris - Diana said in an interview that she was singing it one time and actually forgot the words, which she took to mean that it was time to give it a rest...

[christratton]

I think she sang "Peel Me a Grape" with just the right laid-back, sassy tone.

...

As a little aside, now when I think of that song, I imagine Maya Rudolph's impersonation of Donatella Versace, with her coterie of hunkie, beefy, scantily clad men who wait on her hand and foot. I would still love to see Diana on Saturday Night Live, and I think it would be a stitch for Diana to do that song while Maya Rudolph does her send-up of Versace. They could even throw in Horatio Sanz doing his usual Elton John imitation, or maybe even have the real Elton John walk on...especially since Diana and Elton are good friends.

LOL. Your imagination, Coda, has officially run wild. I love it! Right down my alley. I think of things like this now and then myself. Great minds think alike! (Or is it twisted minds?)

-CS

[christratton]

Chris - Diana said in an interview that she was singing it one time and actually forgot the words, which she took to mean that it was time to give it a rest...

She does such a good job, it seems, in minding her gut, her instinct, her feel. Such a gifted artist.

I love Coda's defense of Peel, but I stand by my own feeling. I'd much rather a gal flirt and bat her eyes, sashay and shimmy a bit, a la "Frim Fram," "Popsicle Toes" and "I Don't Know Enough About You," than that she DEMAND my attention and doting. Flirt and tease (but not in a MEAN way, dadgummit!), tickle and delight, that's what gets me goin'. Heckfire, I'll wait on ya hand and foot, and ya might have trouble gettin' rid o' me!

-CS

[bluerhondo]

Some of these are a bit out of the way, but they would be on my "Best" list:

Let's Get Lost Great job of capturing the texture of the Trumpet
Hit That Scat Jack Best Piano Solo
I Thought About You Great song for her style and voice
Boulevard of Broken Dreams
You Go To My Head
I Don't Know Enough About You
East of the Sun
All or Nothing at All DVD Version
A Case of You
Broadway

[Samuel]

Hi "bluerhondo"!

How do you can choose only 10 songs?

Let's Get Lost Great job of capturing the texture of the Trumpet
Hit That Scat Jack Best Piano Solo
I Thought About You Great song for her style and voice

I think I don't know these songs

[Coda]

Hi, Bluerhondo. Yes, I agree completely about Diana's ability to catch the "texture" of the trumpet, as you put it. The first time I heard it, I thought that, in one spot, you couldn't tell where the trumpet ended and Diana's voice began. Excellent artistry.