"88+ Ways Music Can Change YOUR Life" - Volume 1

It was a little over a year ago that I had this crazy idea to publish a book full of inspirational music stories. I thought if people knew how music had impacted so many lives then maybe together we could all support music just a little bit more. Well I'm here to tell you that we did it! On June 1st, My wife Joann and I published the book "88+ Ways Music Can Change Your Life" featuring 165 inspirational stories and quotes from musicians, songwriters, music teachers, TV/movie producers & actresses and music fans from all over the world.

There are stories that will make you laugh, stories that will get you thinking, and yes there are absolutely stories that will bring tears to your eyes. We have found it truly amazed at the many ways music has brought joy and comfort to so many.

Also contributing to "88+ Ways" were almost 2 dozen Grammy winning and Platinum selling artists, songwriters & composers and even a few TV & Film actresses you might know.

To learn more about it and read an excerpt please visit: "88+ Ways Music Can Change Your Life" on Amazon

Recording artists and songwriters contributing to "88+ Ways" include Bobby Kimball (Toto), Simon Kirke (Bad Company & Free), Vanessa Carlton, Siedah Garrett (Michael Jackson), Rick Wakeman (Yes), Rob Parissi (Wild Cherry/”Play That Funky Music”), Rob Hyman & Eric Bazilian (The Hooters), Billy Steinberg (Madonna), Bill Champlin (Chicago), Mark King (Level 42), Bobby Hart (The Monkees), Ciaran Gribbin (INXS), Rose Kingsley (Metropolitan Opera Singer & Ballerina) and Grammy winning Children's artist The Battersby Duo.

Film and TV actresses contributing stories include Audrey Landers (Dallas), and Darcy Donavan (Anchorman, My Name is Earl).

TV/Film/DVD producers & composers contributing include Fred Mollin (Friday the 13th, Hard Copy, Beyond Reality), Michel Rubini (Nemisis, The Hitchhiker, Tales from the Crypt), Jay Gruska (Cocoon-Movie, Supernatural-TV, Charmed-TV), Sara Flatow (Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, Scandal)

50% of the proceeds from all book & ebook sales will be donated to foundations providing music instruments and lessons to schools and communities in need.

"88+ Ways Music Can Change Your Life" on Amazon

Halloween Music to Scare Your Night Away

Other than Christmas, Halloween is the one holiday that has the most songs and music soundtracks associated it. I'm sure we can all name 4 or 5 "Halloween" related songs off the top of our head starting with "Thriller" (Michael Jackson), "Monster Mash" (Boris Pickett), "Werewolves of London" (Warren Zevon) and "Ghostbusters" (Ray Parker Jr) to name just a few.

Then we also have a multitude of scary movie soundtracks that will get stuck in our head as we attempt to peacefully drift off to sleep. The two that haunt my sub-conscious are "Tubular Bells" from The Exorcist and the original "Halloween" Movie Soundtrack. There is of course another movie soundtrack that brings fear into the hearts and minds of almost anyone listening and that is the "Jaws" music. That, of course, is more of a summer beach thing then a Halloween related soundtrack, unless you want to associate it with Land Shark character knocking on your door from the old Saturday Night Live Days :)

Lists of favorite Halloween songs and soundtracks have probably been made for the last 40-50 years. Here's a list of great 31 tunes that would be perfect for any Halloween party, brought to us by Mashable.com: Mashable.com: Halloween Music Spotify Playlist

Then here's a list that the Pittsburgh Post Gazette compiled by asking local area musicians about their favorite - You'll note that this list leaves out all of the obvious favorites and delves deeper (and sometimes darker) into the musical archives: Pittsburgh Post Gazette: Some Scary Suggestions for Halloween Listening

Finally here is a list of the top 10 horror movie soundtracks brought to us by the Dallas Observer: Dallas Observer: Top 10 Horror Movie Soundtracks

What we learn from all of this of course, is that music has always been used to help set the mood in whatever setting we're going for. No where is that more apparent then in a movie where we're hoping to get the wits scared out of us :)

I'll leave you with 3 of my favorite Halloween related songs and soundtracks - Enjoy and don't close your eyes too soon tonight ha ha ha

"Thriller": (Original 13 minute mini-movie & music video:

"Werewolves of London":

"Halloween Movie Soundtrack": (Michael Myers Lives Forever)

That's all for today boys and girls - Be sure to dress up and go out for some treats tooooonight!

