My Top 10 Favorite Grace Potter Songs in Honor of the Rockmommy’s 6/20 Birthday

21 Jun My Top 10 Favorite Grace Potter Songs in Honor of the Rockmommy’s 6/20 Birthday

by Marisa Torrieri Bloom

Roots rocker — and fellow rockmommy — Grace Potter is a powerhouse performer and one of the greatest rock vocalists of all time. And she continues to innovate and draw in new fans with her music. Today, June 20, 2023, Grace turns 40, so we decided to honor her with a list of my top 10 favorite Grace Potter tunes (and their respective albums). A few of them may surprise you!

#10: “ALIVE TONIGHT” (MIDNIGHT)

With its dazzling disco beat, “Alive Tonight” (from Grace’s 2015 solo album, “Midnight”) is freeing, fun, and an unexpectedly danceable.

#9: “LOVE IS LOVE” (DAYLIGHT)

This tune, delivered with Grace’s signature gusto, drops serious truths about love, which can whack you in the head at inconvenient times. It’s lyrically on point, because the heart wants what the heart wants. 

#8: “DESIRE” (DAYLIGHT) 

There’s an earthy, carnal sensuality with “Desire,” which makes sense, since her husband Eric Valentine produced the album where it lives, Daylight, a record that delves into all the big emotions that come with making tough choices in love and life. 

#7: “MEDICINE” (GRACE POTTER & THE NOCTURNALS)

This classic Grace Potter & The Nocturnals tune is catchy and infectious, with sexy drums and a Rockin’ guitar hook, and Grace’s guttural “ah has” that launch us into a song about the woman who’s got the medicine that everybody wants. 

#6: “STARS” (The LION THE BEAST THE BEAT)

This pretty, shimmery acoustic stunner really tugs at the heart strings.

#5: “MOTHER ROAD” (MOTHER ROAD)

Groovy, gutsy and badass, Grace’s latest single “Mother Road” off her forthcoming album of the same name pays homage to the journey, not the destination. Loaded with big, gospel vocals, deep organs, and twangy guitars, the song transports me to the late ’60s every time I hear it. It’s also the first single off her fifth studio album, Mother Road, due on August 18 via Fantasy Records. 

#4: “OASIS” (GRACE POTTER & THE NOCTURNALS)

This song is saturated in stunning instrumentation, with arpeggiated guitars, layered harmonies, and a sweeping call to action to those of us who need a dose of courage: Don’t let your soul lose control/Let you roll down the mountain you climbed. 

#3: “PARIS OOH LA LA” (GRACE POTTER AND THE NOCTURNALS)

This is the song that made me a forever Grace Potter fan. “Paris Ooh La La” is loaded with sexiness and swagger, with a pronounced bass and a singalong chorus that’s among the greatest I’ve ever heard. Grace growls, coos, and entrances — and it’s brilliant.

#2: “RELEASE” (DAYLIGHT)

This cathartic piano ballad off 2019’s Daylight brings me close to tears every time I hear it. I can only imagine the pain and courage Grace summoned to write this song. It truly carries an emotional weight along the lines of Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide.”

#1: “THE LION THE BEAST THE BEAT” (THE LION THE BEAST THE BEAT)

The first time I heard this song, my world shifted. “The Lion The Beast The Beat” is the epic title track from The Nocturnals’ 2012 record, latching onto the listener’s soul with pounding drums and a pretty melody that shape-shifts into a catchy, crunchy guitar riff that builds up to a great, big chorus. It’s just spectacular, and Grace truly belts it out with conviction. Enjoy!

Marisa Torrieri Bloom is the founder and editor of Rockmommy.