#AtoZChallenge: O — “Out Here on My Own” by Irene Cara

Posted on April 18, 2025 by renbog

This month, all my A to Z Challenge posts will feature a song that is on my personal list of “deep cuts.” These are songs that my husband often razzes me about, that there’s no one else who has ever heard of them or is listening to them, or they’re songs that possibly are just not that mainstream. If we are of the same era or run in the same musical taste circles, none of these may seem that off the beaten path, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t fun songs! Enjoy!

One of my favorite movies is the movie Fame. Irene Cara became a household name because of that movie mostly because she sang the blockbuster title song from that movie. And I agree that song is a good one, but my favorite song from that movie is a different Irene Cara song — the one I am sharing in this post.

I love the sadness and wistfulness of this song, but mostly I love the poetry of the lyrics. It is just a raw expression of what it is like to become an adult, always wondering if you’re doing the right things, always trying to prove yourself, alternating between feeling like you’re all grown up and still a kid.

I also like how this song shows Cara’s character in a vulnerable light in the scene from the movie, which is the video I share below. Everyone seems to focus so much on the song “Fame” that this beautiful little song gets easily forgotten as some small, unimportant track from the movie. But honestly, to me, it’s the most relatable song from that movie.

Let me know if you like it as much as I do.

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#AtoZChallenge: N — “Never Say Never” by RomeoVoid

Posted on April 16, 2025 by renbog

This month, all my A to Z Challenge posts will feature a song that is on my personal list of “deep cuts.” These are songs that my husband often razzes me about, that there’s no one else who has ever heard of them or is listening to them, or they’re songs that possibly are just not that mainstream. If we are of the same era or run in the same musical taste circles, none of these may seem that off the beaten path, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t fun songs! Enjoy!

if you were into the alternative scene in the ’80s then you may already know the song “Never Say Never” by RomeoVoid. I can remember listening to it on WLRA (I mentioned this college radio station in a previous post) and loved when it showed up in the little-known ’80s movie Reckless, which starts Aidan Quinn and Daryl Hannah as the oldest-looking high school kids you’ll ever see! (That was one of the fin things about all those ’80s teen movies, how the high school kids looked not at all like they were in high school haha!)

Probably the more well-known song from this movie is “Kids in America” by Kim Wilde, and I will concede that the scene where that song is used is pretty damn iconic. But for me, the song and scene that stands out is “Never Say Never.” Beside the fact that it cracks me up that that song would be allowed to be played at a high school dance, I love the way Aidan Quinn and Daryl Hannah dance to the song — it’s so quintessentially ’80s! — and I love the way the scene is filmed, obviously having the camera on a circular track.

I appreciated the fact that the lyrics were a bit on the racy side, with the chorus, “I might like you better if we slept together.” For the time this song was out, those lyrics would be positively scandalous — I can remember not wanting my mom and dad to hear me playing the song for fear they would take the album away from me! It seems silly, considering what music today is like, but I digress.

I’m sharing 2 videos below — one is the official music video for the song; the other is the dance scene from Reckless. Let me know if this is a song you could rock out to!

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#AtoZChallenge: M — “A Soft Place to Fall” by Allison Moorer

Posted on April 16, 2025 by renbog

This month, all my A to Z Challenge posts will feature a song that is on my personal list of “deep cuts.” These are songs that my husband often razzes me about, that there’s no one else who has ever heard of them or is listening to them, or they’re songs that possibly are just not that mainstream. If we are of the same era or run in the same musical taste circles, none of these may seem that off the beaten path, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t fun songs! Enjoy!

