Blog Challenge Day 22: 10 Favorite Songs

These songs are in no particular order, and I've selected them because they stay with me no matter what other tunes I enjoy throughout the years.  Some of these categories I consider 'songs', and the others are 'hymns' (yes, there is a difference!).  All of them touch my heart, and several reduce me to tears every time I hear or sing them.  

*Colour My World by Chicago - This is Michael's and my song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZN-AyNsDtN0A

*A Wink and A Smile by Harry Connick, Jr. - a more recent tune to add to my all-time favorites, but when I first heard it on the Sleepless in Seattle soundtrack, I fell in love!  It just makes me happy!  My daughter Holly and my son-in-law Eric danced to it at their wedding reception!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIwqw_2J6H8

*The Way You Look Tonight by Frank Sinatra, et al - This one is such a classic that it seems no matter who sings it, it sounds fantastic!  It has a special place in my heart because my son Adam selected it as the song he and I danced to at his wedding.  If you love this kind of music, follow my daughter Kelli's lead, go to Pandora.com and create a Michael Buble station (another singer who nails this tune!)...like Kelli told me when she suggested I do that, "You'll thank me later!"  (Oh, and musical/movie trivia...this is also the song that Dermot Mulroney sang to Julia Roberts as they danced on the boat floating down the river in Chicago in "My Best Friend's Wedding")
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0Gg7RULwrI

*Every song in "Mary Poppins" and "The Sound of Music" (yes, even Climb Every Mountain!) - by Rodgers and Hammerstein, sung by Julie Andrews and others - OK, so maybe this is cheating, lumping all these melodies into one, but come on!  Each one is sweet, fun and great to sing along to, which is always a top priority in just about any song I like!  Confession: Although I saw Mary Poppins at the tender age of 4, when it first came out, and I knew a few of the songs from Sound of Music growing up, I never actually SAW The Sound of Music until I'd been married for several years...I know, shocking!  I had no idea until that point that "Do, Re, Mi" and "Edelweiss" were songs from that movie!  The only thing that I remember hearing about the movie before finally watching it (VHS..it was the 80's!) was some random trivia fact that a woman set some kind of Guinness record for seeing The Sound of Music 100 times in the theater.  I wonder if the record still holds....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cD-7DtEPfM&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PL5B5D22B325FCFC26

*Hark the Herald Angels Sing - I consider this my favorite Christmas song, and it's actually one I think could be categorized as a song and a hymn. Sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir AND by Charlie Brown and friends...how can you go wrong with that??  Come on, everybody, tip your face up to the sky...."loo, loo, loooo, loo, loo, loo, loo, loooo....."
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTu00FCLgPs

*For the Beauty of the Earth - A classic, timeless hymn.  It just makes me appreciate the beautiful world that our loving Father in Heaven created for us.  It doesn't hurt that I live in a particularly gorgeous part of that world, and I hope I never take it for granted!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qsp3p16lONI

*How Gentle God's Commands, LDS Hymnbook #125 - This hymn is one that sustains me often when I feel burdened and overwhelmed.  By the time we get to the last verse, my heart and my tear ducts tend to overflow.  "I'll drop my burden at his feet, and bear a song away."  I need to work on this concept, and this song reminds me that I really can turn my trials over to Him, and He will strengthen me and lighten my load.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66EpXqk1lKU

*Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing - this hymn is a more recent addition to my all-time favorites list, but I think I love it for reasons similar to the ones listed above. And that's all I have to say about that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uslytyVrWFw

*Patriotic Songs - Yes, yes, I'm lumping again, but these 4 will give me goosebumps and cause tears to stream down my face every time.  They are: The Star-Spangled Banner, America the Beautiful,  The Battle Hymn of the Republic, and God Bless the USA  (Lee Greenwood).  One year, our son Adam was deployed to Iraq in the Marine Corp, and as his dad and I stood to sing the Star-Spangled Banner in church that 4th of July Sunday, we both could barely finish, and literally had tears streaming down our faces (My allergies are acting up even as I type this).  One of our church leaders, who was standing up at the front, commented afterward that he had to consciously avoid looking at us as we sang, because it touched him so!  Can you honestly say that you will not expect to get chills at the end of this summer, as our national anthem is played during the Olympics?  This great land was founded on righteous principles, and no matter what, it is a land that is blessed, and I pray it will always be a "land of the free and....home of the brave!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOvA-Hn4_Z

*And finally, For Good - from the musical "Wicked", music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and sung by Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth - all the music from this play is amazing, and one of the things that I enjoy most about it is how clever the lyrics are.  In several of the tunes, the phrases carry a double meaning, and this one is a great example of that.  I love this song because it speaks to enduring love and friendship, and the fact that even though many of the people that we care for deeply are separated from us, whether geographically, emotionally or philosophically, they all leave a "handprint on my heart".  I am grateful for all the wonderful people I have in my life now, and have had in the past, who have made me what I am and set the example for what I may become.  Thanks to all of you, "I have been changed....for good."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQJaZO2nfGg 

"Ah, music," he said, wiping his eyes. "A magic beyond all we do here!"  (Professor Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, p. 128)