Have ever fantasized about putting together an album of cover songs that would represent something about where you’re coming from musically, spiritually, or whateverly My close personal friend, Townsman andyr, and I have long joked about recording a “solo” album of covers that mean a lot to us but that we could not realistically see convincing our bandmates rallying behind. We’ve had some success in getting our bandmates to cover songs that would fit the model, such as R.B. Greaves‘ “Take a Letter Maria,” but bandmate chickenfrank, in particular, quickly catches onto how corny a path we would lead the whole band, if we had our druthers. That’s cool.

These songs we joke about adding to that album have never been set in stone, but they share core musical values from our AM radio-informed youth, especially an abundance of chooglin’ rhythms and quick I-IV-I chord progressions, such as the hook in the chorus of The Box Tops‘ “Soul Deep” (and Nick Lowe’s “Skin Deep,” for that matter). Billy Swan‘s “I Can Help” definitely makes the track list. We have never formally discussed what would be on our joint solo album, but I’m pretty sure it would be done in the slavish manner of Dave Edmunds‘ Subtle as a Flying Mallet.

For us, mind you, this covers album would not necessarily be a collection of our favorite songs but a representation of a particular aspect of our collective tastes. (Other musical influences we might cover would be left to another project, such as the equally long-discussed Clash cover band, The Magnificent Seven, which would play exclusively a rotating set of 7 Clash covers.) Your personal covers album can be organized according to whatever principles your heart desires.

So think about it – and andyr and I will too, in the course of this thread: What 10 songs would make up your personal covers album?