Random Shuffle Play: The First 5 Songs I Played in 2008

What do you do on New Year's Eve when you're 40 years old, married with a kid and another one on the way, and not willing to leave the house because (get this) you don't want to deal with the drivers? Set your media playback device on shuffle play for the first five songs you hear in 2008!

You do this because you're kind of a putz.

Here we go! And the first song of 2008 is...

1. "Betcha By Golly Wow," The Stylistics
Well, this is adorable. Fairytales come true. That's a good note to start the year on. Lots of rainbows, and mentions of candy. Also skywriting, which let's face it, is a lost art that needs to be resurrected. I played the Stylistics a lot in 2007. I even sang along in the car to Russell Thompkins' falsetto. That's why I walk erratically now.

2. "Close to You," Bobby "Blue" Bland
Pretty much the same themes as Song #1, without the glucose. This is not the Burt Bacharach song the Carpenters had a hit with, by the way. It's from an album called Two Steps From the Blues which is one of the most original blues albums of its time. I'd suggest you go and get it.

3. "True Love Leaves No Traces," Leonard Cohen
This is not from one of the most original blues albums of its time. It's from Leonard Cohen's most underrated album, Death of a Ladies' Man. It's got that cover of Leonard sitting between two hot chicks in a svelte mid-70's nightclub, looking both hopelessly out of place yet tinged with the trappings of sleaze. My old L.A. friend Mike Randle copied this exact same photograph for his solo album in the late 90s. This song has flutes and congas.

My cell phone's dying.

4. "Little Cowboy," Harry Nilsson
The whistling version. It's all of 46 seconds. Glad we're moving things along here.

5. "Wash Me Clean," k.d. lang
Nothing says New Years' revelry like the purification process of love. I saw her do this on Johnny Carson; it was the performance that made me go out and decide to purchase Ingenue. Sometimes I feel like an ingenue, sometimes I feel like a ladies' man. And other times I feel like the most original blues album of its time. I reported none of this on my mental health evaluation. I just said I "liked parties."

Happy New Year!