In the spirit of Spinal Tap, who famously added a notch to the volume control for awesome music to be turned up to 11, and inspired by NPR’s 11/11/11 list, here are 11 of my favorite songs that I love to listen to loud. (For the record, being hard-of-hearing, I like to listen to all music loud but I enjoy these tracks especially at full volume.)

1. Hall & Oates – “You Make My Dreams”
This song is dancefloor kryptonite for me. I cannot help but giddily dance to it every time I hear it, and I always want to hear it loud.

2. Led Zeppelin – “Kashmir”
Ha, or you could turn up Puff Daddy’s “Come With Me” featuring Jimmy Page.

3. The Dears – “Battle of Human Kindness”
My favorite indie rock/pop song of all time; I love the drums and it’s got such a great message. “I’m gonna change, I’m gonna change…”

4. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – “Free Falling”
Even before Jerry Maguire, we were all screaming along off-key with this track.

5. A Tribe Called Quest – “I Left My Wallet In El Segundo (Vampire Mix by Fatboy Slim)”
My favorite ATCQ song, made even better by Norman Cook himself. Lil Wayne sampled it to make “A Milli.”

6. The Beta Band – “Dry The Rain”
At 1:30, John Cusack plays the best part of this song. If you haven’t seen High Fidelity (or read the book), you really need to. Now. Go. I’ll wait.

7. Queen – “I Want to Break Free”
Of course, any Queen song is fantastic loud, but I love the guitar solos in this one especially.

8. Ray LaMontagne & The Pariah Dogs – “Beg, Steal or Borrow”
This dude’s voice is amazing. I could listen to this song especially all day, every day.

9. The Beatles – “Oh! Darling” / “Revolution” / “Don’t Let Me Down”
The Beatles pumped out so many great songs in such a short amount of time, but these three are especially great at full volume. Here’s Yellow Dubmarine, an awesome reggae Beatles tribute band, performing “Oh! Darling” live in Syracuse:


10. Jason Mraz – “I’m Yours”
I’m not sure I’ll ever get sick of this song, and every live performance of it is fantastic.

11. DJ Z-Trip – “Motown Breakdown, Pt. 1”
Anything by Z-Trip should be played loud, but here he takes you through Jackson 5, The Temptations, Boyz II Men, Marvin Gaye and more Motown legends in just 9 minutes.

A few of you sent in your own suggestions for songs to turn it up to 11 via Twitter, including The Police’s “Synchronity,” Rush’s “Limelight,” the “Jock Jams Megamix,” U2’s “Pride,” even boy bands and Simon & Garfunkel. If you have more songs to add that should be turned up to 11, leave a comment below!

Happy 11/11/11 Day, kids, and remember: TURN IT UP & GO DEAF.