This is going to be a most unusual blog post for me. Just “read” along and you will find out why.

Music means a lot to me and speaks to my soul. It has for years. This is true for all kinds of music, bluegrass, classical, jazz, pop, rock, and alternative as well. Years ago we called alternative music progressive. When I was an announcer, or disc jockey as they were known back then, I wanted to play mostly progressive music. Not many discs are played nowadays on the air or off. There was a time when everyone played them. Well, there were those awful eight tracks for a while. I have never owned one of those. I do own many CDs, too many to count. As I said music speaks to me, it delivers messages to my soul, some of the messages are good some not so much. I started listening when I was old enough to turn on a radio, in the house or car, or put a record on a turntable. I listened to country and western, show music (loved the soundtrack to Camelot), soundtracks, and hymns. I didn’t dig the last group all that much. I am sorry to say that. Contemporary Christian, now that is a different story. Hearing Christian music is like drinking fresh water to me, completely necessary to stay alive and healthy. Anyway, as I first said this is an unusual blog post for me and if you read along you would find out why. So you shall. I am now going to post my top ten songs, ones that speak to me the most, that I think I love the most and you can listen to them now. How about that?

First up is Carol KIng’s “You're So Far Away” I bought her vinyl album the very day Diane left for college leaving me behind.

Elton John’s “Your Song” I heard this song on his self-titled album months before anyone in my high school even knew who he was. I was ahead of my time. I would imagine a young lady to love when I played this song. I met her a few weeks after I purchased this record.

“Lovely To See You” by the Moody Blues. I was at a high school senior class graduation party at a friend’s house. Diane was sitting on a couch next to me, her legs on my lap when I heard this music for the first time. I was fascinated and I was hooked, on both the music and Diane. I have many Moody Blues Albums.

Diane introduced me to this album of music (or was it the other way around?) We both owned it and both listened to it, sometimes at the same time, she in Fredericksburg and I in Washington DC. Things like that happened a number of times with us.

Diane and I loved this artist. We still do. Anything he writes and performs is allright with us. This is a cut from the first album of his that I bought, over 50 years ago.

This is not the greatest Chicago song in the world, although some might disagree with that. It means a lot to me because it was playing during a Senior Prom where I had my first slow dance with a lady I married eighteen months later. How could I not make this one of my favorite songs?

When I heard this song for the first time, I could hardly believe my ears. It was nothing like any gospel song or hymn that I was usually exposed to. It reached deep into my heart. I had to find out more about this group and the music company that recorded their wonderful music.

I love many more than ten songs. Trying to narrow down the ones that mean the most to me is not easy at all, but this has to be one of them. Russ Taff is a great artist and his music really reaches into my heart. I sang this song many times myself in church.

It is getting harder for me to choose what songs to post here now. There are songs that I sang in church, songs that my kids remember and they were good. My singing, well sometimes it was really good sometimes not so much. Every now and then I found one that really ministered to me and to those who heard it. This is one of those songs:

This is the tenth one. These songs are not listed in reverse order as most top tens but this one has to be at the top no matter how they are listed. It is Our Song, and Diane’s maid of honor played her guitar and sang it at our wedding over fifty years ago. Lore was very nervous but her good performance was not the most important thing, the words of this song were, and to Diane and I, they still are.

I am adding one more. It is currently one of my favorite songs. I really don’t know how to express how much it moves me when I hear it. It makes me want to praise His name and makes me thankful for many things. I do hear His name here in the mountains.

I hope you enjoyed the little musical interlude that I posted.

Derrick.

5/6/2023 I want to add one more song, it’s new to me this year, but boy it sure speaks to my heart.