Top 5 Desert Island Records. It is almost virtually impossible to choose your favourite record. That awkward moment when a fellow music fan quizzes you on your knowledge sizing up your entire personality with a tune. I suppose the only way to find out your true faves whilst trudging through your iTunes library is by choosing the ones which evoke the most memories. Here are mine. The Everly Brothers Dream I've chosen this because I'm of the feeling the key to a good song, one with longevity is for it to have a simple melody. The Everly brothers were also the first band I went to see live as a child with my grandad, a supreme music lover who passed on the gene to myself (one which can by costly and verging on obsessive). The song encapsulates that dreamy nostalgia that's been painted of 1950's America, which truth be told can be somewhat of a smokescreen to the horrors of the era, the bigoted divisions between black and white etc. However as a rule the 50's and especially this song enables you to imagine white picket fences, the birth of rock and roll, sunshine, drive in cinemas and everything that's so addictive and interesting about the American dream. Fred Astaire Cheek To Cheek This song taken from the classic film 'Top Hat' really is special in my opinion. It's so beautiful it's hard not to describe it as a lullaby. Again it's a simple melody engulfed with heart felt lyrics describing love which lets be honest is the subject matter of 90% of songs however not many explain it as perfectly as this one manages to when in the honeymoon period of romance. This is a must listen. Amy Winehouse. Back To Black It's hard to pick an individual song from such a masterpiece of an album but I think this song really is the defining one of her career. It's as dark and heavy as the eyeliner she wore laced with bittersweet lyrics with an almost obituary like self fulfilling prophecy of her own demise. The self made caricature of Winehouse and her all too often public downs should never distract the listener from her superb talent and I can genuinely say I feel privileged to have lived in the same era as her. Edith Piaf Non Je Regrette Rien Not many songs written and sang in French are loved by so many who can't understand the narrative. Surely this is testament to what an epic song it is. Such a tragic character is that of Piaf, this song being the one which defined her career and #life hits you like a punch from Mike Tyson himself. John Lennon Imagine Imagine is so pure and exquisite it's hard not to consider it ironically more like a hymn. I can hand on heart say even if Mugabe himself listened to this song once a day on prescription I'd doubt he could carry on with his downright bad behaviour. All the anxieties of the world seem needless when Lennon delivers the message of Imagine.
