Okay, so none of these songs are specifically "Thanksgiving" songs. But all of them have the words "Thank You" in the title, which is something I suppose. I'm thankful for a lot of things, and I might go to the trouble of listing them here later – perhaps today, or maybe tomorrow. But for now, I want to thank you – whomever you are – for taking the time to indulge me and actively cooperate in my insanity daily, weekly, or however often you visit this blog. If you didn't consistently check out what I have to say, or what music I'm posting, or revel in the things that fascinate me, I would probably still blog, but not nearly as often. Thank you, Loyal Readers. And Happy Thanksgiving to you all! ~ JH
1) Boyz II Men ~ "Thank You"
2) Alanis Morissette ~ "Thank U"
3) Sly & The Family Stone ~ "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" (Yeah, you read that right – that's the official name of the song, spelled exactly as the band intended it to be)
4) Dido ~ "Thank You"
5) Bon Jovi ~ "Thank You For Loving Me"
6) Estelle ~ "Thank You"
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Another "Opposites" music post, you ask? Yes and no. Yes, given the fact that some of the songs with "Close" in the title refer to the word "Close" (hard "s"), meaning the opposite of "Open." While other songs with "Close" in the title refer to the word "Close" (soft "s"), meaning the opposite of "Far." Does that make sense? Anyway, enjoy! ~ JH
1) Taylor Swift ~ "Eyes Open"
2) Calvin Harris ~ "Feel So Close"
3) Creed ~ "With Arms Wide Open"
4) Lita Ford ft. Ozzy Osbourne ~ "Close My Eyes Forever"
5) Journey ~ "Open Arms"
6) Alex Clare ~ "Too Close"
7) Dixie Chicks ~ "Wide Open Spaces"
8) Fireflight ~ "Stay Close"
9) Gotye ~ "Eyes Wide Open"
10) Keith Whitley ~ "Don't Close Your Eyes"
11) Rhye ~ "Open"
12) Carpenters ~ "Close To You"
13) Living Colour ~ "Open Letter To A Landlord"
14) Common ft. Mary J. Blige ~ "Come Close"
15) Guano Apes ~ "Open Your Eyes" (Great name for a band – ha, ha!)
16) Michael Bublé ~ "Close Your Eyes"
17) Alter Bridge ~ "Open Your Eyes"
18) Dierks Bentley ~ "I Wanna Make You Close Your Eyes"
In case you didn't see or read yesterday's post, I'll recap the intro as succinctly as I can. A mononym is "a one-word name by which a person is known." Many singers, songwriters, and musicians in the industry are (or have historically been) commonly known by a single name. Yesterday, I posted a collection of songs by mononymous female singers. Today, it's the singularly-named guys' turn. Enjoy! ~ JH
(NOTE: Several notable mononymous males are absent from this list, but that is by design. Prince not only has a comprehensive catalogue of wildly inappropriate music, but he also seems to have wiped his entire music video collection off the face of YouTube. Bono [U2] is a great singer, but he hasn't really done a whole lot solo, so I excluded him from consideration here. Yanni is a popular musician, but he isn't much of a singer. Eminem and Drake may be highly talented rappers in their own right, but their lyrics are so foul that I declined to post any of their music here.)
1) Sting ~ "Fields Of Gold" (You can't go wrong with this guy – classic song, classic voice.)
2) Moby ~ "Raining Again" (Moby doesn't always sing the vocals for his songs, but when he does he's not half bad!)
3) Matisyahu ~ "One Day" (Wonderful song by a one-of-a-kind musician – a Hasidic Jew who sings reggae music!)
4) Beck ~ "Loser" (Some of the most bizarre lyrics ever set to music can be found right here in this song.)
5) Tedashii ft. BenJah ~ "Last Goodbye" (Two mononymous guys in one song – ha! Warning: You might want to have your Kleenexes handy...)
7) Liberace ~ "I'll Be Seeing You" (Good googly-moogly, that outfit!)
8) Babyface ~ "Every Time I Close My Eyes" (This guy's voice is smooth as silk – in other words, I'm jealous!)
9) D'Angelo ~ "Cruisin'" (A classic old-school R & B song given a new-school vibe – I like it!)
10) Donovan ~ "Mellow Yellow" (Donovan had to be on some serious drugs when he wrote this song – and maybe when he performed it, too – there's no other explanation for the blatant weirdness...)
11) Gotye ft. Kimbra ~ "Somebody That I Used To Know" (A great song by two talented singers – both of whom are mononymous!)
12) Seal ~ "Kiss From A Rose" (This was one of Seal's better ballads back in the day.)
13) PSY ~ "Gangnam Style" (Oh, yes, I went there...)
14) will.i.am ft. Cheryl Cole ~ "Heartbreaker" (Technically, I suppose you could say will.i.am is three different words, but I'm going with it anyway.)
15) Morrissey ~ "Alma Matters" (I've heard a lot about this guy, but this is the first time I've actually listened to a song by him – nice voice...)
