MUSIC

20 songs that will make you happy

The internet is flush with listings of all-time greatest hits. In most cases, the Top of the Charts, whose numbers run into 10s, 50s, 100s and 500s, are predictable. Here’s a list of 20 out-of-the-ordinary songs that you’ll enjoy listening to. Check out the ones marked in black. They are not in any particular order but you are free to put them in one, and even suggest your own favourite songs that don't make the mainstream grade.

   1. Truth be told: Honesty by Billy Joel, the third single from his album 52nd Street (1979), will make you sit up and listen—and listen hard.

  2. If there's one song you'll replay in your mind, it's Strangers in the Night by Frank Sinatra from the namesake album released in 1966. Somethin' Stupid by Frank and daughter Nancy Sinatra is not far behind.

  3. You Raise Me Up by American singer-songwriter Josh Groban will make you wish you could sing like him at the age of 30, or any age.

  4. Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera sung by Sarah Brightman, the English soprano, and Michael Crawford, English actor and singer, will leave you in complete awe. How can anyone on this planet make such devastatingly beautiful music?

  5. The Brothers Four, the American folk singing group, are better known for their 1960 hit song Greenfields but I prefer the old-world charm of 500 Miles from the album Big Folk Hits.

  6. Unforgettable (1951) by American musician Nat King Cole is just that—utterly unforgettable.

  7. I Made it Through the Rain by Barry Manilow from the self-titled album Barry was an instant hit when it was released in 1980.

  8. Summer Wine (1967) was the first of many successful duets Lee "baritone" Hazlewood sang with Nancy Sinatra—the perfect soundtrack to a Hollywood western film. Unfortunately, it never became one.

  9. Richard Marx's ballad Right Here Waiting from his second album Repeat Offender is immensely popular to this day.

10. Long before Bryan Adams and Jon Bon Jovi, there was Kim Carnes, the two-time Grammy Award winner who sang Bette Davis Eyes in 1981. Find out why.

11. Abba are famous for dozens of numbers and The Visitors, their eighth and final studio album released in 1981, isn't really one of them. It is for me, though.

12. Ditto for Somewhere in the world by Boney M from their album Ten Thousand Lightyears (1984).

13. Welsh singer Tom Jones drove women mad with his hit single Delilah from the album Delilah (1968).

14. Woman in Love by Barbra Streisand from the album Guilty, produced by Barry Gibb in 1980, remains the single greatest hit by the American diva.

15. Agadoo, the party song by British pop group Black Lace, is one song you will continue to hum long out of school, college or wherever.

16. Bad Day ("You Had a Bad Day") by Canadian singer Daniel Powter became the most successful single of 2006.

17. As movie soundtracks go, Way Back into Love sung by Hugh Grant and Haley Bennett from the romantic comedy Music and Lyrics (2007) scores big on love themes.

18. In 2005, British singer James Blunt recorded You're Beautiful for his debut album Back to Bedlam (2004).

19. Nightshift won The Commodores their first Grammy Award in 1985.

20. Nancy Sinatra had These Boots Are Made for Walkin' from the album Boots (1966) on everyone's lips. No prizes for guessing who wrote it—Lee Hazlewood, of course.