JENN McKINLAY: Occasionally, I get into a MOOD for no good reason at all. It’s more than just the blues, which can be alleviated by a snack. No, this is a much deeper darker sort of mood. I believe Truman Capote called it the “mean reds” in Breakfast at Tiiffany’s. When this darkness comes upon me, there is usually only one cure. Music. I mean I could take a nap but then I risk not getting my work done, so music it is! While most 80's tunes can cheer me up, yes, even a good Rickroll (as a prank, of course) my go-to tune is: There She Goes by the The La’s
How about you, Reds? What’s your go-to song for mood elevation?
RHYS BOWEN: The sound track of Mama Mia is my go-to for driving and mood improving. And singing along loudly! But I can’t have music on when I’m writing. I have to have silence.
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I put on Defying Gravity. That ALWAYS works. And Nessun Dorma. Sometimes Warren Zevon’s Lawyers, Guns and Money, because it always makes me laugh. Nobody's Side from Chess. (It’s so nice and bitter and cynical!) And I Can Do That, from A Chorus Line.
There are SO many!
HALLIE EPHRON: What a great question! Top of my list would Paul Simon Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes. And then anything on my ancient album of Harry Belafonte gets me dancing around the room. (And I’m with Hank on Defying Gravity. I heard it first at the show on Broadway and it brought the house (and the curtain) down.)
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: No doubt for me, it’s Tubthumping, by Chumbawamba. I don’t know if they did anything else, but really, after recording that masterpiece, why would you need anything else?
If I have to get up early in the morning and I’m dragging and play 9 to 5 by the one and only Dolly Parton. Just the first bars with that heartbeat bass line and I’m dancing across the bedroom floor. And speaking of 1980s movies about New York, the best overall mood lifter in the world is Carly Simon’s Let the River Run. Just hearing it makes me want to put on a teeny-tiny skirt and a blazer with big ole shoulder pads and dance my heels off.
LUCY BURDETTE: Lots of good ones here already–for me it would be something Motown. Maybe Your Love Keeps Liftin’ Me, or My Girl, or You Keep Me Hangin’ On. It’s not that they’re all cheerful songs, but I they call for lip-syncing and dancing and I answer the call!
DEBORAH CROMBIE: Hallie, I LOVE Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes–that was going to be one of my top picks. I had my musician characters do a cover of it, along with another pick, Chuck E.’s in Love by Rickie Lee Jones. Which segues right into Corrine Bailey Rae’s Put Your Records On. I dare anyone not to perk up after those three! Sunday Morning by Maroon 5 will have you smiling and tapping your feet even on the first few bars. (And look at thirty-year-old Adam Levine in the video!) Last but not least on the pop/rock front is Crosby, Stills, and Nash’s Suite Judy Blue Eyes–singing along to that has got to release massive endorphins in your brain..
And for something more 2026, Olivia Dean’s Man I Need. She’s so good.
For classical, any Bach chamber music, or a rousing sing-along to the Hallelujah chorus from Beethoven’s 9th.
This might be the happiest post I've ever put up -- the songs had me GROOVIN'!!!! How about you, Readers? What's your go-to happy tune?
"Defying Gravity" is great as is Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" and Handel's "Messiah" . . . .
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