No, YOU cropped your daughter out of a picture with one of your favorite musicians.

Over the summer my cousin got into putting together lists.

(My cousin is one of the few faithful readers of what I write here that I know about. I have no idea if there are others who haven’t let me know. So, feel free to let me know if you read this little daily experiment. E-mail me, text me - whatever way you have of communicating with me. I mean, I’m doing this anyway, but I like knowing who the audience is.)

Anyway, so one of the things he did was list his favorite bands. I think he went top 20 or so - I listed about 10 and then sat on it a while, and when I looked at it recently - because I knew I was going to write about it at some point - I didn’t really have any changes to make so I guess it was a pretty good top 10.

Here’s the quick summary: I realized as I was putting this together I like a lot of bands/musicians that have a few songs I really like. The Cars. Vance Joy. Ingrid Michaelson. Smashing Pumpkins. The list goes on and on and on. That probably describes everyone, right?

There are others who are great but have never really qualified as a favorite of mine - Tom Petty. I really like Tom Petty but for some reason I never think of him as a favorite. The Rolling Stones. Good stuff, but not a favorite. And so on.

(I should add, I did not include my brother in this list because it’s not a fair fight - he’s my favorite. And I encourage you to support him in whatever way possible and go enjoy his music. You can start by perusing his website. But for the sake of this exercise we’ll leave him out of it.)

For my favorites I think there were a few qualifications - either I listened my whole life and never questioned my enjoyment or I have listened to the complete catalogue and I like all of it or I can turn on any song by the artist at any time and I am very unlikely to turn it off.

As it turns out, after I compiled the list I took a look and realized I have seen all of the bands (except one, because it was impossible) live. Which I guess is as good an indication as any that it’s a favorite.

So here's the list - kind of in order but not necessarily - and I will not be accepting angry comments thank you very much:

1) Billy Joel

There’s no debate here. He meets all of the above conditions tenfold. I’ve just always loved Billy Joel and always will.

2) Keane

A newer band, all things considered. A band that Kathy and I liked at the same time in the mid-2000s. A band my brother introduced me to and I immediately loved their music and I have loved everything they’ve done since. (Except for that one album I haven’t loved all that much but when you love someone you forgive some of their shortcomings.)

3) Bruce Springsteen

Just an amazing, prolific artist. I appreciate him more and more as the years go on.

4) Sara Bareilles

A colleague shared her music with me years ago and I learned she was more than the ‘Love Song’ singer and I’ve loved following her career as it expanded beyond just singing. Watching her sing ‘She Used To Be Mine’ on stage on Broadway might have been the single most beautiful musical performance I’ve ever seen in my life.

5) The Beatles

A classic choice but I got into music late. Other than Billy Joel I didn’t listen to much. Then when I dove into The Beatles more deeply I think it opened me up to a ton more musically…which is kind of what they did for millions of people at different points in the last six decades.

6) Huey Lewis and the News

The very cousin who inspired this list got me to be a fan of Huey Lewis and the News. Back when my brother worked in radio he got us backstage to meet Huey and it was a great moment. My cousin: “I think I’m going to throw up.” Haha. Fore! is one of my favorite albums by any artist.

7) Taylor Swift

I dove in deep leading up to when we saw her in concert on the Eras Tour and I came away impressed…and then the concert blew me away too. She has to be on the list.

8) Elton John

A soft companion to Billy Joel over the years. What can I say - I like the piano.

9) Death Cab For Cutie

A more recent entry, but there are few songs I don’t enjoy and the more I learn about Ben Gibbard the more impressed I am by his genius.

10) Mumford & Sons

I would not have expected them to make this list either before I saw them a couple of months ago but they’re great and listening to their music is a good time.

I’m sure I’ve left something off or forgotten about something but if I was left for the rest of my life only listening to music by these artists, I would be fine with that. And that’s a pretty good way to measure whether they’re my favorites.