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Soundtrack of the Day

At home here in beautiful Portland Oregon, I work at a printing press where it's always a race to see who can get to the stereo first in the morning. The iPods with the slowest owners have to wait in a sad line on the shelf while the lucky winner gets the cherished eighth-inch cable plugged into its rear end. I woke up at 5 AM, skipped breakfast, and ignored stop signs this morning in order to get to the warehouse before any of my loser coworkers were even out of bed. Needless to say, I had first dibs on the soundtrack for our day. It started out a little something like this: (note: the iPod "shuffle" feature is a wonderful thing)

- Danny Seim

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Tracks

1. Toto - Rosanna

On our last band outing, we were completely rocking this song in the van and I said offhandedly, "Funny how these Toto guys wrote a song specifically to hook up with Rosanna Arquette". Brent looked at me, dead serious, and replied, "Africa?". It was the best moment of the tour.

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2. Pete Rock & CL Smooth - They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)

This is the first song I looked for when I first discovered Napster during my first Kinko's graveyard shift in the year 2000. Although thousands of other classic songs were "looked for" over the next few sleepless nights, this one will always remain dear to my heart.

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3. Michael McDonald - Sweet Freedom

The only thing better than the actual song is the video for the song, which features Billy Crystal lip-synching along with Mike in a Skipper's restaurant. Especially riveting is Crystal's "fish face", thrown in for a little comic relief behind an actual fish tank.

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4. Tom Cochrane - Life Is A Highway

After this song blew away everything else released in 1992, life (or the Highway) couldn't possibly get any better for us all. That is of course, until country rockers Rascal Flatts came along and re-christened the anthem in 2006. My preference will always be Mr. Cochrane's version, mostly for the emo harmonica solo.

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5. ABBA - Does Your Mother Know

Perfect melody, perfect structure, perfect performance, perfect production, perfect theme of rationalizing a cradle robbery.

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6. Heart - Alone

It was a late summer night in urban Portland, and I was driving my wife's car with the sunroof open. We were flawlessly nailing the incredibly high chorus harmonies at the top of our lungs as we pulled up next to a bunch of gangster-stereotype kids waiting at a bus stop. I didn't even care until I noticed I was the only one singing with Ann Wilson. My wife had ducked out of eyesight. I kept screaming the anthem because sometimes you just gotta go with it... Then I accelerated around the corner, locked the doors, and cried silently to myself.

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7. INXS - Not Enough Time

The only thing I enjoyed about going through puberty was my newfound ability to sing along with the first verse of this song.

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8. Cannibal Ox - The F-Word

You know that little hammer that the doctor hit your child-sized knee with to test your reflexes? This song does the same thing to my neck. It's uncontrollable! What an amazing song.

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9. Talkdemonic - Indian Angel

All the best songs are the ones that make you feel like dying peacefully and painlessly.

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10. Whitesnake - Here I Go Again

On family car trips as a grade schooler, I used to put a decoy Amy Grant tape in my Walkman and secretly turn it to the Satanic hard rock station. This was my favorite song to pretend I was worshipping Jesus to. I remember being especially deep in worship right around the three minute mark when David Coverdale's scream soars through the heavens. I heard the video was pretty good too, though sadly, I had no way of seeing it.

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