Wedding Wednesdays - Ben Folds - The Luckiest

Here it is, the final song from our wedding, and the one that had the most potential to make me cry. Ben Folds (official wiki AMG) is from Winston-Salem, NC, and is best known to pop audiences as the guy who wrote "Brick," though that might be his most solemn song ever.

When we sat down to start compiling wedding music, I played this for my lovely wife. It was a song she'd never heard before, but Ben's words and sentiments almost had her in tears, something I totally understand. The narrator of this song is an awkward guy, one who can't necessarily express his emotions well in words, but he stumbles around until he manages to say what he feels. (Live video here.)

I'm terrible at that myself, but I just hope that I can help Tiki feel loved, and cherished. I hope I can make her see how much I appreciate her -- everything she does for me, and everything she is. If she feels even half the love I have for her, this marriage can't help but work.

Ben Folds - The Luckiest
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Wedding Wednesdays - Michael Bublé - You And I

Got a few more wedding songs to upload for all of you. This is a song written by Stevie Wonder -- we already heard from him both on this blog and at the wedding, which is why I'm not posting the original. (It's not a coincidence, though -- Stevie is high in the list of our top ten favorite musicians as a couple. He might even be in the top three.)

Michael Bublé (official mySpace wiki AMG) is a Canadian big band/swing crooner, who's been doing some press the last few weeks connected with the Olympics and his upcoming tour. We'll hear his cover of the Stevie Wonder song today (but during our actual wedding ceremony the song was performed by the bride's sister, who did a great job and blew us all away). The album this song comes from also includes Michael's version of "Try A Little Tenderness," and his lackluster cover of "Can't Buy Me Love."

Michael Bublé - You And I
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Wedding Wednesdays - Corinne Bailey Rae - Like A Star

Corinne Bailey Rae (official wiki MySpace AMG) is a British torch-jazz-soul singer. She's about to be everywhere at once since she has a new album coming out (with a bonus track which is a Nina Simone cover), two days after our wedding.

This is a nice mellow love song (and possibly the most mainstream thing I will ever, ever post on this blog). I like the lyrics because they're honest about the less romantic side of love ("I don't argue like this / With anyone but you...") but still sweet and hopeful.

Corinne Bailey Rae - Like A Star
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Wedding Wednesdays - Johnny Cash - Flesh And Blood

I love Johnny, I do. And his marriage with June is one of the stories I think about when I consider love (though, naturally, I hope never to emulate the first eleventeen years of that story).

This is the stripped-down, bare-bones version from Johnny's last years, not the one with the shimmery strings from 1970. Ultimately, this feels more like I hope my wedding will be -- smaller, more intimate. Still perfectly composed and executed, but no pomp or bombast, just quiet satisfaction and happiness with life and love. (If we were having a bigger, more expensive wedding, the other version might be more appropriate, especially since I love June's backing vocals on that take.)

This song is one of those comparative love songs, the ones like "In My Life" which say I love a lot of wonderful things, but I love you most of all. And this song says a lot about the transient beauty of our world, and the durable, lasting beauty of love between humans.

I haven't forgotten what tomorrow is -- click here to see last year's Thanksgiving post. I'm a lucky boy, in a lot of ways, and (not unlike Johnny) one of the things I've been luckiest about is to get a second chance with love. Thanks, sweetie. Happy Thanksgiving.

Johnny Cash - Flesh and Blood
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Wedding Wednesdays - John Fogerty - Joy Of My Life

Here's the second post about music for my upcoming nuptials. As longtime readers of the blog will know, I love love love John Fogerty. This is one of my two favorite songs from my favorite John Fogerty album, and a song that I've been known to listen to on repeat play for hours at a time.

Musically, this is so perfect for me, with the gorgeous slide guitar hitting me right in my country/blues sweet spot, the unexpected high fretwork about 1:30 (and the metallic clinking thirty seconds later), and the unabashed sweetness of the lyrics.

Fogerty isn't known as a guy who writes love songs, but this is about as perfect a love song as anyone could ask for. I don't want to delve too deeply into the man's personal life, but it seems to me that his wife Julie is mellowing him considerably, in all the right ways. (Granted, John's still able to access his anger lyrically, but the existence of this song shows that he's capable of a full range of emotions, which the CCR rock hits don't show off.) He's starting a short tour this week, and if you have a chance you should go.

This song always has the potential to choke me up if I'm in the right mood, and in fact right now I've been listening for about twenty minutes nonstop, and I'm on the verge. When this plays during my wedding, that might just be the point my eyes mist up. Thanks, John.

John Fogerty - Joy Of My Life
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Wedding Wednesdays - Stevie Wonder - At Last

So have I mentioned I'm getting married in January? I haven't? Sorry -- you folks need to keep up.

Naturally, I'm excited to choose music to play during the ceremony, and afterwards at the reception. So for a few weeks, I'll be putting up some of the choicest cuts, and talking about them here.

We've been working oh so slowly on compiling the music for our ceremony and reception. I personally have DJ'd one wedding, and "At Last" was the first-dance song there. Tiki and I both love the song, and Etta James in general. (Now, as you may know, I don't care for Beyonce, but that's neither here nor there as far as the original version of the song is concerned.) Our thinking is, everyone everywhere plays "At Last" during their wedding, and the lyrics are quite appropriate to both weddings in general and our relationship in particular.

Etta's version is the classic, of course, but Stevie Wonder's cover is just magical. It's fast, funky, and furious. This is not a first dance song. This is an upbeat song for walking down the aisle as man and wife.

(My cousin suggested that we should walk down the aisle to this, and though we both love everything about the song, and I know a lady who did just that [Hi, Martha! Love to all the Tough Pigs!], we won't be doing that either.)

This is heartfelt, triumphant, celebratory: everything we want our wedding to be. We haven't figured out what our first dance song will be, but there's no way I could dance to this song without spraining something.

Stevie Wonder - At Last
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