Music, Love & Laughter

Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

Tell us your Story about how Music changed YOUR Life!

LoveSongs.com wants to know how music changed your life, whether as a child or some time as an adult. What specific song or artists helped you get through a particularly difficult time in your life and why? We are compiling your original quotes, anecdotes and stories about how music has affected you.

Many of us already know how important music is to our lives: The educational value, the therapeutic value and how music makes us a much happier society. Imagine what our lives would be like if the Beatlesor Elvis never existed, if Michael Jackson, Billy Joel or Elton John never wrote a song or sang a note, or Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones (or insert your favorite artist) never picked up a guitar and began to play. Can you even imagine this? Well unfortunately I can foresee a future where there is no new quality music because of the continuing de-emphasis of music and arts in our schools and the general devaluing of music in our society (when was the last time you bought a CD or purchased an MP3 download)?

We are looking for your stories to include in our blog and a book about "how music can change your life" to be published in the spring of 2015. If you have a quote, anecdote or story you would like to share with the world about why music is so important to you and how it changed your life, then please hop on over to www.LoveSongs.com/keepmusicalive where you'll find a link to be able to send us your story. Each quote or story that is included in our blog or in the book will entitle you to a complimentary copy of the book when it is published. Even more importantly you'll be sharing your music story with the world which will greatly help in our mission to let the world know what music really means to us.

That's all for today kiddies - I'll be back with another post tomorrow as we resume our daily posting now that the "Summer Love & Music" Tour has finally come to a close. Have a great night and will see ya very soon!

Music, Love & Laughter

Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

Michael Jackson is back with "Love Never Felt So Good"

It has been almost 5 years since Michael Jackson left this world too early, dying at age 50 while in preparations for what was meant to be his final tour "This Is It". Like many I have been a fan of Michael's music since the beginning when the Jackson 5 brought us such amazing songs as "I Want You Back", "ABC", "Got To Be There" and many many more. Michael and his brothers didn't wrote those songs back then but their voices did bring those songs to life and embedded them in our musical memory forever.

Once Michael transitioned into a solo artist he took a more active role in writing/co-writing much of his material. This month two new Michael Jackson songs have been introduced after being revived from the vault of previously recorded material. The first is "Love Never Felt So Good", a song written by Michael and the also legendary Paul Anka way back in 1983 (think Thriller time-frame). For those of you that don't know Paul Anka, he was famous for many hits in the 50s/60s/70s with songs like "Put Your Head on My Shoulder", "Diana", "You're Having My Baby" plus he wrote the theme song for the original Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and the English lyrics for "My Way" by Frank Sinatra (not too shabby).

For an unreleased track, "Love Never Felt So Good" actually feels really good and would surely have been a hit for Michael at almost any point in his career. Listening to the song it sounds like they most likely updated the music tracks a bit to make it more current. They definitely succeeded as the song is starting to really grow on me and after 3 weeks has cracked the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Usher did a fantastic tribute to Michael and his new song "Love Never Felt So Good" at the recent I Heart Radio Music awards. Check it out here and let us know what you think about Michael's latest song.

Also on the new posthumous new album "Xscape" is a song called "Slave To The Rhythm" which was featured in a Michael Jackson hologram on the recent Billboard Music Awards - We'll talk about that in our next blog entry coming up later this weekend.

Have a great Memorial Day Weekend to everyone out there celebrating, and to everyone else please enjoy the last weekend for May 2014!

