Hey, what's your favorite Tanita's song?

[Myriam]

Hi everyone,
One of my favorite songs of Tanita is "Leaving the Party".When I find myself alone at a party,not particularly wanting to mingle, I sing it to myself and it gives me comfort.
: )

[DeeDee]

Leaving the Party is an amazing song, not only very original but also thought provoking. It feels like watching a movie with candid camera close-ups and a variety of other scenes. Last but not least, a jazzy feel to it as well as the string section more or less half way through makes it quite a masterpiece.
Each time I listen to it I can't help but marvel at the hoarse quality of Tanita's voice, which is a bit of a shiver down my spine.

[Graham]

Leaving the Party is a wonderful way to end the TT album that (in my opinion) does more than any other to continue what she started with Ancient Heart. Which is not to say that the three albums inbetween are not wonderful too, its just that Lovers in the City seems most like a progression from the feelings and thoughts of Ancient Heart with the benefit of 7 years experience. I also think that Lovers in the City (the song) and Wonderful Shadow are amongst the best that TT has ever written, especially for lines like "sometimes I'm watching/sometimes I'm too scared...", "when a beautiful thought can/can be just thrown away..." and several others.

I wonder if TT knew that her record contract was under threat when placing "Leaving the Party" at the end of what might well have been her last album. It certainly has a sense of "signing off" that would have been highly appropriate for a "goodbye" song!

[PoorCow]

In interviews, Tanita has been rather modest about her intentions behind the song Leaving the Party, offering a fairly literal interpretation of the lyrics. I am more inclined to dwell on the more figurative elements of the song, as opposed to a strict view of the song's narrator as little more than a wallflower. The line "I'm not here to enjoy you / I am here to endure you" (especially when sung with that wonderful strain mentioned in DeeDee's post) is a fantastic statement of purpose that easily transcends the literal surroundings of the party in the lyric. Tanita has mentioned that she was striving for a "cheesy" effect with the strings and horns in the song, which provide a comical subtext to, and commentary on, the drama that unfolds in the song.

If I remember her comments in articles correctly, Tanita was offered a four-album deal from Warner's after the success of Ancient Heart, a deal that was more common at the time than it is now. As she was recording Lovers in the City, she was not given any indication from the company that she would be re-signed (probably they were waiting to see how well Lovers performed). Comments made during the promotion of The Cappuccino Songs suggest that Tanita was sufficiently unhappy with Warner's to lend the conscious intent suggested by Graham to the song Leaving the Party. Certainly there was no love lost between Tanita and Warner's.

 

[Graham]

I agree totally with PoorCow about the Twist remixes, although the version by Liza Minelli way back when did cause me to track down her Results album which was quite a good listen on the whole. Interesting to see Feeling is Gone get a mention as this is also one of my favourite TT b-sides although not one that I would have expected many people to pick. Redemption Song would earn its place for me on the basis of the first line alone as I there is just something wonderful and hard to describe about the way TT sings "Emancipate yourself from mental slavery"! Another "cover version" of sorts that would be very high on my list would be TT's muscial settings for "Not Waving But Drowning" where she manages to make the Stevie Smith poem sound like a song from her own classic Ancient Heart period. Apart from that, there would have to be...

World Outside Your Window
Twist in my Sobriety (original version!)
He Likes the Sun
Valentine Heart
Preyed Upon
Once & Not Speak
Thursday's Child
Love Story
Sunface
I Love the Heaven's Solo
Trouble
Out on the Town
Love Don't Need No Tyranny
Feeding the Witches
Lovers in the City
Wonderful Shadow
Women Who Cheat on the World
Leaving the Party
Back in Your Arms
Amore Si
If I Ever

and the b-sides...

Five Feet Away
Only in Name
Let's Make Everybody Smile Today
Over You All

The Capuccino Songs showed that TT can do bouncy pop songs very well, but I will still take a lot of convincing about the merits of hard core dance remixes.  Surely there is enough music of that type around already without needing to ruin TT classics in the search of a few hundred more single sales

[PoorCow]

It is nice to see the song Only In Name show up on someone's list: it's a perky little song that compliments the single re-recording of I Love the Heaven's Solo particularly well. I remember getting a bit of a buzz when I first heard that song. I think Over You All would have been a great addition to the Sweet Keeper album.

Tanita's music for the poem Not Waving But Drowning has really grown on me. At first I thought her performance sounded a bit uncertain. The other b-side from the same single, Five Feet Away, is simply fantastic.

[Zsombor]

Hi, Everyone


My favourite songs are:

World outside your window
Good tradition
Cathedral song
Preyed upon
Valentine heart
Twist in my sobriety
Thursday's child
Consider the rain
We almost got it together
I owe all to you
Never known
Sunface
I'm going home
To drink the rainbow
Out on the town
I might be crying
Feeding the witches
Yodelling song
I'm looking up to you
That's why I'm leaving here

Zsombor from Hunagary

[zuy]

greetings to all

favourite of all time : twist in my sobriety

top 10 for moi:
1. twist in my sobriety
2. little sister leaving town
3. for all these years
4. and i think of you (e penso a te)
5. i don't wanna lose at love (single version)
6. amore si
7. redemption song
8. poor cow
9. cathedral song
10. light up the world

[Severine]

"Trouble." It's hard to pick from so much outstanding material, but this song makes me feel like I died and went to ... whatever the good place is.

[PoorCow]

Trouble, along with Five Feet Away, demonstrate Tanita's ability to successfully incorporate elements of rockabilly into her songwriting. I have always been impressed with her ability to produce a vocal swagger that compliments the musical arrangements of these two songs.

[bijsterg]

My favorite song of TT is " I might be crying " of the CD Lovers in the city. I can play it x-times after eachother, and even then I love it again and again. The special place where I can listen to it, is in my car. Volume on 10, the car vibrating on the sound of TT's dark voice, and the road is flying under the wheels!

[DeeDee]

Trouble, along with Five Feet Away, demonstrate Tanita's ability to successfully incorporate elements of rockabilly into her songwriting.

Trouble has been a favourite of mine ever since I heard it.  A reminiscence of good old days and Big Apple's overcrowded subways and hectic lifestyle I used to be a part of.
Speaking of rockabilly, it also blends real nice with Out on the Town and Any Reason, doesn't it?

[Nightraven]

My top-five:

1. Twist In My Sobriety
2. Trouble
3. Women Who Cheat On The World
4. Stop Listening
5. And I Think Of You

[PATRYK]

MY LOVE TONIGHT FOLLOWED BY LOVERS IN THE CITY PUTS ME OVER THE TOP!

[DeeDee]

I think I've mentioned it somewhere in the forum a few months?/years? back that the very song that puts ME over the top is Once & Not Speak, especially that bass part thump-bump-bump tra la la la la thump-bump-bump.

"ahm... DeeDee, you sure you're OK?"
"Never in my life have I felt better."