Shivers Up Your Spine

Fleet Admiral JD · Post by **Fleet Admiral JD** » 2006-01-01 07:13pm

I know that there are a couple of songs that, no matter how many times I hear them, send a shiver up my spine or give me the chills, whether it be from the shear poignency of the lyrics, the music itself, or the way the music is played. For example:

On my Own from Les Miserables, the big crecendo about two-thirds of the way through the song is just so well done.

The Deep Space Nine theme song, at certain points. Simply an incredible piece of music.

What songs give you the chills? And why?

Noble Ire · Post by **Noble Ire** » 2006-01-01 07:58pm

The First Contact Suite. Absolutely the best piece of ST music ever composed.

The Throne Room, both the ANH and ROTS version. Simply magnificent.

Post by **Broomstick** » 2006-01-01 08:07pm

Pachelbel's Cannon in D - No, I don't know why, but it does. Top of the list, never get tired of it.

Pink Floyd's Learning to Fly - because it captures the feeling of falling in love with the sky, at least for me.

Alan Jackson's Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning? - because it brings back powerful memories of September 11, 2001. The lyrics are kind of hokey in spots, but the feelings it stirs up aren't.

Jim Croce's Time in a Bottle - because the longer I live and the more friends and loved ones I lose to death, the more true the lyrics are.

Harry Chapin Cat's in the Cradle - same reason.

Queen Fat Bottomed Girls - just the sheer energy of it. Also, appreciation of girl's with big asses, which is most of us, as opposed to the current popularity of "sticks".

The Monkee's Sweet Young Thing - I dunno, but I haven't been able to get it out of my head for the last 35 years or so. Makes me feel young again, for some reason. I don't expect anyone else to agree.

Johnny Cash Thing Called Love - well, Cash's voice tends to do things for me (I like deep male voices), but the lyrics in this case.

Paul Simon The Boy in the Bubble - because we do live in an age of miracles and wonder! And that "bomb in the baby carrigage was wired to radio" line is probably more relevant today than when he wrote it.

Simon and Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water - but not the version by Johnny Cash, give me the original. Why? Lush arrangement, the "I'll help you when disaster strikes" lyrics.

Beatles Let It Be - I see a pattern here with the "help me out when I'm in trouble" lyrics. ::::

Big & Rich Holy Water - arrangement, but also lyrics and sentiment.

Relativity's Gathering Pace - music and lyric combination. Again, not one I expect everyone else to agree on.

Og knows who did these first, but also Amazing Grace, I'll Fly Away, and All My Trials - lyrics, lyrics, lyrics

Obviously, I have easily evoked goose bumps. That's off the top of my head. Don't know if I'll bother to add any more even if I think of them.

Post by **Surlethe** » 2006-01-02 01:00am

The climax of the second movement of the Eroica.

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2006-01-02 09:08am

The First Contact opening theme.

The music from Chicken Run's plane assembly scene, right after Mr Tweedy is captured.

The opening theme of Space Precinct, with Brogan's monologue ("The name's Brogan, Lieutenant Brogan. For twenty years I was with the NYPD. Now - well let's just say I've transferred to another precinct")

March of the Thunderbirds

Hooverphonic's Out Of Sight

Lord Pounder · Post by **Lord Pounder** » 2006-01-02 11:47am

There are a few for me.

Massive Attack - Unfinished Sympathy
The Verve - Bitter Sweet Symphony
U2 - With Or Without You
The Eagles - Hotel California
Foo Fighers - Everlong (the accoustic version)

Alex Moon · Post by **Alex Moon** » 2006-01-02 01:32pm

10,000 Miles sung by Mary Chapin Carpenter
The Moon and St. Christopher
House at Pooh Corner
Sweet Baby James

The first one is simply hauntingly beautiful. The latter three are songs that my mother used to sing when I was a child.

Fleet Admiral JD · Post by **Fleet Admiral JD** » 2006-01-02 02:22pm

Lord Pounder wrote: The Eagles - Hotel California

Forgot about that one, and Tequila Sunrise too.

Tokaji Kyoden · Post by **Tokaji Kyoden** » 2006-01-02 02:34pm

Goo Goo Dolls - Iris
Follow - Incubus(Halo 2 OST)

Faabio · Post by **Faabio** » 2006-01-02 06:44pm

Homeworld soundtrack: Adagio for strings. cant descripe it really well but it is just right for the scene it plays on

Oni Koneko Damien · Post by **Oni Koneko Damien** » 2006-01-02 11:45pm

Vast - Land of Shame
VNV Nation - Lightwave
Led Zeppelin - Ten Years Gone

*shivers*

Flash · Post by **Flash** » 2006-01-03 10:26am

Johnny Mandel, Suicide Is Painless. While it is better known as the theme from MASH, the lyrics in the original version get me everytime.

Simon and Garfunkel, The Sounds of Silence. In todays world of leet speak and horribly abbreiviated text messages, a song about the inability of people to actually communicate with each other is more relevant than ever.

