Yanni: An Appreciation
My 8 favorite Yanni songs
Think how magical it is that one musician or band can produce for you eight songs – eight! – that you love so much you add them to your playlist and listen to them every day or two. And these songs never grow tired. They are as good the thousandth time you’ve heard them as the first time. They inspire you every time.
Other bands have produced seven such songs for me. Elton John. John Williams. These are major musicians in my life and daily life experience. For me, Yanni Chryssomallis (1954-) exceeds them both as a composer and performer.
Two other bands have also produced eight. The Waterboys. U2. I consider Yanni equal to both the Waterboys and U2.
Three bands have produced more than eight. A lot more than eight. Peter Gabriel. Enya. Alicia Keys.
Along with Yanni, these are my eight main bands. I regard them as the eight best bands of all time. For me, no others even come close.
(I only listen to a couple Mozart songs each week. So, yes, Yanni means more to me than Mozart [or any other classical composer] does. I encourage you to again consider Yanni as a world-class composer.)
I know, I know, I’ve been hearing since the 1990s the two main resistances to Yanni.
First, that his hair and his moustache turned some people off for a couple decades. I kept hearing, “He looks like a straight porn start!” (I only listened to him on CDs and didn’t watch videos of him.) But hey, he’s Greek; he looks Greek; give him a break.
Second, “He swoons way too much.” But hey if you wrote music this good, you’d have every right to swoon while you perform it for your audience. He lets the super-abundance of his music flow through his whole body. More power to him.
And so I eagerly share with you my eight favorite Yanni songs of all time (with a link for each to a YouTube video). Yes, I do actually listen to each of these songs two or three times each week, and none of them ever fails to take me places:
“Santorini” is a song of transcendent good feeling. It is a high-energy song of victory arising from inner strength. At the same time, it makes us feel we might burst from sheer happiness. It leaves us with no doubt that joy is existentially real and true.
“Tribute” is an expansive song of hope and arrival. We feel we are looking up to see a sacred and better place. We walk toward this place. We pick up our pace. We jog toward it. We run toward it. We enter it. We are welcomed to our own bright future. And, as if by an angelic chorus, we’re told, “you’ve arrived, take a seat”.
“Reflections of Passion” lifts us forward and upward. It is an exquisite and exhilarating song of the passion of living and the freedom to advance with grace while we affirm, triumphantly, what is best in each of us. We feel our souls being guided by an unseen hand toward achieving our highest aspirations and a better world here on Earth.
“Nostalgia” is evocative, utterly mesmerizing, and even breathtaking. It is stunning in its dynamism and exuberance. I can’t really explain it, but this song carries my soul to a sacred place. I feel as if I’m transported into the same spiritual experience that Yanni is. It’s as if my being is filled up with sublime emotional energy – from the appreciation of life and of beauty and of the meaning of my past experience of life – all from the cosmos and from the Divine. How blessed we are all to share our journeys as we live together in this splendid world!
“Enchantment” is a phenomenal, mind-blowing song that carries us up and out of the time and space we’re in. Flowing smoothly and evocatively, as if in a boat riding the waves, the song carries us forward to a purer, more blessed, more beautiful place where we know perfection is within our reach. Perfection is all around us. We just take it in hand. We take it into our imagination. We take it deep into our heart. And we join all those around us who have been riding these waves of perfection with us. Then, together, enchanted, as we bring our boats back into our home port, each of us is released into all that we may very well become.
“One Man’s Dream” touches our hearts, warmly invites us to come along and step into a new world, and lifts us into a place of pure beauty. It mercifully calls us and gently guides us to enter a wider arena – a space aching with new possibilities. It evocatively moves the deepest part of our being along to deeper territory, a place beyond words. With its rich, full, whirling sound and energy, this is also one of the most poignant, moving, and beautiful songs of all time as it assures us, We will get there. It’s happening. Just let it flow. We will get there.
This is one of my Top Ten songs of all time. “Until the Last Moment” lifts our spirits beyond all anxiety and doubt. Bursts of positive, upbeat energy pulsate through our arteries. We enter another world and feel the vigor, stamina, and athletic strength we need to take on challenges, perform at our best, and win. We have a sense of possibility and we know we have the energy, talent, and capacities to make it happen. We will take this lovely but useful dream of ours – and from the essence of our being, we will bring it to fruition.
Adagio In C Minor with Nathan Pacheco
This is one of my Top Five songs of all time. I listen to it almost every day – two versions of it, the version without lyricist and vocalist Nathan Pacheco and the version with Nathan Pacheco, whom I regard as the world’s best living singer.
I suppose it’s true that all of us has a filter. Filtering out music in our brain so we don’t fully experience it. Filtering out our experience in general, including our best experiences.
Somehow, this song bypasses the filter. The veils lift and slide away. Perhaps in some way this song — like so many of the greatest songs — bypasses our brain and allows us to have an experience purely of our consciousness, of our soul. Whatever is holding us back is released from our being. The depth of energy cannot be filtered or resisted. We are lifted off the ground. We glide. We fly. We fly up, fly out, and fly through a beautiful, spectacular space of mystical fluidity, belief in all the best possibilities, and triumph.
Mike, once again I thank you for a blast to my past. I love Yanni but as everything else I have not listened to his music. But now, after your post, I am listening again and loving it. Life is better with these moments. Thanks, Francisco.