Happy New Year. I am sharing a new playlist where I add one song a week for each week of 2024. These are songs you should know about. I don’t know when the world has ever been in a collectively good place, but I know that music has healed us in the past and I hope it will continue to do so in the future.

So to start off my 52 weeks 52 songs playlist I’m sharing three versions of the same song. Lilac Wine came to me via Nina Simone, and it floored me. Then I heard Jeff Buckley’s version, and it floored me into the basement. Then I heard Eartha Kitt’s version, and I was brought back to life. These three versions span about 50 years, with one coming every 20 years. Of course, covering songs is nothing new, but there was something different about artists sharing songs back when these were made. Same song, three very different artists representing their individual pain and beauty. Gutting.

I’m always happy to hear what you think of these songs, but just listening is good too.

Listen to the fifty-two 52 playlist.