What Makes You Smile?

1. Busted-Crashed the Wedding-Busted is an old band out of the UK from early 2001 that are unfortunately broken up now but boy, they made great music :) This is off their first self titled album. The video for it is quite creative and playful, with all the boys dressed up as dinner guests that witness their regular selves taking over with this catchy and highly memorable rock song.

2. Busted-Year 3000-another very great song about time travelling to the future. Inspired by Back to the Future. It's off the same album.

3. Matt Willis-Hey Kid Matt Willis was one of the shining members of Busted who was able to develop an equally shining solo career. This is off his album called "Don't Let it Go to Waste." And truly, he hasn't.

4. Matt Willis-Crash This song is on the Mr Bean's Holiday Soundtrack as well as "Don't Let it Go to Waste." This album has so many great songs, I'd just rather buy the whole album than for 2 individual songs. But that's just me.

5. Natasha Bedingfield-These Words A popular song from recent years in North America, this singer has proven herself to be one of the best British pop artists. This single is the same title as her album, "Unwritten."

6. Natasha Bedingfield-Single A song had to be written about women proclaiming their satisfaction with their single status and Natasha has produced a wonderful pop track on her "Unwritten" album to express it.

7. Natasha Bedingfield-I Wanna Have Your Baby
And for those of you wanting to settle down and have a family, she offers this other great song off her album, "N.B." (I guess she wanted to capture both sides of the market)

8. Razorlight-America-A simply fabulous song by another British band :) A little mellower than the others, but still in the pop music category. Off their self titled album "Razorlight."

9. Shine-Take That-This group had only a few hits in the US market, but they are still going strong in their British homeland. And thanks goodness, because they write truly excellent music. This song, off their album called "Beautiful World," is by far one of the most positive songs I've heard in a long time. Highly recommended if you want to feel inspired.

10. Life is a Rollercoaster-Ronan Keating
This song was released several years ago but is still one of my favorites. It helps that the singer is darn cute too.

11. Picture of You-Boyzone-Ronan Keating is still the singer but is joined by the rest of his Boyzone band. (Or in other words, this darn cute singer is joined by other darn cute singers.)

12. On My Own-Hedley-Fronted by Canadian Idol contestant Jacob Hoggart from several years back, this band continues to rock the charts with their eccentric styles and rockin' melodies.

13. Flathead-The Fratellis-If you don't know what this song is about, I just have two words for you-"ipod commercial." Remember the one a few years ago where these neon silhouettes of guys were rocking and bobbing about? That's this one. (Ok I know, kinda hard to explain, but it's a FABULOUS tune, you'll just have to trust me ;) ) It's off of their album called "Costello Music." You might want to get the ipod version of it instead of the album because the album cover and inside booklet feature scantily clad women and at times you can even see their nipples. Which is kind of offensive, if you're a woman like me. But if you're a guy, I guess it would be rather, well...less offensive.

14. Henrietta-The Fratellis Another great tune by this band, from the same album (what can I say, I loved the songs so much, I bought the album. I just put the booklet in backwards so I could see the empty back cover instead of the women in front.)

15. Martell-The Cribs Another great song from an ipod commercial years ago. "Someone's got their eye on you now, don't you know..whoa oh oh oh..." (Hoping that rings a bell with you lol) From their album called "The New Fellas."

DVDs

1. Welcome Back Kotter-This is a timeless comedy from the 1980's about a former student who comes back as a high school teacher. Still makes me laugh out loud. John's Travolta's first sitcom too if I'm not mistaken.

2. The Tick (the cartoon)-I found this show absolutely hilarious when it was first out in 1994. Bold, brawny superhero fighting crime and "upholding the laws of justice" with his scrawny sidekick Author. And only rarely succeeding.

3. The Golden Girls-This was a long running series in the 80's about four women in their golden years who live together as roomates. They talk, they share, they laugh. And audiences around the world laughed right along with them.

4. Taxi-loved this show when I was younger. Jim Ignatowski is a classic.

5. Soap-the funniest soap opera I've ever seen! Created by the same person who made Golden Girls, this show came out in the 70's and is a parody of modern day soap operas. It's still written in a soap opera format with the interactions between 2 distinguishable families and cliffhangers galore, but it's much more funny. Much, MUCH more lol I'm talking almost-fall-off-your-chair kinda funny. (But maybe that's just my sense of humor)

6. Benson-A spin off from "Soap," it's a show about the butler and his sarcastic but funny comebacks on his new everyday life. Same good writing, same good storylines.

7. Thin Blue Line-After there was Blackadder with Rowan Atkinson, there was this series about a police officer and the quirky characters in his police department as they set about their day to day work. Smartly written and very funny.

8. Little Britain (Season 1)-A collection of skits and scenes about British life. Brought to you by the crafty comedy writing team of Matt Lucas and David Walliams. (some crude humor involved, but more less so in the first season than the second. Each skit is about 5 minutes long and the sweetness and hilarity of the other skits greatly make up for it)

9. Bit of Fry and Laurie-Before Hugh Laurie was ever known in the States for his serious role on House, he was widely acclaimed in the UK for his comedic sketches with Stephen Fry on shows like this. This show ran for four seasons and is some of the best British writing I've seen to date.

10. Whose Line is it Anyway?(UK version)-A lot of people know this show for it's seasons with Drew Carey in the US, but it was even better in the UK, where it first started. Quick witted Clive Anderson played the host, adding a string of comical comments from the sidelines that has been unparalleled from any other game show host since. Two of the players in the US version, Ryan Stiles and Colin Mocherie, first started with this version in the UK, surrounded by seasoned British comedians including Stephen Fry).