13 thoughts on “Songs! A Song From Your Preteen Years

  1. We had an old 45 of Neil Sedaka’s “Laughter in the Rain”.

    I was about 6 or 7 and I thought the funniest thing in the world was to play that song at 33 RPM instead of 45 RPM. Sometimes switching gears between the two.

    Well, my sister went and told on me because I was listening to the song wrong and mom came down and told me to quit it and put it on the right speed and listen to the song like a normal person. It was during the instrumental around 1:50 and I put it on 33 RPM. “There! Isn’t that better?” mom said and we listened to a slowed down sax solo and my sister stood there smugly as I waited, tensely, for the moment at 2:08. A slowed down “I feel the warmth of her haaaaaaaaand in mine!”

    And I cracked up. This was one of the greatest comedic moments of my life to that point and I was there for it.

    My sister yelled at my mom, my mom yelled at me, and I was not allowed to use the stereo for the rest of the week.

    But it was worth it.Report

      1. When I was little, I used to play 33 records at 78. The normal melody becomes high-pitched gibberish, but sometimes the sped-up, pitch-raised bass line becomes an unexpected new melody. Also, I’d make an off-center hole for the record to spin around. The alternating speed-up and slow-down that results is also hilarious.Report

  2. While there were a few records in the house, moms jazz, some Beatles, John Denver (dad is tone deaf, so he had things like the Battle of Midway…) it was my grandfather playing Blondies Parallel Lines that did me in. While I think he liked it for the cover mostly (it was bought for him by his sister, who loved rock and roll even thought she was a generation older) we loved it! 20 years later and I made the pilgrimage to CBGB’s.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGU_4-5RaxUReport

  3. Some of my earliest musical memories of pop songs were on the AM radio stations, where they played soft, sunshine pop songs like “Up, Up and Away” by the Fifth Dimension, which came out before I was born. Somewhere along the line I remember getting some 45s from the K-Mart, like this:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cB5VQAAOYkReport

  4. I was going to post “Free to be you and Me” which I remember playing all the time as a (checks liner notes), hmmn, 5–6 year old(?)

    But then I listened to it and am now seeking professional help.Report

  5. 1968, on our way to a family reunion in Minnesota, I and a couple of my brothers were picked up at the airport by my older cousin.
    As a native of Southern California, it was my first experience with Midwest weather, specifically thunderstorms. I remember how bizarre it was to have suffocating humidity and heat, then minutes later cool rain, which turned into gale force winds.

    We piled into her battered old VW Beetle and drove into the teeth of the storm with winds so powerful that with the pedal floored, the tiny little car shook and made maybe 15 miles per hour.

    I still remember this was playing on the radio through its tinny AM radio:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCKXxJRgVgcReport

    1. I remember my (older) brother getting some pre-teen type magazine around the time he was in maybe 6th grade, and along with the pictures of van conversions (shagtastic!) was a blurb about Joan Jet going solo, or something along those lines. That mixed with X and Blondie, sent me down a path.Report

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