I've been meaning to create a playlist in iTunes called "UPLIFTING," and in light of my current circumstances this seems like a good time!

Several songs from my library have just been included, but wondered if anyone out there might have some suggestions...any genre, any time period as long as the selection creates a cheerful mood and raises the spirits!

I love this idea and the fact that you are taking your attitude into your own hands rather than letting it be controlled by outside forces.
Two of my favorites are

It's a Beauiful Day U 2

and
Get What you Give- New Radicals

Hang in here ((((Marsha)))))

I know it's not everyone's taste, but I'd go with these:

Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life – Monty Python
Daydream Believer – The Monkees
Foux Du Fafa – Flight of the Conchords
Frolic – Luciano Michelini
Happy People – Yazoo
I like Birds – Eels
Love You – Syd Barratt
Make Me Smile – Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel
Mess Around – Ray Charles
Reasons To Be Cheerful – Ian Dury & The Blockheads
The Magic Position – Patrick Wolf
Three Little Birds – Bob Marley
Your Honour – Pluto Shervington

All the best Marsha.

Well, I have to look up The Magic Position on Youtube immediately. lol

Thanks a bunch, Feebs and Jon! Have been reminded of a few I'd forgotten and see some new ones on your lists and will check out!

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life....lol, Life of Brian, right, Jon? Hilarious movie

Anyone else? Don't be shy...I'd really like your opinions!

I enjoy the really old Carter Family recordings from the 20's & 30's:
Keep on the Sunny Side of Life
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbmQQ4RfzVE

Sorry to hear that, Marsha. Hope the causes are temporary. Almost identical to the 1920s and 30s recordings of the Carter family is Jean-Guihen Queyras' rendition of the Bach Cello Suites, especially the prelude to No. 6, which always cheers me up. There's also the Bernstein recording of Handel's Ode for Saint Cecilia's Day and especially the aria "What passion cannot music raise..." or anything recorded by Glen Gould is his later, "funnier" years. When you're happy, admire the technical artistry; when you're sad, listen to him humming in the background.

Probably one of June Carter's favourites - and certainly one of mine - is the seminal jazz album "Sunny Side Up" featuring Dizzy, Sonny Rollins and Sonny Stitt. It's funny listening to Dizzy hacking his cheerful way on vocals through "Sunny Side of the Street", but the real joy comes from listening to After Hours. I "got" jazz after that.

The best album I know for cheering oneself up is Big Al Carson's "Take Your Drunken Ass Home", which features a cover of Howlin' Wolf's "Built for Comfort, Not for Speed", also a guaranteed smiler.

I'd also add to Jon's list The Clash's "Should I Stay or Should I Go" just after Ian Dury's Reasons.

I'd say the 1980's was the golden age of uplifting music. But there is a lot of good alternate music and new age music that fits it too..

Thank you -Duran Duran ( originally by Led Zepplin)
Perfect Day - Duran Duran (originally by Lou Reed)
Home - Paul Van Dyk
Time of our lives - Paul Van Dyk
Walk into the sun - Dirty Vegas
Ghost- Dirty Vegas
Always take the weather with you- Crowded House
Little wonders - Rob Thomas
Driftwood - Travis
Get what you give - New Radicals
Motorcycle drive by - Third Eye Blind
Ordinary Day - Dolores O'Riordan

Happy listening..

Pretty much anything by Manu Chao, but my particular favourite is "Me Gustas tu" - always gets me up and dancing.

Then what about Villa Lobos's "Bachianas Brasileiras N. 5, preferably sung by Victoria de los Angeles.

Handel always does the trick for me and my especial fave is a not so well known opera "Alexander's Feast".

And Hallelujah - the Leonard Cohen anthem, but this time sung by Jeff Buckley?

I'm sure lots more will occur to me as soon as I click the reply button!

My favorite one, So Much Magnificence by Miten Deva Premal


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG-YE8IiV5U

@kkmak Especially when sung in Buddha Hall in Poona?

The 1980s were the golden age of uplifting music? I was going to ignore that until I thought (unwillingly) about KC & the Sunshine Band, Boney M and the immortal Village People, none of which should be contemplated sober.

I'm also going to pitch Verdi's La Traviata (preferably the Victoria de los Angeles recording) and particularly Di Provenza il mar, il suol, which makes a lovely ring in the bathroom if you sing basso like me (you can hum the bits beyond your vocal range under the shower like I do - choking Verdi is not a good idea). Very close is the slaves' chorus in Nabucco, which I'm convinced uses exactly the same tempo as people having sex and may explain its popularity.

Everybody's free ( to wear SUNSCREEN)
THE SUNSCREEN SONG
( class of '99)

This always has me in stitches!!

The Sunscreen Song

Well if we are having Verdi (thanks Stefan) , we must also have Puccini. I am going to nominate the final aria from Turandot - "Il suo nome e amor" Just thinking about it brings tears to my eyes. It makes me laugh and cry at the same time. Let's have Montserrat Caballe at her totally over the top best.
Marsha, it will work its magic on you, what ever the situation.

ray lamontangne- you are the best thing! is a good one for upliftingness

Can't have Puccini without Rossini. There's a beautiful aria by Desdemona in Otello whose name escapes me, but for pure hilarity, "Ah! Ah! Che Bella Vita!" from the Barbiere di Siviglia, preferably played faster using an "underwater" or "hollow tube" effect. Sounds like Mickey Mouse after smoking something illegal. Don't ask how I know this.

Theme From "Rocky"

Early Bob Marley is always a foot stomper and makes the ironing (what little I do) pass quickly!

You need Cockney Rebel & Steve Harley!!
Make Me Smile!!
Always makes me happy when i hear it )
And of course The Beatles
Anything with The Beatles makes us happy .......
And Ohh my can't forget the greatest of them all....

Tom Jones!! )

If I`m contemplative then Eine kleine Nachtmusik fits the bill...tchai guy..)

My friends, thank you so much for your wonderful and diverse suggestions!

I'm checking in here when I can and finding so much fantastic music to distract me from the worries around here - this really has helped me to de-stress.

The time you took to share these songs is much appreciated. I will keep listening....and my "UPLIFTING" playlist will grow longer. Thank you!

THIS one always makes me happy. (I always dance to this song in my bathroom)

And don`t forget the stranglers both the name and the music can be therapeutic....

Ryana: I LOVE that song and video!!

Since I have started riding my bike to work I have needed something peppy to pedal to?? Born to be Wild,Rocky Mtn. Way, My Maserati does 185 and Anyway You Want It By Journey. The Movie that cracked me up the most is Young FrankensteinStein

Marsha, you said that you had already put some of your choice on iplayer. I would be very interested to know what you had chosen.

The only way you're going to get my MPV to do 185 is by throwing it out of a plane at high altitude, but it does play Gilbert Kaplan's first recording of Mahler's Second Symphony rather well (I have been known to park it underneath my neighbours' kitchen window and play it rather loud with the windows open when their TV has been on at full blast all day.)

Revenge is a dish that people of taste prefer at volume level 32 or, as our friend Mike would say, when it goes all the way to 11... It's also very uplifting, but an acquired taste, which is why I didn't mention it in the first place. I don't think the Carter family would have liked it. Oh, and I really wish I could have been the casting director for Sandra's video choice. What a pity...

And this is the Rossini Otello piece I referred to before although the singer is a bit too florid for my taste.