We have a thread on best album. I want to discuss great songs. A great song is one in which the artist puts their soul and everything in it. Examples include but are not limited to:

"Ode to Joy" by Ludwig van Beethoven

"You're So Vain" by Carly Simon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6UAYGxiRwU

"Tears in Heaven" by Eric Clapton

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxPj3GAYYZ0

"Fast Car" by Tracy Chapman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTIB10eQnA0

"Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely" by Backstreet Boys

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBt8fN7mJNg

Jeanette Isabelle

YES!!!! Ode to Joy - best music ever penned !!!

Hard to beat Beethoven, but among the songs of my lifetime, I'd have to say that "Amelia" by Joni Mitchell is great for the pictures she paints in your mind with the lyrics.
In the various YouTubes of Joni performing this song, it's never quite the same, but all good...
Joni Mitchell- Amelia live 1983
Amelia (cut from Joni Mitchell's Shadows & Light DVD if I'm not mistaken).
Amelia, audio track from Joni Mitchell's Hejira album.

These are some of my favorites. I can't play the first two - most things with the name "Liszt" attached to them are for very accomplished pianists (even ones that look/sound like they should be easy - not true!) But the others I very much enjoy playing.

Liszt - Un Sospiro, played by Valentina Lisitsa (one of my favorite pianists):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDALaf-_65k

Schubert/Liszt - Ave Maria:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCucnn-95nY

Schubert - Impromptu #3:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_z9oSn-eIM

Debussy - Claire de Lune:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufNZNOHtQ3o

Of course, the first movement of this Beethoven one - Moonlight Sonata:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsOUcikyGRk

An incredible performance, the way Valentina Lisitsa handles the keys is amazing.

Jeanette Isabelle

You guys are talking Beethoven. Here is a short list of some less well-known, but wonderful classical music:

Piazzolla, Oblivion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKGEpCAciTo

Borodin, String Quartet No. 2, Movement 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTPrcBAq28Q

Kabalevsky, Violin Concerto in C Major -- a listenable atonal work
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onIjUnLFmeM

I'm not the biggest classic music lover; I mentioned Beethoven because he goes deep with "Ode to Joy."

Jeanette Isabelle

Not everything I listen to is classical piano.

I've always liked this song. It's catchy and makes me happy. Here being playing on an instrument I've always wanted to learn. Someday, ... someday ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9_Pl-U9R4s&list=RD6mbqfzl9TMY&index=27

And another inspiring traditional song, on a different instrument that I also want to learn someday:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy3h6--fMBA

Here's a really nice transcription of, OK, yeah, well, it's another classical piece (but not performed on piano this time). Pachelbel - Canon in D:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXC9tuumjiA

"Amazing Grace" is on my list of great songs.

Jeanette Isabelle

When performed as it should this English folk song, which as been traced at least as far back as 1670, carries a lot of emotion. For this rendition listen to how the musicians capture the emotion, not necessarily the woman singing it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsDpGRZNRgE

This is another great song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_eAzaTquN8

This is not a great song; it accomplishes what it sets out to do, that is it invites the audience to feel what Joy is going through in the lowest moment of her life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69qqb2kj35U

Jeanette Isabelle

Another great Joni Mitchell song which a lot of folks think is a CSN&Y song -- Woodstock.
Joni Mitchell was supposed to have played at Woodstock but as the crowd size increased, her management grew concerned she'd be stuck there and wouldn't be able to make a very important appearance on the Dick Cavett Show, so it was decided she'd cancel from Woodstock. Joni wrote Woodstock having not been there.

Woodstock comes in two flavors: Joni Mitchell-Woodstock (1969 Live) which is the original folk song as Joni wrote it -- and then there's the CSN&Y R&R version tweaked by Stephen Stills -- Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Woodstock

Two totally different songs... I actually prefer Joni's (dark purple) version.

If you're interested, the story of the song Woodstock as well has the CSN&Y song Our House is at: Graham Nash interview

Are you sure this is the right link?

Jeanette Isabelle

Yeah, that shows as a list of Graham Nash YouTubes and when I selected it I got the same URL. A direct link is: direct link to Graham Nash On Joni Mitchell Romance & Their Famous Woodstock Song

One of my personal favorites of the many "Moonlight" recordings is by Maurizio Pollini
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oj75TeQmSHA
It is contemplative, haunting, with anguish between the notes. In the third movement you can feel the violent passion that gestates for two movements prior.

Yesterday I linked a rendition of "Scarborough Fair" and said the musicians, not the singer, capture the emotion.

Given our discussion of classical music I began to wonder if there is a better rendition. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra did record it; they were too chipper playing the tragic song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jq8nDimS5_A

I listened to piano and violin solos and I wonder if any of them knows the song's history. It was written after a plague had swept through England.

Jeanette Isabelle

Blackmores Night does a grat rendition of Greensleeves...

Jukebox Hero. Ode to Joy. America the Beautiful (can't sing it without crying). O' Holy Night (can't sing it without crying).

This one too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evSC-WZFw1c

_

In the Bruce Willis movie "The Fifth Element" there is a opera-esque song by the Diva. Have you ever wondered what that song is like without all the alien make-up?
Fifth Element Diva song - full version. SINGING - EVGENIA LAGUNA

Love that movie and that song.

Just for the record, the first part of the opera-esque song sung by the Diva was derived from Lucia di Lammermoor - the Mad Scene; Il dolce suono... ... the second part where it kicks into high gear, not so much...