The Songs That Marked My Childhood

It's amazing how powerful a song can be.  Just a simple tune over the airways, while at the store, through your mind, etc, can take you back in time. Music is the closest to time travel we've got (And, no... I haven't seen that new Bill and Ted movie... heh).  Here are a few songs that remind me of my childhood.

Our House · Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.  It's a 1970's song, but it was played a lot when I was a kid.  There is this vague memory of it playing before a television show.  This song was a favorite of mine, simply because it gives me the warm fuzzies.  It's just a really sweet song.  How can you not be happy while listening to it?

Kokomo · The Beach Boys, 1988.  This was my favorite song!  Oh my goodness.  Every time I heard it I was instantly happy.  There's this random memory I have when I was in a grocery store and it came on, and I just started dancing around.  Oh, this song takes me back.  And now I want to visit the beach.

We Built This City · Starship, 1985.  I actually remember the first time I heard this song.  It was before I was five, and I was visiting my Aunt and Cousin's in an apartment house complex my Grandpa owned in Riverside CA.  I was in the kitchen and my Aunt was playing it off a cassette tape.  It was love at first listen.  Whenever I hear this song I remember living in So. Cal pre Porterville days, living close to Disneyland, with warm afternoons and scattered happy memories visiting the park and feeding ducks. 

Sara · Starship, 1985.  Oh, this song takes me back.  It's the song that haunted me.  It's the song that people would sing to me whenever they heard my name.  Thankfully by the 2000's people stopped doing this, but dang, it lasted just a little too long.  But seriously, when you listen to the lyrics it's a seriously depressing song!!  It's so sad.

Manic Monday · The Bangles, 1986.  This is just one of those songs I would sing whenever I got the Monday blues.  It's just a fun song.

I'm So Excited · The Pointer Sisters, 1982.  I loved this song so much.  Every time it came on the radio or elsewhere I would get excited and dance around. Once, as a kid I was dancing randomly in a parking lot singing the chorus to this song as loud as I could, and my Mom was like, "Do you even know what that song is about?"  And I was like, "... being excited?"  Now that I'm older I get it, and I'm like, "oh".

Grandma's Feather Bed · John Denver, 1974.  Come on, it's a fun song.  'nuff said.  I have always wondered what sleeping on a feather bed was like thanks to this song.

Ballerina Girl · Lionel Richie, 1986. I think the reason I loved this song so much was because I was obsessed with dance growing up, and this song sang to my soul.  Every time it came on I had to turn and practice the simple moves I learned in class.

Dancing On The Ceiling · Lionel Richie, 1986.  My Dad had a home video camcorder, and he would have my siblings and I get on a long table and have us dance, and then flip the camera upside down so that when we watched it back it looked like we were literally dancing on the ceiling.  It was great.

The two records I remember my Dad owning pre-five years old: The Muppet Movie and the Christmas Chipmunk Album.  Somewhere Over the Rainbow is one of my favorites.  All the music from the Muppet album is amazing.  But my absolute favorite is "I'm Going to Go Back There Someday."  Whenever I hear it I get chills.  See, as a Latter-Day Saint I believe in a pre-mortality, and I think of that when I here this song.  Pretty sure it's a song about Gonzo being an alien, but there are really poignant lines.

And to finish it off, the song from the 90's that always takes me back in time. I Love You Always Forever · Donna Lewis.  I don't know what it is about this song that gives me all kinds of nostalgia, but it does.  I do have a memory visiting my Grandpa in Ventura and Star Trek First Contact was in theaters.  We went to go see it, goodness, where was it? Santa Barbara?  Oh, I can't remember where it was playing.  But I remember distinctly this song coming on the radio as we went, and I just started singing along.  Good times.  There are the Backstreet Boys.  BBMak.  Disney songs I would play on the cassette player I carried around (side B of Pocahontas was so good).  And I was obsessed with soft rock radio stations.  Chicago.  My Mom liked playing the Eagles and the Monkees.  Bad Day by Daniel Powter got me through the end of my college days. But this song, it transports me.