A magician enjoying his work. Photograph: Corbis
Like tracyk, I became quite giddy over the kissing theme. An unprecedented number of songs I love to pieces were recommended, four of which muscled their way on to the final A-list, which felt weirdly like breaking the rules. I was also introduced to heaps more that immediately shot into my top 10 of favourite songs ever, a list that defies mathematical logic (unless Abahachi has some explanation) by being some 3,568 songs long.
Among more general thanks, I'd like to send a great big mwah to JimCraggs for the Inspirations' song, to englishhermit for J Frank Wilson, to ToffeeBoy for the Close Lobsters, to goneforeign for Duke Ellington's The Kissin' Bug and to Steenbeck for the reminder that I want to hear more Lefty Frizzell.
Absurdly, despite being spoilt for choice with both A- and B-lists, I have a heap of songs I waited all weekend to see recommended, but - like the green-eyed boy of my dreams - never showed up. Much as I love the Billie Holiday version of This Year's Kisses, the version I serenade my daughter with at bedtime was recorded by Carroll Gibbons, with vocals by Anne Lenner. Another bedtime favourite is Kissing My Baby Goodnight, sung by Ivie Anderson. I much prefer Sophie Tucker's 1920s recording of If Your Kisses Can't Hold the Man You Love to that by Rasputina, and have a soft spot for Dan Sartain's take on Besame Mucho. Finally, a long time ago, my then-boyfriend gave me a cassette with a song by Jane and Barton called You Are Over There, whose lyric "teeth can touch in any sweet kiss" has haunted me ever since.
So many lists and I haven't even written out the B-list yet. I'm afraid, with this one, I really have cheated: I couldn't choose between Prince's Kiss, Tom Jones' Kiss and Age of Chance's Kiss, so all three of them are on the B-list, but I'm counting them as one song. The other nine songs that should have been on the A-list, if only that were magically expandable too, are: Kiss Me Like You Mean It by the Magnetic Fields, Looking for a Kiss by the New York Dolls, Hometown Farewell Kiss by the Triffids, Betty Everett's version of It's in His Kiss, the Crystals' And Then He Kissed Me, Louis Armstrong's utterly delightful A Kiss to Build a Dream On, Arab Strap's New Birds, New Order's Perfect Kiss, and Ella's version of Knock Me a Kiss, with the caveat that the man who would make me give up cake and jam doesn't actually exist, especially not in my dreams.
Speaking, as we probably were, of magic, that is this week's theme. Probably stacks more love songs to be had, then, although I'm also looking for some bona fide witchery, although not Screamin' Jay Hawkins' terrifying I Put a Spell on You because that was on Dorian Lynskey's Halloween list. Deadline is midday Monday; you'll find the A-Z, RR archive and Overspill blog huddled round the cauldron, muttering maniacally "one-third of lyrics only".
