Whilst writing up product descriptions for our exciting range of Sennheiser Sport Headphones, designed to be worn by joggers, gym enthusiasts and general sporty types, I asked my colleagues which songs, other than the obvious “Eye of the Tiger” which we will have to take as a given, they would be pumping through a pair of Sennheiser OMX 680’s or MX 680i’s in order to spur them on through the pain barrier and help them achieve that extra mile on the treadmill or to help them to lift those extra 10kg at the gym.
After a brief explanation of these facilities and activities with plenty of reference to Rocky Balboa, we reached an understanding and so were able to begin compiling a list which we have loosely named the “Ultimate Exercise Machine Encourager Songs of All Time” until such time that we can come up with something a bit snappier.
That list starts with “Eye of the Tiger”, and it will probably end with “Eye of the Tiger” too, but in between we managed to come up with a handful of tracks that would help us get to the gym and maybe even consider some exercise.
1. Eye of the Tiger – Survivor
2. We Are the Champions – Queen (there were a surprising amount of Queen nominations including I Want It All, Don’t Stop Me Now, We Will Rock You, so you can amend the list as you see fit)
3. Chariots of Fire – Vangelis
4. I Believe I can Fly – R. Kelly – (I initially had doubts about this one as the bpm rate is pretty low, but after checking with one of the staff at Kef I was rightly put in my place as this was the first song to come to her mind….. after “Eye of the Tiger” of course)
5. 20th Century Boy – T-Rex
6. 7 Nation Army – The White Stripes
7. I Will Survive – Gloria Gaynor
8. Because the Night – Patti Smith
9. What A Feeling – Irene Cara
10. All Along the Watchtower – Jimi Hendrix (a personal favourite here, although this is one of my all time favourite tunes and can be used as motivational tool for almost any occasion; going out, getting the house work done, learning the electric guitar, buying a decent pair of speakers to get the maximum benefit of the treble tracked guitar solo….)
11. I Need A Hero – Bonnie Tyler
Now, this may not be a very comprehensive list, and those readers who have the
perseverance and drive to have trained for a marathon will no doubt see it as coming up a little short. Obviously to us at the office, 11 tracks seems like more than enough to get us working out, but if we are honest, most of us would struggle to get past “Chariots of Fire”.
However, for you audiophiles with a little more stamina, we thought it might be fun to throw this open to you. We could probably use another nine or ten tracks, so please post suggestions in the comments list. The end result will be that one or more of us will have to sample the play-list and channel it through one of Sennheiser’s Sport Earphone range whilst exercising. The challenge, of course, will be to keep the heart rate up at a healthy exercising level for the full play-list, so the shorter the songs the better. Also, the more motivational the song the better, not just to make an awesome list, but to actually feed us the musical energy it is going to take to get through this trial alive!