Music, Love & Laughter

Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

Wedding Music, Indie Artists & Voting Chart Updates!

This week we launched several updates at LoveSongs.com. First up, we've doubled the number of Wedding music selections in an effort bring our categories up to date from music over the last few years. Whether you're trying to figure out what music to walk down the aisle to or what tunes to dance away the night with..we've got them all right here at www.lovesongs.com/wedding-music.html. If you have suggestions or comments please post them on our Facebook page at LoveSongs.com on Facebook

Yesterday we also launched two Voting polls that used to be very popular on the site. When we relaunched our new site design last year these polls kinda got lost in the shuffle, but they're now back by popular demand. The new polls are:

• Vote for Alltime Favorite Love Song
• Vote for Alltime Favorite Love Song Artist

So whether you are a HUGE Michael Jackson fan, a Barry Manilow fanatic or Celine Dion is your gal - come to LoveSongs.com and tell us which song & artists are YOUR all time favorites!

This week also we've added Sara Spicer as our Indie Love Song artist of the month for April. Sara is a young Philadelphia gal whose voice sounds like she's the princess of Nashville. To see what I mean take a listen to Sara's song "Give Me A Sign" on the front page of LoveSongs.com and learn more about Sara on her Facebook page at www.facebook.com/saraspicermusic . Sara joins Jeff Twardzik as our two inaugural Indie Love Song artists and you can see & hear both on our new Indie Love Song page @ www.lovesongs.com/indie-love-songs.html .

Christina Perri is back and making us feel "HUMAN" all over again!

The Philadelphia gal who brought us "Jar of Hearts" and "A Thousand Years" is back again with the a song that will give you chills when the chorus hits you. "Human" is the lead single off Christina's just released CD "Head or Heart" - it starts off slow and you wonder where its going, but the soaring chorus will hit you like a tidal wave and you'll instantly be drawn into Christina's "Human" world. : "But I'm only human, and I bleed when I fall down
I'm only human, I crash and I break down
Your words in my head, knives in my heart
You build me up and then I fall apart
Cause I'm only human..."

That's all for toooooday folks - Happy Friday and please have a safe and fun weekend!

Peace, Love & Laughter

Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com
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Wednesdays Featured song - "We are the World" for Haiti - 25 years!

After a crazy weekend with 7 shows at different Borders Stores on Saturday we're finally catching back up online today. We started at 9 AM in Newark, Delaware and ended up 7 stores later in Wynnewood PA playing at least 30 minutes in every store to a very receptive audience. We were soooo sorry to miss Plymouth Meeting Borders but traffic on Route 202 going to King of Prussia was unbelievable...combine cabin fever from the recent snow storms and two holidays in one weekend it was just too much :) We made it to King of Prussia about an hour late and then struggled to get out of King of Prussia area to make it to Bryn Mawr for scheduled time at 7:30. What a crazy fun day playing love songs for folks everywhere - can't wait to do it again!

"We are the World" - Hope for Haiti

"We are the World" 2010 Version was recorded a few weeks back and you can catch the entire video here featuring many of the great singers and performers of today plus spliced in footage of Michael Jackson singing some of his parts from 1985...its a moving song and video you won't want to miss:

"We Are the World 2010" - YouTube

Written by Lionel Richie and the late amazing Michael Jackson, the song was originally used to help raise funds for hunger in Africa. This time around the focus is on helping to rebuild Haiti after the devastating earthquake just a few weeks ago. I wonder if we'll also see another "Hands Across America" next year in 2011 for the 25th Anniversary of that historic event in 1986. Music wil always help bring people together..that's why I love it soooo much!

That's all for today - we'll be back with a Daily Blog again starting tomorrow and we'll be featuring just 2-3 new songs per week - The very best that we can find on radio and beyond!

