Song of the Year (Daniel)

Dear James,

Well, what with you in Dorset this weekend and me off to You're A Guy on Wednesday, it's that time to put on your nostalgic thinking cap and decide what was your song of the year. It doesn't have to be a song released this year (God knows, I haven't been aware of a song released in the same year since 1991), just the song that means the most to you now at this juncture in the light of the events of the past twelve months.

First of all, special mentions for also-rans Don't Stop Me Now, Potential Futures, The Power of Love and Everybody needs Somebody, special last-minute guests at your wedding; to Cold War Kids' We Used to Vacation, still top of my i-tunes pops but strictly speaking, last year's song; and especially to Andrew Bird's Heretics, a song that was with me for much of the duration and which i-tunes says is my most heard song of this year.

But in 3rd place, and also a contender for best cover that was better than the original, Love's My Little Red Book. The perfect break-up song, and the (hopefully) first song in the film, Songs of Bacharach and David. Here's the Manfred Mann version. Love supposedly worked it out after seeing the film just twice. And Burt Bacharach hated them for it, partly because they turned it into a minor key. Doesn't the original sound kind of minor? And if not, is this the first picardy third over a whole song and its cover version?

In 2nd place, While You Were Sleeping by Elvis Perkins. The night Josefina came round for the second time, she was late as usual and I was killing time scouring youtube for new things to listen to. I came across a Cold War Kids interview where they recommended two acts: Dr Dog, the band through which I got into Cold War Kids, and Elvis Perkins. I'd just started listening to this video when the doorbell buzzed, and there was Josefina. James, I lay with her that night, for the first time. We didn't sleep together, I had to go and catch a flight to Rio at 4am, but there was definitely a fair bit of sex there. And not for the last time.

And in 1st place, and here we get soppy, Postcards from Italy by Beirut. Josefina and I sang this together lots on the ukulele. In a parallel universe, there´s a video on youtube of us singing this at my birthday party, because in this universe the batteries ran out in my camera at that precise moment. If and when we get married, this will be our song.