It's highly subjective, but we're throwing out there what songs, or pieces, give you that big physical or mental boost. So, what music puts a pep in your step? What pushes out the puissance, releases the pizzazz, flows the juice, brings vim, vitality, vigour, zest, zing or the zip?
Read more29 February? A rare leap ... at songs about jumping
One giant leap: Bob Beamon’s long jump record at the Mexico City 1968 Olympics stood for at an unusually lengthy 23 years
A Thursday on 29 February rarely happens, so let’s not skip it: Songs about jumps, leaps, bounds, hurdles, vaults of all kinds, literal and metaphorical, no t random occurrence of a related words, but where the leap in question is central to to the song's theme. Get inspired by many varied contexts and guests in the Bar …
Read moreWhat's left behind? Songs about legacy
Honest legacy? Park (bench) your musical heritage here …
How will you leave it, or be left? It’s a profound idea to think of how we’ll be remembered, or forgotten, as material, ethereal and emotional remains, or what others might leave to us. So let’s widen our musical legacy with some more song ideas on this topic …
Read morePlaylists: songs about 'everything'
Promising everything: Them featuring the young Van Morrison
Is everything awesome or is it awful, or the full works in between? There’s a whole spectrum of ideas and feelings about ‘everything’ expressed in song, and from last week’s topic guest playlister Noodsy very neatly picks great numbers to capture the big picture
Read morePlaylists: songs to start the morning
Time to wake …
Songs to get your up and motivated, or songs that are also about the morning? Don’t be alarmed, it’s all covered in this special two-parter, picked by guest of the week DiscoMonster from a huge dawn chorus of nominations from the past week
Read morePlaylists: music and songs featuring the trombone
Bill Watrous
Slide right in here for a blow-by-blow account of the beautiful, broad-ranging, classy, brassy repertoire of the ‘bone – from early jazz to reggae, ska, pop, soul, salsa, funk and film soundtrack and more, perfectly picked by guest magicman from a massive range of nominations
Read moreSlide this way: music and songs featuring the trombone
JJ Johnson
From classical to Dixieland to New Orleans early jazz, swing, big band, bebop to modern jazz, pop, funk, rock and more, it’s time to bone up, slide in and have a blast with your suggestions on this great, often unheralded instrument
Read morePlaylists: songs from or about Italy
Benvenuti in La Taverna Cantata!
This week, it’s the full Italian job! And there’s far more to it than exploding cars – a whole queue of hooting horns, gesticulation and finest food and wine in musical form, all picked by excellente playlister philipphilip99 from a fleet of nominations
Read morePlaylists: songs with great arrangements
Sketching out … Miles Davis and Gil Evans
It’s an artful arrangement in itself: classical to jazz, pop to prog, the parts unfold and come together beautifully in these playlists picked by this week’s guest magicman, drawn from hundreds of suggestions from last week’s topic
Read moreTake parts: songs with great arrangements
Two of the greats. Ray Charles, also a great arranger as well as performer, with composer and arranger Quincy Jones
From full orchestration to carefully stripped back, this week let's consider work where in originals or later versions, added instrumentals, vocal parts, melodic fills, changing tempo or keys, have made a great song even better
Read morePlaylists: songs featuring the harmonica
Toots Thielemans
Take a deep breath – you are about to experience a selection of sublime and moving music from film soundtracks, blues and soul greats. Guest playlist writer magicman blows two beautiful lists from last week's nominations
Read morePlaylists: songs with great backing vocals
Ray Charles and The Raelettes
Aretha and her sisters to Ray and the Raelettes, Louis and Keely to Gladys and the Pips, this week's brilliant backing vocals came from a chorus of nominations topic, led by a masterful guest playlister magicman
Read moreDon't fret about the riff: it's songs about guitars
Prince. His guitar was a symbol of so many things …
Thrum! This week let's pluck out out songs that mention guitars in lyrics or title, whether electric, acoustic or bass, and what role or meaning they have – companion, inspiration, religion, weapon, language or more
Read moreBorn this way … biographical and autobiographical songs
From the cover of The Slits' guitarist Viv Albertine's book Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys (2014)
Let me tell you a story … this week we're looking for songs that capture the narrative or arc of a person's life, about themselves or others, famous or unknown, whether that's in the first or third person
Read moreSweet intervals: songs with close harmony singing
The Puppini Sisters
Barbershop to Bulgarian, folk to rock, church, gospel to swing, from the sacred to the profane, it's time to suggest songs where two or many more voices sing closely formed, but independent melodies
Read moreFork handles to four Handels: songs about tools
If I had a hammer ...
From hand-held hammering to skilful sawing, sewing, screwing, or searching, take a good look in your musical shed for top tool-related tunes and place them in the suggestion box below
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