[Editor's Note: I have requested feedback from family and friends on Dad's favorites; I do know know that he had a decent CD/record collection and there are some albums we separately purchased, e.g., he's got an ELO collection, but we never discussed specific songs. So I'll start with a small collection, and hopefully I'll edit the post with other suggestions.]
[Update, 9/13]: Mom wrote to say she found CD's of George Strait, Michael Bolton, and the "The King and I" in his truck. I'm going to use my discretion to select relevant tracks at the end of the post.
Mom was just 18 and Dad 21 when they got married. Apparently they got feedback from some family or acquaintances that they were "too young" to get married.
This Ronnie Milsap song has a nostalgic feel for the time when Dad courted Mom.
Dad was an Anne Murray fan, and I remember giving him a copy of Anne Murray's Greatest Hits Vol. 2 for Christmas. I never did figure out years later why he had a second copy in his collection.
My Dad got assigned to Germany when I was at OLL; I remember visiting my maternal grandfather my sophomore year. This song sticks out because I got a cassette of the family singing the song for me while they were gone. I mentioned during my eulogy how Dad got choked up seeing his whole family together after they returned from Germany and joined me for Mass at the OLL chapel. I don't know he was a Carpenters fan [I am].
I bought Beth Nielson Chapman's CD single, and I remember burning a CD of some of my favorite tracks for the folks; Mom wrote back that Dad really liked the song.
I used to be a country fan as a late teen and then drifted to more pop/adult contemporary. I knew of George Strait by reputation but it wasn't until I looked at his discography that I realize how dominant he's been over decades filled with #1 hits. How then can I choose? I was looking at a blog post ranking Strait's top 10 hits, and I didn't have to read far to come across the song of a boy describing his day with his dad as the best day of his life. The song stayed at #1 for 3 weeks in 2000.
Michael Bolton had a blue-eyed soul way with remakes, and this cover of a Percy Sledge classic also went #1 on the hot 100 and adult contemporary charts.
I am a huge Hammerstein and Rodgers fan; there are multiple hit tunes to The King and I (e.g., "Getting to Know You"), but this selection reminds me of Dad dancing with Mom. My sister-in-law Jodi mentioned that the folks and Philip and she went dancing together on multiple occasions (preferably country-western, VFW, New Year's Eve) and described him as a very graceful dancer.
