The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells: A Novel

The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells Playlist

9 Songs that Inspired Andrew Sean Greer

I lived through 1985, but I didn t live through 1941 or 1918, the other eras of Greta s life, so I tried to imagine what I would have listened to back then. A mad mix of everything, it turns out from swing to classical to vaudeville.

1. When Tomorrow Comes by The Eurythmics

1985 was full of pop sounds, but for me I always loved a brokenhearted woman who sang like a robot. Annie Lennox helped me survive adolescence with her lovelorn lyrics and cold cold heart. And yet so full of hope. If there were a movie of Greta Wells, it would begin with this song about tomorrow.

2. Close To Me by The Cure

Almost as good as a robot lady for me was a man falling apart. Being fifteen, putting this into my Walkman, and hearing The Cure breathing into my ear. Shocking. Raw and sad and full of desperate love, just like Greta. Listen to the swinging brass section echoes of the past.

3. La Vie En Rose by Grace Jones

Grace Jones, the ultimate robot chanteuse. This patient nostalgic remake (she doesn t sing for two and a half minutes): I picture Greta playing it as she lies in bed and thinks about her life.

4. Chattanooga Choo Choo by The Andrews Sisters

I just had to. 1941. What could better capture the spirit of America on the brink of war? They are really swinging on this one by the two minute mark.

5. Lady in the Dark: The Saga of Jenny by Gertrude Lawrence

It wasn t all swing swing swing in 1941 there was wit and elegance to the era, including this Kurt Weil number. It pretends to be a moral tale about how a woman should not make up her mind. Of course it really does quite the opposite.

6. Everything Happens to Me by Billie Holiday

Oh Billie. A comical journey through the mishaps of a woman s life, but Billy Holiday gives it real despair. I imagine this playing in Greta s kitchen as she smokes a cigarette while the casserole heats in the oven.

7. Darktown Strutter's Ball by The Original Dixieland Jazz Band

1918 had a sense of freedom, and this song (disturbingly titled) shows undeniable joy. Picture young women tapping their feet, unlacing their corsets and getting up to dance! Greta s Aunt Ruth would have played this hit during one of her notorious parties.

8. Firebird Suite: The Infernal Dance by The Budapest Festival Orchestra

Jazz, ragtime, dixieland music that many Americans didn t understand. But classical was quite in vogue. This piece was thoroughly modern, and its drama reminds us of the horrors of 1918: war, famine and plague.

9. You Ain't Heard Nothing Yet by Al Jolson

Subtly risqu vaudeville. Jolsen sang like nobody before people wept and screamed and he influenced Crosby, Sinatra, Elvis, and every kid on American Idol who croons a note. What better way to end a soundtrack than with a promise of better to come?