Songs About New Beginnings – Ranked! | music

20. Maxine Nightingale – Back Where We Started (1975)

It’s hard to imagine anyone’s heart not being lifted a little by Back to Where We Started From: the joyful rush of new love delivered in three minutes of Northern Cod soul (performed, unexpectedly, by several former members of ELO, The Animals, and Honeybus from the 1960s). Avoid 80s cover by Sinitta at all costs.

19. CMAT – Nashville (2022)

A song about new beginnings for anyone who has made a New Year’s resolution without intending to stick to it. CMAT announces her departure for Tennessee, throws a farewell party (“We’ll cry over K-pop shots and tequila”) and gives her friends gifts to remember her. One problem: I made up her entire immigration story.

18. The Carpenters – We’ve Only Begun (1970)

We’ve only just gotten off to unpromising beginnings – a jingle in a US TV commercial for a bank, opportunistically picked up by hit-hungry Richard Carpenter. Enter his sister, Karen, whose stunning voice—alternating between joyful and tender—turns a song meant to whip up a mortgage into an authentically moving hymn to new love.

17. Astrud Gilberto – Beginnings (1969)

Originally a hit in Chicago, Astrud Gilberto’s cover of Beginnings turns a great song into a masterpiece: a rich, funky epic. “It’s just the beginning of what I want to feel like forever,” she oscillates from its tumbling drums to its euphoric brass to its soulful, wide-eyed voice, and it all sounds the way falling in love feels.

16. Joe Smooth – The Promised Land (1987)

Written for a primarily black gay audience in the shadow of the AIDS epidemic, many of the early house songs were songs of resistance and optimism. The Promised Land may be the grandest of them all: the cosseting warmth of her voice underscores her assertion that everything can and will change.

15. Florence + The Machine – Dog Days Are Over (2008)

A song that acknowledges new beginnings and new beginnings can be scary, and may involve pulling yourself out of your comfort zone. “You can’t carry it with you if you want to survive,” Florence Welch warns in what sounds like a letter to herself: the sharpness of her voice and the resounding power of the music seem to drive her forward.

14. Pulp – Something Has Changed (1995)

“When we woke up that morning we had no way of knowing / That we would change the way we were going in a matter of hours”: The soundtrack to the kind of new beginning that was neither planned nor resolved, the gentle, soft-hued “Something Changed” marvels at the wonder of life-altering serendipity.

13. The – This Is the Day (1983)

The Soul Mining was an album recorded under the influence of the then-largely unknown drug MDMA, which perhaps explains This Is the Day’s mixture of brittle introspection (the verses) and vague, hopeful jubilation (the chorus): Life’s a mess, he convincingly argues, but from this point on it’ll get better.

12. Otis Clay – The Only Way Is Up (1980)

Yazz’s cover of 1988’s chart-topping hit is better known, but for sheer, smile-inducing joy, the original cover by Mississippi singer Otis Clay can’t be beat. The strings are pure disco delight, but the vocals are steeped in gospel: he sings like a man who has truly known hard times, and can barely contain his joy that those times are over.

11. Gloria Gaynor – I Will Survive (1978)

It’s been overrated within an inch of its life, but “I’ll Survive” has become ubiquitous as a quirky anthem and the divorcee’s favorite karaoke choice for a reason. Her words perfectly encapsulate the emotional effort it takes to get up and start over. Gloria Gaynor is singing the hell out of it.

10. McCalmont and Butler – Yes (1995)

A new beginning is achieved with a triumphant riff – added further to the gossip frisson by Bernard Butler’s acrimonious breakup with Suede – set to the tune of what is perhaps the most sublime and surprising tune of the Britpop era, delivered with David McCalmont’s perfect blend of pathos and skill. charm.

9. Diana Ross – I’m Coming (1980)

Disco-era Diana Ross was big on revival anthems – see also 1979’s brilliant I Ain’t Been Licked – but I’m Coming Out is the classic: Written by Chic with her gay following in mind, the bounce of Nile Rodgers’ guitar and Bernard Edwards’ stunning bass line can make a devoted pessimist feel positive about the future.

8. Win Bronski – Smalltown Boy (1984)

Like a strange counterpart to the Beatles’ “She’s Leaving Home,” it’s a song about new beginnings that focuses on the reasons why one might want to make a new beginning. Its mood is bleak and haunted, but there’s a promise of something better that begins in an urgent dancefloor beat and middle eight.

7. Peter Gabriel – Salisbury Hill (1977)

As the former Genesis singer recently reflects on his decision to quit — “my friends thought I was crazy” — he comes to the conclusion that he was absolutely right: he will do it, and vows “to show me another.” He left wreathed in smiles, with a racing heart, and a mood that seeps into the song subtly, yet effortlessly elevates the music.

6. David Bowie – A New Career in a New City (1977)

An instrumental that fits its title perfectly: a tentative intro that explodes into music that sounds fresh and upbeat, topped with a breezy harmonica heavily influenced by Mr. Bloe’s 1970 hit Groovin’ With Mr Bloe. David Bowie referenced this in “I Can’t Give It All Up,” the closing vacation-taking track on his latest album, Blackstar.

5. Public Image Limited – Public Image (1978)

A fresh start in the literal sense of the word. PiL vocally heralded the arrival of post-punk, harshly criticizing the band John Lydon had left behind and loudly declaring that things would be different from now on: “I’m not the same as I was when I started… It’s my entryway, my own creativity.” It’s still inappropriately sexy.

4. Nina Simone – Feeling Good (1965)

Forget the appalling fate of Feeling Good in the 21st century – doomed to defeat by various X Factor contestants, Michael Bublé, and, dear God, the Pussycat Dolls – head to Nina Simone’s final reading, and see its progressive and increasingly exhilarating build-up from the emotional a cappella intro to the stunning finale, This Is My Moment.

3. The Beatles – Here Comes the Sun (1969)

Somewhere in the afterlife, one imagines George Harrison allowing himself a wry chuckle at the fact that “Here Comes the Sun” has been streamed a billion times more than any other Beatles song. You can see why: filled with a lovely sense of gentle cyclical renewal, it’s the musical equivalent of a reassuring hug in the face of uncertainty.

2. Curtis Mayfield – Move Up (1970)

It says something about its sheer quality that the familiar song hasn’t lost its power: from the first insistent brass push through Curtis Mayfield’s constantly urging lyrics — “Don’t take less than the best / Don’t obey the rumors people tell” — to its stunning chorus, it makes striving for change feel like a blast.

1. Fleetwood Mac – Don’t Stop (1977)

There’s a hint that it’s easier for you to say ‘Don’t Stop’: Christine McVie wrote it to her husband John, after the collapse of their marriage and the start of an affair with Fleetwood Mac’s lighting director, urging him to think of her departure as a fresh start. But despite this, it’s absurdly effective: The trotting rhythm urges you forward, the melody is booming, Lindsey Buckingham’s vocals and guitar are both emphatic and compelling, the lyrics bear no hint of the bitterness that characterizes so many other Rumors songs about starting over, and Christine McVie’s carefree piano lines are an airy delight.