The Celine Dion Playlist

 

Ok. So a few days ago I made a post using Celine Dion as an example of someone who has a very remarkable voice but was still an artist I wasn't particularly a fan of. Maybe it's not a voice I gravitate to or it's about the material and production. So anyway as a day or so went by I started to feel very guilty about this. After all, Dion seems like a very nice, hardworking person with a good sense of humor about herself. And if I had to come up with an example that day to define my taste in things, why throw Celine Dion under the bus?

And I then I thought, "Aww geez. I'm going to have to make a Celine Dion playlist now. Because, in the spirit of rockstar essayist Lester Bangs, I should double back and get stuck into the weeds of calling out my own shit.

To be honest Celine Dion has recorded so much music, just by the laws of probability there has to be something to like in there. She had a whole decade of singing in French (29 singles!) before she even started singing in English in the 1990s. So she was a veteran of the wars already.

And of course, I found plenty that I already liked while perusing her catalogue and coming up with this list (and even a few new French songs last night). It's just those songs "Where Does My Heart Beat Now" and "Because You Loved Me" that really set my fillings ringing back in the day. But we can talk about other songs. 

The Celine Dion Playlist 

1. If You Asked Me To (1992)

We'll start with this song, another Celine Dion song I did not like, but one that re-introduced me to Patti Labelle. One day I was in The Gap at our local St. Louis Chesterfield Mall with my friend Lisa as she was buying some things. (I am proud to have the distinction of never having bought anything from The Gap). While we were checking out, the Patti Labelle (1989) version came on. 

By the way, Chesterfield Mall has since been demolished to build apartments and it pains me to think that someday someone will be having coffee in their kitchen in the exact spot I once bought my Molly-Ringwald-pink peasant dress at Contempo Casuals (a store I cannot claim the distinction of having never purchased anything in), the dress my mother would iron in secret even though it was meant to look wrinkled. The disheveled look I had perfected drove my mother crazy and her ironing the dress made me crazy and I said "Mom, I think these architects of teen fashion know what they're doing!" And just like all my battles with my mother, nobody won that one.

In any case, this was first Patti Labelle song that I understood. Probably because, for Patti Labelle, it was so mild and formulaic. But it was my initiation into the spine-chilling world of this Godmother of Soul and it led back to the group Labelle in all their glory.

What bothered me about Celine Dion's version was that it didn't change anything much about the Labelle version, which was kind of eerie. Labelle's version is crisper and better to my ears but her version only went to #79 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and the practically-identical version by Dion went all the way to #4. There could be many, many reasons for that. I'll just leave it there. 

 

2.  Beauty and the Beast with Peabo Bryson (1991)

Probably my least favorite of the animated monster duets at the time, preferring "A Whole New World" (from Disneys Aladdin, 1992) also with Peabo Bryson and with Regina Belle and from Steven Spielberg's An American Tail, "Somewhere Out There" (1986) by James Ingram and Linda Ronstadt.

But Peabo Bryson has a great clear voice to match Dion's here and this is a sweet song, even if the story disturbingly alludes to rage and fear in relationships. The song still stands as a good one for couples who suffer from failure to launch.

 

3. My Heart Will Go On (1997)

You can't take this classic love song away from Celine Dion. 

Happily, I heard this song before I saw its movie Titanic. It was overplayed to death at the time and like all songs played to death this always happens because the first time everyone hears those songs, they lose their listening minds. And the first listen on this song was a pretty amazing heart tug. 

But then we all got sick of it.

I first heard this song driving on the Massachusetts Turnpike near Boston on my way home from work while I was living temporarily in Stow with my brother and his then-wife Maureen. I was stunned enough by the song to keep this memory of where and when I first ever heard it. 

Unfortunately, I was one of the very few people in this big wide world who did not love the Titanic movie (mostly because Leonardo DiCaprio leaves me pretty cold). So this is also the only song I can think of that falls into the category of songs that were ruined for me by a movie. 

I suggest you listen to it with beginner's mind. 

 

4. Love Is On the Way (1997)

But I did buy the Celine Dion album Let's Talk About Love for the single "My Heart Will Go On" and found two other songs I loved on that CD. I was down in Yonkers, New York, by this time and I remember listening to the CD in my basement apartment. 

This bit of pop gospel drags itself along so surely and bombastically. Sadly, despite the assurance, I never did experience love to be imminently "on the way" and so when I listen to it now I always wonder "where is Celine Dion getting this information from?"

 

5. To Love You More (1997)

Another one from Let's Talk About Love. This one is, in a word, fierce.

 

6. Seduces Me (1996)

Years later, after I moved L.A. I created a mix tape full of sad songs by women. I can't remember why. This song wrung me out and made the cut along with Olivia Newton-John's "Shakin' You" and Cyndi Lauper's "I'm Gonna Be Strong."

 

7. The Magic of Christmas Day (1998)

This is only song I loved from Dion's Christmas album. This is not an unusual ratio for me with celebrity Christmas albums, not because I don't like Christmas albums but because there's just so much competition and I tend to like only either original Christmas songs or very unusual renditions.

This, I know, is too precious for some. But not me, brother. It takes some balls to withstand high bathos.

 

8. The Power of Love (Single 1993, Live 2008-9)

Last year, my YouTube algorithm served up two live performances from the Taking Chances tour that I loved better than their respective singles.  

 

9. My Love (single 2008, Live, YEAR)

This Linda Perry song was the other one, just the conviction and the way she is so exhausted at the end. (I like to see her walk backwards while she sings.)

 

10. The Celine Dion Documentary (2024)

I Am: Celine Dion was rough and unflinching. Made me a much more sympathetic listener.  

 

11.  Hymne à l'amour (Opening the Paris Olympics, 2024)

I was in Cleveland a few years ago taking care of my parents when the 2024 Paris Olympics started and I saw this the day after the Opening Ceremony. I played it over and over for days, showing it to my parents. 

A week ago I was going over my Dad's Top 10 list with him and some point he started singing Tex Ritter's "Blood On the Saddle" and if that's ever happened to you (having to listen to this song sung by anybody), it's very, very, very, very unpleasant. My Dad laughed and said that as a child he used to play his 78 record over and over again and I said, "Yeah, that's what grandma said" and he laughed. This is all to say I think there's a genetic component to this being obsessed with a song hard enough to play it 20 times in a row. I'd just rather the song be "Hymne à l'amour" than "Bluuuuud on the SaaaaaDLE." 

I don't care if Celine Dion was able to sing this live at the event or not. She sang it live somewhere at some point. And it's perfection. 

 

12.  Encore Un Soir (2016)

I found these two French songs yesterday searching for people's opinions on the best Celine Dion French songs. In fact, you'd think I would be predisposed to like Dion singing in French since I like all those melodramatic chansons françaises. 

This was Dion's moving homage to her husband René Angéli after his death from throat cancer. 

 

13. Vole (1995)

Another take on grief, this time in tribute to her 16-year-old niece, Karine, who died of cystic fibrosis in 1993. Very lovely songs, those two.

This song was on Dion's album D'eux which is still the biggest selling album in French history. 

 

14. Dansons (2026)

This one came out 13 days ago. Belle chance!

It's a beautiful place to leave it here (as we navigate these very troubled times).  

Très bien, Celine Dion. Très bien.