I fell in love with this song when I watched one of my very favorite movies, The Horse Whisperer, which stars Robert Redford, Kristin Scott Thomas, and a young Scarlett Joahnsson. My favorite genre of poetry, music, book, movie, etc. is tortured, impossible love stories, and this movie fits that genre. This song by Allison Moorer (I’m using her last name to fit today’s letter) appears in, what is to me, one of the most impactful scenes in the whole movie. The relationship between Redford and Scott’s characters has been building and there’s so much tension built between them that the viewer is ready to explode. And they get this scene, which is actually so much more intense than they could have prepared themselves for! If you haven’t seen the movie, you may not experience this, but if you have seen the movie, then maybe you’ll agree with me that this scene is romantic, yes, but it is also where we as the viewers get to watch two people make love to each other without anyone taking their clothes off or any actual sex. This song playing in the background is so sad and romantic and wistful, it fits the mood perfectly. Every time I hear the song, it takes me back to this movie scene and I feel the tension and the poignancy of this scene in my gut. I don’t know if the song makes the scene or the scene makes the song, but I don’t care. The song is beautiful in lyrics and tone and it evokes strong feelings in me, so it’s one of my all time favorites.

Here’s the song as it is played in the movie, complete with the romantic, sexy, sensual dance scene. I hope you find the song as lovely and moving as I do.

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#AtoZChallenge: L — “Little Fighter” by White Lion

Posted on April 15, 2025 by renbog

This month, all my A to Z Challenge posts will feature a song that is on my personal list of “deep cuts.” These are songs that my husband often razzes me about, that there’s no one else who has ever heard of them or is listening to them, or they’re songs that possibly are just not that mainstream. If we are of the same era or run in the same musical taste circles, none of these may seem that off the beaten path, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t fun songs! Enjoy!

Being an ’80s girl, of course I love my hair bands! I consider myself an incredibly average fan of the band White Lion. Of course, I loved “Wait”, which was the song that really allowed them to blow up in popularity. And If I am being honest, I played along with loving “When the Children Cry” even though I really thought the song was kind of meh. But where I really found my sweet spot with White Lion was with the song I am sharing today, “Little Fighter.”

When I first heard the song, I thought it was a tribute to a really tough girl, one who had had heartbreak and hard times and just never, ever gave up despite all the odds always being stacked against her. Some lines in the song didn’t fit with that narrative — “Even when they put a price on your head,” “You were always alone out on the sea,” “Without a weapon in your hand, you came to fight a war.” I just chalked it up to White Lion using poetic license. I thought the song had a tad of a romantic feel to it, and I liked the idea of this warrior woman.

Then I learned the truth.

I read the liner notes (remember liner notes???? God, how I loved reading them!) and learned that the song wasn’t at all about a person but rather a boat. Greenpeace’s ship The Rainbow Warrior. This ship was used to go after so many people wreaking environmental havoc, all with no weapons on board the ship. At first, I thought it was a bit corny to write a song about a boat, but then I thought it was actually a beautiful tribute to the a symbol of the work done by Greenpeace and I thought it was quite poignant.

So let me know what you think — do you like the song? Does it ruin the song knowing it’s about a boat? Is it weird?

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#AtoZChallenge: K — “Knocks Me Off My Feet” by Stevie Wonder

Posted on April 13, 2025 by renbog

This month, all my A to Z Challenge posts will feature a song that is on my personal list of “deep cuts.” These are songs that my husband often razzes me about, that there’s no one else who has ever heard of them or is listening to them, or they’re songs that possibly are just not that mainstream. If we are of the same era or run in the same musical taste circles, none of these may seem that off the beaten path, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t fun songs! Enjoy!

If you consider yourself a big fan of Stevie Wonder, today’s song isn’t much of a deep cut. But if you’re a casual fan who generally enjoys Stevie Wonder’s music, then this song might be new to you. Everyone is familiar with the powerhouse album Songs in the Key of Life. But most people are probably only familiar with some of the mega hits from that album — “Sir Duke,” “I Wish,”, “Isn’t She Lovely.” Some might even have a bit of trivia, knowing that Coolio’s, “Gangsta’s Paradise” used Stevie Wonder’s song “Pasttime Paradise” as inspiration. And while I adore this album, by far, my second favorite Stevie Wonder song (my fave is “I Wish”) is also off Songs in the Key of Life: “Knocks Me Off My Feet.”

