Do the songs kids hear on the radio when they're about 8 or 9 years old stay in their consciousness forever? Around the time the charming portrait on the left was taken, here's what was in heavy rotation on WTLB-AM 1310:
Band on the Run, Beach Baby, Bennie And The Jets, Carefree Highway, Cat's In The Cradle, Clap For The Wolfman, Come Monday, Dark Lady, Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing, Earache My Eye, Hooked On A Feeling (the one by Blue Swede, of course), Jet, Junior's Farm, Life Is A Rock, The Night Chicago Died, Oh My My, Rikki Don't Lose That Number, Rock Me Gently, Rock The Boat, Seasons In The Sun, Sister Mary Elephant, Stop And Smell The Roses, The Streak, Sundown, Sunshine On my Shoulders, Tell Me Something Good, Tin Man, Waterloo, Wildwood Weed, You Haven't Done Nothin'
The Cheech and Chongs and the Jim Staffords among them were just good fun, but some of the more sublime songs still evoke a particular memory or image, even when I hear them today. I'm in my mother's car feeling sad as the wailing synths of "Band on the Run" drift through the dashboard speakers; sitting on my sunny front porch serenading my cat with "Seasons In The Sun", and brushing my ponytails in the morning while "Beach Baby" blasts on my alarm clock radio (alas, it must not have been blasting on the morning of school picture day).
So...what's on your "grade school gold" list?
5 comments:
OK, I was 9 in 1980 and I do have some musical memories of the hits of that time.
I can remember my friends and I trying to see who could recite the most of "Rapture", and decipher the words to "Whip It". The closest we got to "try to detect it" was "tattoo the basket". We talked about these songs in the courtyard while playing four square.
I also remember "Celebration" by Kool and the Gang because they played it at Oakland A's games. "9 to 5" by Dolly was a big one. One of my friends liked "Harden My Heart" by (Quarterflash?) and had a routine he did to it, swallowing his tears.
Hee hee... I guess my version of the Whip It lyrics ("play True Detective") came a little bit closer to the actual words. Then again, I had the maturity of 15 years by that time.
Four square is a game that somehow missed upstate New York's playgrounds; at least I never knew anyone to play it. The monkey bars were the main arena for our fifth grade musical symposia.
That would be 1976-77 for me, so my 3rd grade playlist would look a lot like the soundtrack to Dazed And Confused:
Slow Ride, Love Hurts, Don't Go Breaking My Heart, Fox On The Run, Free Ride, Kiss And Say Goodbye, Let 'Em In, You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine, Summer Breeze, Why Can't We Be Friends, (Don't Fear) The Reaper, Southern Nights, Higher And Higher, Things We Do For Love, Whatcha Gonna Do, and various live Peter Frampton cuts. Whatever revolutionary movements were happening in music at the time were still a few towns away.
Oooh, "Fox On the Run" evokes slumber party memories for me. And I remember rooting for "Let 'Em In" to make it to #1 on American Top 40.
Live Peter Frampton cuts were the mainstay of the cafeteria jukebox in 7th grade (when it wasn't playing "Who Are You" or "Still The One" or "Rich Girl").
For me, that time was 1972-1973, and we were living out in the Mojave Desert with a lovely Zenith shortwave radio that also picked up AM. From that radio, and my first stereo and from riding the school bus (an hour each way) were songs like: You're So Vain; Popcorn; Crocodile Rock; Cover of the Rolling Stone... I remember clearly one day when every time You're So Vain would finish playing, we'd spin the dial and find it again, and failing that, we'd find Crocodile Rock. We must have done that for half an hour or more...
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