“Straaaaaaangers in the niiiiiight… Exchanging glanceeees… wanderingggg in the niiight…”
The all too familiar tune to Strangers in the Night by Frank Sinatra plays incessantly in my mind as I heard it nearly every school morning growing up ringing from the bathroom while my dad got ready for the day. He never listened to music while getting ready and has only begun recently playing music while performing chores and cooking, but he has hummed a tune or sang bits of songs throughout his day for as long as I can remember.
I have picked these habits up as well. Music connects me with everything. Every mundane task or moment of my day has literal or metaphorical background music. ESPECIALLY getting ready or taking a shower.
Full disclosure before I really get into things, I am an Apple Music user… That aside, I spend more minutes cultivating the proper vibes for the shower than the actual time I am in the shower. I try to spend less than 3 songs in the shower and never more than 5. This has become a ritual for me – a time to relax and disconnect, enjoy the music, and grace everyone who can hear me with my beautiful singing – I have no vocal talent.
The art of the shower playlist is in the time dedicated to such a small task. In deciding what 7-15 minutes of noise I need to hear at that exact moment in time. Sometimes it hits me in the middle of the day that I want to listen to a specific song later. Sometimes I am looking through a playlist and stumble upon one I haven’t heard in years and say, “OMG. YES. That is what I need!” There is no rhyme or reason to my shower playlists; it simply a small joy.
A few of my personal favorite combinations are:
- Solid vibes, easy to sing to
- Strangers in the Night by Frank Sinatra
- 10 Freaky Girls (feat. 21 Savage) by Metro Boomin
- Washington Lilacs by Zach Bryan
- She’s Got That by We Three
- GET. ME. GOIN.
- I WANNA BE YOUR SLAVE by Maneskin
- In the Ghetto by Elvis Presley
- Temptation by Gary Allen
- Some days are better than others
- Waylon in ’75 by Chase Beckham
- Drops of Jupiter by Train
- God’s Joke by Joe Jordan
- More to Lose by Miley Cyrus
- Higher by Creed
While the combinations are endless, these are some of my favorites. Not necessarily in this order but mixed and matched to fit what I am feeling that day. I never stick to just one genre. The musical whiplash is what keeps me engaged and my audience – anyone at my house who can hear me – on their toes.
The playlists, radios stations, and podcasts I listen to during other activities are much more cohesive and typically new suggestions by any and everyone, but the shower is no place for that. The shower is a place to belt familiar tunes and to wash the day off; it is safe and warm and vulnerable. The shower playlist has become engrained in my daily ritual and will be for the foreseeable future!
AMS 8, 05/30/2025
The Chronicles of Alex 
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