Admit it, we all have things that we reel off when people ask what our favourite music is, just the same as if people ask what our favourite movies are. We're meant to say "Citizen Kane" and "Casablanca" and not "Battleship" or "Pacific Rim" but we know what we're going to watch if they are ever on TV at the same time (and which ones we've never actually seen).
So how about some confession time? What do you listen to when no one else is in the house?
Here's some of mine ...
ABBA. Oh god, I said it! My parents / siblings used to play ABBA records and I hated it, but I secretly really love The Visitors album. Some of the tracks have an eerie quality about them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPnk39hfKvw
What else? Well, who can resist the mellow easy-listening magic that is Neil Sedaka. I think we had a record of his when I was little and I played it a lot. He has an amazing voice still - fun fact: he re-recorded most of his old songs for copyright / licensing issues so the "old" songs you hear him singing often aren't really that old. I love this re-imagined lounge-version of one of his hits:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWFgqnisSsk
Back to easy listening, you can't beat The Sound of Bread. I put them in the same box as Dr Hook who are also great and did a surprising number of brilliant songs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0KXV0gB0dw
Next is Judy Garland, even though I'm not "the only gay in the village" (what is that even all about?). What a voice, what a tragedy. There's something haunting about this live recording at Carnegie Hall - her voice isn't perfect and croaks a bit at first but hell, the emotion when she hits those notes at the end. Spine tingling.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfq12giLJp4
Another tragic story was Karen Carpenter but what a great voice she had. I only learnt recently that she was really a drummer before she was a singer. So sad what fame did to some people.