What's on YOUR ipod?

Have ya'll seen those Capital One commercials where the families take really sucky vacations because they don't have Capital One? Oh man, I think those are so funny. So today's title is a tribute to those commercials, which never fail to make me laugh. (Josh says that it's too easy for a commercial to make me laugh.)

We have been stuck on a select group of musicians lately, and I want to share those with you. You may want to give them a try yourselves. These are in no particular order.
1. Barry White. Barry White has gotten a LOT of airtime in our apartment and car in recent days. We love him! He's got this amazing rich, deep voice, and the songs he sings are just incredible. Very '70s. Love it.
2. Bjork. Bjork is very different from Barry White, but we listen to her when we're in the mood for some somewhat whacked-out Scandinavian music. She's actually really good. We usually come away from her music with some song-induced, drug-like euphoria. She is a very interesting musician.
3. Luther Vandross. Josh loves Luther Vandross, and I've really grown to love him myself. He sings such romantic music with a beautiful voice. Big fan. We sing these songs all the time.
4. Lionel Ritchie. We actually have only gotten into one Lionel song to date, and that's "All Night Long." One night pretty early into our pregnancy experiment we went to Publix because I HAD to have some frozen peaches. Why, I can't tell you. I just HAD to have some. Anyway, this song was playing, and we couldn't stop ourselves from getting down in the frozen foods section. The song was just that good. While we were dancing like crazy, some random shoppers walked by and gave us questioning looks, but we were past the point of caring. After leaving Publix we agreed that we DEFINITELY had to download that song. And ever since then we've been singing it at the top of our lungs and doing some random dancing. If you are looking for a song that will give you an instant good time, look no further.
5. Enrique Iglesias. Josh is obsessed with the song "Escape." We play this song all the time, especially in the car. One time when Josh's parents were in town, we convinced them that this song was frequently played as special music at Redeemer during the offering. We love the part at the end where Enrique goes, "You can R-UN. You can R-UN..." That part is so good. We're usually almost shouting at this point.
6. Music from Dirty Dancing. This music is beyond description, particularly songs like "She's Like the Wind," "Hungry Eyes," and our favorite, "I've Had the Time of My Life." We love all of these songs and sing them with reckless abandon. We get in the car, push play on this list, and sing our hearts out. I remember one round of singing that was particularly memorable. We were driving to meet some friends for dinner at Famous Dave's, which is probably about 20 minutes from our house with stoplights (there are an exhorbitant number on Washington Road). I usually operate as DJ because Josh often drives, and it's a guarantee that I'm going to pick something rowdy for the car. So here we were, setting out from our apartment, and I picked Josh's 80's playlist, which is full of all kinds of good things, including the music from Dirty Dancing. On came some hits, and we were singing so boisterously that I thought my head was going to explode. Hit after hit, they just kept coming. Then came "I've Had the Time of My Life." Oh wow, folks. We sang like we had never sung before (or since, for that matter. Oh wait, never mind.). After all of that we had to rest, and on came "She's Like the Wind." We thought that would be a good rest song, but oh no, we went crazy on it. Sang its heart out, putting Patrick Swayze to shame. So there was no rest for the weary, but we didn't care. Next on came the 80s hit "Gloria" by Laura Brannigan. This isn't from the Dirty Dancing soundtrack, but it's incredible. My aunt Martha introduced us to this song when she put it on our wedding reception playlist, and Josh in particular has really embraced it. If you know the song, you know there's lots of background singing and all kinds of other stuff going on. So we really poured our all into that song, even though we were already so drained from all of the other singing we had done for the last 15 minutes or so. We pulled into the Famous Daves parking lot not quite through with Gloria, but feeling triumphant for putting on such a heartfelt show for ourselves. Also very drained. You know how it feels when the blood vessels in your head are almost throbbing because you're laughing so hard or screaming or in our case, singing so hard? Yeah, we achieved that level. That was one of our crowning moments.
7. Cher. Josh might not seem to fit the profile, but he actually is a Cher disciple. Loves that music from the 80s. Our favorite song is "If I Could Turn Back Time." Josh loves all of the horrible cliches that Cher uses to describe things, like this one- "Words are like weapons/they wound sometimes" and "like someone took a knife and drove it deep into my heart." This is another one of those head-exploding songs. We sing this one hard. Actually, that episode I just told you about on the way to Famous Daves was kicked of by this song. Great start to any rowdy round of singing. Josh also loves the song "Emotional Fire."

Well, I guess that's about it for now. I know there are artists and songs that are getting left out, but none are coming to mind right now. We've pretty much been obsessed with this list for the last couple of months, so nothing else is getting much playing time.

My word of advice to you is this: if you're looking for a good time, look no further than these artists listed above. I've pretty much made you a party in an ipod. Download, play, and enjoy.