Five on Friday: Adrian Fontes

Editors' note: Every Friday, Signal and Noise features a person of interest sharing five songs they treasure and why. Get to know them and maybe discover some new tunes to dig.

This was a lot of fun to think about, and as you know, folks in music have way more than 5 songs that we'd like to share, so this has been a particularly challenging exercise for me... and if you ask me again next week, the list may change!

‘La Chona’ - Los Tucanes de Tijuana

This earworm has become an anthem for celebration and good times. It made this list because the instant I hear it, I want to dance... and if my wife (or anyone I can dance with, really) is in the room, we just look at each other, grab a piece of floor and “throw chanclas” all over the place! If you think you don’t know this song, you’re probably wrong. Also, I use it as my “walk-out” music at political events, you know, just to get the crowd moving in their seats a little before I give a speech!

‘Die Fledermaus Overture’ - Johann Strauss II

One of the most dynamic waltzes out there. The colorful themes take me on a nostalgic ride back to the days when I was in High School orchestra, and we performed this piece at the annual state symphony orchestra concert (I made second chair String Bass my senior year). Interestingly, depending on the conductor/symphony performing this piece, it can sound very, very different. One of the all-time great songs in my playlist.

‘Here I Go Again on my Own’ - Whitesnake

Any person born on or around 1970 knows how a big-hair rocker like this anthem has real feels and piques those amazing memories of a decade long gone by. For me, this class song (for the graduates of Nogales High School class of 1988) couldn’t have defined the spirit of change and anticipation more perfectly. The idea of leaving home, growing up, and experiencing whatever the world had in store for us after high school just oozes out of the lyrics of this song. I still crank it up and sing it at the top of my lungs (when I’m alone in the car) to this day!

‘Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts’ - Bob Dylan

American folk music is the perfect storytelling genre, and nobody tells stories as well as Dylan did with this absolutely perfect song. It hits all the high notes, all the low notes, and brings them together with wonderful rhetorical tricks and a dependable harmonica tying it all together. The characters are well-built, the plot (and its twists) is engaging, and the story is as old as time itself. I absolutely love this song and the truly American music and storytelling traditions it preserves.

‘Rata de Dos Patas’ - Paquita la del Barrio

Recently deceased, Paquita never had a chance to see me in her audience, and I’m not too proud to admit that when I found out she passed, I cried. But last year, and for several years running, this particular song has been in the top 5 songs on my end-of-year playlists. It strings together insults and resentments in one of the most raw and poetic (and fun) songs ever. Her individual power and honesty pour out of this song like a dam breaking. Paquita’s most well-known song deserves a listen, and as much fun as it is to sing along to (not to mention that delicious drippy sax in the band), it has earned a spot on my list and in my heart.