Favorites

There was a discussion today on the American Dialect Society mailing list on the history of the phrase "different drum". Linda Ronstadt's song of that name came up, and that got me to thinking about her. I have four of her albums, and one of them has "Different Drum" and "Long Long Time"; this amuses me, because they could easily be interpreted as two viewpoints of the same unrequited love - the first by the object of the other's affection, the second by the would-be lover.

That, in turn, got me to thinking about favorite singers. I've talked before about the difference between a partial order and a total order, and how many rankings are simplified by regarding them as partial orders rather than total orders. I have more than one favorite singer; each of them is the best at the particular thing(s) that they do, and trying to put one above the other is fruitless and frankly unnecessary.

Most of my favorite singers happen to be women.

Here are some of them: Sara Bareilles. Mary Chapin Carpenter. Sheena Easton. Enya. Heart. Janis Ian. Linda Ronstadt. Roxette. Dusty Springfield.

Maybe sometime I'll do some posts about what I like about each of them.