Strong Songs is one year old! In honor of that anniversary, Kirk takes a look back on the year that was, sharing musical highlights from each of the show's 20 single-song episodes. SCHEDULING NOTE: Strong Songs will be off in December, and will return for Year Two on January 8, 2020. If you're a patron over on Patreon, that means you won't be charged for the month of December. That also makes December a great month catch up on episodes you may have missed, share the show with your friends, listen to Year One playlists, and enjoy a hopefully very musical holiday season. SONGS DISCUSSED: "Africa" by Toto from Toto IV, 1982 "You Can Call Me Al" by Paul Simon from Graceland, 1986 "Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)" by Beyoncé from I Am... Sasha Fierce, 2008 "I Wish" by Stevie Wonder from Songs in the Key Of Life, 1976 "Thriller" by Michael Jackson from Thriller, 1982 "Dancing Queen" by ABBA from Arrival, 1976 "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen from A Night At The Opera, 1975 "Let It Go" from Frozen, 2013 "Moanin'" by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers from Moanin', 1959 "Mr. Blue Sky" by Electric Light Orchestra from Out Of The Blue, 1977 "Satisfied" by Lin-Manuel Miranda from Hamilton, 2015 "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" by Elton John from Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, 1973 "Tightrope" by Janelle Monáe from The Archandroid, 2010 "Barracuda" by Heart from Little Queen, 1977 "Paranoid Android" by Radiohead from OK Computer, 1997 "Like a Prayer" by Madonna from Like a Prayer, 1989 "Think" by Aretha Franklin from the Blues Brothers soundtrack, 1980 "Kiss From a Rose" by Seal from Seal II, 1994 "Making Christmas" by Danny Elfman from The Nightmare Before Christmas, 1993 "I Will Always Love You" by Dolly Parton from Jolene, 1974, and as performed by Whitney Houston on The Bodyguard soundtrack, 1992 ------ YEAR ONE PLAYLISTS You can find new playlists with these 20 songs on Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/strong-songs-year-1/pl.u-V9D7gaGiJ7o0a and Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5d9ym1sUymGoySMXOw3zbZ?si=knUCLdHHTQ2lTIQq-uXYmQ OUTRO SOLOIST: All Of Them! Thanks to all of the outro soloists we've featured over the past few months: BJ Cord, Galen Clark, Rob Reich, Dan Nervo, Sam Howard, and Steve Pardo. We'll feature plenty more great soloists in Year Two. SOCIAL MEDIA ALERT You can find Kirk on Twitter @kirkhamilton, and if you're interested in occasional music and Portland-related photos and videos, follow him on Instagram @kirk_hamilton. https://www.instagram.com/kirk_hamilton/ NEWSLETTER/MAILING LIST Sign up for Kirk's mailing list to start getting monthly-ish newsletters with music recommendations, links, news, and extra thoughts on new Strong Songs episodes: https://kirkhamilton.substack.com/subscribe STRONG PLAYLISTS In addition to the year-one playlists above, you can find bigger playlists containing every Strong Song as well as all of Kirk's weekly music picks from his other podcast, Kotaku Splitscreen, on both Spotify and Apple Music. STRONG MERCH! Visit the Strong Songs merch store for some very cool t-shirts, mugs, totes, and more: store.strongsongspodcast.com STRONG SONGS ON PATREON! The biggest of all thank-yous to all of Strong Songs's Patreon backers. Hundreds of people have supported the show since the Patreon launched over the summer, and you've made it possible for Strong Songs to be what it is. For Year Two, we're adding a smaller "Eighth-Note" tier for those of you who just want to kick in a little bit, since a few folks have asked for that. Find out more here: https://Patreon.com/StrongSongs NOVEMBER 2019 WHOLE-NOTE PATRONS andrew walters CALEB ROTACH Chad Barnard Dan Apczynski Dave Florey Glenn Jared Norris Mark Schechter Merlin Mann Ryan Torvik NOVEMBER 2019 HALF-NOTE PATRONS Alex Singer Alexander Polson Amanda Furlotti Andre Bremer Andrew Baker Andrew Lee Arjun Sharma Bill Thornton Brett Douville Brian Amoebas Brooke Wilford Chas Lednicky Chris Brown Cyrus N. White David Stroud Earl Lozada Eer