Which Songs Bring Back The Best Memories For You? (Here’s Mine)
I feel like there's a solid chance this may end up becoming a random ongoing series, since it's impossible to narrow a list like this down to only a couple of songs. Driving into work today, I kept switching between this station and an Internet station I started while I was laid off for most of 2020 (again, THANK YOU to the Townsquare Media family for bringing me back home, but I digress). Between the two stations, though, I kept hearing just a KILLER mix of classics that mentally brought me back to different parts of my life, and thought I'd share some of them with you since I'm sure songs do the same for you.
Rupert Holmes - Escape (The Pina Colada Song): This one honestly doesn't trigger any specific memories from my childhood or anything, other than the fact that I dug it when I was younger. BUT, every time I hear it, I think of the scenes in the movie Grown Ups (which is always a go-to for me PLUS has wicked local ties being filmed in New England, plus Adam Sandler! I mean, he wears a UNH shirt in a ton of scenes -- no offense U-Maine fans) where David Spade's character's daughters keep showing up. So, basically I laugh remembering the movie, and then get thirsty for pina coladas.
Harry Belafonte - Banana Boat Song (Day-O): For whatever reason, when my cousin Pat and I were younger, we were obsessed with performing karaoke for our family at gatherings. Our go-to was always Kris Kross "Jump," and for whatever reason we would only perform it at our grandparents' house and it would always involve jumping around (and then breaking) our Pepere's bed. Honestly, that man was a saint because if he got paid for every single time one of his 5 grandchildren broke his bed, he would've been a trillionaire. Anyway, one year at the Mall at Rockingham Park in Salem, NH, Pat and I sang the Banana Boat Song. Twice. Because we didn't pay to have it taped on cassette (remember those?!) the first time. It was atrocious, but fun.
NSYNC - Bye, Bye, Bye: I'm pretty sure this song came out when I was a sophomore in high school, and I remember my group of friends (mostly girls) used to blast this on the regular. That's not the memory, though. I think in my junior year English class, we focused HUGE on Greek Mythology. I'm not sure if it was part of the curriculum, or my teacher Mrs. Locke was obsessed, but that's really what I remember most about her class. We had an assignment one time where we had to bring a Greek mythology story to life through video. I don't remember which story we were assigned, but I remember the video ended with whoever I played on the video (Orpheus? Medusa?) beheaded. We ended the video with a few of us doing the "Bye, Bye, Bye" dance with me wearing my mother's bathrobe (or some reason) and my head buried underneath it so I looked, well, head-less.
I'll end it there, since those are the 3 songs I heard that really triggered the most memories and gave me the idea to post this. But what songs do YOU hear that trigger random memories like happened to me this morning?
Also, if you need a reminder of what the "Bye, Bye, Bye" dance looks like...