My Favorite Song

I am a musician.  Perhaps this explains why people are always asking me what my favorite song is.  Or perhaps people ask everyone that and I am not special, but it always stands out in my mind, because I don’t really have a favorite song, but I have always felt that I should.

There used to be a definite answer, or at least an answer or two.  When I was in high school and somebody asked me what my favorite song was, I could confidently reply either “Anna Begins” by Counting Crows, or “I’m Going to Go Back There Someday” from the Muppet Movie.  Those are definitely two of my favorite songs, but now that I am no longer in high school it has gotten a little more complicated.

I actually think that the more experience you have in a subject, the less you are able to have a definite favorite, at least in a broad sense.  If you have only read twenty books, it is probably fairly easy to say which one is your favorite.  Even if you have read a hundred books it might be possible, but if you are an avid reader of multiple genres, how could you hope to compare the best non-fiction autobiography you’ve ever read to the best sword and sandals fantasy epic?

At this point, I would have to narrow down the field a bit in order to choose a favorite.  For one thing, what do you mean by song?  Is Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” a song?  Do opera arias count?  Or are we only talking pop music?  And how on Earth could I ever compare “Brown Eyed Girl” by Van Morrison to “A te o cara” by Bellini?  No, I would have to separate the songs into categories.

But even the broad categories may be too broad.  I couldn’t just divide into pop and classical.  I would need to probably pick my favorite French aria and my favorite German aria.  I would need to pick my favorite ska song and my favorite country song.  And even favorites come and go.  For about a year in college I listened to “Semi-Charmed Life” by Third Eye Blind at least once a day, and sometimes more.  It was clearly my “favorite” song of the moment, and it will always hold a special place in my heart, but there is always another song to take its place in the repeat button of my heart.

So is my favorite song the one that I am currently obsessed with, or a song that has lasted for years as a top iPod pick?  Or is my favorite song the one that has touched my heart the deepest, even if I don’t listen to it all that often?  According to my iTunes, “Shake It” by Metro Station is my favorite song.  I do like that song, and often rocked out to it on repeat in the car, maybe more than other recent songs, but I hardly even listen to it anymore, and if asked what my favorite song was it would not spring to mind.

In conclusion, I have no idea what my favorite song is.  Heck, I couldn’t even tell you what my favorite Billy Joel song is!  They are all so good!  I wish I did have a favorite song, so I didn’t feel like an idiot every time someone asked me about it.  But maybe it’s better to love too many songs too much.  There are so many songs that have meant so much to me throughout my life, and choosing my favorite feels like trying to pick my favorite child.  I love them all differently.  I even love terrible songs because of what they meant to me, like all the times my brother and I played our cassette tape of “Informer” by Snow as kids.  Ah, memories.

So I cannot tell you what my favorite song is.  But I can tell you what my least favorite song is, hands down.  The stupid Titanic song by Celine Dion.  If I could wipe one song from history, that would definitely be it, no questions asked.