INSPIRATIONAL MUSIC

Anyone who knows me well knows I'm crazy about music -- and listen to a wide variety to boot. I think Deborah Gibson is cool... the Smashing Pumpkins... Pam Tillis... Howard Jones... Peter, Paul, and Mary... Madonna... Queensryche... you get the picture. So, out of all that music, what do I consider my Top 10 inspirational songs? A tough, TOUGH question. The top 4 are pretty solid, the later spots rotate as I become introduced to more music. But here they are, for those of you who have wondered. I am sure if it is by chance or by intent that most of the top 10 (only one isn't!) are from movies, TV, or the stage... that's just the way it all fell. Below you'll find them listed, along with my interpretation and why I personally see them as inspirational.
One thing I discovered doing all this... I'm a bit of a mushy idealist...

#10 - "Somewhere Out There" (from the animated movie An American Tail)
Sung by Linda Rondstadt and James Ingram

Fievel the Mouse's family hopes for a better life in America... and when he's separated from them, both sides hope that "Somewhere out there/ Beneath a pale moonlight/Someone's thinking of me/And loving me tonight." It's tough to go toward our dreams -- whether of a better life like Fievel or something all together different -- without the support of others, though arguably not impossible.

#9 - "The Rainbow Connection" (from the movie The Muppet Movie)
Sung by Jim Henson [Kermit the Frog]

This classic Muppets song is all about dreams... and the universality of dreams. Like wanting to believe that there's something at the end of the rainbow, or that something will happen if we wish upon a star... the odds are next to, if not, impossible (at least logically) and yet we do it because we want to believe that dreams can come true.

By the way, if anyone knows how I can get my hands on the movie soundtrack somehow, as it appears to be out of print... e-mail me!

#8 - "Flying Dreams" (from the movie The Secret of NIMH)
Sung by Paul Williams

Though I can't necessarily say I care for Paul Williams' singing voice, I really like this song. It's a song as much about love as it is about dreams, with beautiful imagery. The song talks about being able to soar toward your dreams if you have love behind you, which is nice in and of itself, but it also speaks of the long haul: "Ever strong our future song/To sing it must be free/Every part is from the heart/and love is still the key."

#7 - "Believe in Yourself" (from the animated series JEM)
Sung by Britta Phillips [Jem] fan-maintained series resource site

There are two animated series that were influential in putting me on my current professional road... Voltron for inspiring me to start going after the dream of writing in the animation business, and JEM for the inspiration to take the dream and clearly run with it toward a professional reality.

This song is inspirational in its simplicity, as it reminds what's important to getting toward your dreams... "Believe in yourself/Or you'll get nothing from anyone else... Don't give up when people tell you no/Keep on searching for another way to go."

#6 - "Don't Rain on My Parade" (from the musical Funny Girl)
Sung by Deborah (Debbie) Gibson fan-maintained musician web site

Let me start off by saying I've never heard Barbra Streisand's rendition, so I can't make a comparison. I was first exposed to this song on the first pressing of Deborah Gibson's Deborah album, which was designed to be sold on her (unfortunately short-lived) Funny Girl musical tour. Hopefully she'll put it on a rumored Broadway-songs-only album she'd like to do... it's worth hearing!

Fanny Brice, the title character, has a lot of attitude. A LOT of attitude! She'll give things her best shot, and just keep on going if they don't pan out: "I'm gonna live and live now/Get what I want, I know how/One roll for the whole shebang/One throw that bell will go clang/Eye on the target and wham/One shot, one gunshot and bam!"

#5 - "We Must Believe in Magic"
Sung by Crystal Gayle

There is no greater treasure than rediscovering something long lost and realizing it moves you just as much as it did the first time. Such is the case with this song, originally from the 1979 album of the same name -- though I recently found it on a 1993 CD compilation from Curb Records. My father played it for me when I was young, and I think it was the blend of science fiction imagery and the sense of determination in the song that attached me to it... "Mad is the crew bound for Alpha Centauri/Dreamers and poets and clowns/Bold is the ship bound for Alpha Centuari/Nothing can turn it around..." It's been years since I heard it, and now I can't stop playing it. It touches something deep down in my soul. No matter how crazy or a long shot a dream is, go for it with all you have.

#4 - "We Will Win" (from the animated series Robotech)
Sung by Reba West/Michael Bradley [Lynn-Minmei/Yellow Dancer]

I have a big love in my heart for animation and particulary anime. ROBOTECH is a new American story told over Japanese animation, weaving together three previously unrelated series. While I'd like to know the original stories better, this feat of weaving the series together is amazing to me.

While the specific context of the song is about winning a war, it's about much more than that. "We Will Win" is about taking the initiative and fighting to make the most of life (this is a recurring theme in my top 5, see "The Greatest Adventure"). Like the song says: "Life is only what we choose to make it/Let's just take it/ Let us be free/We can find the glory we all dream of/And with our love/We can win"

#3 - "The Rose" (ending theme from the movie The Rose)
Sung by Judy Collins

Yes, I KNOW Bette Midler starred and sang in The Rose, but I have always had a preference for Judy Collins' rendition of the song. She makes Bette sound... well, to be honest... bland.

This song is about love, and not giving up hope when it seems lost. Also, like "The Greatest Adventure" (see #2), it's about having to take risks in order to live... and love: "It's the heart that fears the breaking/That never learns to dance/It's the dream afraid of waking/That never takes the chance/It's the one who won't be taken/That cannot seem to give/And the soul afraid of dying/Who never learns to live"

#2 - "The Greatest Adventure" (The Ballad of The Hobbit)
Sung by Glenn Yarbrough

Yes, this is exactly what you think it is... the title song from the 1977 Rankin-Bass adventure about a little hobbit named Bilbo Baggins. My father raised me on J.R.R. Tolkien, and because we lived in Japan when the movie came out in the U.S., he mail-ordered me the entire soundtrack on a double record set. It would be 1982 before I saw the film for the first time, and the book with the records included a minimal amount of movie art -- so it really stimulated my imagination, AND made me really disappointed with the film for several years.

But about the song... it's about taking risks in life, and only through that can you really live. You can dream a million things, but if you don't ever DO them, life passes you by. Like the song says: "A man who's a dreamer/And never takes lead/Who thinks of a world/That is just make believe/Will never know passion/Will never know pain/Who sits by the window/Will one day see rain..."

#1 - "Candle on the Water" (from the motion picture Pete's Dragon)

Sung by Helen Reddy fan-maintained movie site

This is the first song I remember playing over and over, especially once I got my own turntable at about age 9. I only had it on vinyl (and taped from the vinyl playback) for many years. Let's put it this way... I paid $50 for a box set JUST to get this song on CD. The rest of the Disney music isn't bad, but I wouldn't have bought the set if I couldn't have gotten this song. (I have since found out there is a single CD I could have gotten it on, it's a one-disc collection of Oscar-nominated and Oscar-winning Disney songs, I ran across it recently but have blanked on the name. "Candle on the Water" was nominated for an Oscar.)

"Candle" is about devotion... whether romantic or just friendship, it doesn't matter. It's someone always being there for you when the chips are down, to help you see your way to better days. To be honest, I never had a lot of friends growing up. Perhaps this exemplfies my fantasy of the best friend I wanted to have then... and the kind of person I want to be to others now: "I'll be your candle on the water /This flame inside of me will grow/Keep holding on, you'll make it/ Here's my hand, so take it/Look for me reaching out to show/As sure as rivers flow/I'll never let you go..."