Favorite songs.

You know how sometimes you hear a song and you think, This is the best song I've ever heard. And it is ... only then a few years later, you hear a different song and you think, This is the best song I've ever heard. How lucky are we that great music just keeps on coming!

I remember being around 10 or 11 when I started to buy "45" records. The first one I bought was Band of Gold by Freda Payne. (And, no, I didn't really remember who sang that song. Yay for google!) My sister and I used to play our 45s over and over in the family room and lip sync to them - standing in front of a makeshift microphone, of course. I bought "Julie, Julie, Julie Do You Love Me" too - by Bobby Sherman, and I probably wore that one out. I loved Bobby Sherman.

And then along came the Osmonds ... boy did they have a lot of great songs. But since this post is about favorite songs, in my Osmond era, I would have to say that my favorite song of the Osmonds is He Ain't Heavy, He's my Brother. Oh, but that was before Love Me for a Reason came out, which really did move in as my new all time Osmond favorite.

Love Me for a Reason was one of those songs, that when it came on the radio, my girlfriend and I would call each other up and yell the radio station into the receiver, so she (or I) could hurry and turn it on to hear it! (Remember when we used to have to just wait for our favorite songs to come on? WAY back in the days before ipod downloads and youtube.)

I was living in the dorms at BYU Hawaii when Kenny Rodger's, Lady, came out. Holy cow, I think it topped all other songs up to that point. When that one came on the radio, someone on the floor would yell out their door that it was playing, we would run to that room and just lay on the bed and listen. I think we all did a big sigh and a little moment of silence when it ended too. Could anything ever top that one? (Truly, by Lionel Richie was a pretty close second in that era. Oooooh, but then not too long after that, Diana Ross and Lionel Richie did the duet, Endless Love - and wow, you know what? I think even to this day, that is one of my top 5 ... it is.)

I love how hearing old songs can totally take you back to a certain time period in your life too. When I hear Chicago songs, it makes me think of church dances when we lived in California. (I LOVE Chicago's, If You Leave Me Now.) England Dan and John Ford Coley songs remind me of the two years we spent in Connecticut. (Love is the Answer has to be my favorite song of theirs, and another one of my top 10 all times ... maybe - so hard to decide.)

As I've gotten older, sometimes songs really strike me because of what that song is saying. Much more than when I was growing up. Don't you sometimes feel that a song was written just for you? Like, how did they know that is exactly how I feel?

One of those songs for me is Gravity by Sara Bareillis. And if you haven't ever heard that song, you should. (click here) She has one of my favorite voices too - especially on that song. Just really pure and clear and clean. Incedible range too. Love her, love that song.

I sent a text message to a friend recently that said, "Favorite song?" And he text me back saying that that would take some thinking. So I took some time and thought about it ... it's hard to choose because there are favorites in different categories, you know?

For example, I remember being in church one Sunday and singing a hymn called Be Still My Soul, and it was so beautiful and moving that I just wept and couldn't keep singing. At the end of the song, I looked over at my daughter, Chloe, and she was weeping too ... as was my friend in the pew across the aisle. That is how you know for sure it's a great song.

But then there are those songs that you just have to move to ... you can NOT stay still, and that makes it a great song too. Especially when everyone around you wants to move with you.

I remember hearing Viva La Vida by Coldplay for the first time. I had never heard anything like it. It was unbelievable. And the DJ on the radio couldn't get enough of it either. He played it a second time right after that, and then a third (because he could) and said he would be playing it a few more times in the next 30 minutes. I called my daughter, McCall, and told her she had to turn on that station and listen to that song. We love it still, and it's one of those songs we just can't get tired of hearing. (A very similar reaction to the first time I heard Bring Me to Life by Evanescence. Amy Lee ... brilliant!)

I suppose if I had to, had to, had to, narrow it down to one very favorite song of all time, it would have to be The Prayer - especially when Celine Dion sings it with Andrea Bocelli. Beautiful. Wow. David Foster, who wrote it ... genius. Love him too. (Well, that's what it is so far.)

Current favorites:

• Never Say Never by The Fray
• Fireflies by Owl City
• Need You Now by Lady Antebellum
• Stay by Safety Suit
• Why by Rascal Flatts