My Top 20 Songs About Outer Space

Copyright © 2016 by Thomas Gangale

@ThomasGangale

On 23 August 2014 Frans von der Dunk posted in LinkedIn:

Noting with interest Thomas Gangale's mega-project of listing a 100 CDs worth of space music, I am happy to announce that at UNL we have taken a shortcut: staff, faculty, alumni and students of the UNL Space, Cyber and Telecommunications Law program democratically voted for the Fabulous Forty of Space Law, forty 'songs' across the ages from amongst ultimately 189 nominated which best represent space law.

My collection is now up around the equivalent of 180 CDs. Anyway, Frans just emailed a scoring sheet for this year's Fabulous Forty of Songs for Space Law, and as a UNL space law student, I get to participate this year, listing 20 songs in order of my preference. As a political scientist, I view this as an exercise in ranked-choice voting. I wish more political systems used ranked-choice voting, as it allows voters to act strategically.

Here's my strategy: I am not voting for any of the songs that were listed in 2014's top 40, because they will probably be in this year's top 40. I would waste some of my votes by choosing any of those songs. Rather, I am voting for very obscure songs, win or lose. Why? Because some of the songs I like will make the top 40 anyway, so my 20 votes are opportunities to put some other songs in the running.

I define a space song as satisfying one of the following rules:

1. The lyrics pertain to the action of going to or coming from, or the state of being in outer space or on a celestial body, even when used as a metaphor regarding human relationships, which is what most songs are.

2. The lyrics pertain to historical figures or fictional characters who have either performed action of going to or coming from, or the state of being in outer space or on a celestial body.

3. The lyrics pertain to communication or a close encounter with, or a sighting of, an extraterrestrial spacecraft or the recent occupant thereof, or pertain to a physical connection between Earth and outer space.

4. In the case of instrumental music, the title of the work must sufficiently infer either Rules 1 through 3 described supra. A title consisting only of the name of a celestial body is presumed to place the subject of the music in the context of astronomy, the scientific study of outer space.

5. The mere mention of a celestial body that is easily and routinely observed from the surface of Earth, such as the Sun or the Moon, or natural phenomena pertaining to them that is routinely witnessed from the surface of Earth such as the rising or setting or eclipses of the Sun or the Moon, whether in the title of an instrumental piece or in lyrics, fails Rules 1 through 4 described supra.

About half of 2014's top 40 songs failed at least one of these rules.

Having amassed a collection of more than 2,700 songs, I have a lot of favorites, so distilling a list down to only 20 items requires more stringent rules. In general I have zeroed in on Rule 2 to guide me in selecting 20 songs that best express the spirit of space exploration.

One more thing: I have put all of the Russian songs in my top 20 at the top of my list to maximize their scores because I doubt that anyone else will vote for them.

1 - Марш космонавтов (March of the Cosmonauts)
USSR State Orchestra of Cinematography

Picture the cosmonaut corps goose-stepping through Red Square in a May Day parade (covered in several other styles)

2 - Я Земля (I Am Earth)
Alexandra Pakhmutova

However far cosmonauts may venture, Mother Earth will not forget her dear children (covered several times)

3 - Космос (Outer Space)
t.A.T.u.

Our problems on Earth we will leave behind us in outer space (Russian and English versions)

4 - Я верю, друзя, караваны ракет (I Believe, My Friends, Caravans of Rockets)
Vladimir Troshin

We rush forward from star to star, in dusty paths of far planets (covered several times)

5 - На Марсе будут яблони цвести (On Mars There Will Be Apple Blossoms)
Vladimir Troshin

Colonization of Mars, reminiscent of Ray Bradbury's "The Green Morning"

6 - Трава у дома (The Grass at Home)
Zemlyane

Reported to be a longtime favorite of the cosmonaut corps

7 - Космонавт (Cosmonaut)
Va-Bank'

Picture a crew about to go up to the ISS carousing in a total dive of a blues bar

8 - Armstrong
Reg Lindsay

The whole world stopped to watch on that July afternoon (covered several times)

9 - Flying for Me
John Denver

Tribute to the STS-51L Challenger crew

10 - Beach House on the Moon
Jimmy Buffett

The archetypal explorer throughout history

11 - Mars
Lori McKenna

Working class mom sees Mars reflecting in her young boy's eyes

12 - Sleeping Satellite
Tasmin Archer

Did we fly to the Moon too soon? Did we squander the chance? (covered many times)

13 - Beyond the Sky
Judy Collins

Tribute to STS-93 commander Eileen Collins, every girl should hear it

14 - Way Up There
Patti LaBelle

NASA's Centennial of Flight theme song, where silence thunders and angels sing

15 - Green Hills of Earth
David Frishberg

Someday centuries away, we will remember the world that was our home

16 - Space Race Is Over
Billy Bragg

Still mourning the end of the Apollo program decades later

17 - Standing on the Moon
Grateful Dead

There's a metal flag beside me someone planted long ago

18 - Countdown
Rush

Tribute to the STS-1 Columbia launch

19 - Star Trek
Judy Roberts

Rare vocal version of the instrumental theme covered many, many times

20 - Where My Heart Will Take Me
Russell Watson

Star Trek Enterprise theme song, I can reach any star

Thomas Gangale in Outer Space!