Led Zeppelin, The Immigrant Song. Not something I can really explain, but I find this song to be incredibly powerful. Everything about it just comes together and makes a great, powerful song.

They're the first three that come to mind for me.

LaCroix · Post by **LaCroix** » 2006-01-03 12:12pm

Carmina Burana... Ephic masterpiece

and nearly all from The conan soundtracs.. Basil knows how to play with human emotions

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2006-01-03 05:17pm

D-Tecnolife by Uverworld. I can't stop listening to it due to its pure badassness.

DreamTheater - Scenes from a Memory, the entire album.

The opening theme song from the original Batman movie by Danny Elfman. Nobody before or since has managed to capture the imagery just so perfectly.

Post by **Zaia** » 2006-01-03 05:57pm

The Lacrimosa from Mozart's 'Requiem'
'Adagio for Strings' by Samuel Barber

Post by **Surlethe** » 2006-01-03 07:05pm

Zaia wrote:'Adagio for Strings' by Samuel Barber

We played that in high school orchestra, so, while it's beautiful, it also calls to mind the ... performance -- if you want to call it that -- and that memory sort of kills the chill factor.

Seggybop · Post by **Seggybop** » 2006-01-03 08:24pm

Battle on the Ice by Prokofiev
quality speakers required.

Keevan_Colton · Post by **Keevan_Colton** » 2006-01-03 09:30pm

Unforgiven - Apocalyptica

The song is one of my favourites in its original form, but their version just does it for the shivers up the spine thing. There's something about string stuff that can go right for my spine...

Revenge of the Sugar Plum Fairy - Trans Siberian Orchestra

For similar reasons this one is really good for it too.

Fiddler on the Green - Demons and Wizards

This song is just beatiful, the work on the Demons and Wizards stuff in general is just great, right now I'm on a bit of a D&W kick with my nice shiney copy of the new album (which I actually bought, they're that damn good

) "Touched by the Crimson King", which I'm still getting shivers off of right now...but I'm not including because it's early days yet to see if that reaction lasts.

The Aliens · Post by **The Aliens** » 2006-01-03 11:30pm

Glosoli by Sigur Ros, and Radiohead's Pyramid Song are two mass-market songs that do it for me, as well as One Day More from Les Miserables- something to do with the massive layering of sound. When you get six or seven layers of instruments or voices, it takes on a whole new dimension that's so much mroe than the sum of its parts.

EDIT: Also, Life Support from Rent. Terrific bloody song.

Braedley · Post by **Braedley** » 2006-01-04 09:16pm

Oh Canada, when it's not reverbarating like hell through a sports arena
Almost anything by an opera major I know (god she has an awesome voice)
Surprisingly enough, a couple of christmas hymms (Once in Roay David's City and See Amid the Winters Snow come to mind). Really just because I had to just belt them out back in my church choir days
I'm sure more will come to mind

Manus Celer Dei · Post by **Manus Celer Dei** » 2006-01-04 09:51pm

1916 by Motorhead. Incredibly touching song.

Vicious · Post by **Vicious** » 2006-01-06 05:06pm

Hotel California is forever enshrined as the most moving song I have ever heard. Not because of the lyrics, or the instrumentation, or even the band, but because of the one time I heard it being played live. I was standing in the open-air lobby of my hotel right on Waikiki Beach on Oahu, Hawaii.

I was heading down to get a pizza for dinner when I heard the first notes of Hotel California echoing out of the lounge right off the main lobby. I've always liked the song immensely, so I beelined for the lounge. I stopped and stood there, watching two guys with guitars turn out the most haunting rendition of Hotel California I have ever heard. That mood was only enhanced by the sound of the surf gently rolling in, the smell and feel of the seabreeze blowing in my hair and a pure, ecstatic sensation that time had simply stopped and nothing except those sensations and that song were real. Then it was over, and I walked away with the most blissful feeling. That moment has been forever etched into my memory. I may forget everything else about that trip, but I will always remember that moment.

Siege · Post by **Siege** » 2006-01-06 05:18pm

New York Minute by Don Henley. I'd just watched 9/11 go down live on CNN, watched the whole whazoo like it was some weird Hollywood production, totally detached in WTF-mode... Switched on the radio and *blam*. My world came crashing down there for six minutes and thirty-six seconds.

President Sharky · Post by **President Sharky** » 2006-01-07 12:23am

The final Prestissimo from Beethoven's 9th Symphony. My best memory of it was seeing it performed live for the first time. I remember as the chorus finished singing its last notes and the orchestra began its final rush to the end, my heartbeat seemed to accelerate with the music, and by the end I felt as pumped with joy as the music was.

The C major section in the Eroica's Marcia Funebre has a similar uplifting effect.

Pick · Post by **Pick** » 2006-01-07 12:29am

God You Made The World All Wrong - Notre Dame de Paris
Flood of Tears - Diary of Dreams
The Last Unicorn - America (I grew up listening to this song from this movie constantly.)