This is just a sweet love song. The adoration in Wonder’s voice when he sings this song is so obvious. I imagine the song being sung by a man to a woman in an almost imploring way, trying so hard to get across to her how much he loves her. It’s so overwhelming to him that he can’t stop thinking about his love, and he wants so much to tell her all the time how deeply he is in love, but he doesn’t want to bore her with it (I love that line from the chorus — “I don’t want to bore you with it, but I love you, I love you, I love you”).

He manages this without the song being sappy or trite. It’s just so heartfelt, it fills MY heart with love when I Hear it! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

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#AtoZChallenge: J — “Just a Fool” by Blake Shelton and Christina Aguilera

Posted on April 12, 2025 by renbog

This month, all my A to Z Challenge posts will feature a song that is on my personal list of “deep cuts.” These are songs that my husband often razzes me about, that there’s no one else who has ever heard of them or is listening to them, or they’re songs that possibly are just not that mainstream. If we are of the same era or run in the same musical taste circles, none of these may seem that off the beaten path, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t fun songs! Enjoy!

Blake Shelton is everywhere. You can’t escape him or his music. Christina Aguilera is incredibly talented, but she probably isn’t in her prime professionally anymore. This duet by them grabs my heart, but I never hear it played anywhere. I think that on country stations, there is just too much other music available by Blake Shelton, and this song is too “country” for pop stations that play Christina Aguilera’s music.

What I love about this song is the pain in Blake Shelton’s voice. I can actually feel his sadness at losing the woman he loves. To me, he is the one who really makes this song so great. Christina Aguilera has a wonderful voice, but I feel like she over-sings a lot, and a song like this, I feel like the big, loud voice doesn’t do the pain justice. When I listen to this song, I feel the pain. There are phrases that really seem to grab me — “Just gotta get past the midnight hour/maybe tomorrow it won’t be this hard”, “I had my heart set on you”, “I’m just a fool for holding on to something that’s never ever gonna come back/
I can’t accept that it’s lost/ I should’ve let it go, held my tongue, kept my big mouth shut/
‘Cause now everything is just wrong, wrong, wrong.” I don;t know why, but these lines just make my heart break.

Listen to the song and let me know if you feel the pain as well.

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#AtoZChallenge: I — “Cutthroat” by Imagine Dragons

Posted on April 10, 2025 by renbog

This month, all my A to Z Challenge posts will feature a song that is on my personal list of “deep cuts.” These are songs that my husband often razzes me about, that there’s no one else who has ever heard of them or is listening to them, or they’re songs that possibly are just not that mainstream. If we are of the same era or run in the same musical taste circles, none of these may seem that off the beaten path, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t fun songs! Enjoy!

Maybe this isn’t a deep cut, per se, but it’s not an Imagine Dragons song I hear hardly at all on the radio. I believe this is another song I stumbled upon while listening to WXRT and I immediately was drawn to the anger in it. I’ve got a few songs I really like to listen to when I’m looking for an emotional outlet for my anger — “DOA” by Foo Fighters, “Break Stuff” by Limp Bizkit, “Uprising” by Muse, and this one, “Cutthroat” by Imagine Dragons makes the list. Nothing feels as good as turning this song up really, really loud in the car and screaming the lyrics out at the top of my lungs. Pretty cathartic.

Take a listen.

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#AtoZChallenge: H — “Hard Luck Woman” by Garth Brooks

Posted on April 10, 2025 by renbog

This month, all my A to Z Challenge posts will feature a song that is on my personal list of “deep cuts.” These are songs that my husband often razzes me about, that there’s no one else who has ever heard of them or is listening to them, or they’re songs that possibly are just not that mainstream. If we are of the same era or run in the same musical taste circles, none of these may seem that off the beaten path, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t fun songs! Enjoy!

