Our playlist this week is all about name songs. I have compiled a playlist of well over 100 songs that have names in the title. A number of the songs are requests I had gotten for my community radio show, The Basement, and then I searched through a bunch of my other playlists to find more. There is a pretty great mixture of old favourites and newer tracks. These themed playlists are a fun way to check back on some of the songs from the last decade and beyond.

The idea began when I shared the song Shannon by Bend Sinister with my sister Shannon. She loved it and commented that I should make a whole playlist of name songs. I put that on my ideas list and here it is. Feel free to pitch me your playlist theme ideas too.

My sister also requested, and my mother seconded, I play the song My Darlene on my community radio show The Basement. Way back in 1984 or so, I inspired my friend Mike to write a song and he entered it in the local radio station’s contest. The song ended up being chosen to be recorded for Z99’s Streetrock II album in 1985. It was pretty cool and fun to hear the song on the radio. Mike has since reworked the song and updated it. Below is the third rendition of this song written by Mike Hanson and performed by his band Messenger. It was mastered by the great Bernie Grundman. Thanks for the fun song Mike!

You can hear that song and some of the other requests on The Basement radio show, Sunday night at 8pm CST, on 91.3 FM Regina Community Radio. You can also listen with the CJTR app for iOS or Android, cjtr.ca/listen-live, or with TuneIn. It is only an hour show so I can’t fit them all in. Listen to our playlist below to hear them all and more. They aren’t all love songs but there are definitely some of those. There are some of historical figures, fictional characters, strange characters, heroic characters, etc. and it all starts off with a trio of songs about a cat named Virtute.