Playlist {inspired by in-laws}

Music can say a lot about people and music make people feel all sorts of ways.

I’m pretty much the DJ in our multigenerational home and the family members can tell what type of day I’ve had at work or what kind of mood I’m in – based on the music I play during dinner.

Abridged list

Artists for a happy/great day

Alejandro Fernandez
Adele
Earth, Wind & Fire

Artists for a pensive day

Tori Amos
Jay Z
India.Arie

Artists for relaxation

Al Green
Sade
Robin Thicke

Artists for fun, singing and dancing

Beyonce
Mamma Mia Soundtrack
Rihanna
Michael Jackson

Artists for any mood

Prince
Maxwell
Isley Brothers
Bob ~~Dillon~~ Dylan (thanks for catching that, mother-in-law)

Artists the kids LOVE (and the rest of us tolerate)

Selena Gomez
Demi Lovato
Justin Roberts

I started to think about what songs I would select to describe each member of my multigenerational family (yes, I had drank a glass of wine).

Mother-in-law: Born to be Wild (Steppenwolf)
Hubby: Break My Stride (Matthew Wilder)
Daughter: Unwritten (Natasha Bedingfield)
Son: Meltdown (Justin Roberts)
Kanesha: Bravo (Ledisi)

Then I was curious about what songs others would select to describe their mother-in-law or father-in-law – and why? What better way to capture this information than to post it on Facebook. Here are the results:

Nicole Conrad Walters / Brave (Nichole Nordeman)

My mother-in-law is an inspiration. She’s overcome unique challenges with grace, optimism and consistency . . . all while encouraging me to do the same.

Jenny Hoffman / It’s Oh So Quiet (Bjork)

[My mother-in-law and father-in-law] truly believe in love but know that love is never easy.

Rhonda Hart-Watt

Don’t Worry, Be Happy (Bobby McFerrin) – for my mother-in-law / She never seemed to let “anything” bother her, no matter the situation.

Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone (The Temptations) – for my father-in-law / Kinda self-explanatory…did exactly what he felt like doing at any given moment.

Linda Petzinger Pharris / The U.S. Air Force (informally known as Wild Blue Yonder)

[For my] father-in-law, [the song] would definitely be the AF song “Off We Go into the Wild Blue Yonder” (even though he was a Navy man in his younger years). He was a private pilot, flying in the old time open cockpit planes, loving every minute. He even built an airplane above their family bakery, which became the talk of their small rural town when they had to get it down from the second floor.

I never knew my mother-in-law.

Jeanette Soloma Hale / Always and Forever (Heat Wave) / In Between the Sheets (The Isley Brothers)

The reason these songs are fitting [for my mother-in-law and father-in-law] is because they’ve been married for 47 years and have been through a lot of financial and health storms….YET STILL complete love birds! They’re filled with cuddles & kisses…of course between little pokey remarks.

J.A.

I have been trying to come up with the perfect songs about my MIL and FIL (divorced), but it is a hard project. And I don’t know any country songs, because I’m sure that would fit the father part – drunk, idiot, removed, and boring.

Leslie LaPlante / Hot Rod Lincoln (Johnny Cash)

I can’t come up with a good one for my MIL, but “Hot Rod Lincoln” always makes me think of Les, my FIL. A million people have recorded it, but I know the Johnny Cash version. Les died 5 or 6 years ago, and I really miss him. He was kind of a wild man, and I have always thought this line from the song probably captures what he was like as a young man: “Son, you’re going to drive me to drinkin’, If you don’t stop driving that Hot Rod Lincoln”.

L.B.H.

As for songs of FIL/Step MIL, I use the saying, if you don’t have anything nice to say…

“Pretty Little Angel Eyes”, an oldie but a goodie, music my dad loved, and thinking about him as he passed away 5 years ago.

…or “Conga” by Gloria Estefan because we are celebrating a full week of B.H. using the potty and we do a Conga line after she uses the bathroom, yep, a lot of dancing in my house this week! It’s a hard day for me, but lots of joy in the house, too.

Karen Xavier Dunbar

I would have to say “Twist and Shout” for my in-laws who love to dance!

D.L.D. / Tears In Heaven (Eric Clapton)

Both my mother & father-in-law beat me to heaven. They both died from cancer just before I met my husband. Shirley & Will both died within two years of each other and it may sound bad but I feel cheated…to love their son & raise their grandchildren without them being physically here is heartbreaking.

We have had numerous “angel watching over me” moments where something odd happens and we wonder if it’s Shirley & Will watching over us. Our first son was born four weeks prematurely and miraculously went home two days later. Did I mention I had lost Shirley’s diamond out of my wedding ring two days earlier but [hubby] found it hours after our son was born? It was in the basement (where I would never go!) in a corner lying in a pile of shag rug remnants! It flashed like a flashlight at my husband while he was down there. Keep in mind that I didn’t go into the basement and I was still in the hospital. We took it as a sign that the new Grandma & Grandpa up in heaven were watching over that little preemie in the hospital! Our son is now a healthy, college graduate and a Geologist.

My in-laws’ love is strong and I teach my children everything I can find out about their grandparents in heaven…someday we’ll all meet.