The first song I fell in love with
I have flashes of The Reflex by Duran Duran, but the first song I had a really emotional reaction to was Can’t Find My Way Home by Blind Faith, from the soundtrack to this really cheesy 80s movie called 1969 with Robert Downey Jr, Winona Ryder and Kiefer Sutherland. It was the cliche of stopping you in your tracks, so I had to sit on my bed and experience it. I still find it completely haunting.
The first single I bought
It was my 12th or 13th birthday and my stepdad [Foreigner guitarist Mick Jones] gave me 20 bucks, so I went and bought four 12-inches from Tower Records on 66 and Broadway, including (Nothing Serious) Just Buggin’ by Whistle and Let’s Go All the Way by Sly Fox.
The song I do at karaoke
I don’t do karaoke because I can’t sing. I’ve also been blessed to work with some of the most incredible singers who you’d never want to sing in front of. Gun to my head, I would do Drops of Jupiter by Train.
The song I inexplicably know every lyric to
Now it’s everything my two-year-old daughter listens to, although some of the Sesame Street songs from the 70s still have a magic quality, like Somebody Come and Play by the Sesame Street Kids.
The best song to play at a party
You can’t lose if you throw on Young Hearts Run Free by Candi Staton, because it just unites everybody. If you don’t find your body moving to it, you don’t have a pulse. I also like the Kym Mazelle cover from the 1996 soundtrack of Romeo + Juliet with Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes that has made its way to the TikTok generation.
The song I can no longer listen to
I don’t know if there’s a song that I used to love that I’ve burned out on. I don’t actively listen to my own songs, but if I’m at a wedding and Uptown Funk comes on, I’m not telling the DJ to turn it off.
The song I secretly like, but tell everybody I hate
I used to love Pantera as a kid. So, This Love by them.
The best song to have sex to
I cannot listen to music during sex because my brain will start to drift. I’ll wonder what mic they used on the snare. It’s the same reason that I can’t run to music, because the rhythm dictates my pace. If anything, I need something that washes over me, like Music for Airports by Brian Eno which goes on for 48 minutes, so that’s plenty of time.
The song that changed my life
I was in a funk, rock and heavy metal band called the Whole Earth Mamas, playing clubs in New York. We idolised bands like Living Colour and 24-7 Spyz. When I heard They Reminisce Over You (TROY) by Pete Rock & CL Smooth, I was so blown away, I thought: “I only want to play this sort of music now,” so I became a DJ.
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The song that gets me up in the morning
Again, I’m hostage completely to my two-year-old daughter’s taste. Right now she’s very much into Brass in Pocket by the Pretenders or Pink Pony Club by Chappell Roan.
The song that makes me cry
The demo version of Our House by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, with Joni Mitchell singing, always gets me, because it’s so sweet about the impermanence of love. The melody is just perfect. It’s a cheesy cliche now that I’m a dad, but when I hear it, and look at my daughter having such a different experience to the music I’ve listened to all my life, I’m an emotional mess.
The song I want played at my funeral
Uptown Funk. They’ll think: “Even in the grave, he’s still after his royalties.”
Mark Ronson’s new book, Night People: How to Be a DJ in 90s New York City, is out now.