The first song I remember hearing
It’s a toss-up between Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da and Yellow Submarine by the Beatles. My parents were big Beatles fans and both songs filled my childhood home. I can launch into each of them the moment I hear the first beat.
The song that is my karaoke go-to
Given enough wine I reckon I could belt out I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor. I’d also love to have a go at Perfect Skin by Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, the first band I saw live. I secretly wanted to be the girl in the song: “cheekbones like geometry and eyes like sin”.
The first album I bought
I liked to save up for albums rather than singles. My first was Flesh and Blood by Roxy Music. I love tracks like Over You and Oh Yeah. They were pure romance and the wistful teenage me adored it.
The best song to play at a party
Little Red Corvette by Prince never fails to get everyone moving.
The song I stream the most
I get something different from Into My Arms by Nick Cave each time I hear it. It’s haunting, stirring and just utterly beautiful. Cave has said that at the heart of his song is a “melancholic optimism”, which is almost as beautiful as the lyrics themselves.
The song I secretly like, but tell everyone I hate
I don’t think there should be any guilty pleasures when it comes to music. If you like it, own it. That said, I’m not sure I’d shout from the rooftops about my affection for We No Speak Americano by Yolanda Be Cool and DCUP.
The song I can no longer listen to
My mum has always loved Neil Diamond and I grew up with his classics, such as I Am … I Said. But it’s the originals I want, and much as I love it when England win at football, I wish we would find an anthem other than Sweet Caroline.
The song I want to see live
Anything from Fine Line by Harry Styles. His lyrics just get better and better and he manages such variations, too. I’ve never managed to get tickets for his live shows but will be right in the queue again next time.
The song I wish I had written
Either American Pie or Vincent (AKA Starry, Starry Night) by Don McLean. I am inevitably a lyrics person, and Don McLean is a master storyteller. His lament for Van Gogh in the song seems so personally painful: “Frameless heads on nameless walls / With eyes that watch the world and can’t forget.”
The song that changed my life
The Countdown theme tune, by composer Alan Hawkshaw, no question. Thirty-plus years since I first heard it for real, it still gives me a buzz and a rush of adrenaline.
The song I want played at my funeral
Chi Mai by Ennio Morricone. It’s gorgeously melancholy but also, to me, has a real sense of time passed, and past. Gabriel’s Oboe, from the film The Mission, wouldn’t be bad either. Learning to play the oboe is on my bucket list, so it would be a nice way to round things off.
Susie Dent’s debut novel Guilty By Definition is out now.