~Vincent

Sunday's Flashback Song - "Lost Without Your Love" by David Gates & Bread

Perhaps my most favorite male voice of all time was that of David Gates from the 70's group Bread. His tenor voice is so smooth, so sweet that it captivates you from the moment you first hear it. When you add to that some of the most beautiful love songs that were ever written, their catalog is truly a treasure. Bread's first album was in 1969 and titled simply bread and features one of my favorite Bread tunes "It Don't Matter To Me" (we'll feature that song another day). Their 2nd album in 1970 featured a song that came them their 1st #1 hit "Make It With You". They would follow with several more albums and a total of 5 Top 10 Billboard hits. The last of their Top 10 hits was a beautiful song about being completely lost without the one you were meant to be with...called simply "Lost Without Your Love" . I found it online with a very moving picture presentation to go with it here:

"Lost Without Your Love" - YouTube

Sadly, 3 of the original members of Bread passed away in the last 5 years so another reunion is out of the queston (they did a 25th anniversary tour in 1996 which would be their last together). I myself am such a fan of David Gates and Bread that when I play out I include several of their songs including "If", "Diary" and of course "Lost Without Your Love". By all accounts David is still writing and producing in his personal ranch studio in California. If you're reading this David please give me a call I would absolutely love to do a song with you some day!

"We are the World" to be recorded tomorrow/Monday

No thats not a typo...Quincy Jones has announced plans to re-record an updated version of "We are the World" tomorrow/Monday right after the Grammy awards tonight. Written by Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson and sung by a slew of top names/voices back in 1985, "We Are The World" helped raise millions of dollars for hunger across the planet. Proceeds from this new event will go towards the relief efforts in Haite where they will be recovering from the recent earthquake for many years to come. I myself am curious to hear what hte new "We are the World" sounds like...the first was a pretty magical listening experience and will be difficult to top. And better than that egos are even bigger than they were 25 years ago so Quincy will have his hands full tomrrow as he brings many of the current stars together tomorrow to participate. Stay tuned we're sure to hear the new version in the next couple weeks (or even sooner)!

Some Charts Reset Tonight

Tonight we reset 3 of the Voting charts - Alltime favorite songs and artists and current favorite artists so we're counting a new for 2010. We'll be adding some new names/songs to these charts in the next few days to reflect whose been popular the last few years.

Have a great nite all - enjoy the Grammys, the Pro-Bowl or whatever your watching. We'll be back tomorrow with some new news and another featured song!

~Vincent

Friday's Fun - "You Belong With Me" by Taylor Swift

Well Taylor Swift has had quite a career so far with her latest CD "Fearless" spending 11 weeks at #1 and her total US Album sales alone over 9 Million (can you say ka'ching :)). She's even bigger on the internet having sold over 24 Million tracks. I can personally think of at least 5 Taylor Swift songs from the last few years that I really liked. They include "Our Song", "Love Story", "Teardrops on my Guitar", even "Fifteen" has grown on me quite a bit...but "You Belong with Me" is a gem that any pop writer would be proud to have written it. Tells the simple love triangle story with one person being the odd-girl out. Taylor's up for at least 8 Grammy Award's this weekend and I for one am hoping she wins a few (not all of them.. lets leave some for the other talented folks). To see and hear "You Belong to Me" check it out here:

"You Belong With Me" - YouTube

Grammy Weekend is Here

The 52nd Grammy Awards is here this Sunday Night - lots of great artists will be performing and taking home trophies. Michael Jackson will receive a posthumous Lifetime achievement award and his two eldest children Paris and Prince Michael will accept the award on Michael's behalf. I have to say, a musical world without Michael Jackson is pretty strange..I still don't think I realize he's really gone. He led a strange life but what an incredible entertainer - the most talented ever bar none in my opinion. To see a list of the Grammy nominee's for this Sundays telecast get it straight from the Grammy website at http://www.grammy.com/nominees

Friday is almost done folks - Hope you had a nice week and looking forward to a great weekend. We'll be back later tomorrow with another post and one of our favorite Indie love songs!

~Vincent