I usually like individual songs, not researching the band who performs them or entire albums from where they come. Such was the case when I was just a wee little lad and knew of a song called “We Will Rock You.” Who performed it? I didn’t know. What album it was on? I didn’t think to ask. I just liked the song.
The band is Queen. Or WAS Queen, depending on how you feel about the current group with the addition of Adam Lambert. I love most of the Queen songs I hear or have heard. But when I was little, I simply didn’t think past the music.
This has happened quite a bit, I’m sure, but the two other band I can think of off hand that came into my world the same way are U2, and The Head and the Heart.
U2. Very similar to Queen, there were songs I loved growing up and then only learning who the band was years later. One of the first I loved from U2 is “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.” I remember hearing it on the radio as a child and loving it, but also not really knowing why because I was just a young kid. I guess it was the melody, or something.
The Head and the Heart. As an adult in Nashville, I listened to Lightning 100 a lot before I got SiriusXM. Over the course of a months and maybe years, they would play certain songs that seemed to vibe with me more than others. Eventually I looked one of them up (“Shake”) and found that the band was The Head and the Heart. Then my mind was blown and very pleased to discover they are the band behind many of the other songs that I was vibing with. So they became a favorite and they are still one of my all-time favorites.
Circling back to the beginning of this post, there’s a use of a Queen song in a TV show that is my top favorite of any Queen song in a movie or show. It also may be my favorite of ANY song by ANY band in a show or movie. The song is “Save Me” and it was used so perfectly in a scene of New Girl where Schmidt witnesses the love of his life get proposed to… and she says yes.
Great, great, great scene.
Anyway, are there bands you loved before you even knew they were a band? Comment below with which one and let’s chat about it!
-Out of the Wilderness
Out of the Wilderness 