Some songs move you to dance, others move you to feel, and some take us to a much deeper place. Here are the Top 5 songs that cut me to the core:
5. IMAGINE DRAGONS, “DEMONS” from NIGHT VISIONS (2012): When I was a freshman in college, I was briefly in a long-distance relationship with a girl from the Chicago burbs. We parted amicably and stayed in touch off and on in the subsequent years. Her brief presence in my life had a profound impact on me. In 2007, she began a long battle with cancer and unfortunately passed at the age of 40, leaving behind a husband and daughter.
Since moving to Chicago in 2002, one of my closest friends — a stunt actor who would make appearances on shows like Chicago Fire, Chicago PD, APB and the Amazon Prime sci-fi anthology Electric Dreams – kept me laughing and smiling and sadly died of brain cancer in 2019, leaving behind a son and daughter.
“Demons” is a song about cancer that hit increasingly closer to home with each of those deaths. While I enjoyed the song when it first came out due to its power and intensity, “Demons” took on a new meaning as I watched two people once close to me both succumb to its ravages. Since then, I’ve never been able to listen to it in the same way.
4. JOHN WETTON, “HOLD ME NOW” from CHASING THE DRAGON (2007): I was struck by John Wetton’s passion when I heard his live version of “Hold Me Now.” And then I learned it wasn’t a song about unrequited romantic love but a song about unrequited parental love: I was cut clear to the core as I pictured a young boy hungering and yearning for affection from a mother that he would never receive.
As a parent I can’t even begin to imagine not showing my own children the love I have for them. This song just makes me want to hug that little boy and spend time with him, and let him know that someone cares, even if his mother doesn’t. There are singers who have better more distinct voices, but what Wetton lacked in vocal quality he doubled down on in pure passion. If this “Hold Me Now” doesn’t reduce you to tears after knowing it was written for his mother, nothing will.
3. SAMANTHA BARKS, “ON MY OWN” from LES MISERABLES (2012): I went to Montreal in 1991, and saw Les Miserables. I was just a few months shy of 15 and this moving song of young unrequited love was particularly moving. The musical planted a seed for musicals that have never gone away, and this song – along with “One Day More” – will remain favorites of mine from this musical to my dying day. There are a multiple cast recordings out there — and the ones that have nailed the part of Eponine are the most moving.
2. KING CRIMSON, “STARLESS” from RED (1974): It is said that prog-rock is all technique. John Wetton proved that theory wrong — at least for a moment — on this track. There’s a haunting yearning to “Starless,” which boasts a rolling rhapsody of emotion from start to finish. This is the song to play for anyone who continues to claim that prog-rock is cold and heartless.
1. JOHN BARRY, “THEME FROM SOMEWHERE IN TIME” from SOMEWHERE IN TIME (1980): My parents went on a business trip when I was a young boy and left me with my grandparents in the Adirondack Mountains. They had a satellite TV and could pick up HBO East and HBO West. That weekend, I watched Superman III and Somewhere in Time repeatedly. Superman III was fun and I preferred it as a kid who loved superhero movies. Over the years, however, Somewhere In Time is the film that stuck with me.
John Barry wrote and conducted some absolutely gorgeous scores for some great and even some absolutely rubbish movies that truly didn’t deserve his talent. (Movies where his scores were the only good things about the films include Raise the Titanic, The Black Hole and Frances.) Somewhere in Time, a film adaptation of Richard Mathieson’s Bid Time Return, actually stiffed at the box office but became a cult favorite thanks to HBO and later VHS rentals.
The film features one of John Barry’s most moving and, in hindsight, most well-regarded scores. Christopher Reeve, Jane Seymour and Christopher Plummer turned brilliant performances, but John Barry’s score is what made Somewhere in Time so effective. In interviews, Barry said that he composed the title song following the passing of his father and that the music came from pure grief. Following the passing of my own father a few years ago, “Theme From Somewhere in Time” developed a much stronger and deeper emotional effect on me, rocketing it to the top of this list.
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