The Guardian poses the question…….”The Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack – will it take you to the heights of erotic ecstasy?”

The Record Press author thinks probably not……..However undoubtedly the flagship of Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack, has to be Annie Lennox’s rendition of Nina Simone’s “I Put a Spell on You”. There are certain songs that were so good in their original form that it takes a brave man or woman to cover them. Well Annie Lennox is Scottish and therefore inherently a “Brave heart” and she manages to capture the haunting, obsessive atmosphere of the original song by Nina Simone, whilst putting her own idiosyncratic spin on it. Clearly the theme of this song dovetails well with Christian Grey’s manipulation of Anastasia in Fifty Shades of Grey.

In fairness the the Fifty Shades of Grey director has avoided the temptation of deploying songs with grey in the title, if you don’t include “I know You” by Skylar Grey. When researching songs with grey in the title for this blog article, surprisingly I found very few examples.

Some of the songs that could have peppered the soundtrack of Fifty Shades of Grey were “Grey Day” by Madness, “Touch of Grey” by The Grateful Dead ( or should that be Grey-ful Dead? ), Tom Robinson’s “Grey Cortina” ( although the iconic British car from the 1970s probably wouldn’t work in contemporary USA!! ), or my favourites Visage’s “Fade to Grey” or Joni Mitchell’s “Two Grey Rooms” ( these two would be perfect ). Finally the pick of the bunch would have to be “Shades of Grey” by quintessential New Yorker Billy Joel.

For the Guardian’s take on the Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack, here’s a link to a very entertaining and amusing article……. www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2015/feb/16/fifty-shades-of-grey-soundtrack-erotic