Is it possible to have a favourite song? Until 2000, I didn’t think it was. My favourite song would change like the wind. From Beatles songs – Getting Better, I Will and Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End were always in the mix – to any number of Steely Dan songs to one off bangers by Deep Forest, the Beach Boys and Strange Pilgrim (who? says everyone), if someone asked: “What’s your favourite song?” I would come up with something different. Until 2000, that is.
The Avalanches released a song called Since I Left You, which is essentially a song constructed of samples from 22 songs. Yet how can a song that, to all intents and purposes, isn’t a new song at all be so intensely beautiful, washing over the listener like a summer breeze? The honest answer is I have no idea.
In 2017, on a steaming hot June evening, I was fortunate to see them live at Bristol’s Marble Factory (deceased) and they did not disappoint. No, far from it. Employing the use of additional musicians and vocalists, they sounded even better than their stellar records. They left Since I Left You right to the end and when it began I felt I was about to burst into tears. Only music can do that. It’s my favourite song. Music comes, music goes, but it always comes back to Since I Left You. Until 2020.
We Will Always Love You features just the six samples, including The Roches, who provide the gorgeous chorus, and Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, part of the verse, plus added spoken word from Dev Hynes AKA Blood Orange. From first hearing to just a few minutes ago when it was played on the BBC 6 Music Radcliffe and Maconie show today, I found something I liked – loved – more than Since I Left You.
I hadn’t heard it for a few months until just now and instantly I remembered just how much I loved it. All the temporary favourite songs – Now And Then, the Beatles last song, has been a recent favourite and a constant ear worm – slipped back down the charts. The Avalanches were back at the top.
I played it again once RadMac were finished and have resolved to change the setlist for my funeral. No need for Radiohead or the Beatles to step aside. I’ll slot We Will Always Love You sometime around the generous eulogy I shall write about myself. My only regret is that I’ll be too dead to enjoy it.
I know this can change. I will, inevitably, find something else, a song I have never heard before or perhaps one I’ve forgotten about, and that will become my favourite song. For today, it’s The Avalanches. The greatest song ever made. Possibly.