The song “Hard Luck Woman” by Kiss is pretty well known, but did you know that Garth Brooks did an AMAZING cover of this song? He did! And, dare I say, I think I might like it better than Kiss’s version! I’m a sucker for acoustic guitar, so this song hooked me from the moment I heard it!

A fun story about this song — it was my sneaky way of getting a friend who is completely devoted to rock music to admit to liking a country artist! I played this song for him and asked him if he liked it, and he did, and I felt triumphant in getting him to admit he liked a song by a country singer.

When artists do covers of songs, I don’t like it when they make it their own. I prefer for them to start true to the original. Yes, there are exceptions (I’ve got at least one exception coming up this month). But Garth Brooks was quite faithful to the original, and I just love it! What do you think?

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#AtoZChallenge: G — “Girls on Film” by Duran Duran

Posted on April 9, 2025 by renbog

This month, all my A to Z Challenge posts will feature a song that is on my personal list of “deep cuts.” These are songs that my husband often razzes me about, that there’s no one else who has ever heard of them or is listening to them, or they’re songs that possibly are just not that mainstream. If we are of the same era or run in the same musical taste circles, none of these may seem that off the beaten path, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t fun songs! Enjoy!

I graduated high school smack dab in the middle of the ’80s so my musical taste leans heavily in favor of all tunes from that decade. My all time favorite band in high school was Duran Duran. I bought all their albums on vinyl, and I often visited our local record store to dig through the imports section to find anything from them there. My Duran Duran collection was impressive.

Most people developed their fandom of that band after the album Rio came out. I was no different. That was the album that introduced me to Duran Duran, but I became so into them that I started listening to everything they did before Rio came out, which is how I discovered the song I am sharing today. It did pick up some popularity after Rio, but generally speaking, the only people who are strongly familiar with “Girls on Film” are Duran Duran super fans. When the video was played on MTV, it was a censored version because the original contains nudity, so that also was intriguing to me — that there were 2 versions of a video for a song I loved by a band I loved!

Here’s the video that aired on MTV — not the one with nudity! Are you familiar with this Duran Duran song? It’s probably my 2nd favorite song by them!

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#AtoZChallenge: F — “First Burn” by Ari Afsar, Julia Harriman, Lexi Lawson, Rachelle Ann Go, and Shoba Narayan

Posted on April 7, 2025 by renbog

This month, all my A to Z Challenge posts will feature a song that is on my personal list of “deep cuts.” These are songs that my husband often razzes me about, that there’s no one else who has ever heard of them or is listening to them, or they’re songs that possibly are just not that mainstream. If we are of the same era or run in the same musical taste circles, none of these may seem that off the beaten path, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t fun songs! Enjoy!

If you’re a Hamilton fan like I am, then today’s song isn’t likely to be anything new to you.

After seeing Hamilton in Chicago the first time, I immediately became obsessed with the soundtrack. I played it over and over and over again. I fell in love with all the songs, but the one song I fell in love with the first time I heard it performed on stage was “Burn.” Every word of the lyrics is masterful. And the pain and hurt and sadness in Eliza’s voice as she sings it caused an actual physical ache in my chest.

And then I learned about Hamidrops, and I came across “First Burn.” This is a first draft of the song “Burn” and while some of the lyrics in the 2 songs are the same, there are quite a few differences. But the biggest difference is the tone. While “Burn” is so sad it actually hurts to listen to it, “First Burn” is pissed off. It’s Eliza at the range stage of her pain at being so publicly betrayed by her husband. A fun fact is that the song was recorded by 5 different actresses who have played Eliza, so they were able to be in the character’s head enough to add proper emotion to the song.

If you’re unfamiliar with either song, I’m including both here for you to listen to and you can let me know if you prefer one to the other. Personally, I prefer “Burn” but “First Burn” really is so close behind it that it’s practically a tie!

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