PLAYLIST
“I Knew I Loved You” Savage Garden
I fell in love with this song the very first time I heard it. I made out with my pillow to this one.
“Sex and Candy” Marcy Playground
My surrealist ideals came from watching this music video. Who doesn’t love warped checkered floors and tarantulas?
“Hide and Seek” Imogen Heap
I just want Imogen to know her songs got me through high school. Especially this one.
“Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)” The Offspring
If Kid Rock and Fetty Wap had a baby, it would sound like this.
“Together Again” Janet Jackson
Janet changed the game for the black woman in pop music. She brought alternative styles from both music and fashion to the forefront of 2000s pop culture.
“Alfie” Barbra Streisand
It is my dream to create a song that is on this level of musicianship and beauty.
“Strange Fruit” Billie Holiday
Billie and songwriter Abel Meeropol found a way to describe such a horrific sight in a way that not only sheds a light on the plight of the black American family but cloaks the listener in a brown-skinned blanket from the very first note to the last.
“Tubthumping” Chumbawamba
This is a great song to jump on your bed to. I put this on when I’m feeling down; it really works!
“Lovin’ You” Minnie Riperton
I used to hear my mom singing this song in the kitchen all the time.
“God Give Me Strength” Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach
Burt Bacharach just deserves his own playlist!
Priscilla Renea’s “Coloured” (out now) finds the common ground between country and R&B – no surprise for a singer and songwriter who has written hits for Rihanna, Pitbull, Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood. The playlist of favorite songwriters she has curated for USA TODAY is similarly varied, revealing a Burt Bacharach fixation, a love for ’90s pop and more.