Yep, I've still got a few more "Opposites" music posts to get out of my system. At the very least, there's this one, another one that's ready to go, and one more I'm working on right now. You'll find a pretty good mix of songs here. I'll bet you're familiar with a few of them. You may even know all the words to one or two. So go ahead, hear 'em while they're hot, since I slaved over 'em for so long. Or something like that. ~ JH
1) Blood Sweat & Tears ~ "You've Made Me So Very Happy"
2) Eric Clapton ~ "Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad?"
3) Garbage ~ "Only Happy When It Rains"
4) Lana Del Rey ~ "Summertime Sadness"
5) Sting ~ "I'm So Happy I Can't Stop Crying"
6) Toni Braxton ~ "Another Sad Love Song"
7) Michelle Branch ~ "Are You Happy Now?"
8) Elton John ~ "Sad Songs Say So Much"
9) Norah Jones ~ "Happy Pills"
10) Au Revoir Simone ~ "Sad Song"
11) Leona Lewis ~ "Happy"
12) Sky Ferreira ~ "Sad Dream"
13) R.E.M. ft. Kate Pierson ~ "Shiny Happy People"
14) Fredo Viola ~ "The Sad Song"
15) ABBA ~ "Happy New Year"
16) Blake Lewis ~ "Sad Song"
17) Britney Spears ~ "Born To Make You Happy"
18) Randy Rogers Band ~ "One More Sad Song"
19) Bobby McFerrin ~ "Don't Worry, Be Happy"
20) Jamie Cullum ft. Laura Mvula ~ "Sad, Sad World"
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...)
